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Not to be taken from this room
For Reference
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Signed Article
Book reviews and reviewers are indexed
separately in the Book Review Section.
- 20 Jan. 2 285-304 Apr. 2
21- 40 Jan. 9 305-324 Apr. 9
41- 60 Jan. 16 325-344 Apr. 16
61- 88 23 345-372 Apr. 28
89-108 Jan. 30
109-128 Feb. 6
129-156 Feb. 13
157-176 Feb. 20
177-196 Feb. 27
197-216 Mar. 5
217-236 Mar. 12
237-264 Mar. 19
265-284 Mar. 26
373-392 Apr. 30
393-412 May 7
413-432 May 14
433-460 May 21
461-480 May 28
481-500 June 4
501-520 June 11
521-540 June 18
541-560 June 25
A
ANTA. See American national theatre and
academy
Abrams, Henry H.
Democrats must be militantly liberal to win
election; C, opposite 217; see also 109;
1G; opposite 157 ,
Accidents, automobile. See Automobiles
Aviation. See Aviation
Mine. See Mines
Nuclear. See Atomic bomb—accidents
Steel industry. See Labor—Steel
War-provoking. See War
Actors; comics in Chicago
also Theater
Addams, Jane; tribute to on centennial. R.
Baldwin; E. .....::..:+. 375; see also C, 460
Adenauer, Konrad. See Germany, West
Adler, Sidney. See Labor—Steel
Adlow, Elijah
Gambling, the legal vice; government and
428; see
Exemplifying new ethics, real doctor Ses
nurse to be used in TV commercial;
Fakery in television and press; E .............. 90
Federation’s Truth Book sets criteria of
ECACIEN nt LIMHMMM... 222.55. 7-0 reassess. AIR 543
Madison avenue scrambles for honor. R.
Bonparty si 1Srideenccec2.2eeee, ceed 162
drugs, extravagant and misleading ........ 337
Aerojet-General Corp.; encourages employees
to participate in politics; Eo... 483
Aeronautics. See Aviation
‘ospace Industries Association; scramble
Rorwapace doar 0.0.06: tuned tee 131
frica
_ New nations shift balance in United Na-
eeeitiors: J, Stolle; Sihimex..x:.
_ Straight thinking ere
__ political performance. H.
a, South. See Union of sone Africa
frikaners. See Union of South Africa
PAGE
churches share take; § ............ 185; see
also E, 219
Advertising
y Negro sit-in demonstrators in Atlanta
papers Mfacaiile’., Lys Avi. aes merc. cebee 290
. 239
Negroes becoming dominant political force 328
441
states’
Brettoti: S 205
THE
Aldermaston, England; disarmament march.
Wie Mervin: S “...55..5. 408; see also
E, 395
Algeria
And the mysterious General de Gaulle; E.. 129
Arms smuggled to rebels ... 2
Continuing horrors and atrocities of war .... 447
De Gaulle against the gangsters. A. Werth; a
Ge ct Shel. Bicoenth. ccna.
Allen, Allan J.
Justice in the Chessman case; C, opposite
197
Allies, United States. See United States
Alliston, Susan
St. Martin’s lane, Eondon: P ..........c:..28.:.0 426
Alsop, Joseph; on ‘‘disarmament mess’; E .. 197
American academy of arts and letters; ex-
hibit of American pictures painted abroad.
MURR a 2 2c Whapkived Fite, eo 283
American ballet theat Reviewed by L.
PAL TENORS le Eis a sip cuties ssa lg teecbhaatn Lavvnerstetecaaeae 478
American chemical society; chemical and bio-
logical warfare symposium ............0....062600. 383
American federation of labor—Congress of
industrial organizations. See Labor—Union
American hospital association. See Blue Cross
American legion
Honor student S. Bayne refuses award; S 543
Pressure forced F. Sinatra to fire A. Maltz
ASUWSCTEED “wulteryel) Neti. 2 2ce a. scene 346
Witch. hunt losing Ath) <2... wie 158
American medical association
Futile opposition to ‘‘socialized’’ medical
CANeHOl awe dire. (0... Meee ocereicne- ase 306; 465
Opposition to federal aid to medical schools 80
American national theatre and academy
(ANTA); used by federal government for
cultural propaganda. L. Trimble; M_...... 478
Andersonville trial, the. Reviewed by H. Clur-
areas, MWR, ees Reeth teste tee ee PR Us 87
Angola; natives restless under Portuguese; E 22
Another ballade (from the French of Francois
Willom)-.G. Kinnelit: (Po RAL A in..t et. .ciaton 190
Anslinger, Harry J.; federal narcotics czar.
S. Meisler; S 159; see also C,
opposite 217
Antarctica; conflicting national
economic potential,
claims to;
prestige, strategic con-
siderations; IGY program ..............00.0..... 295
Anti-Semitism
Among southern segregationists ................. 398
In West Germany ; 310
Swastika pandemic; E. ............ 61; see also
C, opposite 89
Apalachin “convention”
Doubts raised by conviction of defendants; 5
New light on a novel case. F. J. Cook; S.... 115
Apartheid. See Voicn of South Africa
April walk, an. Goodmans, PP ...kii...c0te2 495
Archaeology, UNESCO project to save Egyp-
tian monuments from Aswan dam-flooded
NiléssK.. «Arse. aed SS ee ee 307
Archer, Jules
Says Nution provides leadership for U. S.
liberals; C, a epoalie 217
Architecture
Cities; monstrous by design. A. Mather;
C, opposite 157; see also 104
For reviews, see McQuade, W.
4
Fa," NJ x
INDEX FOR JANUARY-JUNE, 1960
NATION
America’s Leading Liberal Weekly Since 18
Atlas ready to fire on 20 minutes’ notice
BMEWS, Ballistic Missile Early Warn-
ing System, will avail little; E .....
outs increased; scramble for space dol-
Ar en ee
End of race en .
Lobbying for; E Fe ena tae ease
Logic of ‘‘gap’’ according to defense plan-
ners. Gs Kirstein; |S. :......c.0aneten
Misplaced bases make cities targets. J. E.
Mcponalds as: 0 feels. cet lcci svevdcresevevs
Nike Zeus not in production; air force
cites “gap”; E
Provide fewer jobs for U. S. workers ....
Soviets regard U. S. European bases as
designed for, surprise attack
Nuclear
Aldermaston, England, march against. M.
Merwin; § ............ 408; see also E,
By communist China; threat to world; e
Development threat to survival of U.
atniy. «R.\.Gaplidie 8 wasantaw.. sien.
For allies of United States; E ..
March against, H. Semmel; Wy
opposite 461
en tons of TNT equivalent for every-
body, accordirig to General Medaris; E
Small-arms race among weaker nations. S.
Meisler;%S* caniad...ak. bts
U. S. wasting $1, 250 a second on. E. Wi
Goria Saad © pe, snes,
Armed forces. See United States—Defense
department
Arp, Hans. Reviewed by F. Porter; A
Art
Artist in residence as new man on campus.
W. S. Smith; §S 444; see also
C, opposite 501
Artists’ protests against museums’ abstrac-
tionist bias;
For reviews, see Grosser, M.; Porter, F.
In| Chicayd. J. Martinp’S: «0055, 2h...
Washington, D. C., congress of artists and
writers, S. Meislérs S 3.080... 2.
As I forget (for David Schubert, 1913- -1946).
T. \Wetess Pisce cdinkialn eee
Asher, Rosalie S.
Chessman’s attorney praises March 26 edi-
torial; C, opposite 305; see also 265
Associated hospital service of New York. See
Blue Cross
Astronautics
Dangers and opportunities in international
rivalry for outer space oo... pico
Goblin tities? Bi sisiwde.- lds
Reaching the MOON; Cartoon OM oo.
Reconnaissance satellites mae. U-28 ‘obso-
lete. D. W. Cox; S Rnweteh
Satellites, American and other: E ae
Scramble for space dollar. C. qty
a Pa ee g3ey'
INDEX TO VOLUME 190 po One
JANUARY to JUNE, 1960 oO
a?
{p - UP = PAGE 3 PAGE
The following letters are mes SS ice Air force. See United States—Air oNee 4 Pires, Richafl
the type of article: Aircraft industry a! , n-Anieri¢an committee aide’s efforts to
Art Kept going by military contracts; S .........% 183 prove’ Negroes’ genetic inferiority . - 420
Correspondence Spokesmen schizophrenic on governmental Argentinay“submarine mirage. F. J. Weissen-
Drama subsidy and regulation; E ...........:0cc 157 pe ees SE eI a eta rec in ree reed titer eee 209
Editorial Article Airplanes. See Aviation ‘ aids ea: Pe ee a ee és
MP — alten Airports; defects as factor in crashes ............ 98 fetaand' jobay, Eeart’s stale int eapeasiti nese
oun Albee, Edward; play The zoo story reviewed. CG: ie
Poetry H. Cl D 153 oe ao NIRS MO epee ty sree. reer anes 182
datas Dy fos ccchc ans ac eee ee faattes
238
239
2 LoL
.. 209
217
203
436
63
185
91
395
| 468
130
332
550
234
. 395
’ 478
428
456
342
296
. 135
. 178
131
%. teen ays, of a poet’s er G. Kinaa; Pp 356
i A.” ; criteria for nation’s
university. D. Cort; S 72; see
C, opposite 129
Atlanta, Georgia; changing — on inte-
gration
(January-June, 1960)
Index
(Vol. 190)
PAGE
Atomic bomb
Accidents ; "
Minimized by air force public relations;
Fe) eesnsie co sacenecuceudesyocash gal Emmons seainan asst 522
Atomic waste
AEC admits disposal drums not leak-
DLOOLs Fl nnn Menepansscsscsacsscsceltocesnecootam 158
Disposal of; AEC Cape Cod project de-
FERC a ccciscsascdgttvcnsdscersnssacoas MRRUNVEIN «co. 548
Disposal of; difficulties, in Long Beach,
California, of “Old Bob” Boswell,
jrankeman’s. Boia ccccscccscroctuateee te-- scents 112
Fallout
Danger to U. S. cities from proximity to
TSR Le!. MO Lee. cc ceatetmieenis nds doc canebesscesecy 437
Cost and futility of shelters 508
Demand for legislation for building of
shelters; Rockefeller’s folly; Fer ercot tee. oe
Not considered in locating missile bases;
Tacs caicsucs ster cantacaeu epee Oana eater Enmbeexeacernteeans 89
How can we retaliate if many nations have
it? R. Z. Geller; C, opposite 501
Letter from Aldermaston, England; anti-
nuclear march. M. S. Merwin; 6 .......... 408
Nuclear tests ;
Ban proposed. C. S. Eaton; C, opposite
237
Continuation of Geneva suspension nego-
HAtiOUAss, Mbtcsk native eoutrne ts enti 285
Eisenhower concedes Soviet sincerity; E 305
Hones for suspension of in Geneva talks;
E
News behind headlines; E .............
Politics of; E
Quaryels over. E. “Gamarekian; Ss
Resumption favored by Pentagon; E ...... 177
Underground; conflicting reports on de-
tection; Ey ...+.....: . 42; see also 179
U. S. obstructs ban proposals; E ............ 285
Proponents. Jaceomg es. occ: coceccssseveseseacranscte sade 203
War danger from accidental explosion ...... 202
Atomic energy commission. See United States
—Atomic energy commission
Automation; tough social issue for 1960s; E 110
Automobiles
Accidents due to faulty design; research;
ee 3; see also C, opposite 41
Driving examinations; ‘“‘payola’”’ in. H.
Leader; C, opposite 21
Aviation
Accidents
nee your copilot fly? K. M. Ruppenthal;
guushicovanee stents pubialenesiacauayienésssouasibvesccass name yee 291
Electras should be grounded if unsafe ....
... 307; see also E, 395
Olathe, Kansas, airfield pilots trust. K.
Mi Ruppenthals) Sid. <. 2a 422
Tomorrow’s crash. K. M. Ruppenthal; S 97
American leadership jeopardized by British
and. Soviets; SE) 297%. tees... eee eee 157
Bumping the passenger; “‘oversales’” of
flight tickets. K. M. Ruppenthal; §S ........ 551
Lines’ use of strike insurance .................... 251
Traveling brief case. W. G. Magnuson; C,
opposite 197; see also E, 157
Warcraft graveyard in Arizona; E ............ 267
B
Bacteriological warfare. See War—Biological
Bailey, Cleveland M.
Agreement with Nation article The Appa-
lachian south; C, opposite 393
Balanchine, George; ballet The figure in the
carpet, set to Handel’s music, reviewed by
Dat Trane ty Ma a, 3, er sbatecss nce acne ALI 391
Balcony, the. Reviewed by H. Clurman; D .... 282
Baldwin, Hanson W.; on West German
MIMtATV MELEALTICSS, © 5 5,.0csiseasndanacsacisvanerrir-coh 313
Baldwin, Roger
Tribute to Jane Addams on centennial of
Her bicthssia yon 375; see also C, 460
Banging boards, the. F. Bock; Pe th eae 153
Barbara, Joseph, Sr.; figure in Apalachin
REAR RUS coy occa cavessucehre-y dor erinavceasneay eR cons comer appe™e 116
Barden, John
Germ-gas warfare; S ............ 383. See also
E, 373; C, opposite 413
Bardonille, "Harold
et of Negro students’ sit-in demonstra- hos
tio
Horvat Geoffrey
Future of summitry; Soo... 504
Barrett, Laurence
Blue Cross hospital service; S ............ 26;
see a C, opposite 89; C, opposite 109
Bartok,
Sansa, ‘No. Jo. a raed bios? Mi", cccseeene as 303
Basketball “fix.” ‘we EGNOS! lt shige 32
Batista, Fulgencio; custodian of U. S. inter-
BTS BBN EAs tt. Ab HE LB Aver Rlne Apso s stv oahine sfeaaianpatre 64
Battle of the sexes, the. Reviewed by R.
Hatch; EB ye aaiepederte «cL pt eagtes savas Oe 392
Bay, Christian
Poll in Norway on Khrushchev disarmament
plan; C, opposite 109
Bayne, Stephen
High-school student rejects American legion
PAGE
Mes Tl Fie aces Qertrs coco sn Geet ovncuoseeamaries 543
Beacher, Abraham I., M.D.
Peekskill, New York, intolerance; C, oppo-
site 177
Bear, Carl; Montgomery businessman on race
TO]AELONS: nc. eer ets oisseeseosnee<cc teres assesses ci 400
Beckett, Samuel; play Krapp’s last tape re-
viewed. H. Clurman; agogaisuggne hacroneepreariGk 153
Bell, Colin W.
Television for Christmas; C, opposite 41
Belluschi, Pietro; consultant for Grand Cen-
tral) | Citys moccasin tin actin ee ares 104
Benson, Secretary, Ezra Taft
Questioned on refusal to start food- -stamp
plan, Mrs. E. B. Wyatt; C, opposite 1
Bergman, Ingmar
Film Dreams reviewed by R. Hatch; MP 540
Film A lesson in love reviewed by R.
Match: NEP. Asst. ace, <7 icin ieee eee 284
Berkner report; on detection of underground
nuclear explosions; BEG oc ans oS ee 42
Berlin. See Germany
Berman, Harold J.
Why Khrushchev wrecked the Summit; S.... 484
Bernard, Sid
Anti-Semitism; C, opposite 89
Bernstein, Leonard. Reviewed by L. Trimble;
M -eccte a ee ee 412, 458
Bernstein, Richard
Enlightened by Nation article Eye of the
storm; C, opposite 461; see also 396
Bernstein, Stephen
Comment on C. O. Porter article ‘Accident
or aggression?”’; C, with editorial com-
ment, opposite 265; see also 202
Berreman, Evelyn M.
Praise for C. O. Porter article ‘Accident
or aggression?”; C, 277; see also 202
Berry, John
Travels of the sage Narada; P ....0..0.000...... 55
Best man, the. Reviewed by H. Clurman; D 343
Bethe, Hans A.; still opposed to nuclear test-
Lai Tepes vac) u0 cP IRAs 1 OR Re 394
Betti, Ugo; play Time of ve
» Clismagny Digi, .ssngt cee ete eee nae 19
Betts, Karl S.; ‘Ciwil) War buft -...a¢ece:..2 95
Biers, Eliot
Nixon’s victory assured if opponent has
shorter name; C, opposite 345
Bill of rights fund; appeal for. C. Lamont;
C, opposite 521
Bischoff, Elmer; exhibition. Reviewed by F.
Porter; Ba coho ta rene eenerartecae tease tie 88
Bishop, Tsabel; exhibition. Reviewed by F.
Porters: (A. isecicacscs cee REE. OSE 458
Black Orpheus. Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP.... 59
Blackwelder, Justin
Peace, price of, and means to; C, opposite
157; see also E, 109
Bleicken, Gerhard D.; insurance official on
“apathy andi defenseme:.2... cts ene 384
Blitzstein, Marc; opera The cradle will rock
reviewed. H, ClurmansD) +i:.cisi..aetet..tenie 236
Bloom, Esther
Sit-in demonstrations and students’ liberal-
ism; C, with editorial comment, opposite
481; see also 396
Blue Cross hospital service. L. Barrett; S .
vena 26 see also C, opposite 89; C, opposite
Bly, Robert, and C. B. Duffy
Perpetuum mobile (from "the Swedish of
Gunnar whkel6t))s, Rie a acct enc occsseebnce tabs 300
BMEWS; Ballistic Missile sie Warning
System will avail little; Bls..i..cd.seeeedeitesee 239
Boat-show circus. J. Whitehill; " Garwtdaw 5a.
see also C, opposite 109
Bock, Frederick
The banging: boards: (PR sitsciiliva....}ccrevetls 153
Bongortz, Roy
Advertising; Madison avenue scrambles for
HOWOE SS: apessodessesc dee taavaseseaphayso ees 162
Bookmaking
roars in Increase:;'S__.......4% 186; see also
Probe of suspended by Justice Department 116
Books
By indignant retired generals; Eo... cc... 129
Censorship, in New York Public Library.
N.-E. Heller; C, opposite 21
See also Education
Boswell, “Old Bob.’”’? See United States—
Atomic energy commission
Boudreau, Joseph A
On_ sending of czarist Russian fleet to
United States in our Civil War days;
C, opposite 21; see also C and note,
opposite 61
Bourjaily, Vance
Letter: from Uruguay; So tsi 57
Boushey, General Homer A.; proponent of
BELOSPAce PLORTAMMBI I I/...iviiivadtdssecovdescotas 132
Bowles, Chester; advises compromise with
Castro metres «-05:+::Sgsunumermatn assur aeeeee
Bowles, Sam. See ‘‘Challenge’’
Bretton, Henry L.
Africa; straight thinking on; § ..................
British commonwealth of nations
Relations with South Africa ........0.0..0000...
Brode, Wallace R.; military domination of
U. S. research; E
Brown, Governor Edmund G., of California
Comment on editorial on politics of peace;
C, opposite 413; see also 109
See also Chessman, C.
Brown, Press
Praise for article on Castro; C, opposite
129; see also 63; C, 169
Brownell, Herbert; factors in downfall ........
Brownfeld, Allan Charles
Legalistic position on Negroes’ struggle for
equality; C, opposite 541
Bruner, Dick
Negro bid for union power; §S ............ 207;
corrections, C, opposite 305; C, with
author’s reply, opposite 433
Bryant, Ralph. See ‘‘Challenge’”’
Busey, James L.
Mission to Somozaland (Nicaragua); S .
Button, John. Reviewed by F. Porter; Aone
Bye, bye birdie. Reviewed by H. Clurman; D
Byrd, Robert C.
Agreement with Nation article The Appa-
lachian south; C, opposite 393
Cc
CIA. See United States—Central intelligence
agency
Cage, John; 25-year retrospective concert re-
viewed by L. Trimble; M
California; Squaw valley winter
games. R. Meister; S
See also Chessman, C.
Caligula. Reviewed by H. Clurman; D ..........
Camp David) \spitib oft Rakl ...cccvecec.cttesccoeeonieee
Camus, Albert
Play Caligula reviewed by H. Clurman; D
Tribute: to, iH. Clurman; FE .....10.,....064.0e
Camus, Marcel; film Black Orpheus reviewed.
R. Hatch; MP
Canada; increasing sentiment against capital
punishment;
Candidates, presidential. See Presidential cam-
paign of 1960
Cape Cod, Massachusetts; AEC takes a beat-
ing on atomic park. G. DesChamps;
Capital punishment
Abolition in California, requested by Gov-
ernor Brown. R. Meister; S
Appeal for abolishment. J. B. Osgood; Cc
opposite 129
How many more Chessmans needed? S.
Palmer; S
Increasing sentiment against in Gallup poll;
sae cnsa ie
Mounting Preeeys against in Chessman
case; E ..... E, 265; see also C,
opposite 305; é opposite 325
Pro arguments in anti-Chessman letters.
R. Meister; igitcasevcsnsnncskattan ten age
Caplan, Ralph
U. S. army pleads for survivals (S.tduamn
“Captive nations’; support for, including
mythical ones, by Senator Douglas; E ........
Carruth, Hayden
Event iitself,; these P «:j...scsisisis-sscaseaenesenell
I have said often’ Pe ids..scucsnscocontencaeeeeia
Carter, Elliott. Reviewed by L. Trimble; M....
Carter, Gwendolyn M.
South Africa’s Rubicon; S
Cascades and fountains. M. Zaturenska; P....
Case, Senator Clifford, of New Jersey; re-
nominations El ..cccp rissa
Cash, W. J.; on south and prejudice ............
Castro, Fidel. See Cuba
Catholic church; political dilemma of U. m
members; EB), ..js..0le
Catlin, George. Reviewed by M. “Grosser; ey
Celeste, Richard, See “Challenge”
Censorship; books, in New York public li-
brary. N. E. Heller; C, opposite 21
Chain. P. Petrie; P
Chair, the; what has happened to it? L. ‘Katz;
Chalette gallery; ‘constructivist: ‘show. F. Por-
“Challenge” ‘ Yale ‘students’ ‘program dealing
with crucial issues. D. Wakefield;
Chamberlain, Gordon B.
Life and Nation ethical standards; C, with
agora comment, opposite 373; see also
286
Change, winds of, in world; Eo. nn
Chasers, the. Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP .
Chass, Murray
Life campus pentations C, opposite 373;
see also E, 286
PAGE
533
. 187
154
390
263
138
213
237
213
43
59
307
548
275
439
307
59
215
476
. 268
393
, 430
(Vol. 190)
PAGE
Cheating. See Education—Colleges and uni-
versities
Chekhov, Anton; play A country scandal re-
viewed by H. Clurman; D .
Chemical warfare. See War—Chemical
Chemicals; in food. M. Viorst; S
_ Chessman, Caryl
Case is appeal to national conscience; E .
265; see also C, opposite 305; G
posite 325
Four otters i in praise of March 26 editorial;
C, opposite 305; see also 265
How many more needed to abolish capital
punishment? S. Palmer; S
Justice in the case. A. J. Allen; C, opposite
197
Letters urging execution received by Gov-
ernor Brown. R. Meister; S
Politics and case. R. Meister; S. ...........
Two letters in praise of March 26 editorial;
C, opposite 325; see also 265
Value of executed man; E
We, the people, as executioners ; E ...
459
200
439
World-wide opposition to execution; ee ey 199
Cheyenne, Wyoming; fallout peril fica mis-
Ndi cots fies cvdp hcl sos caanstyerunsacess eon eeee 437
Chicago
Corruption in; ripe for reform. L. M.
Despres; S 220; see also C, 277
Integration struggle in nearby Deerfield.
TEES, vacccueci fox sancarecetrvigeriv cially 47
Letter from; comic entertainers and art.
MMM OD Sees tees ycskes<ctieasdassesctysatiantersess 428
en and youth; White House conference -
child’ s chemically treated garden of verses, a.
RET PUEKUREEL. SR ss cesccvesccsecscccccsocssoaneocgsusicsansrenct 201
China, communist
Dangers inherent in “‘nuclear club’? mem-
PUMA INRMEMNEONY 5 5031/05, 5550 JIN cots. Sits docetths ooh deny oek 395
Lobby, Committee of 1,000,000, against ad-
mission to U.N. J. O’Kearney; S ............ 76
New U.S. policy toward supported by Rep-
resentative D. K. Inouye; E. .................... 502
News of domestic developments suppressed.
H. Hardyman; C, opposite 373
Recognition inevitable; BE o.........ccccceceeseees 109
Regarded with uneasiness in U.S.S.R.; S 145
meowiriters status. S. Meisler; S. ..............00 456
China, nationalist
Undemocratic re-election of Chiang; E .... 415
Christians; plight in South Africa; E ........
325; see also 327
Christmas
Inconsistency in Nation article and adver-
tisement. R. G. Gauvey; C opposite 41
Television for. C. W. Bell; 2 opposite 41
Churchill, Sir Winston; helped save U. S.
from Dulles’ Prine of War’ ss, 43.285... ae 309
Cimring, Harry
New slogan for France; C, opposite 197
Cities
_ Made targets by misplaced missile bases.
ner, McDonald; Se yaieie.citheavtiiat aes 436
See also Architecture; Suburbs; Urban-
ization; individual cities
Civil aeronautics board. See United States—
Civil aeronautics board
Civil defense. See United States—Defense,
national
Civil rights
Bill passed by Senate small step forward; 2
cnc O Tete ts cVetONIcRA, sasusbancbcecsessiceencteceeeceet 34
_ Disturbing elements in Apalachin case; E
Phas sfonks 2; see also 115
New Hampshire inquisition against. N. T.
mi Giovanni; § ........... 53; see also C,
opposite 1; C, opposite 305
Politics and the issue. J. Roosevelt; C,
opposite 157; see also E, 109
Senator Morse’s stand on ........ceccccsseseeeseeee 308
Smoke screen, by Attorney General Rogers,
Sime ACRISIAEIOIS! Dy. ......c.scesecencceovcvovsrgesecantth 111
Southern senators filibuster against; E ...... 218
See also Negroes
vil war, U. oh 3 preparations for centennial.
mee Wakefields tS) Ai... ee 95
Llague, Ewan; commissioner of labor statistics
_ cites figures on work force .............
Clark, Senator Joseph S.; on ine
PREPS EOTICEUITE, ayo cose cssceeunssecceeossanpazs
Cleveland, Ohio; museum. M. Gros
Clurman, Harol
ante to A. Camus; E .........0%. ee sie 43
Reviews of plays
Rcdetéoneiiic: vital fhe $2) gee 87
(Balcony, the ...,-...iti0 282
est man, the .
Bye, bye birdie
_ Caligula
_ Country scandal,
_ Cradle will rock, ‘the
Index
Greenwillow
Killer, the ........
Krapp’s last tape
ee CRW a fa Bs cas ocaas ctpatene upon 106
Phoenix theatre; Henry IV, part 2 411
Be G8 es ere 214
Servant of two masters, the
Thurber carnival, a
Time of vengeance ...
Toys in the attic
Zoo story, the
Coady, Esther R.
Are South African Negroes terrorists or
communists?; C, opposite 373
Cohen, Matthew A.
Praises Nation’s stand on Chessman case;
C, opposite 305
Cohen, William Z.
Comment on Hoffa article; C, opposite 325;
see also 274
Cole, William Graham
Cheating your way through college; S
Colleges and universities. See Education
Columbia university; as ‘Athens, U.S.A.” .... 76
Committee of One Million against admission
of communist China to United Nations.
416
PR MRM CER OU 5 MEME deoeti ry siseds yceteds sucess cas 76
Committee on space research (COSPAR);
conducted space symposium ..............:c0:c00 137
Communism
Theoretical discussions of in U.S.S.R. ...... 146
See also Union of Soviet Socialist Re-
publics; individual countries
Condon, E. U.
U. S. wasting $1,250 a second on arma-
RARE es PS creek aac ne tie cinp conan, feo Sexe cana fe 550
Cone, Fairfax M.; FTC findings of deceptive
BOS GM WES Ce cstacissctes 90; see also 163
Conferences
“Little Summits’? for peace in San Fran-
CINCO AIG IMEC NORMS Ea .ccanceszsncstaxsasicase-se 482
Summit
Balance of blame for breakup. C. W.
ORT MRE SoBe. steady ys 02th ianciatasassmendd-~<s 523
Debacle in Paris. A. NYSE aac copeeya0es7s 464
Eisenhower overtaken by nemesis; E ...... 501
Perspective on; future of summitry. G.
Eee RIOD eS eet eadiains acorn aes an 504
Proposed debate on breakup would be
futile; peace planning is key issue; E 481
What now after breakup? E .................. 461
Why wrecked by Khrushchev. H. ne
TED ET oS eae, ii gearumti rape dell ce Sia 484
Congress. See United States—Congress
Constructivists; Chalette gallery show. F.
POM s MeRaeeee a srenneny tia: 2 5s. cteepedssar tak pxobissnrntancrns 476
Containment. See United States — Foreign
policy
Contemporary music society. Reviewed by L.
PITA ee Cette s,s teint tases 344
Cook, Fred J.
Apalachin: New light on a novel case;
eT, 115; see also E, 2
Cook, Fred J., and G. Gleason; October 31,
1959, Nation article, ‘“‘The Shame of New
York,” wins New York Newspaper guild
Page Onevawards. Emmy cc... 237
Corbiére, Tristan
Paris at_ night. Translated by W. S. Mer-
RVR ie eet... enone, oe eee 82
Cute es schools. See Education
Cort, Davi
“Athens, U.S.A.”; in search of nation’s
best university ; Se. ae 72; see also
C, opposite 129
Reducing ad absurdum: Sitio 511
The tragic entertainer; Serre eos: . 228
Cossackia; mythical captive nation; E 347
Country scandal, a. Reviewed by H. Clurman;
Bec ovat hs neat ks. Muses... omens cerita es 459
Courbet, Gustave; exhibition. Reviewed by
Grosser, “Av ca ..:. ae ee ee 106
Courts; sale of tickets for trials proposed.
J. Forman; C, opposite 177
Cowen, David L.
Those pretty little pills; drug profits; S .... 335
Cox, Donald
on by ‘satellite makes U-2s obsolete;
aI ARUNGiSS dekidas siwatas Lgatives «ste tegaacastt te eaten 486
Coxe, Louis O.
Letter Ghrom *Diblins: (Si) ees eee ee 281
Cradle will rock, the. Reviewed by H. Clur-
POTD TD eo tostiencorssestensves so-so 236
Craig, Walton H.
Surprise attack; praise for Tee aneer
article; C, opposite 129; see also E, 89;
OTs Cy opposite 177
Cranberries. See Food
Cranes are flying, the. Reviewed i R. Hatch;
NOP) ori ao So Renaratce tere taste 323
Creeley, Richard
Ores P' - Bis al oe MAE” ...aeunetasngece Loe
Crime and pacniaels
se Aree i. E
(January-June, 1960)
PAGE
Crofts, Alfred
Our falling ramparts: the case of Korea; S
Crommelin, John G.; publisher of Montgom-
ery hate sheet
Crossword puzzles.
pages
Croswell, Edgar L.;
F. W. Lewis. See back
trooper set up roadblock
BE PACHA CASE Sh etccsectever. eacnsctecpsactausceanssts
Cuba
Gastro’s.Cuba. R. Taber; S ............. 63; see
also C, opposite 129; c 169
Dialogues on relations with U. S. By B.
Deming; S 470; see also C, oppo-
site 521
In small-arms race; explosion of munitions
ship 332; see also E, 347; 470
Sugar and sympathy. B. C. Swerling; S....
Culture, American ; in search of ‘Athens,
U. S.A.” : D. Cort; 72; see also
C, opposite 129
Cushing, Alex; promoted Squaw Valley site
for 1960 winter Olympics
D
Dabbs, James McBride
Comment on D. Wakefield article ‘‘Eye of
the storm”; C, opposite 461; see also 396
Dime stores and dignity; Negro sit-in dem-
MOMENI STS Betd ewes scasnssacnttsnsetebesabeeharbae
Daley, Mayor Richard J. See Chicago
Dance; reviews of. See Trimble, L.
Daughters of the American Revolution; Non-
revolutionary daughters, the. W. Thomp-
ORS HISS |, Se ssnspssupansuavncscovusnvicae com erteptee ince eae
Davidson, Ray
Corrections to Bruner article “The Negro
bids for union power’; C, with author’s
reply, opposite 433; see also 207
Davis-Monthan air force base, Arizona; war-
planes’ graveyard; E
Pa game, the. Reviewed by H. Clurman;
Dear liar. Reviewed by H. Clurman; D .
Debate with the rabbi. H. Nemerov; P. ............
152; see also C, with editorial comment,
opposite 177
Debré, Michel;
with de Gaulle
Den Illinois; Dixie hate in Yankee sub-
TTI ALL, Shes cht iees tense TU RLihe NatL AUNNME. euaptceads as
Defense, national. See United States—De-
fense, national
Degas, H. G. E.; exhibition. Reviewed by
BY SPortenst Ante awaited. icdhere. oeidnsee nat
de Gaulle, Charles. See France
De Gregory, Hugo
Defense committee; appeal for. Mrs. P. di
Giovanni; C, opposite 1
New Hampshire subversion charges ............
Delgado, Humberto; cheated out of
Portuguese presidential victory;
22; see also 25
Deming, Barbara
Dialogues in Cuba; S
C, opposite 521
Democratic party
Advisory committee group advises shift from
war to peace economy; EB i..c...c.c...c..csesssceee
And civil rights; E ............ 62; E, 266
Bourbons, bosses and brokers. ’R. G. Spiv-
Bcloss$s 4. -aPeeerh. SAS Ates eit. .ckone la
Corrupt Chicago machine ......
Recent conservative trend; S
Suburban! Waits eC. cok. led ee
See also Presidential election of 1960
Denny, C. E.
Ivy league colleges and science education;
C, opposite 129; see also 72
French premier’s relations
470; see also
Deportation; case of Mrs. J. A. Santiago
under McCarran-Walter act. Miss R.
Tabak; C, opposite 61
DesChamps, Grace
AEC an a beating on Cape Cod atomic
Pa se sceectRethn RW ve pach andes saeties
Desmond, James
Don’t count Rockefeller out of primary
FACES SD. ccutesnapmtsemengyeviacmteonscesvves ue aeaerie ties
ir che Leon M.
ie corruption in; city ripe for reform;
Loe 220; see also C;
Deals Lafayette park. W. McQuade; § .
Deutsche Reichspartei; West German reaction-
BUY gE OUD sti iia id ian ivin yas ean Al
Diamonds. See Union of soviet ‘socialist re-
publics
Diets. See Reducing
di Giovanni, Norman Thomas
New Hampshire inquisition on civil liber-
ties; S 253; see also C, opposite
is. Gy opposite 305
Sacco-Vanzetti story on TV; S
di Giovanni, Mrs. Priscilla
1 for De Gregory defense committee;
, Opposite 1
AONE wenn eens
544
398
116
142
139
289
376
267
194
. 343
47
371
255
346
381
1s 222
-. 120
273
548
223
195
311
558
(January-June, 1960)
Index
(Vol. 190)
Diplomacy ; dictionary of. A. Marsden; C,
opposite 481
Dirksen, Senator Everett M.
Tirade against A. Stevenson; E
Disarmament
Agreements must be negotiated; Ss
Alternative to “‘cold peace”; E ...
And test suspension;
As campaign issue; see Presidential election
of 1960— Politics of peace
Great powers must agree as example to
world; 347; see also 332
Importance of agreements. W. Morse; C,
opposite 237
Bhrusbenes. plan: poll on in Norway. ec
Bay; C, opposite 109
Leisurely, peaceable pace of Geneva con-
FEvENCEs Lit etatttenn santersectertemeesteaigenceaan
March at Aldermaston, England. M. S.
Merwin; SF ..... 408; see also E, 395
“Mess,” according to Alsop; E ................-
Plan for U. S. to take initiative :
United Nations as stage for. F. Kuh; Se
U.S. and U.S.S.R. now vie on in 'state-
ments; E
Would release $1, 250 a second in U.S.
See also Armament
Dissent; now luxury in U.S.
Dissenters; should speak out; E
Dixiecrats; Republican commitments to on
civil rights; E ............ 62; see also E, 111;
E, 266
Doctors. See Medicine
Dolce vita. la; Italians’ reaction to film. W.
Ween RS aerate tee ees serena ccs¥sscasacenaampeensaad
Dominican republic :
Base for Cuban counter-revolution
In small-arms) race... is... 333; see also
E, 347
Trujillo’s troubles. C. O. Porter; C, oppo-
site 61
Donaldson, Alan W.; health official on de-
tection on war germs and gases
Double goer, the. D. Laing; P
Douglas, Senator Paul H.
Limitations of Negro-registration bill
Sponsors resolution to support ‘‘captive
nations”; E
Drake, Charles, and H. Ernst
Won Sidney Hillman foundation prize for
article “The Appalachian south: Poor,
proud and primitive,” in May 30, 1959,
Niation; comment by West Virginia
governor, senator, and representa-
tives; C, opposite 393
Drake, Waldo; West Germany and Japan as
pincers against WES Saag ekzater tse costes
Drama. See Theater; for reviews, see Clur-
man,
Draper, Wycliffe; project to prove Negroes
Benetically aimfexrto re secteF..c. ncssted asso eden ees
Dreams. Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP
Dreher, Carl
Astronautics; scramble for the space dollar;
Sea 131; see also C, opposite 197
Drescher, Paul; on Blue Cross’s problems;
Zaneey
Drugs
Cost of. D. C. Stolinsky, M.D., C, with
editorial comment, opposite 109°
Prescriptions by doctors. M. Flint; C, op-
posite 109
Those pretty little pills; industry’s record
in research, advertising, and costs. D. L.
Cowen;
Dublin; letter from. L. O. Coxe; S ;
Duel of angels. Reviewed by H. Clurman; D
Duffy, Christina Bratt, and R. Bly
Perpetuum mobile (from the Swedish of
Grmnar Ekelo£) suit es, . Ss sks Sl eevee nee
Dulles, John Foster; conduct of foreign policy
condemned by Senator Morse and Sir A.
BELOIT 3, cspeeee cars tageics as stagh PER OV ESS) aedesas eae
Durham, C. J. S.
Praise for M. Ross article “The young
tycoons”; C, opposite 373; see also 330
Dirrenmatt, Friedrich; novel The deadly
game dramatized. H. Clurman; D
E
Eastland, Senator James O.; alleged connec-
tion with racist W. Draper
Eaton, Cyrus
Call for nuclear test ban; C, opposite 237
Eden, Sir Anthony; memoirs cited on U.S.
foreign policy under Dulles .... ae
Education
Books
“Payola” in textbooks. H. Leader; C,
opposite 21
Colleges and universities
Artist in residence as new man on cam-
pus. W. S. Smith; 444; see
also C, opposite "501
260
69
385
212
241
347
112
421
540
29
Pare D
. 281
411
300
309
194
420
. 309
“Challenge”
field; S
a your way through. W. G. Cole;
program at Yale. D. Wake-
Comment on article “Diplomas for sale’’
(Nation, December 26, 1959); C, op-
posite 41; C, opposite 89
Criteria for best institution as ‘‘Athens,
LUIS Noee SID Cova ae Saye Baeeee cece 72; see
also C, opposite 129
Howard university proposed by Nation
as international institution ; Beenie s > so5
197; see also C, opposite 265
Medical schools and doctor shortage
Life’s subvention of campus journalists;
E. 286; see also C, opposite 373
Negro students’ lead against discrimina-
tion. E. B. King, Jr.; C, opposite 413
Students’ apathy on possibility of nuclear
annihilation. S. Bernstein; C, with edi-
torial comment, opposite 265
Ward heelers on the campus; fraternity
politics, _Po4S.0 Weinberg 3) Sia
Young company presidents’ ve day
course
See also George Washington; Howard
Correspondence schools. V. Wolfsohn; C,
opposite 89
Financing our schools: federal aid or local
taxes? First! 5 oe eee
Home study
National home study council. V. Wolf-
sohn; C, opposite 89
Military
Training the nuclear warrior. M. Rosh-
Mails, SS eee 2. eicetete eee a ee ee
Prince Edward county, Virginia, schools
closed by integrationist supervisors; E .
Segregationists’ threat to close Atlanta
schools backfires
Teachers
Persecutions, continued. D. Perloff; C,
opposite 61
Teaching
Misunderstanding in article in issue of
December 26, 1959. M. Lieberman; C,
opposite 41
Washington, D.C., schools’
segregation since 1954; E
Egypt. See Archaeology
Eisenhower, President Dwight D.
And generals who retire and write indignant
books. A elec eet eae ee
Bewails young Americans’ softness; Ets
Cancellation of Japan visit; security treaty
weal target’: FE as...ceepastcat
Concedes Soviet sincerity
nuclear test ban; E
Contributions to jurisprudence.
C, opposite 521
Envisages reduction
arms expenditures *
Evidences of “spirit of Camp David” with
Mrs ee vce wares ange adv suhncceave sons o
Indefensible position on registrars to ensure
WNeero. franchise’: Wiis i scsc.cccessrsessss-ereees
Intransigent stand on U- 2 ‘flights as factor
im ‘Summit breaker, cgs-crcsccceccseeeesass
Lost control of Republican party to Con-
gressional conservatives ...........:-ccccceecseee
Nemesis at Summit conference; E _ ...........
Reproached HEW Secretary Flemming for
ordering study of chemicals used in food
Stands up to hungry generals; E .............. ;
Test-ban plan rejected by U.S.S.R.
report on de-
for
“P. Weiss;
in desire”
in Latin American
Urged international agreements on outer
BDACE P tescctesiset sc +0 ee ee caealaay tear
Veto of increase in water- pollution- control
finds; Wis. aes ape Te eS
Eisenstein, Sergei; film Ivan
reviewed. R. Hatch; Va Sanaa ‘
Ekelof, Gunnar; translation of ‘poem by. R.
Bly and C. B. Duffy;
Electra (airplane). See Aviation—Accidents
Electricity; high rates discourage consump-
tion. H. A. Webb; C, opposite 217
Emerson, Thomas I.
Negro registration laws; So...
Engineers; increase in number as wage work-
ETUC CL OABE) yoy a5serisoviechtscosstisarciae
Engle, Senator Clair; peech on Atlas missile
Engman, Robert (sculptor). Reviewed by F.
AEN 5, See aecacs REAL FEsc ancidauwcitieccuatcx A «St
Entertainers, comic
agen CCAR Ole rs 2.2,:4t ie hacen Eb noes
Tragedy of, on TY <p, Gort, Ss
Erb, Donald, Reviewed by L
Ernst, Harry W.
Financing our schools: federal aid or local
Reet ETO MB Ets MN. ysltRiv ara cetonenwin tated
Ernst, Harry, and C. Drake
Won Sidney Hillman foundation rize for
article “The Appalachian sou Poor,
proud and primitive,” in May 30, 1959,
the terrible
. Trimble; M ....
Nation; comment by West Virginia
governor, senator, and representa-
tives; C, opposite 393
PAGE
268
416
79
489
. 330
491
287
42
. 403
327
129
326
541
305
334
237
62
485
532
501
200
179
297
198
20
. 300
PAGE
Ershun, Joseph
Death of a steel worker; S
Espionage. See Spies
Espresso bongo. Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP 392
Event itself, the. H. Carruth; P ....
Expressionism. F. Porter; A
F
Fahy, Julian
Praise for March 26 Chessman editorial;
C, opposite 325; see also E, 265
Fail sate: S: P. ZitnersePies...4.-.ttee ees 176
Fallout. See atomic bomb
Farber, Norma
Tinker, the;iP! 2s)... ee eee 452
Fascism; Salazar’s in Portugal. H. Galvao; S 24
Fatemi, Fariborz S.
Praise for editorial advocating Howard as
international university; C, opposite 265;
see also 197
Federal aviation agency. See United States—
Federal aviation agency
Feinberg, Joel
Does Nixon play the political game?; § ....
Feld, Fred
Secret menace in suppression of facts in
automobile accidents; C, opposite 41; see
also E, 3
Feldman, Morton; ‘Atlantis’? composer’s atti-
tude at Music in our time forum criticized
by L. Trimble 175; defended in
letter, with Trimble reply, opposite 285
Fellini, Federico; Italians’ reaction to film
La dolce vita (The soft life); S
Ferry, David
Out in the cold; P
Films. See Motion pictures;
Hatch,
Fishbein, I. Leo, M.D.
Excerpt from letter to California supreme
court on Chessman case; C, opposite 305
Fishbein, J. I.
Criticism of Nemeroy poem Debate with
the rabbi; C, with editorial comment,
opposite 177; see also 152
Flemming, Health, Education and Welfare
Secretary, Arthur S.; efforts to investigate
chemicals used in food
Flint, Margaret
Prescriptions of drugs by doctors; C, oppo-
site 109
Flood, Representative Daniel J.; wants U.S.
to reassert exclusive sovereignty over
Panama. Ganall 2 2 asa ecnrat eee
Fondahl, John E.; testimony on confused 1955
civil-defense rill ......sss.cosesoscssoeetsvedunetonesseeeeee
Food; poison,:ins M. “ViorstsS santa
Surplus for hungry needy of America.
(Mrs.) E. B. Wyatt; C, opposite 1
Forand bill. See Medicine
Ford, John; film Sergeant Rutledge reviewed.
R. Hatch: NUP’ . ccgiths dee tet c cere ees
Ford foundation; financed Washington, D.C.,
congress of artists and writers. S. Meisler;
448
260
40
for reviews, see
200
380
509
200
519
nd Revs Bisa S Se ee 456
Foreign policy. See United States—Foreign
policy
Forman, Joanne
Suggests raising of federal funds by sell-
ing tickets to trials; C, opposite 177
Fort Detrick, Maryland; vigil at gates of
a -warfare research center. C. C. Walk-
C, opposite 541
Fothergill, LeRoy D.; epidemiologist on bio-
logical warfare threat
Fraise, Georgia
Letter from Korea on student revolt; C,
opposite 433
France
De Gaulle against the gangsters; the issue
in Algeria. A, Werth) Swusiwore cues 113
De Gaulle, mysterious, and Algeria; E ...,.. 129
a commitment to NATO; E ............
42
Slogan, new. H. Cimring; C, opposite 197
What after de Gaulle? S. Werth;
Frank, Waldo
Praise for article on Cuba; C, opposite 129;
see also 63; C, 169
Frankel, Jacob M.
Praise for Nemerov poem “Debate with the
rabbi”; C, opposite 177; see also 152
Freedom. ae Civil rights
Freilicher, Jane. Reviewed by F. Porter; A...
Frey, Frederick
Backdrops to crisis: Turkey’s “war” of
press against Menderes government; S
Fulbright, epaior J. W.; total-crisis speech
on state ae U.S. defense and Communist
dager sn 1G EE 9 RRA a 238
Fuller, Buckminsiers arcnitentl review of
work. W. McQuade .............. ok A» ave 18
384
447
. 262
419
(Vol. 190)
Geller, Ronald Zachary
Retaliation against whom, if many nations
possess atom bomb? C; opposite 501
General dynamics; retired officers on pay-
RM ET xy Seae acl sy ack erc eine ccanpbasnaaneenoees
Generals and Eisenhower; E. .............. .
Genesis and Exodus. D. Laing; Po oo...
Genét, Jean; play The balcony reviewed. H.
UR 8 can ons ounce ones oonatega te Wie 262,
Genetics; white racists’ attempt to prove
Negro inferiority. R. W. May; S ............. Son
George Washington university; disqualifica
tion of professor. R. W. Reichard; C, op-
posite 21
Georges, Paul. Reviewed by F. Porter; A ....
Georgia; signs of retreat from rabid segre-
SURMOUNT 88 cov ocece dues coscareadsiosnas¥Seoe
Germany
SUREPUIMPAPRRALEASESSO TITS ES oo serecsossckssvecvenpesqssostussanscane
Flying West Berlin cargo planes above
TOLOOO) TEGE: Bee cscs mira
R. Neuberger’s prophetic 1933 Nation
PreIGle eg: TECHNICS Bs ooo cc ssceccsecvarcesan
Germany, East
Peace treaty with U.S.S.R.
and Berlin
settlement deferred by Khrushchey ........
Germany, West
Army as deterrent to U.S.S.R. advocated
BIR VU Ue EG seas vadvaevinedivescccaccaps tees e
Frankenstein monster of NATO; E ............
217; see also C, opposite 325
Neo-Nazism on the march. H. Pol; S_.......
People’s paranoia unchanged. J. D. Wolff;
~ S 225; see also C, opposite 345
SUN AE ONS ES ec saiethatersst ote atts
Remilitarization promotes anti-Semitism; E
PRENEMSGUMASOr WOITy tl... ean
Slated to receive U.S. nuclear weapons; E
nt. Alberto. Reviewed by F. Porter;
Gibbons, Harold J.
“Egghead” official of teamsters’ union ........
Indicted for soliciting political campaign
contributions from members; E
Gibson, Walker
What’s right with poetry?; S
Giraudoux, Jean; play Duel of angels re-
wmiewed py EH. ‘Clurmans) D*..0n........
Gleason, Gene, and F. J. Cook
October 31, 1959, Nation article, “The
Be of New eee wine New York
ewspaper gui age One award; E
Goffen, William 7
Monitors vs. the teamsters’ union; S
Goldberg, Jacob
Ethic and dogma; C, opposite 1, on article
by G. Vahanian, December 12, 1959
Goldoni, Carlo. Play The servant of two
masters reviewed. H. Clurman;
moe water, Fabel
xponent of myth of powerful Re i
“Right” ; E Perle restore » lee
eactionary as chief literary spokesman for
ISeCHDIC AUST et: A men:
Good soup, the. Reviewed by H. Clurman; D
oe Salk axicP
pril walk, an.
Our Lucy; P .......
0 sentences (Wellfl ; tee
Seal, Beers exhibition. Reviewed by
. Porter;
Grand Central City;
cussed. W. McQuade;
also as gppoaite fa? :
» Ulysses S. ; civil war centennial
commission chairman’ pies von
secbmapdars 104;
See ewan eeneee
PAGE
G
lu ll
Gane US. voters’ party affiliation ................ 381
Shows increasing disfavor of capital punish-
PCT Toa. onc cresovcacseasseonceveosdessnsentarconeescevecerenes 307
Galvao, Henrique
Salazar: Man and mask; § ............. 24; see
also E, 22
Gamarekian, Edward .
Quarrels over underground nuclear testing; 99
Gamblin
Basketball Ore WV «AML ANUS SS... vérrenesoy-<e ny 32
Myths about; links with other organized
oe 219; see also 185
Now legal vice. E. Adlow; S ............ 185;
see also E, 219
Slot machines in Maryland. D. Hume; S 140
See also Bookmaking; Policy racket
Gas warfare. See War—Chemical
Gates, Defense Secretary Thomas S., Jr.
Chagrin over hysterical service manuals; E 198
Service needs based on other side’s inten-
NT cee ccc tiintes ve ioamusackainasaniinesonne 111
Gaulle, Charles de. See France
Gauvey, R. G. ; :
Inconsistency in Nation’s Christmas article
and advertisement; C, opposite 41
Geiger, H. Jack
EE EIESEEE SSS ccsccansecssceperesneresertensarcsaesbap 78
262
403
61
237
267
504
112
310
61
145
130
126
275
287
85
411
237
316
95
Index
PAGE
Great Britain ;
Aldermaston-London anti-nuclear march. M.
NO TENE S WERE 0S) ous --sibtovecguevs:bccxeyerasaavyseesnee=s .- 408
Faulty arms procurement; aircraft consoli-
REAM as carci one Nhe weg ce eeencan gp acess aor 183
Relations with South Africa ................005 329
Great-grandsire (1804-84). P. O Broin; P .... 493
reenberg, Barr
Wiswect war saiaatit C, opposite 177; see
also 91 :
Greene, Graham; film Our man in Havana
reviewed. ke batch sel P 6 icpscc cess. lamessetesst 156
Greenwald, Herbert S.; developer of Lafay-
Ctl Parke, Detrov cca civics s.vacsssecesenesadecssehes sacs 196
Greenwillow. Reviewed by H. Clurman; D .... 282
Griffiths, Representative Martha W.; exposes
“double agents’”’ in defense procurement; E 542
Grooms, Red. Reviewed by F. Porter; A ...... 154
Gropius, Walter; consultant for Grand Cen-
RE RNR in ia te Nea cy caaanntisnnnnenemeniansy soho 104
Gross, Representative H. R.; cites figures on
defense department’s use of outside consult-
ants;
Grosser, Maurice
Reviews of art
American academy of arts and letters ex-
hibition of American pictures painted
abroad
Cathay Gus 7.
Cleveland and Toledo museums
Courbet, G.
Monet, Co 5) GXRIDGON: v.05... osnreadyen ves:
Poussin and Russian exhibits in Paris ...
FN ea nal iy enna ta ease oes cians taser!
Smithsonian institution . g
Thayer, A. H.
Gruenberg, Robert
Dixie hate in Yankee suburb (Deerfield,
eae eS Fe stpducxanes devas ee eee |
Gruening, Senator Ernest; tribute to Senator
Neuberger; recalls Nation article on Nazi
Germany;
Grundt, Gene
Negroes’ unfairness to whites for refusal to
retaliate; C, opposite 345
Guthrie, Ramon
Tribute to Dilys Laing; S
483
267
212
H
Habit of years. W. T. Scott; P
Hagenstad, Verdie L
Comment on C. Dreher article Pie in the
sky; C, opposite 197; see also 131
Halleck, Representative Charles A.; conserva-
tive “calls shots’? for Republicans
Hallmark, Don; Montgomery, Alabama, white
citizens council program chairman
Hamilton, Charles G.
Rachel Lindsay’s poetry defended; C, oppo-
site 21
Hammarskjold, Dag. See United Nations
Handel, F., music used for Balanchine
tates The figure in the carpet. Trimble, L.;
478
532
397
319
Hardyman, Hugh
On suppression of news of domestic de-
velopments in China; C, opposite 373
Hatch, Robert
Reviews of motion pictures
Battle of the sexes, the
Black Orpheus
Chasers,, the: 4.:.....:.:...4
Cranes are flying, the
Dreanis! =. .0cs4
Espresso bongo ..............
Hiroshima, mon amour .
Ikuru (To live!) ..........
I’m all right, Jack .
Ivan the terrible .............
Jazz on a summer’s day
Lesson in love, a
On the beach .........
Our man in Havana .
Private property! ...
Pull my daisy ....
Rat race, the ....
Rikisha man, the
IRGSOMAEY. -.teesvicaers
Sergeant Rutledge ........
Suddenly, last summer
SWAG LAKE suchas call
To live! (Ikuru)
Unforgiven, the ..
Wild river ........
Hawaii; voices from
policy; E
Hebert, Represen
sentative F. Edward; proposal
to fine and jail ex-officers turned munitions
salesmen; neasies <i sigue secre aaveis are sem Ry tep 347
Hechler, Representative I
Agreement with Nation article “The A
_ palachian south” “(May 30, 1959); ¢
opposite 393 a
Statement against NASA appropriation .... 492
(January-June, 1960)
a
PAGE
Heine dying in Paris (adapted from the
German of H. Heine). R. Lowell; P
Heller, Nancy E : :
Book censorship in New York public li-
brary; C, opposite 21 ; %
Hellman, Lillian; play Toys in the attic re-
viewed. H. Clurman; D
Hennings, Senator Thomas C.;
Negro-registration proposal
Henry IV, part 2; Phoenix performance. Re-
viewed by H. Clurman; D ... :
Hillman, Sidney, foundation prize. See Sid-
ney Hillman foundation prize
Reviewed by R.
349
261
241
411
; C.; defects of
Hiroshima, mon amour.
Hatch; MP
History lecture. M. Riddle; P
Hobby, Wilbur
Correction of Bruner article The Negro
bids for union power; C, opposite 305;
see also 207
Hobgood, Burnet M.
Comment on W. S. Smith article New man
on the campus: Artist in residence; C,
opposite 501; see also 444
Hoffa, James Riddle. See Labor—Union
Holifield, Representative Chet; plan for civil-
ian shelters derided by General LeMay; E
HOPE (Help our public education); Georgia
group opposes segregationists’ threat to
GIGSE HOMOOI Se Moose ye) caren tclejsczsises spruce
Hopkins, Ned K.
Nixon’s candidacy and the press; C, oppo-
site 61
Horse racing
Governmental stake in gambling
Hospitals
Foreign doctors in. H. Jack Geiger; S
See also Blue Cross; Medicine
Howard university. Proposed by The Nation
as an international institution; E
197; see also C, opposite 265
Hubbell, Ann
On surprise war attack; C, opposite 177;
see also E, 89; 91; C, opposite 129
Hugo, Victor; translation of poem by. H.
W. Patterson; C, opposite 21
Hume, David
Slot-machine gambling in Maryland; § ....
Humphrey, Senator Hubert H.
Comment on editorial on politics of peace;
C, opposite 433; see also E, 109
Favors ‘“‘strong” Presidency; E .................. 89
See also Presidential election of 1960—
Democratic party
Huston, John; film The unforgiven reviewed.
R. Hatch; MP
479
392
306
403
186
soe 78
140
ICBMs. See Armament—Missiles
IGY. See International geophysical year
I have said often. H. Carruth; P ....0..0.1..0....
Ibsen, Henrik; play Peer Gynt reviewed. H.
Clurman;
Idel-Ural; mythical captive nation; E OA
Ikuru (To live!) Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP 284
Fixe vis SUDEUNIE <+ gotictits tan st> deapascaayidioivy n> Nae teoavtaeon 430
Imagination, political; failure of. G. Tinder; “
ple adana «oshici as tusisp dyes sxBamestestysabeinde das det cade Ziiiy cy Seen dael 164
Imagination, social; failure of. J. Reichley; S 119
Impressionism; and C. Monet. F. Porter; A
seg oed 01; M. Grosser; A 322
In a green shade. D. Laing; P ... 213
In the harbor. M. Swenson; P 514
In the shade of my hair (anonymous, from
the Spanish). W. S. Merwin; P. ................ 454
Inagaki, Hiroshi; film The rickisha man re-
viewed. R. Hately * MOP viscecisicn dt. asbvn diese 479
Industrialization; of underdeveloped coun-
bi plan for. R. B. Meyner; C, opposite
Infant mortality; and Blue Cross ........... 27, i28
Inouye, Representative Daniel K.; supports
few. China, polieyenis \iivici.. Baan 502
Institute of contemporary arts; congress. S.
Meisler}...Sy siequntieateansen eh has ee eae 456
Insurance
Against strikes. H. H. Ostrins S o0.00000..... 249
See also Blue Cross; Medicine
Intelligence (military). See Spies
International disarmament organization; pro-
posed body outside U.N. ooo.ceccccccscsccseecssescsveses 506
International geophysical year, 1957-1958 ... 294
Intolerance. See Anti-Semitism; Peekskill,
New Yor'
Tonesco, Eugéne; play The killer reviewed.
. Clurman; Bh Rete. teel et cates 343
Treland; theater in. L. O. Coxe; S ooccccccecc. 281
Italy, letters from. See Weaver, W.
Ivan the terrible. Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP 20
(January-June, 1960)
Index
(Vol. 190)
PAGE
J
Jackson, Senator Henry oe higher defense
expenditures; Eo... ; E, 346
Japan
Advocated as deterrent to Wesitee Le
W. Drake;
Reparations, war; payment of; oe
Why does U.S. Senate rush to ratify un-
popular security treaty? E
Javits, Senator Jacob J.
Bill for old-age medical care
Limitations of Negro-registration bill ....
Jazz on a summer’s day. Reviewed by R.
Hatch; MP
Jenkins, Clive
ice and jobs;
labor’s stake in arms budgets;
reo
Krupp payments to slave laborers; E
See also Anti-Semitism
Johns, Jasper. Reviewed by F. Porter; A ....
Johnson, Byron
Politics of peace; C, opposite 157; see also
E,
Johnson, Senator Lyndon B. :
Modus operandi key to understanding
Democratic party
Praise for Senator Fulbright’s total-crisis
speech TeaWasnestntetaveeesi vet seckendite puters
Johnson, Ru ssell.
Seminar on Latin America; C, opposite 129
Jurisprudence. See Law
K
Kantor, MacKinlay; refused to sign whiskey
testimonial; E
Kastenmeier, Representative Robert W.; US:
stand against Ractnvpeica and chemical
weapons; Ne iadectoccnai tee
Katz, Leslie
What has happened to the chair?; S
Kaufman, Judge Irving ruling in Ap-
alachin’ case;
Kazan, Elia; film Wild river reviewed by
R. Hatch; MP
Kefauver, Senator Estes; drug- industry ‘hear-
ings resumed .
Kennedy, Senator John F.
Attack and counterattack in Senate on U-2
incident;
See also Presidential election of 1960—
Democratic party
Kentucky state college; writer of letter ex-
pelled for anti-discrimination activities. E.
B. King, Jr.; C, opposite 461
Kerouac, Jack; film Pull my daisy reviewed.
R. Hatch; MP
Khrushchev, Nikita S.
Can he swing U.S. election? E
Norway poll on disarmament plan; C, oppo-
site 109
Why he wrecked Summit conference. H.
Pa eCOMa Soi cascnr:
See also Union of Soviet Socialist Re-
publics
Kildare, Michel W.
How to help sit-in demonstrators; C, with
editorial comment, opposite 285
Killer, the. Reviewed by H. Clurman; D ...
Killian, James R.; discounts military useful-
ness of satellites
King, Edward B., Jr.
Expelled in fight against discrimination; C,
opposite 461 ,
On Negro college students’ lead against
discrimination; C, opposite 413
King, Joseph A.
Proposed regulation of medical fees; C, op-
posite 109; see also 26; C, opposite 89
King, Martin Luther
Appeal for funds from committee defending
him against tax charges; C, opposite 285
Hatred of by Montgomery, Alabama, whites
Leader of Southern Christian leadership
conference
Suggested sit-in demonstrations _ ee
King, William (sculptor); exhibition. Re-
WACWEE DY BOLTED s Biv cieccossseierouvhesvatsbirart
Kinnell, Galway
Another ballade (from the French of Fran-
sois Villon); P
At the reading of a poet’s will; P
Kintner, Earl FTC chairman’s campaign
against adenetiattie fakery
Kirstein, George G.
Non-survivability plus;
Klein, Allen
Praise for C. Dreher
sky; C, opposite 197
Stevenson the best peacemonger; C
Kobler, Robert H.
Comment on editorial Week-end warriors;
C, opposite 541; see also 414
defense jargon; S
article Pie in the
112
22
541
466
. 241
392
182
22
262
382
. 238
286
. 374
eek
ll
520
335
481
540
501
484
343
133
400
404
, 289
391
190
356
162
203
12
PAGE
Konigsberg, Charles
Comment on editorial The air force credo;
C, opposite 345; see also E, 198
Koré. R. Creeley; P
Korea
American-supported regime of S. Rhee; E
Korean aneer backdrop to anti-Rhee
crisis. J. Lefer; S
One of our falling ramparts. A. Crofts; S
Student revolt against “patriot” Rhee;
373; see also C, opposite 433; E,
U.S. press’ changed opinion of Rhee after
his downfall; E
Kovar, A. J.
Blue cross; report on; C, opposite 89; see
also 26; C, opposite 109
Kramer, Stanley; film On the beach reviewed.
R. Hatch; MP
Kee last tape. Reviewed by H. Clurman;
Kreiber, Horace
Appeal for medical parole of communist
leader H. Winston; C, opposite 265
Kreves, Eugene William
Ethic and dogma; C, opposite 1, on article
by G. Vahanian, December 12, 1959
Krock, Arthur; shows how Republicans could
use nuclear test ban and peace issue; E ....
Krupp, Alfried. See War
Ku Klux Klan; segregationist activities in
south . zi 2
Kuh, Frederick |
ws "N.—stage for disarmament; S
Kurosawa, Akira; film Jkuru reviewed. R.
Hatch; MP. 2c 3.Se ee ae ee
L
And guanine labor’s stake in the mak-
ing? CarJenkins ¢0S t-te nee
Tae in Portuguese colonies; E, 22; see
also 26
Safety
See Labor—Steel
Senator Morse on problems
oa workers becoming privileged class
teel
Death of a worker, S. Adler. By J.
Werabutaeiis.! $5 orcas ayat oe eereee nce tea cae tude nae
Strikes
Steel; prat fall for industry in settle-
SIACTIC SBS 7 co oncesansasdemeaenienacmtaeae ee aauntonmantaneacen
Union
Meany’s opposition to socialization with
W3S7S Ree ee, eee ae ee a ot cae
Attenuation through automation .....
In mines; E . 2; I. Wolfert; S .
Jieelk: Hoffa's ‘leftist progr for team-
sters. BE. Parmentel,” res sane ee
Leaders’ Titeetae to face "dima obatieen
cConsegttences; Sites.) voateusetrce:
Monitors vs. the teamsters. W. Goften; S
Negro bid for power. D. Bruner; S ........
07; corrections, C, opposite 305;
1G opposite 433
Southern fear of integration in .....
Teamster official indicted for collecting
political campaign contributions from
members;
Threatened by strike ins
Labor department. See United States—Labor
department
Lafayette park, Detroit. W. McQuade; § ....
Laing, Alexander
Where the man most was; P
Laing, Dilys
The compassionate torturers ap
from the French of Victor Hugo); P
Five last poems;
Dance of burros, 212
The double goer, 212
Genesis and Exodus, 212
In a green shade, 213
The sacred wood (for Ned O’Gorman),
213
Threnody on the demise of as and now; P
Lamont, Corliss
Appeal for bill of rights fund; C, oppo-
site 521
Lancelloti, John R.
Praise for October 31,
shame of New York”
Landau, Felix
Wonner, Paul; not Wanner; artist’s name
misspelled in December 19, 1959, Nation;
C, opposite 61
Larson, Arthur; progressive succeeded by B.
Goldwater as spokesman for Republican
party
Latin America
Seminar on. R, Johnson; C, apposite 129
Small-arms race. S. Meisler;
Ties with African bloc in U.N.
See also individual countries
1959, Nation, “The
; C, opposite 41
194
418
544
415
20
153
394
403
506
284
182
309
243
50
41
374
242
274
182
316
402
287
249
195
304
. 366
259
PAGE
Law
Eisenhower contributions to. P. Weiss; C,
opposite 521
International; U-2 flights as violation
Of seas; freedom of vs. national pretensions
Progress in struggle for Negro equality in
South, C. Brownfeld; C, opposite 541
Leader, Herbert
“Payola”’ in driving examinations and text-
book field; C, opposite 21
Lefer, Jay
Backdrops to crisis: Korean vignette; S ...
LeMay, Curtis; wants more planes and mis-
siles, derides civilian shelters; E ..............
Lesson in love, a. Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP
Letter from Aldermaston. M. S. Merwin; S
Letter from Dublin. L. O. Coxe; S ..
Letter from Italy. W. Weaver; Ss
Letter from Uruguay. V. Bourjaily; Ss
Letter from Washington. See Meisler, S.
Letts, Judge F. Piekinsons and teamsters’
Utlion’S VIMONLEOXS |= 1.c.5scbtase names attunea ee eRe
Levertov, Denise
Ther parts, MPI bi tecthcssc:ss.sccumer ene oe
Levitt, Saul; play The Andersonville trial
reviewed. H. Clurman;
Lewis, Frank W.
Crossword puzzles. See back pages
Lewis, John L.; retirement from office; E
Liberals; Nation provides leadership. 1}
Archer; C, opposite 217
Libraries: as criterion in rating universities
Lieberman, Myron
Misunderstanding in December 26, 1959,
article on teaching; C, opposite 41; C,
opposite 89
Liebman, Marvin; secretary of Committee of
1,000, 000 against admission of communist
China to U.N. sae
Lieuwen, Edwin; on U.S. “military- aid pro-
gram in Latin America
Life magazine; subvention of campus journal-
ists; E ......... 286; see also C, opposite 373
Lincoln, Abraham; centennial of Cooper
Union address and significance for today.
W. Steele; C, opposite 177
Lindsay, Vachel; defense of his poetry; C.
G. Hamilton; ce opposite 21;
Lippmann, Walter; condemnation of Ejisen-
hower-Herter U-2 line;
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation
Manufacturing operations abroad .
Midas and Samos projects
Starfighter contract with NATO; Ee
Loesser, Frank: musical Greenwillow_
viewed. H. Clurman; idee Seeeeeee
Logan, Andy
Verses, “12/31/59” on 1950’s; C, opposite
461,
re-
ite Beach, California. See Atomic bomb
Los Angeles; bigoted policemen. A. Villa-
brazo; C, opposite 197
Louisiana; campaign against Negro registra-
COM e- rompsgsonays sca teas aciceteee aie tReet net
Lowell, Robert
Heine dying in Paris (adapted from the
German of H. Heine); P
Loyalty
D.A.R:. Aetipi tes c,.unstn nats -cankunctial anki
De Gregory, H., defense committee; appeal
for. Mrs. P. di Giovanni; C, opposite 1
Disqualification of George Washington uni-
versity professor. R. W. Reichard; C,
opposite 21
House Un-American activities committee
river, in San Francisco provoke riot;
New Hampshire inquisition. N. di Gio-
el S 253; see also C opposite
; C. opposite 305
Witch’ hunt by American legion losing; E
Tueth, Harold C.; ohysigian on medical prob-
lems of war gases ...
Lundberg, Ferdinand
Comment on L. M. vee, article Cor-
spepon jp in Chicago; C 277; see
also
Luthuli, Chief: Christian Negro South Afri-
can leader jailed; E 325;
ve Robert S.; retirement from Columbia;
MVD; disbandment under Khrushchev .......
MacDiarmid, Hugh
The kind of posiey 2 want; P taicunnd-+0
Mackenzie, Sir Compton; article The spy
circus (Nation, December 5, 1959) cited; E
MacLean, Basil C.; on Blue Cross’ prob-
lems 2
Madison astpes See Advertising
Mafia. See Apalachin “convention”
Magnuson, arren G.; aviation; traveli
_ briefease; C, opposite 197; see also E,
485
293
418
306
284
408
a Zo
. 260
57
316
84
87
75
76
334
464
184
« 132
42
282
71
349
376
463
158
384
328
436
46
371
435
32
(Vol. 190)
Index
(January-June, 1960)
PAGE
Mahler, Gustav; festival by New York phil-
harmonic. L. Trimble; M........... fecapetasddooes Nae i
Maltz, Alfred; ‘controversial’ writer repudi-
ated by F. Sinatra; E
Management, industrial; changes under “re-
! NN 8 ides sc csbdiddnvcrasedstoassasvsesesrAbeciads
Manus, Willard
IRIE MMR: 62D | a debe ccvotderoseveessevancucrdeved ’
Marceau, Feélicien; play The good soup re-
NOG, CRAG OME AR ieeiisetscs 255368... cedcsbedvensened
Maremont, Michael D.
Comment on editorial Easter and the
chemical corps; C, opposite 481; see
also 373
Marsden, Amos ,
Dictionary of diplomacy; C, opposite 481
Martin, Jean ; y
Letter from Chicago; on comic entertainers
and art; S .
_ Marxism; and constructivism in art. F. Por-
“
A iin Sle ern inl nate ots pide we suy evdhde tines seine sash ereceeores
Maryland; slot-machine gambling in. D.
Hume; S
Mather, Alan 5
Architecture; monstrous by design; C, op-
posite 157; see also 104
Matthews, Herbert L. :
Comment on B. Deming Cuba article; C,
opposite 521; see also 470
On Cuba and U.S.-Latin American rela-
: PRUE siévinees Fvchad Shas Gis vsdiv aviniala hidehitincs bos baitibes 67,
May, Ronald W.
Genetics and subversion; racist attempts to
prove Negroes inferior; S
Mayer, William. Reviewed by L. Trimble. M
Mayfield, Julian
Numbers writer: a portrait; S ooo.
McCarran-Walter act. See Deportation
McCarthy, Joseph R.; ghost may be exorcised
DIMI OIREE 18 uc G58. caps) dvas'venadgnvesdcauils ivcuivasyret
McDonald, David J. See Labor—Strikes
McDonald, James
Our misplaced missile bases: cities into
dargetes S ........i. 436; see also C, oppo-
site 501
Study of effects of nuclear attacks on
URE os coi niko eaten c70 an .dckvee BB acviedukearsaeeseth
McKneally, Martin B.; opposition to movie
companies’ employment of radicals; E ......
McNamara, Senator Patrick V.; bill for old-
RELA ALE 0. cannneninsasase<cancndssSvasnivechaoBil
McQuade, Walter
Competition for F. D. Roosevelt memorial,
PAARAE EERE GY 0 os vacr de) meat disses sade bevveineicebsh
New York City design and planning forum;
Ss 104; see also C, opposite 157
| Sed on architecture, The shape of
, ings;
Reviews of architectu
Fuller, '
Lafayette Park, Detroit. \.....j:.-....cscsscseoseoods
National shrine of the Immaculate Con-
if ception, Washington, D.C. ooo.
_ Meany, George. See Labor—Union
_ Medaris, John B.; advocacy of limited-war
SEEM Boo 05 cfu s10<0s89- <1 <tssearnnaca- bam Meee
Medicare; Eisenhower administration’s old-
Meemeee Medical-care plan vi......c0.cecsccsccctcsecscccesse
Medicine
Doctor shortage. H. Jack Geiger; S ..........
Doctors and prescriptions of drugs. M.
Flint; C, opposite 109
Fees; proposed regulation, and American
patients’ association; C, opposite 109; see
also 26; C, opposite 89
Free care, as in Forand bill, is wave of the
EP ee ge gs ee
Which old-age health-insurance bill is best?
Mrerngert Goh et et
___ See also Blue Cross; Drugs
-Meisler, Stanley
_ Charade of civil defense; S .
Meewederal narcotics czar; S .........s:..ts,
_ Letter from Washington; congress of artists
[RES RS ei al i ae oe la oy
Small-arms race by underdeveloped nations;
. Ss 332; see also E, 347
Meister, Richard
Politics and Chessman case; S
ho hates Chessman?; § .......
Winter Olympic games; S
Meltzer, Julius
Castro’s Cuba; C, 169; see also 83; C, op-
posite 129
Menderes, Adnan. See Turkey
enninger, William; _ family-life clinic at
,,young company presidents’ organization ....
Mental illness
eiNeed for drug research ......j..ecz........
o. Not. covered by Blue Cross
Merwin, Ww. lb .
‘In the shade of my hair (anonymous, from
_ the S P
Ae seeeneeees
Tristan
346
242
32
261
428
476
140
70
420
175
424
481
89
158
465
302
323
18
195
498
374
465
78
306
465
507
159
456
275
. 167
138
- 408
PAGE
Metabolism. See Reducing
Metropolitan museum of art; second photog-
raphy exhibition. Reviewed by F. Porter;
Te eee ik scncs cpt crasseskasies erst Veea aha nctas 539
Meyer, Representative William _H. :
Undemocratic re-election of Chiang in For-
SR Re a Ml ness incon ceevians i ace’dnicdasane 415
What we should learn from the U-2 spy-
GPIAKIE = STACI SNES, Misco cPya ne bbb at dnc car eanteade 434
Meyner, Governor Robert B., of New Jersey
Praise for February 6 editorial on politics
of peace; C, with editorial comment, oppo-
site 265; see also 109 :
Sees peace as key issue of 1960 campaign;
Ee al dhihy Ste 5 MR cain ttre tay op SE Rtirnnn emsntens ees 177
Speech demonstrates “peace gap”; E. ........ 285
Midas (satellite). See Astronautics
Military forces. See United States—Defense
department
Military men; difficulties with Eisenhower;
aeiteg es cassis baisT MERION Pectenivanscavevmeenrancetel + 63, 129
Mills, C. Wright
Balance of blame for Summit breakup; S 523
Mines
Accidents and increased production; life of
miners and their families. I. Wolfert; S 3
Potential, on ocean floor; international
TURNED ccc cth ING er occ acho cnoasaasnccneBesncarnven 295
Mirage III; French plane loses to Lockhee
MRE Ne se a eer V3.5 c cece erresactenas nse
Missiles. See Armament—Missiles
Mitchell, James P.; Secretary of labor’s role
in steel-strike settlement; Eo... 41
Mocky, Jean-Pierre; film The chasers re-
viewed by Ri Hatchs (MP oiisac.cccckeccdcsssceaheee 430
Modern Community Developers; homes for
Negroes in Deerfield, Illinois, opposed by
it ao Sia se Up Pec kn gine Oe, eae AS Saat eso rally 48
Mok, Susan Moira
Marriage sors Ps. Foc: cbe.- ocr Pit aon iss 262
Mondrian, Piet. Reviewed by F. Porter; A.. 234
Monet, Claude; exhibition. Reviewed by F.
Porketan A: J cova. 301; by M. Grosser; A 322
onroy, Jaime Gonzalez
On boating; C, opposite 109; see also 52
Montgomery, Alabama; segregationist activi-
NCH OME, Wire catust We We raspes tthe ws oe Bocousrtte hha ssean-ch 396
Moon
Reaching the; cartoon On oo..c.c...-cecececsecceeceees 135
See also Astronavtics
Morse, Senator Wayne
Importance of binding disarmament agree-
ments; C, opposite 237
Program for the Presidency; S ................. 308
oscow. state symplony. Review by L.
BRAND Ne os MOL eheneces hc-r.2. se URGE. OER 155
Motion pictures
Witch hunt by American legion losing; E 158
For reviews, see Hatch, R.
See also Letter from Italy. W. Weaver; S 260
Mozambique; natives restless under Portu-
LCR eee kt... ae ee ins Peer 22
Multer, Representative Abraham Jas DLs to.
abolish capital punishment; C, opposite 305;
see also E, 265
Murder and onomatology; “D’Avious” in
Motherwell case. G. R. Stewarts Soo): sy 313
Museum of modern art
Auction for fund. M. Grosser; A ............. 431
Patrons witnessed Tinguely machine destroy
PUIRELT catia ne. 8: 5 eS Boe kes oe 267
Picketed by representational attists:. E. .,.... 395
Museums, Ohio. M. Grosser} Ao cece, 517
Music
And oe cae composers on U.S. campuses 444
EOS: Sake mn eeacae: ae ae 156
N
Narcotics
“Czar,” H. J. Anslinger. By S. Meisler;
Po nactreccerie 159; see also C, opposite 217
Literature of. See Books section of Index
Nation, The
Art columns by F. Porter; award by Long-
view foundation; opposite 61
May 30, 1959, article “The Appalachian
south : Poor, proud and primitiye” wins
Sidney Hillman foundation prize for
authors H. Ernst and C. Drake;
comment by West Virginia poli-
ticians; C, opposite 393
October 31, 1959, article, “The Shame of
New York,” by G. Gleason and F. i
Cook, wins New York Newspaper guild
Page One award; findings unchal-
: lenged; E _... OE eval 237
Praise for issue_on “The shame of New
York.” J. R. Lancelotti. C, opposite 41.
Proposes Howard. University as an inter-
. national institution; E ............. 5 soars ta bacares 197
Provides leadership for U.S. liberals. be
bla Archer; C, opposite 217
Neale cinta Wa
ratic primaries. I. Wolfson, C,
posite 521 j ——
PAGE
Special issue on ‘“‘The Eye of the Storm,”
segregationist activities in south, May 7,
pages 396-405; see also E, 393
Spring books issue, April 23
WBAI radio programs; E ........... posal Feee Areas
National aeronautics and space administration
(NASA). See United States—National sci-
ence and space administration
National council of Churches of Christ in
America; air force manual charges ‘‘red’’
infiltration; E, 178; E, 198; E, 238; E,
326; see also C, opposite 345
National defense. See United States — De-
fense, national
National home study council. V. Wolfsohn;
C, opposite 91 j
NATO. See North Atlantic treaty organiza-
tion
Nazism. See Anti-Semitism; West Germany
Negroes . .
Becoming dominant political force in Africa 328
Bid for union power; 207; cor-
rections, C, opposite 305; C, with author’s
reply, opposite 433
Civil rights
Bill passed by Senate represents small
step forward;: E ...........-..- . 345
Enfranchisement as key; E 62
Indictment of Rev. M. L. King on tax
charges; C, opposite 285 ;
Mass registration to oust supervisors who
closed Prince Edward County, Vir-
ginia, schools; E. ........::. Peuker elon <8 7Eve 42
Registrars: key to Negro voting. K. N.
Vines; S 71; see also E, 62
Shortcomings of registration bills in Con-
gress. T FEOIPTSOM 5) SS) cecssecsserseorarsss 240
Struggle for equality in south; legalistic
tendency of liberal press. A. C. Brown-
feld; C, opposite 541 ae
College students’ lead against discrimina-
tion. E. B. King, Jr.; C, opposite 413
In South Africa charged with terrorism and
communism in U.S. media. E. R. Coady;
C, opposite 373
In U.S. may be victims of South African-
type violence if rights not won; E .......... 286
Segregation
Dime stores and dignity; sit-in demon-
strations, .J.dleB, Dabbss, S) crccsscc--00s0 289
Dixie hate in Yankee suburb (Deerfield,
Illinois). R. Gruenberg; So o..cc.cecceee 47
Eye of the storm; report from south.
DY Weak ettelel $2595 xg vt tacanraxtomlecd tweed nideioed 396
ea) (Chere chee sec scdsok cans -dbeiadedM aterdcone lt 221
Student sit-in demonstrations mark re-
lleiey FOE Wy cass Bs iestl. Ae varenuvaseerecnae 218
Slavery romanticized in Civil War centen-
Siah. plang a a2akgth ...-- mrtg isdetestanee: ores ¢ 96
Unfair to whites for refusing to retaliate to
assaults. G. Grundt; C, opposite 345
Voting. See Negroes—Civil rights
White racists’ attempts to prove genetic in-
RGRIOLIey WOk, Veveeiia-is..c55517- i entrees oto 420
Writer of letter expelled for fight against
discrimination at Kentucky state college.
B. King, Jr.; C, opposite 461; see
also C, opposite 413
See also Union of South Africa
Nemerov, Howard
Debate with the rabbi; P. ............. 152; see
Te with editorial comment, opposite
1
Tragedy in Garden City; Pooooccccccccccccce. 365
Neuberger, Senator Richard; tributes to on
death; prophetic Nation article on Nazi
Germany recalled; Ey oo..c.....csccccsccessesecsescence 267
New Hampshire; inquisition on civil liberties.
N. T. di Giovanni; § ............ 253; see also
C, opposite 1; C, opposite 305
New Jersey; Senator Case’s renomination; E 375
New York City
As Athens: of America )..):;..0ssaac0a.dhetl... 75
Design and planning forum; ‘Grand Cen-
tral City” discussed. W. McQuade; § ....
cis swenes 104; see also C, opposite 157
Politics; corruption; explanation by Mayor
Weagrierse Extincolnac...srn. stent tne 31
“The Shame of New York,” October 31,
1959, Nation article by G. Gleason and
. J. Cook, wins New York Newspaper
guild Page One award; findings un-
challenged oBirxa8f. uc thle eae 237
New York philharmonic. Reviewed by L.
Trimble; M ABET RRS aKan Td 60, 303, 412, 458
News behind the headlines; Eo ockccccccucn hi 187
Newspaper guild, New York; Page One award ;
to G. Gleason and F. J. Cook for October »
31, 1959, Nation article, “The Shame of
New Mock A Ey xashil, xcwaitcnln clients 237
Newspapers. See Press
Nicaragua; mission to Somozaland. Jee
Busey 5 Sy Mh. .aatiil...ig VF As Be av SBN Aided oe 187
Nickerson, Kate
Defends composer M. Feldman, criticized
in -L. Trimble review of February 20%!
C, with Trimble reply, opposite 285
(January-June, 1960)
Index
(Vol. 190)
PAGE
Nile river. See Archaeology
Nineteen-fifties; verses on.
opposite 1
Nineteen-sixties; vista of:
and feeble clerks. E. W. Ziegler;
Nixon, Vice President Richard M.
Favors full debate on Summit conference
A. Logan; C,
Titans, old folks,
acy ebanrat 242
breakup; ED ..:2fh:i..00 Ryne asat ASR <ansan dhuot ey 481
Foreign-policy record cited by Senator
Whore eistasisadeesspacaesepeetiss dasvengs hese qongeecd 309
Responsibility for defeats of civil- rights
legislation ; Syed eiisitc onante ad oan 111
Role in steel-strike settlement; E eA.
See also Presidential election of 1960—
Republican party
Norstad, Lauris; blocking of West German
attempt to obtain Spanish missile bases; E 217
North Atlantic treaty organization
Emphasis on offensive alarms Soviets; S... 91
Frankenstein monster, West Germany, tries
to obtain Spanish missile bases;
.... 217; see also C, opposite 325
Members to receive U. S. nuclear weapons;
suovesaudeaauksuacsupenuciseanehpeeecuters SeuNGrMesh apace mcP--=> 130
E
Problems of; E, 1; ;
Norway; poll on Khrushchev disarmament
plan. C. Bay; C, opposite 109
Nuclear tests. See Atomic bomb—Nuclear
tests
Nuclear war. See United States—Defense,
national; War—Nuclear
Nuclear weapons. See Armament—Nuclear
Numbers game. See Policy racket
Nunez Portuondo, Emilio; preree anda! sealer
Castor een : i redOd:
N. Y. Provincial. M. Riddle; P (ee hasteee 128
O
O’Brien, Joseph; on visit of czarist Russian
fleet to the United States in our Civil War
days; see C, opposite 21; C, and note,
opposite 61
O Broin, Padraig
Great-grandsire (1804-84); Po o..cccccee 493
Oceans. See Seas
O’Kearney, John
Lobby of a million ghosts; S ...... waht &76
Olathe, Fanse? airfield trusted by pilots Ae
Old people
Increase in numbers and influence .............. 242
Inevitability of free medical care for; E ... 306
Which health-insurance bill is best? L. J.
Dessvchee et ieee naga seas este seed ov davarn renee hie 465
Olmsted, Mildred Scott
Comment on R. Baldwin editorial on Jane
Addams s:'C* .233. 4. 460; see also E, 375
Olympic games, winter. R. Meister; S 2138
On the beach. Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP... 20
Opera. See Blitzstein, M. y
Orear, Jay; on underground nuclear detection; a
Eee Sane PS cache eee
Osgood, James B. :
Appeal for movement to abolish
punishment; C, opposite 129
Picketing Sing Sing executions; C, oppo-
site 501
Ostertag, Wolfram
Corrections of H. Pol article ‘‘Neo-Nazism
on the march’’; C, opposite 413; see also
310
Ostrin, H. Howard
Strike mnsdrances 'S.03.2...5.t0yaictcnete eters 249
capital
Our ucys ee Gocdman) Ph ernie 88
Our man in Havana. Reviewed by R. ‘Hatch; on
Out in the cold. D. Ferry; Poo 40
P
Paar, Jack; example of tragic entertainer ... 228
Pacifica foundation; listener-sponsored radio
GEATLONIA 5p atte NOON vacattvcnoebededent ovens «cayitest a AOE NS 43
Palmer, Stuart
How many more Chessmans?; § .................. 439
Panama; time-bomb on nationalist revolution
in. M. B. Travis and J. T. Watkins; S .... 378
Paris
Artistiows.. Bl seGrosses) Av iii...tiiieconccanseccvone 559
Paris at sieht (from the French of Tristan
Corbiére). Merwin si Pisteat cho .eisecsres 82
Parmentel, N. ae Jr.
Hoffa in Madison Square garden; § ............
274; see also C, opposite 325
Part, the. D. Levertov; PPL NPA bch te eee 84
Pasternale Boris; tribute to. E. J. Simmons; One
Patterson, Governor John, of Alabama; threat
to Negro agitators; E
Patterson, Harriet W.
Translation of poem by Victor Hugo; C,
opposite 21
“Payola”’; in Reve examinations and text-
book field, H. Leader; C, opposite 21
PAGE
Peace
“Cold” wwariety predicted’ "Et. una 542
Governor Meyner’s speech demonstrates
‘peace’ Rap fs, ce. Secs eo a 285
Planning for is key issue; ‘‘Little Summit
conferences?” farsi possi ee 482
Politics of. See Presidential en of 1960
Stevenson best peacemonger. A. Klein; oe 12
Peekskill, New York; ieee A.
Beacher, M.D.; C, opposite 177
Peer Gynt. Reviewed by H. Clurman; D' «..... 106
Pennsylvania, university of; fraternity politics 489
Perloff, David
Continued persecutions of teachers; C, op-
posite 61
Perpetuum mobile (from the Swedish of Gun-
nar Ekelof). R. Bly and C. B. Duffy; P.... 300
Petrie, Paul
Chaise) ciicccrcetes aren ets scr ee eee 59
Philbrick, Charles
A corpse for the carriage trade; P ............ 362
Phillips, Thomas R
Military analyst on armed forces’ poverty;
On missile gap
Pierce, John R.; analysis of space vehicles . 133
Phoenix theatre; Henry IV, part 2. Reviewed
by H. Clurman; D
Phonograph records. L.—Re-
corded music
Photography
Color, by E. Porter. Reviewed by F. Por-
ters: SAR er ee ee ere 39
Metropolitan museum exhibition. Reviewed
by! BE Porter Ate) eee eee ae 539
Physicians. See Blue Cross; Medicine
Pinay, Antoine; conservative French finance
minister’s break with de Gaulle .000.0000000.0...... 114
Plath, Sylvia
Two views of ascadaver rope 107
Plato; quoted on guardian warriors ............... 287
See Trimble,
Plays. See Theater; for reviews. See Clur-
man, H.
Plessy vs. Ferguson; ‘‘separate but equal” de-
cision by Supreme Court now obsolete ...... 291
Poems
Another ballade (from the French of Fran-
cois’ Villon): (Ge Kiniell) 2298 rs. 190
April walk, an. P. Goodman ............... tees, AOD
As I forget (for David Schubert, 1913-
1946). “I, Weiss; PRE eee 342
At the reading of a poet’s will. G. Kinnell 356
Banging boards, the. F. Bock ...... ela
Cascades and fountains. M. Zaturenska .... 38
Charis Petrie =... eee ee eee 59
Child’s chemically treated garden of verses,
as SM.) Rathi) 3 Aen Soe oe meee 201
Compassionate torturers, the (Transmuta-
tion from the French of Victor Hugo);
Dy Taine et; open een eee 366
Corpse for the carriage trade, a. C. Phil-
Betcke Sete sists eee eee re te 362
Dance of burros, D. Laing sense
Debate with the rabbi. H. Nemerov .......
152; see also C, with editorial comment,
opposite 177
Double goer, the. D. Laing ..........:ss:se.ses00- 212
Event itself, the. H. Carruth .
Fail safe. S. P. Zitner .......
Five last poems. D. Laing .
See also Laing, D.
Genesis and Exodus. D. Laing ..... mec
Great-grandsire (1804-84). P.O Broin..... 493
Elabitiotivears, “W. | Semmcoth ateren ar. 478
Heine dying in Paris pceetee from the
German of H. Heine). R. Lowell .......... 49
History lecture. M. Riddle ..
I have said often. H. Carruth ...
In a green shade. D. Laing ....
In the harbor. M. Swenson .o...c.ccccccccesccsseee
In the shade of my hair Sonne, from
the Spanish). W. S. Merwin ..... 454
Kind of poetry I want, the. H. MacDiarmid 371
Kore. (Creeley sae tote
Marriage song. S. M. Mok .
N. Y. provincial. M. Riddle .
Our Lucy. P. Goodman ...........
Out in the cold. D. Ferry ....
Paris at night. W. S. Merwin. ‘(from the
French of Tristan Corbiére) ......ccc000... 82
Part, the. D. Levertov ........ Bs ree eto
Perpetuum mobile i the Swedish of
Gunnar Ekeléf). R. Bly and C. B. Duffy 300
Ringing the bells. A. Sexton .
St. Martin’s Lane, London. S. Alliston .... 426
Snow. S. Quasimodo (translated by Ben
Belitt) 235
). E. Weismiller 407
Threnody on the demise of as and now.
D. Laing
Tinker, the,
Tragedy in Garden City. H. Nemerov’
Travels of the sage Narada. J. ae
Two sentences ( clifleet harbor). een
BIN gcc ta aves 1345 0iguas Me ete aac tail caeoe sca 214
Two views of a cadaver room. S, Plath... 107
0
Where the man most was. A. Laing ...... a 304
PAGE
Poetry
Vachel Lindsay’s defended. C. G. Hamilton;
Gi opposite 21
What's right with poetry? W. Gibson; S . 85
Poison;in ‘food: M., Viorst; -Sw.:20..:....asnenpes : 200
Pol, Heinz
Neo-Nazism on the march in West Ger-
Riise Gok soo 310; see also C, oppo-
site 413
Polar regions; international cooperation ...... 294
Police
Bigoted, in Los Angeles. A. Villabrazo; C,
opposite 197
Corrupt, in Chicago
Policy racket
Factors® behind ‘growth’ 2).7..2.....) sent 186
Numbers writer: a portrait. J. Mayfield; S 424
Probe blocked by Supreme Court ruling .... 116
Politics. See Presidential election of 1960;
United States
Pollikoff, Max. ‘Music in our time”
reviewed by L. Trimble; M
see also C, opposite 285
Pollution, water; veto of bill; E
Porter, Charles O
Trujillo’s troubles; C, opposite 61
War; by accident or "aggression? 3) eee
285 a also E, 266; C, opposite 265;
277
Porter, Eliot; color photography. F. Porter; A 39
Porter, Fairfield
Award for art columns
opposite 61
Reviews of art
concert
steeeeaeaten 175%
= aint 198
in The Nation;
American artists; exhibitions .......00........... 301
Arp; blaris "ose ss ener . 234
Bischoff, E.; exhibition 88
Bishop oe eee 458
Bitton Yi. 67. eee eee 154
Color photographs by Eliot Porter .... 39
Constructivist show, Chalette gallery 476
Degas exhibition’ ¢2........28. ee Ord
Engman, R. (sculptor) :
Freilicher, J. :
Georges, P. ...... 262
Giacommetti, A. . 126
Goodnough, R. 88
Grooms, 154
Jolinise]s 28 see eee aeerte 262
King, W. (sculptor) exhibition .............. 391
Metropolitan museum photography exhi-
bition’: | acai gra ee eee 539
Mondtian. «PP! ees . 234
Monet, role exhibition) ).....000 . 301
Porter, E.; color photographs . 3
Rauschenberg, R., exhibition 371
Rembrandt exhibition ................
Remenick, S. _.. tt
Rose, H.: exhibition .
Stankiewicz, R. (sculptor); exhibition .. 371
Tanager gallery
Wonner, Paul; name misspelled in De-
cember 19, 1959, issue. F. Landau; C,
opposite 61
Portugal
Coloniess; restiyeness?) Fo"... accaee 22
Salazar: Man and mask. H. Galvao; § ....
fete 24; see also E, 22
Post-Christian era. Letters opposite 1, on
article by G. Vahanian in issue of Decem-
ber 12, 1959
Poussin, Nicolas; exhibit. M. Grosser; A ...... 559
Powell, Representative Adam Clayton, Jr.
Amendment withholding federal funds from
SORTER Ated: “SCHOOIBs Fou. .ccccj+>cateaucer staan 500
Charges New York police driving Negro
policy bankers out of Harlem ................ 424
Powell, Governor Wesley, of New Hampshire;
accuses Kennedy and Nixon of softness to-
ward commurisinf BD ”.....c.icusaunonre 239
Presidential election of 1960
Bipartisan chorus on strong American
linia s: Te... tose Gate cae outta enna 541
Can Mhiushcticy Swine wl Lop ncuasreanetee 501
Candidates and peace issue. 7 Roosevelt;
C, opposite 157; see also E, 10
Democratic party
Advice to Republicans to choose Rocke-
Feller; TE. ‘s.chivsgocauveituauumietateaa ace 413
Bourbons, bosses, and brokers, R. G.,
Spivacks (Sy. ction 381
Catholic dilemma in Kennedy support; E 325
Governor Powell of New Hampshire ac-
cuses Kennedy of softness on com-
munism; E
Kennedy's empty promise of
Presidency;
Kennedy's West Virginia pr
over Humphrey;
Medical insurance for aged would be
sure-fire issue; E
Must run scared to defeat Nixon; E .
Senator Morse’s program; S
Stand on peace and other issues; E
Stevenson for peace an disarmament as
campaign issues; E ............ 177; E, 346
“strong”
(Vol. 190)
Index
(January-June, 1960)
PAGE
Strongest ticket: Stevenson-Kennedy; E
521
es E .. -
United on Nixon issue; E ; :
Failure of political imagination. G. Tinder;
164
Sbantes eddy desntoxnnenenesysovenqeeseresisessounase 119
De siean competition in toughness toward
U.S.S.R. would be disastrous; E .....
Politics and nuclear tests; E .......... :
Politics of peace; E 21, 109; et
also C, opposite 157; C, opposite 197; C,
opposite 217; C, opposite 237; C, oppo-
site 265; C, opposite 285; C, oppo-
site 413; C, opposite 433
ican party
ehvias to Taeencerats to choose Kennedy;
.. 461
. 394
Bes LS
s Nixon play the political game?;
debe teatiins as bar to presidency. “a
UE RORIAIOT IE 50 0 xuredoenvesacepecnvenne greece 4
Governor Powell of New Hampshire ac-
| cuses Nixon of straddling communist 3%
| TEND Ris isons: Wpastneces cory sesevenngsornsussszeaseres
Midwest volunteers for Nixon’s trek to
Seemmmeeay Waveney? Tle. cs cendicoonecssesenbovtares seks 503
Must project image of progress .............. 532
' Nixon candidacy and the press. N. K.
Hopkins; C, opposite 61 >
| Nixon continues to seek nomination by
MORES TUEES TS od... ccvecerreseereraecacscereres 61
Nixon victory assured if opponent has
shorter name. E. Biers; C, opposite 345
Nixon-Rockefeller, in either order, would
evmeronment: tickets Fo oo... ..cesssaccaecees 345
Peace and prosperity as favorite issues; E 110
Polls show anti-Nixon sentiment .............. 224
Rockefeller challenge to Nixon; E ........ 521
Rockefeller still in race. J. Desmond; S 223
Withdrawal of Rockefeller and advance-
ment of Nixon; E. .........:...0.. Peer ieaaeanct te 21
Socialist party not running candidates. M.
Viorst; S 510; see also C, oppo-
site 541 ;
Stevenson as best peacemonger. A. Klein; %
Press, U.S. ,
Changed opinion of S. Rhee after his down-
fall; Chiang may be next; E ........ serereaners 415
Does self disservice in touting Nixon’s can-
didacy. N. K. Hopkins; C, opposite 61
More truthful advertising urged by agency
EERE MALTA SOI ccc caccenecscoccuveevvers avesnevonearnsvd 90
Should stress suspension of nuclear tests
rather than private scandals; E ................ 157
Submerges peace issue; E bf tees say aneraNin stone 177
Touted S. Rhee as great Korean patriot; E 373
Wee sOL Strike insurance .........siicsseeecceieitees 249
Virulence against Castro’s Cuba .........0........ 63
Prince Edward county, Virginia; Negroes
registering to oust supervisors who closed
BEMOOISSES foc...cdevsess.. ae... ER Hee 42
Princeton university; self-styled Athens of
America ..... RE. Abhi itd Seater. Ree 73
Prisons; Sing Sing executions picketed. J. B.
Osgood; C, opposite 501
Private property! Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP
Prodigal, the. Reviewed by H. Clurman; D....
Propaganda; cultural, by U.S. government
through ANTA. L. Trimble; M ....... pier
Protestantism, U.S.; as abused “cow with the
crumpled horn’’; E, 238; see also E, 178;
E, 198; C, opposite 345
Pull my daisy. Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP ...
Puzzles, crossword. F. W. Lewis; see back
pages
430
214
478
540
Q
Quasimodo, Salvatore fi
_ Read poems in Washington ER. RO ARTI
_ Snow (translated by Ben Belitt); P
456
235
R
R: deliffe, L. Dewey .
eace issue in the election; C, opposite 197;
see also E, 109 '
io; WBAI, listener-sponsored station; E. 43
oads; use of strike insurance ..... a oe
leigh, North Carolina; Southern Christian
leadership conference meeting on integration 404
ston Purina Co.; TV programs successful
ithout sex or violence; Eo oeeccecccscesccsscsssssees 523
D Corporation; report on underground
, clear explosions; E. ..... hss cos» eageived anne 42
Rassweiler, Clifford F.; on U.S. need to de-—
velop chemical and biological warfare power 384
face, the. Reviewed by R. Hat:h; aout 320
Rauschenberg, Robert; exhibition. Reviewed
Sommer borters Ata'.adinarens. 2 ante... 371
«
PAGE
Rauth, Mary T.
A child’s chemically treated garden of
ORES a nest ramutes--skeccin casa meena ere aucttivs 201
Read, Herbert; report on communist Chinese
WP Re isa ene reae ny isa saree deus athens erected Rieke 456
Records, music. See Trimble, L.
Reducin
Ad iat DEES Guacs terranes co ecaivs 511
Reed, Carol; film Our man in Havana re-
viewed) Kk. Hates NEP 71% {oe SOE cies a) 156
Reeves, Ambrose; Johannesburg bishop’s flight
to avoid arrest by Afrikaner government; E
Reform. See United States; Chicago
Registrars. See Negroes—Civil rights
Reichard, Richard C. :
Disqualified by George Washington univer-
sity; C, opposite 21
Reichley, James
Failure of social imagination and the
dential campaign of 1960; S
see also 164
Religion
325
presi-
panes 119;
Discouraged in U.S.S.R. A. Werth; S ...... 44
Ethic and dogma; letter; S, opposite 1, on
article by G. Vahanian in issue of De-
cember 12, 1959
Rembrandt; exhibition. Reviewed by F. Por-
PRR eke tes ta dineeckn ss SRST Tea ote Ee LO 371
Remenick, Seymour. Reviewed by F. Porter; is
duvevevuftnasoneaenepiveakesbson, Mea iivaar thank ee tes. Medic 4
Republican party
ompared with Democratic ..................... 382
Holds balance of power on civil rights;
W2tSe.n. O2te, hts E, 266
How “modern” is it? R. G. Spivack; S .... 531
Illinois state control ensured by corrupt
Democratic Chicago machine .................. 222
Myth of powerful right wing exposed by
renomination of Senator C. Case? 4B. ...0. 375
Democrats’ criticism of administration’s
conduct in 10-2’ fascas Es. 481
Subirham-yore myth .! 272
See also Presidential election of 1960
Research, military; wholesale farming out by
defense, depariments By... whic 483
Research, scientific
Concentration at Princeton; §S ...... 73
Domination by military forces; E .. 23
Increasing entry of industry into ... . 247
Shortcomings in drug Industry. ae -.4kely, 336
Resnais, Jean; film Hiroshima, mon amour
meviewed. h.gttatch: MPI ons) 479
Retirees
Growth in numbers and influence ................ 242
See also United States—Defense depart-
ment
Rhee, Syngman. See Korea
Rickisha man, the. Reviewed by R. Hatch;
Me Nth te ritt....nainoa eee, 479
Riddle, M
ELISEO Tyg OCP e gilt ..6s,. een seeks ske ct 392
Ns JOTOUADCIAUE, Pak: Ge ee ee he 128
Rights, civil. See Negroes
Ringing the bells. A. DEXtOm ws. ote cee, 231
Robeson, Paul; victim of intolerance at Peek-
skill, New York. A. I. Beacher, M.D.; C,
opposite 177
Rockefeller, Governor Nelson A., of New
York
Places self at head of big arms spenders; E 521
Foreign Affairs article advocating strong
Civile delense gee ns, inncathehackee 510
Statement on Summit breakups IE) oir. 481
Unpopularity of fallout-shelter plans...
sheen LOD ail 0G)
See also Presidential election of 1960—
Republican party
Rodgers, James W.; execution deplored; E.... 307
Rogers, Attorney General William P
Smoke screen over civil-rights legislation;
We eyo os 111; see also E, 62; 241
Special group on organized crime prose-
cuted “Analachin, Case ..tornn on ee 116
Rome, Italy; uproar over film La dolce vita 260
Ronneberg, Conrad E.; chairman of chemical-
Wattanes SVMPOSiUin., .....cp2cr ah teteee aes 383
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano; competitio
memorial. W. McQuade; S oooeccccccccccs... 302
Roosevelt, Representative James
On civil rights and political parties; C
opposite 157; see also E,
site 217
Resolution to abolish House Un-American
109; C, oppo-
activities committee; Eo... ccc. 393
Rose, Herman; exhibition. Reviewed by F.
Porter Ars ath) cee een ee 301
Rosemary. Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP ........ 128
Roshwald, Mordecai ,
Training the nuclear WEILORS, Sete A...csnsb 287
Ross, Malcolm ss
The young tycoons; young company presi-
dents’ organization. ep er 330; see
also C, opposite 373,_
Rossi, Ernesto; impact in Italy of book The
state as film-maker ................ ee ee 260
PAGE
Rossi, Mario ,
The U.N.’s “other” perspective, that of
small nations, on U.S.-Soviet problems;
462
104
286
City
Ruark, Robert; signed ghost-written whiskey
teStittionial je hss ae. Meee ee
Ruppenthal, Karl M.
Bumping the passenger;
sales” of flight tickets; S
Can your copilot fly?; S 291
Field the pilot trusts, at Olathe, Kansas; S 422
Dowgorroy,;s ainierashs| Sw titisan,.. ccnlecan 97
Russia, czarist
Paintings exhibited in Paris. M. Grosser; A 559
Sending of fleet to U.S. in our Civil War
days. J. A. Boudreau; C, opposite 21;
J. O’Brien; C, opposite 61
Russia, soviet. See Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics
Rustin, Bayard
Appeal for funds to defend Rev. M. L.
King on tax charges; C, opposite 285
Ryder, Albert P. Reviewed by M. Grosser; A
“over-
airlines’
551
174
S
S-4; mission of imaginary Soviet plane,
paralleling sUr2 fighteKe 8 eo secs, ug ‘
Sacco-Vanzetti case; on TV. N. T. di Gio-
vannis iS.
Sacred wood,
Laing; BR casiass Bie nuaeies eer Ako ea my index sack,
Safety. See Labor—Steel
St. Martin’s lane, London. S. Alliston; P
Salazar, Antonio. See Portugal
San Francisco; riot over House Un-American
activities committee hearings; E
Sanchez-Barbudo, Antonio
A Spaniard returns; impressions after 20
CEOS 5 ny besa ens cates widget tea ane cdc dlerpueses Ae Rb ees 99
Sandys, Duncan; British minister of aviation
184
433
558
213
426
463
promotes amalgamation of aircraft firms......
Sane nuclear policy, national committee for a;
“Little Summit conference” at Madison
Square Garden, New Mores: Binoy: orkne
Santa Barbara, California; war scare over
radio; E 266; see also 202
Santiago, Mrs. Jo Ann; deportation threat-
ened. R. Tabak; C, opposite 61
Santo Domingo. See Dominican republic
Satellites. See Astronautics
Schmidt, Godfrey P.; ousted as teamsters’
union monitor for conflict of interest
Schools. See Education
Schriever, General Bernard A.; proponent of
aerospace programs
Schupack, Sophia
Praise of J. D. Wolff article, ““The same
old Germans”; C, opposite 345; see also
225, 310
Schur, Edwin M.
Praise for S. Meisler article Federal nar-
, cotics czar; C, opposite 217; see also 159
Scientific research. See Research, scientific
Scott, Senator Hugh; imputes appeasement to
Stevenson and Kennedy for criticizing ad-
esietetons handling of U-2 incident;
Scott, Winfield Townley
LAD ep Se ears ey Pi) seit snail odicernced eateries
Seas, poles, and outer space; international
Programs despite cold war. H. J. Tauben-
fel dis. Sinncrvad age hn ceabnsenc:s AHN. Sone 293
Second city, the; Chicago night club 428
Semmel, Herbert
March for nuclear disarmament; C, oppo-
site 461
Sentner, David; Hearst columnist exagger-
ates Soviet aid to Castro’s Cuba... 64, 69
Sergeant Rutledge. Reviewed by R. Hatch;
MP 519
| 236
482
316
131
481
478
Servant of two masters, the
Clurmany “D: .....,510hinn ae ae
Service, hospital. See Blue Cross
Sexton, Anne
Ringing the bells; P
Shakespeare, William
Henan IV, part 2, reviewed by H. Clurman;
231
411
Shapiro, Karl; New York Times book review
article on what’s wrong with poetry; S .... 85
Sharpeville. See Union of South Africa
haw, George Bernard; personality in letters
. to Mrs. P. Campbell. H. Clurman; D.... 343
Siberia; incentives for settlement ........ 46
Sidney Hillman foundation prize; won by H.
Ernst and C. Drake for article “The lost
Appalachians: Poor, proud and primi-
tive,” in May 30, 1959, Nation; com-
ment by West Virginia overnor,
ee representatives; C,
posi
Siekevitz, Philtp
Comment on J. Barden article on germ-gas
warfare; C, opposite 413; see also 583
(Vol. 190)
Index
( January-June, 1960)
PAGE
Simmons, Ernest J.
Tribute ito B. Paaternaks icant 503
Sinatra, Frank; advertisement repudiating
professional association with A. Maltz; E.. 346
Singer, J. David
Surprise nuclear attack, defense against;
.... 91; see also E, 89; C, opposite
129; C, opposite 177; E, 177
Sing Sing. See Prisons
Slack, John M.; Disagreement with Nation
article ‘‘The Appalachian South’’; C, oppo-
site 393
Slot-machine Maryland. D.
Hume;
Smith, David (sculptor). Reviewed by F. Por-
RTRSY PR esos wesc enasevsneduansapnsat ree ta smear carne Se en axetten
Smith, Warren C.
New man on the campus, artist in residence;
tocateensss 444; see also C, opposite 501
Smith college. See “Challenge”
gambling in
Smithsonian institution. Reviewed by M.
Gross@ee | Ai: cscestenncccbes cae ett cote Reggae cetetose
Snow. S. Quasimodo (translated by Ben
IBeLiEE) sR uaetttessceteccnec este rcereees seo rena aeaeres
Social imagination; failure of. J. Reichley;
Ss 119; see also 164
Social sciences; debt to R. S. Lynd; E ............
Socialist party, U.S.; not running 1960 can-
didates. M. Viorst; S 510; see also
C, opposite 541
Society; of class giving way to that of mass
Somoza, Luis and Anastasio, Jr. See Nica-
ragua
South, U.S. See Negroes
South Africa. See Union of South Africa
Southern Christian leadership conference;
Raleigh meeting on integration .........0....0.....
Space exploration. See Astronautics
Spain
Apathy seen by Spaniard returning after
20 years. A. Sanchez-Barbudo; § ...........
West German attempt to obtain missile
bases in; E
Spencer, Lyle M.; speech on function of capi-
talism
Spies
Hot front in the cold war; U-2 incident
reveals CIA techniques; E ............ bee
Imaginary Soviet S-4 mission, paralleling
that of U-2; E . iene
Intelligence, represented by CIA, key ques-
HonwmeW-2 hascos. .5.i.h.an kt
Khrushchev’s use of U-2 incident to wreck
Summit conference UF aT SS 5 ee
Peculiar moral climate in U-2 incident; E
Reconnaissance satellites make U-2s obso-
Rete Dy Wi CoxgeS:...siccss eee oe
U-2 flights assessed in balance of blame for
Summit breakup ....... Madi oedhe sere eee
U-2 incident precipitated breakup of Sum-
mit conference;
What we should learn from U-2 incident.
W. H. Meyer; S
Spivack, Robert G.
Bourbons, bosses and brokers in Democratic
partys (Se. oe :
How “modern” is Republicanism? § ..........
Spokane, Washington; fallout peril from mis-
sile sites
Squaw oe winter Olympic games. R. Meis-
ter; oe Se evind sae eate tea geate mete pertertheatoneeersced
Stalin, Joseph V.; opinions of in U.S.S.R. .
Standard Oil Company (New Jersey); spon-
sorship of TV program Play of the week; E
Stankiewicz, Richard (sculptor); exhibition.
Reviewed by F. Porter; A . by
Stecl. See Labor—Safety, Strikes
Steele, Winthrop
Lincoln anniversary; Cooper
dress; C, opposite 177
Stevens, Leslie; film Private property! Re-
viewed ‘by RR: Hatch; MP wliiu..cl i.
Stevenson, Adlai E.
Attacked by Senators Dirksen and Scott
for criticizing administration’s handling
of U-2 incident; E
Best peacemonger. A. Klein; C ..............
Purported statement on Berlin and atomic
GERD HSASN He, Seopgie Pah caid it ihl yas césivenasgz sy puss ghepsnac th
See also Presidential election of 1960
Stewart, George R.
Murder and onomatology; “‘D’Avious” in
Motherwell case; S ....
Stock market. See United States—Economics
Stolinsky, David C., M.D.
Drug costs; C, with editorial comment, op-
posite 109
Stolle, Jane
U.N.—Africa shifts the balance; S .. _.....
Stravinsky, Igor. Reviewed by L. Trimble;
Union ad-
tempt to obtain Spanish missile bases; E.
oe Judge Saul S.; on bribery of college
a €3
APO A Peat snes eabeneesenseaeesees Pes eeeneneseoeeerenecsnerenvees
140
174
174
235
436
166
404
99
217
331
463
433
502
. 484
433
486
524
461
434
s
437
138
45
63
430
481
12
504
313
441
127
217
PAGE
Strikes. See Labor ‘
Stubbs, General Marshall; on Soviet chemical
and biological warfare capabilities ..............
Suall, Irwin :
Socialist planks to which Democratic con-
tenders would object; C, opposite 541;
see also 510
Suburbs; impotent vote. R. C. Wood; S.......
Subversion. See Loyalty
Suddenly, last summer. Reviewed by R.
Flatch: MP ...cccecccsssescscnsercsecsnrsurqrnecnazenrnpersazenes
Sugar. See Cuba
Sullivan, L. B.; Montgomery, Alabama, safe-
ty commissioner’s segregationist activities...
Sulzberger, C. L.
Denies Nation statement that General Nor-
stad leaked story of West. German at-
tempt to obtain Spanish missile bases to
New York Times; C, with editorial
comment, opposite 325; see also
Summerson, William H.; biochemist on chem-
ical warfare threat? 0: foccccyrccocccncse-semtgseneeess==>
Swan lake. Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP .......
Swastika. See Anti-semitism i
Sweezy, Paul; New Hampshire subversion
Charges AGainSt .....scceeeceeeeeccccesenceresesnececeaegnossaee
Swenson, May
In the harbors Po c.c.:5cecssvepencomevadteareamsansnens
Swerling, Boris C.
Cuba; sugar and sympathy; S .......: eee
Symington, Stuart ~
Comment on editorial on politics of peace;
C, opposite 413; see also E, 109 *,
Comment on J. E. McDonald article Cities
into targets; C, opposite 501; see also 436
Exponent of air power; E ........... 11s
E, 346
gu
Tabak, Miss Ruth ,
Deportation of Mrs. J. A. Santiago; C,
opposite 61 .
Taber, Robert
Castro’s Cubas 9S’ Se 63; see also C,
opposite 129; C, 169
Tanager gallery. Reviewed by F. Porter; A
Taubenfeld, Howard J. ;
Seas, poles, and outer space; international
programs despite cold war; S
Taubman, Howard; called Washington cul-
tural hick town PS OY ee
Taxes. See United States—Finances
Teaching. See Education i
Teamsters’ union. See Labor—Union
Television 5
Architecture program, The shape of things.
McQuade; S a,
Bold journey and High road _ successful
without sex or violence;
Christmas programs. C. W.
site 41
Commercials; fakery in; E i itt
“Payola” and ‘motorola’; H. Leader; C,
opposite 21 q
Real doctor and nurse to be used in com-
mercial;
Sacco-Vanzetti program. N. T. di Giovanni;
Bell; C, oppo-
ers; eed eas
Tragic entertainer. By D. Cort; S . rn
U.S. dissenters on British program; E
World-Wide ’60 minimizes fallout danger.
V. L. Hagenstad; C, opposite 197
Teller, Edward; inadequacy of detection sys-
tems for underground nuclear tests; E
SA 285; E, 394
Textbooks. See Education—Books
Tpgyer, Abbott H. Reviewed by M. Grosser;
Theater
College circuit
H. M. Waidson article on F. Diirrenmatt:
Comedy of despair;
In Ireland. H. O. Coxe; § ..
For reviews of plays, see Clurman, H.
oe Investors, fhe: advice to “angels’’;
Thompson, Representative Frank, Jr.; federal
education bill
Thompson, Wade
Non-revolutionary daughters (D.A.R.); S
Threnody on the demise of as and now. D.
Laing; 5 t
Thurber, James; eizy A Thurber carnival re-
viewed by H. ae sstess te eat 2
Time of vengeance. Reviewed by H. Clurman;
indesign tapi o an :
: Failure of political imagination;
64; see also 119 we
383
271
59
396
384
128
254
514
142
154
293
456
323
523
90
239
558
63
228
. 130
174
444
34
281
~ 29
407
500
376
259
236
19
Tinguely, Jean; devised machine that de-
stroyed itself; E
Tinker, the. N. Farber; P ...
Tiros (satellite). See Astronautics
Titans of tomorrow’s industry .........:cccccccc00c00e
To live! (Ikuru). Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP
Toledo, Ohio; museum. M. Grosser; A ........
Topeka, Kansas; hazard from missile sites...
ae in the attic. Reviewed by H. Clurman;
Trade; Washington curtain penetrated by
US. Ros: Ee dk cote hacker
Tranquilizers. See Drugs
Travels of the sage Narada. J. Berry; P. ........
Travis, Martin B., and J. T. Watkins
Time-bomb in Panama; § .......ccccccsesceseeeoee: ;
Trials in court; sale of tickets proposed. J.
Forman; C, opposite 177
Trimble, Lester
Reviews of the dance
American ballet theatre ..0..........ccececccee
Figure in the carpet, the; ballet ..............
Reviews of music
Bernstein, eh ccs tice te coe 412,
Bernstein—New_ York philharmonic per-
formance of Beethoven’s Missa solem-
URS echivrvcsshes sons Antec
Carter, E. :
Contemporary music society .
FegD: SD) etic cana cee ee
Mahler festival; New York Philharmonic
Mayer,
Moscow state symphony 0.00.00... 0 cece cece
New York Philharmonic—R. Serkin, Bar-
tok Concerto No. 1
Pollikoff, M., “Music in our time con-
cert”; vce. 175; criticized in
letter, with Trimble reply, opposite
Stravinslcy. colvp 92... eee ee. (0)
Reviews of recorded music 216, 263, 303,
Trujillo Molina, Rafael Leonidas. See Domin-
ican republic
Trussel, Ray E.; Blue Cross study . oy
Tschebotarioff, Gregory P.; exposure of myth-
ical “captive nations” in Douglas resolu-
tion; be : a
Tucson, Arizona; hazard from missile sites ...
Turkey
Backgrounds to crisis: press’ “war’’ against
Menderes government. F. W. Frey; S
Students against Menderes government; E
Two sentences (Wellfleet harbor). P. Good-
U
U-2. See Spies
Underwood, Cecil H.
Comment on Nation article “The Appa-
lachian South’; C, opposite 393
Unforgiven, the. Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP
Union of South Africa
Afrikaner dementia; massacre of Sharpe-
ville Negroes; E ‘
Apartheid defended by spokesman P. J.
Meyer; E ....
Bantus demand blessings of democracy; E
Chaistones plight; Ee ci..icises 325; see also
Negroes called terrorists and communists on
S. radio and in papers. E. R. Coady;
C, opposite 373
Rubicon for. G. M. Carter; S ;
Treatment of Negroes deplored in note by
-S., which may be receiving such if
_ own Negroes don’t win rights; E ........
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
And Cuba. See Cuba
And United States
Balance of blame for Summit breakup.
C. W. Mills; S
Deal for purchase of American textile
machinery;
Evidences of Camp David spirit; E .....
Future of Summit talks after Paris
debacle. G. Barraclough; S$ ...........005.
Implications of meterological satellites ...
Improvement in tone of relations; E
Rivalry on outer space; importance of
Werth; Sroiainasiana?: PG ae
What now after breakup of Summit con-
ference? BH FRA ie Te Pu ibe detsee
Culture; arts subordinated to science; S..
Diamonds. frompo-3O* 88). c08., ateta ah:
Economies
From terror to incentive. A, Werth; S
Fear of ouspe eas, J. D. Singer; S
; ; see also 112
Khrushchev, Nikita S. “ aoe
sarmament plan; poll on, in Norway.
C. Bay; C, opposite 109
PAGE
242
284
517
437
378
127
344
29
B47
437
. 419
393
214
107
323
305
158
393
327
286
523
23
237
504
487
305
296
464
461
178
44
(Vol. 190)
Index
(January-June, 1960)
Informality and popularity .............0-.-
Notes on Khrushchev’s Russia. A. Werth;
RD ccteserell pryes nccsalede theiee Acces Betite oce(etttics«
On self-interest as incentive ............0....
Reasons for wrecking Summit conference.
. J. Berman; S
Visit to America. A. Werth; S
Living conditions improving ............. aia
Paris art exhibit. M. Grosser ............... ater
Penetration of Washington trade curtain; E
Quarrels with U.S. over underground nu-
clear testing. E. Gamarekian; S .
University of Friendship for foreign stu-
dents; ee / 9
War plans. B. Greenberg; C, opposite 177;
see also E, 89; 91; C, opposite 129
Winning disarmament contest vis-a-vis
Ses iti Sia ha Te cpea wry
Worries over China and West Germany ....
United Nations ’
Africa shifts the balance in. J. Stolle; S....
Created 24-nation committee on outer space
Latin-American bloc split by Cuba frodeseiices
“Other” perspective, that of small nations,
on U.S.-Soviet problems. M. Rossi; Sik:
Rallies world opinion by resolution calling
for abandonment of apartheid; E .. 305;
Resolution applying to Portuguese colonies;
E
Resolution calling for resumption of Sum-
mit discussions ....................
Stage for disarmament. F. Kuh; § ...
Study groups on space issues o..0....cccccecccceeee
UNESCO project to save monuments from
Aswan-flooded Nile; E :
U.S. lobby, Committee of 1,000,000, against
admission of communist China ..................
United States
Air force ,
Manual attacks “red’’ ministers in Na-
tional council of the churches of Christ
in America; E ............ 178; E, 198;
E, 238; E, 326; see also C, oppo-
site 345
Missile bases disregard fallout hazard to
cities; :
Planes’
Reais antaicecsaneclie een RCH, Re :
Davis-Monthan
EE EE icon rol wcvas cdasameerateaessioctns
Public relations minimizes accidental
atomic @xplosions; E_ ..........-ccscscessscoos
Seeks more funds, cites missile “gap”; E
EPO Ee i ccc,
Allies
Nuclear weapons for; E. ji..ccsccsescecscsescsescese
And Cuba. See Cuba
And Panama. See Panama
And Soviet Russia. See Union of soviet
socialist republics
Army; plea for survival in face of nuclear
developments. R. Caplan; S
Atomic energy commission
Defeat of proposed Cape Cod atomic park,
RIEEEERNSS SS) sad et A ce eo
Dumping of atomic wastes; E
112; E, 158
Opposition to underground nuclear-test
BUM cicc a ecsucecsvcvs vaidapecie eee 1773
Scientific staff should express reservations
on need of nuclear tests; E
Central intelligence agency
Blunders in U-2 spy-plane incident; E ..
Hot front in the cold war; publicizing of
U-2 incident reveals techniques; E ....
Interest in photos taken by meteorological
Bete Wife chiro. ceseuad.crmiseceam ction
ey question in U-2 fiasco; E .. nusits
“Stock” fell after U-2 incident, then rose
when Khrushchev attacked Eisenhower;
graveyard at
Civil aeronautics board
Partial disapproval of airlines’ strike in-
Ne SE a8. da aenin «sR eae ht RO ok a,
ecommends grounding of Electra planes,
while FAA restricts their speed; E
__ Routine in accident investigations
ongress
_ Civil-rights bill passed by Senate repre-
» sents small step forward; E ....... ba dual
Civil-rights debate, with federal registrars
as key to Negro voting. K. N. Vines;
NS) 71; see also E, 62
Conservative trend
party
_ Defeats Hebert proposal to punish ex-
; officers turned munitions salesmen; E
7 House Un-American activities committee
hearing provokes riot in San Francisco;
J. Roosevelt bill to abolish House Un-
merican activities committee; E .....
ne poskeving over federal aid to schools
Propose: legislation on business activi-
_ ties of retired military officers; E .......
_ Republican-Dixiecrat coalition against
Swrctvil, sights; E.,..,....2s, .. 62; E, 111;
its, ’
197
145
441
137
65
462
327
22
504
. 506
297
307
76
436
267
522
131
130
468
548
179
394
434
463
302
462
251
. 395
423
345
121
532
347
463
393
491
90
PAGE
Senate’s rush to ratify unpopular security
treaty with Japan; E ....... neoieaa sas ate ary!
Shortcomings of Negro-registration bills 240
Should debate peace planning, not break-
up of Summit conference; E ................ 481
Southern senators filibuster on civil rights
for Salle “GE TECOrds AG... secs erereraede-sie 218
Temptations to reduce Cuban sugar quota 142
Vote to share U.S. nuclear weapons with
INR ERD, MEIER eE NS lotes, ort ovecsstcemarctinse tearm oid 130
Culture
“Athens, U.S.A.”’; in search of. D. Cort;
Ss 72; see also C, opposite 129
Inept propaganda through ANTA. L.
par REMIT ESS, AERO iet ves avacsscecentt Poetevsscyee 478
Defense, national
Against surprise nuclear attack. J. D.
Singer; .S:. gise:- . 91; see also E, 89;
C, opposite 129; C, opposite 177
Charade of civil defense. S. Meisler; S 507
Civilian shelter program urged by Repre-
sentative Holifield; derided by General
MOY G ate. «cian seen nak dsccanck Rtas coe eade one 306
Economic stakes in high budget 131;
182; E, 197
Extension of aircraft-identification zones
BE VUNG BOM dein. Bhd ore tA rcp ts -<iSeoxos
Jargon of. G. G. Kirstein; § ........ ig
Limited NATO commitment; E ..............
Missile platforms, European and Asian;
AB WOR aia Mine ss Oc ack reas APRA «a 112
Needs may be figured in terms of other
side’s intentions, not capabilities; E ... 111
Never-ending debate on, with ever-in-
creasing expenditures; E. ................. ele
Parlous state bemoaned in_ total-crisis
speech by Senator Fulbright; E ......... 238
Protesters at New York civil-defense
Griihs SEG otc. 415; see also 508
Scramble for missile and spacecraft con-
NURI os ays Povcuans Mentos Reksinernopscale oiiav cca 131
Surprise attack; defense against. J. D.
Siiger: (S) 3; 91; see also E, 89;
C, opposite 129
Training the nuclear warrior. M. Rosh-
ON Sg Sie pert. eich th Rae Ahehsns 287
Defense department
Army chemical corps’ chemical-warfare
campaign; E 73; see also 383
Domination of scientific research; E
“Double agents” in procurement; E
Faults in procurement ........................
Harmony in May among services that
were squabbling over appropriations in
dpatnatys i, cfs aE cathy, ccc. 413
Opposition to underground nuclear-test
Das ie? artis te ae tie 177; 179
Practice of farming out research criti-
cized by Representative H. R. Gross; E 483
Retired officers; business activities of; E 90
Retired officers; indignant books by; E .... 129
Retired officers turned munitions sales.
men; Congressman Hebert’s proposal
to fine and jail defeated; E fee S40,
Services’ poor-mouth act at budget time;
shayiaayodawsianacerte =o 2:81 ORME, tee panne ae
Rear Cen ac ceth RARE. REED AE 1" BD 326
Wall Street Journal’s exposé of waste; E 414
Economics; stock-market boom following
breakup of Summit conference; E .......... 482
Federal aviation agency
Flexible requirements for copilot training 293
Routine in accident investigations .......... 423
Should ground Electras, not reduce speed;
We svtewreces . 307; E, 395
Federal trade commission; cites deceptive
V advertisements; E .............. 90; 162
Finances
Annual budget battle, with armed forces
crying poor-mouth; Eo... 62
Cold-war economy part of drift to World
Wear TEs, 270s) aaa, 28 sees 528
Federal or local taxes for schools? H. W.
ESS ea Si hake. catiatgsy .:i eae ean ae 491
Sale of tickets for court trials Proposed.
Forman; C, opposite 177
Food and drug administration. See United
States—Health, education and welfare
department
Foreign policy
Bipartisan chorus on strong “line”; E... 542
Change vis-a-vis China favored by
SLAW AURIS gilt, 0... Shae ne tae oo ~ 502
“Containment” coming apart at seams; E 522
Fruits of “containment” in Korea. A.
CEOTS ia S teocrcks t...ccot Rene cae 544
Peculiar moral climate shown in reac-
tions to U-2 incident; Boo... 433
Senate’s rush to ratify unpopular security
treatyiwith Japans; Bi oy...0ncel xine: 541
Senator Morse on problems... 309
Health, education and welfare department
Efforts to investigate chemicals used in
food opposed by Eisenhower and food
induptry> is... ebeio sled Bis Reboh.o cha ued 200
Sponsorship of Medicare plan... 466
Justice department eine?
Passion for legality shown in indictment
of teamster official H. J. Gibbons for
collecting political campaign contri-
butions from members; E ..............
Rarely enforces Negro voting rights;
shortcomings of Secretary Rogers’ reg-
istration bill
Special group on organized crime prose-
cuted Apalachin case Rope DseneS has oenerenaniag
Labor department; statistics on changing
work’ force, Nas) Ae Pere ere ae
National aeronautics and space administra-
tion
Appropriation opposed by Representative
lechIer oS ae See teen ee |
Military implications of meteorological
Mapeite eb iras, AVRO mn MER 220. Sai
Should conduct space program ............
Politics; ‘‘political mind” and “literary
aOUe. Gietinders St ase et
See also Presidential election of 1960
Reform; failure of social imagination. J.
Reichley; S 119; see also 164
Social security system; and old-age medical-
Pare plans sees en eee ORs EO RRe NY
State department
Apparent friendliness with Somoza dic-
tatorship in Nicaragua. J. L. Busey; S
Attacked for encompassing Chessman re-
BIEVe dn hs Mes see ee ee
Belated criticism of Rhee’s Korean re-
Re § AEN Ae st se eS ee
Embargo on arms to Caribbean .............
Interest in photos taken by meteorologi-
calmeztellite™Eicosy) Se eee
Supreme court
Refusal to review teamsters’ union-moni-
LOD CRS ar eee ee cs ct kee ee
Rejects AEC Laguna, Michigan, license
Ruling blocked probe of policy racket ....
School desegregation decision flouted in
2 cl a. ae eA al
South just catching up with separate-
but-equal decision of 1896 ................
Universities and colleges. See Education
Uphaus, Willard
Appreciation of N. T. di Giovanni article,
“New Hampshire’s one-man inquisition,”
on ope case; C opposite 305; see also
253
Urbanization; Senator Morse on problems ..
Urey, Harold C.; says AEC scientists not
unanimous on need for nuclear tests; E ....
Uruguay, letter from. V. Bourjaily; §
Vv
Vail, Seymour. See Theatrical Investors, Inc.
Van Doren, Charles; example of tragic enter-
CAIN OP ist sacgosane pied Ae eee, ENS: xWratle.
Verses, “12/31/59,” on 1950's. A. Logan;
C, opposite 1
Vidal, Gore
ongressional candidacy endorsed; E .........
ay The best man reviewed. H. Clurman;
Villabrazo, Adolph
Policemen, Los Angeles, bigoted; C, oppo-
site 197
Villon, Francois;
G. Kinnell; P
Vines, Kenneth N.
Registrars; key to Negro voting; S
.. 71; see also E, 62
Viorst, Milton
A little poison in food; So ooccceccccccccccccecess..
Socialist party not running 1960 candidates;
Ss 510; see also C, opposite 541
translation of ballade by.
Voting
Impotent suburban vote. R. C. Wood; S...
See also Negroes—Civil rights
Ww
WBAT; listener-sponsored radio station; E...
WNTA-TV; Play of the week sponsored by
Standard Oil through viewer response; E_.
Wagner, Mayor Robert F. See New York
city
Wakefield, Dan
“Challenge,” Yale students’ program deal-
ing with crucial issues; S
Civil War centennial; § ................
Eye of the storm: a report from the south
on Negro integration; S ........... 396; see
also E, 393; C, opposite 461; C, oppo-
site 481
Walden pond, Massachusetts; saved from
bulldozers; E
Wall Street Journal; exposé of military
(OP Es cohcnezsisnemenissrinn soul Bo edoat Wil bevataite
Walter, Representative Francis E.; Interest
ma tin to prove Negroes genetically
inferior ........ spowvsbvvessicaeen MAT Ms ta...
PAGE
287
240
492
486
137
164
465
187
199
373
333
488
317
548
116
240
308
394
57
228
. 326
343
190
200
271
43
63
268
95
435
414
420
a nT
;
|
(January-June, 1960)
Index
(Vol. 190)
eee eee ee
PAGE
Walter-McCarran act. See Deportation
Wanner, Paul. See Wonner, P.
War
Biological ;
U.S. Army’s publicity campaign for; E
Reais 373; see also 383; C, opposite
4
Vigil against. C. C. Walker; C, oppo-
site 541
Chemical ,
U.S. army’s publicity campaign for; E
WAR SA 373; see also 383; C, opposite
Cold
To be succeeded by cold peace? E ............
Making it pay; Krupp success story; E ....
Menace of; significance of Lincoln’s Cooper
union address; C, opposite 177
Nuclear
By accident or aggression? C. O. Porter;
Ss 202; see also E, 266; C, oppo-
site 265; C, 277
Could be triggered by fear of surprise
El dutellogad fa D5 tebbetefosch) (Sy preepaceemrerceereee reer
Danger from communist China; E ............
Non-survivability plus; defense jargon.
IG. GS, Retr ste tars trie sascceathsonrnr-p nosed
Shelter, folding. V. L. Hagenstad; C,
opposite 197; see also 131
Surprise nuclear attack; defense against.
TOS Singer gi) a... 91; see also
E, 89; C, opposite 129; C, opposite
Training the nuclear warrior. M. Rosh-
POU ELC le a ee ween ee a erences vcasants eecrgens
Pre-emptive
Semanticsy Olle o Mra cc tsst -csnatenannseuaowspercnentares
Reparations, a payment by Japanese; E ..
Washington, D. C.
Letter from; congress of artists and writers.
S. Meisler; S
National shrine of the Immaculate Concep-
tion. W. McQuade; S
poe report on desegregation since 1954;
Waste, atomic. See Atomic bomb
Water pollution; veto of bill; Eo... ving
Watkins, James T., and M. B. Travis
Time-bomb pine ranamas Si oi05.2..828.03...-
Weaver, William
Letieneisom-Tialys oS) ..5.: 08h Lt
Webb, H. A.
High power rates discourage consumption;
C, opposite 217
Weinberg, Paul S.
Ward heelers on the campus; fraternity
POLMELES 2S ye oeeeceeeree Mav mesese fepver ea bee pease eee eS
Weismiller, Edward
This spring (for Luverne); Pov..c.c..ecceeeeee
Weiss, Paul
Eisenhower’s contributions to jurisprudence;
C, opposite 521
Weiss, T.
As I forget (for David Schubert, 1913-
1946); P
Weissenborn, F. J.
Argentine: mitagess iC. .sciyntenstseerserarn
Werth, Alexander
De Gaulle against the gangsters; Algiers
rising ; :
Dee mysterious relations with army;
Notes on Khrushchev’s Russia; S ......
Russia: From terror to incentive; S .
Summit conference debacle in Paris; §S ......
What after de Gaulle in France? § ............
Wessel, Milton R.; prosecutor in Apalachin
case
West Virginia
Politicians’ comments on prize-winning Na-
tion article “The Appalachian south”
(May 30, 1959); C, opposite 393
See also Presidential election of 1960—
Democratic party
Whelan, Thomas E.; U.S. ambassador to
Nicaragua’s involvement with Somoza dic-
Peatennstinpes com. soot <n cta evs nctese sexe oei es tins uae
Where the man most was. A. Laing; P ........
White, General Thomas D.; air force chief
advocates more missiles; EF o..........::ccccccccreee
White citizens councils; segregationist activi-
ties in Montgomery and Atlanta .......... 396,
White collar class; relative increase in work
force; skilled workers aligning with ............
White House conference on children and
youth; lesson for young; E .........0...
White Ruthenia; mythical captive nation; E
Whitehill, Joseph
Boat-show circus; § ............ 52; see also C,
opposite 109
Wild river. Reviewed by R. Hatch; MP ........
Williams, Governor G. Mennen, of Michigan
Meace pia (cite de we: ccissaseiusy ss sisviedes tari
Praise for February 6 editorial on politics
of peace; prerequisites cited; C, opposite
285; see also 109
542
21
91
395
203
287
413
22
456
498
327
198
378
260
489
407
187
304
482
403
245
326
347
520
177
PAGE
Williams, Tennessee; film of play Suddenly,
last summer, reviewed by R. Hatch; MP ....
Winston, Henry; appeal for medical parole
for communist leader. H. Kreiber; C, oppo-
site 265
Winter Olympic games. R. Meister; S. .......... 138
Witch hunt. See Loyalty
Witkin, Richard; New York Times articles
OMM SPACE PLOJECts” Oates weatencccssmaneteaeemereger soe 131
Wolfert, Ira
Monster in the mine; increased production
by use of machines, and accidents; life
of the miners and their families; S ..... 3
Wolff, Jesse D.
Same old Germans; § ............ 225; see also
C, opposite 345
Wolfsohn, Venlo
Comment on article Diplomas for sale (Na-
tion, December 26, 1959); C, opposite 89
Wolfson, Erwin S.; financier of Grand Cen-
tral City - Oe ee eer: bea asp tet nmerereeeeneent 104
Wolfson, Irving
Credits ‘‘The shame of New York’ (Na-
tion, October 31, 1959) for reform vic-
tories in New York Democratic pri-
maries; C, opposite 521
Women’s international league for peace and
freedom
Jane Addams’ league. M. S. Olmsted; C ... 460
Wonner, Paul; name misspelled in December
19, 1959, issue. F. Landau; C, opposite 61
Wood, Robert C.
Impotent suburban vote; S o....ceeceeceeeceee 271
Writers
Comic, for TV; cynicism of ................- pe 229.
In residence on U.S. campuses .. = 444
Inferiority complex in U.S.S.R. .. 147
Material welfare of masses not central
LEC a retrace er ete eer eee . 165
heres D. C., congress of. S. Meisler;
Food surplus for needy of America; (i
opposite 1
Wyman, Louis C.
Conduct of Uphaus case criticized by de-
fendant; C, opposite 305
New Hampshire attorney general’s inqui-
sition onicivil- liberties in... ceycsmriecce> 253
Mi
Yachting. See Boat-show circus
Yaffe, James; play The deadly game reviewed.
Hi larmianteh Dee eee wcsctaccn ee conten cttcaess 194
Yale university. See ‘Challenge’
Young presidents organization; the young
tycoons. BM... Ross; Saaie. 3: 330; see also
C, opposite 373
Zaturenska, Marya
Cascades and. fountatngs P. ......:ccccsscsecsseaeeteces 38
Ziegler, Edward W.
Vista of the ’60s: Titans, old folks, and
feeble clerke 71S» weitere. eavitoeteveevleek 242
Ziferstein, Isadore, M.D.
Praise for March 26 Chessman editorial;
says Governor Brown could commute
peared C, opposite 325; see also E,
Zitner, Sheldon P.
Fail safe; P th isxeseteystoe , 176
Zoo story, the. Reviewed by H. Clurman; D 153
BOOK REVIEWS
Books are indexed under author and title
and in some cases under subject.
_ The following explanatory letters are used
in the index:
B Book review
R_ Reviewer
A
Aaron, Daniel, and A. Kazin (editors)
Emerson: A modern anthology; B
Adams, J. Donald
Copey of Harvard: A biography of Charles
Townsend Copeland; 4
Adventurous alliance: The story of the
Agassiz family of Boston. L. H. Tharp; B 102
Advertisements for myself. N. Mailer; ee
ait 13; see also letter by Mailer, oppo-
site 89
Affair, the) \C, P. Stow Biih...cchiticsdnein, 554
caenee family of Boston; story of. L. H.
herp; B shes. Ninete A rivovcchihdced Tait crt e6 102
PAGE
Age of the democratic revolution, the; A politi-
cal history of Europe and America, 176v-
1800. Vol. I: “The challenge.” R. R.
Palmers! Beir ccc se cee nancneeetta ete 191
Algren, Nelson
Novel The man with the golden arm in
literature of drug addiction; B ................. 361
Algren, Nelsons) Rein cescep--ntar+ssacestsetenee-ecssbeeceuian 192
Allen, Jerry
Thunder and the sunshine (Conrad biog-
raphy.)s; UB: «cisdgstavsreetinche, che rataesenorenrataaaes 386
American teaching about Russia. Edited by
C. E. Black and J. N. Thompson; B ............ 173
Amis, Kingsley
New maps of hell. A survey of science fic-
Hone Ne oe 257
Anderson, Joseph, and D. Richie
Japanese film, the. R. Hatch; MP. ................ 284
Andreas, Osborn ;
Joseph Conrad: A study in non-conformity ;
Be ccctabene s 386
Andrews, William G.; 535
Annotated Alice, the (Lewis Carroll). Martin
Gardner, editors) Bi 2..c..sczcacaune-son stereo aes 556
Ansen, Alan
Article in Big Table 2 in literature of drug
addiction; B 361
Apostolides, Alex
Objections to D. R. Cressey review of Thief
in the white collar; letter, opposite 481;
see also 388
Appleman, Philip (editor)
1859: Entering an age of crisis (with W.
A. Madden and M. Wolff); B .............05 148
Aron, Raymond
France: The new republic; B ..............
Artist, responsibility of the. J. Maritain; B 150
As I lay dying. W. Faulkner; existentialist
Humor ‘ing By cece. sac esses ece-s03t- apa spenage en rappnen 348
Asa Gray: 1810-1888. A. H. Dupree; B ........ 102
Auchinloss, Louis
Article A strategy for James readers ........ 364
(Auchinloss,, Lois RR cscovccseqivce-conooesntsuosenetentamanns 364
Auerbach, M. Morton
The conservative illusion; B ................0 211
Baines, Jocelyn
Joseph Conrad; B
Baro, Gene;
Beals, Carleton; R
Beaton, Cecil
Japanese; B ....es.sssssssscssssscnsesenqesegretgreennsracngencs
Beckett, Samuel; novels discussed in J. H.
Miller article on French criticism of “Je
NOUVEAU TOMAN 5 B ...reccseeceeecereerareaeen icp OG
Bellamy, Edward; the year 2000. A critical
biography of Bellamy. S. E. Bowman; B .... 37
Bendix, Reinhard
Max Weber: An intellectual portrait; B.... 516
Berman, Harold Jig Ro toncce--.secsececsenrsnersscsengsnnes 318
Bibby, Cyril
T. H. Huxley: Scientist, humanist and edu-
Cators) Bo ,.tivcsectosttcsscecosverstertonsseuspastunas @ngneAs 406
Black, Cyril E., and J. M. Thompson (edi-
tors)
American teaching about Russia; B .......... 173
Black, Hillel, and N. Jaspan
Thief in the white collar, the; B ............
388; see also letter, opposite 481
Bowdlerizing; publishers’ right questioned. P.
Lauter; C, opposite 237
Bowles, Paul
Article “Burroughs in Tangier” in litera-
ture of drug addiction; B ......ccccceeeee 361
Bowman, Sylvia E.
Year 2000, the; A critical biography of
Edward Bellamy : B .........ccoesesccoescsceqeneenes 37
Boyd Orr, Lord, and P. Townsend
What's happening in China?; Bo... 83
Brecher, Michael
Nehru: A political ae Spe Ee Maisie ; oo
Bridge of the brocade sash, the. S. Sitwell; B 278
Bright, ‘JOH Re eiccsssnsaneesccaunsueteenrsagstcsianesenpagbase 36
Brinnin, John Malcolm
Third rose, the: Gertrude Stein and her
mold: B.. ssicciaieiasme aaa eee 320
Bronowski, J., and B. Mazlish
The western intellectual tradition: From
Leonardo £0 Flegels Bo .cn.ccssccszescspascorpetaness 534
Brown, John; novel The surveyor, by T. Nel-
son, based on life Of: B ......ssssssrereeneseensnees 341
Buckley, William F., Jr.
Up from liberalism; B ........... irene
Burnette, O. Lawrence, Jr., and W, C. Hay-
good (editors)
Soviet view of the American past, a; B. 173
Burroughs, William S. P
Writings in literature of drug addiction; B 361
Butor, ichel; novels discussed in J. ;
Miller article on French criticism on “le
HOWE FOMAN! | B vccsrsseseressesnone ISL
211
(Vol. 190)
Index
(January-June, 1960)
PAGE
Cc
Ma BOOKA A. Troceltts B iccccesesssssesanesonepsieree 361
California winter sports and the 1960
VIIIth winter Olympics. J. E. Carpen-
Eee Medes rsxmsaidrara seraxvet<tenenmered i022 151
Canada, contemporary. M. Chapin; B ............ 122
Carpenter, J. E.
California winter sports and the 1960
VIIIth winter Olympics; B..................... 151
Carroll, Lewis :
The annotated Alice. Martin Gardner, edi-
BE SE bree h Mitr ra aaiestesslls vecannetsendyye <n 556
NOTES, ER se tfessteevestcivaverssedusvrocbes oveteberott 556
Carruth, Hayden
Crow and the heart, the; B .0.......0.....0..00 85
Casebook of Ezra Pound, a. Edited by W.
V. O’Connor and Edward Stone; B
368
280
| Chandler, Raymond; article on by G. P.
ESEL< scthassctes sexe Sa Tai tary iriversaserektdepsscrcvtersyeres 354
Chapin, Miriam
Gontemporary Canada; B ............:....cccccccue 122
RS RRS OR O05 BS cc. ssiscesscsvassiessscve-nollcs 83
Clark, Gerald
Impatient giant: red China today; B ............ 83
Clea. L. Durrell; B ...... Saath. AT 493
Clemens, Samuel L. See Mark Twain
MEET GEIL, Pe .)s.cvvcassevenssectunstesscvelsveceststees (454
_ Conrad the novelist. A. J. Guerard; B .....
Conrad, Joseph
Ten biographies of and monographs on; B
Conservative illusion, the. M. M. Auerbach;
B
MEP E TAD -...5..c hes
Contemporary Canada. M. Chapin; B ..
ESN LETS EDM poo ceyicsac-cecesesetielois shoes dt laseesett
Cooper, Clarence L., Jr.
Novel The scene in literature of drug addic-
NTN EHV 3505 cc8Ts 5 spas used igapvtucaseecteevtoiees
Copey of Harvard: A biography of Charles
Townsend Copeland. J. Donald Adams; B....
Cort, David; R eres. at. ate
Crankshaw, Edward. Khrushchev’s Russia; B
Cressey, Donald R.
ae _ 388; see also letter, opposite 481
Criticism, French, on “le nouveau roman’;
361
494
340
318
meee pee, Gy Miller 3.500, kek 351
Croft-Cooke, Rupert
Through Spain with Don Quixote; B ........ 125
Crow and the heart, the. H. Carruth; B ....... 85
Curle, Richard
Joseph Conrad and his characters; B ........ 386
Curzon, Lord. The glorious fault: The life
of Lord Curzon. L. Mosley; B ..........0......... 475
D
Dale, Edwin L., Jr.
Conservatives in power; A study in frus-
RPUEACTIE IESPYICD Ks AdcS cictScs..v.cceddasselhs. deacsapadte 211
Manwerfield, George; R ..............-...:--sceescadvivedeess 148
Dash, Samuel, R. E. Knowlton, and R. F.
Schwartz
Mbe Gavesdroppers; B_ oiic.csctsct..cccssscccceecsesdsaves 54
Davies, Horton
Mirror of the ministry in modern novels, F
Pi eneate net hinniiankno-~ sta oss ane eae ae ka Me nhck dnceeM ty 170
Book Fuzz against junk in literature of
Giese aaciction si B .<1..:.cuktelh.chdd. 361
DeMott, Benjamin; R ..................... 299, 455, 494
Detective novels of R. Chandler evaluated .... 354
Deutsch, Karl W., and L. J. Edinger
__ Germany rejoins the powers; Boo... 56
Discovery of India, the. J. Nehru; B .. Wi93
Dobzhansky, Th. and B. Wallace
Radiation, genes, and man; B ........0...0..000--.. 84
Donohue, John W., S. J.
Work and education: The role of technical
culture in some distinctive theories of
L HimnanisnseeB ee. Yl. ees: 536
Reet Carl es 5 OE: ee Pa cond 54
Drug addiction; M. Klein article on literature :
US, Laisa Aes 2 ee ee ee ee ee ee 361
Dubois, Jules :
Freedom is my beat; B .........:leccscsssccseseccssesase 103
Duchamp, Marcel; biography. R. Lebel; B .... 123
Due, John F., and G. W. Hilton
The electric interurban railways in Amer-
Meet She Sho ccicere seas panne nro eecesksiec ane 455
Duncan, David Douglas
; eo Rremlt Bcc, Akt eens 476
Dunham, H. Warren
Sociological theory & mental disorder; B.... 280
D upree, A. Hunter
_ Asa Gray: TSO-1S88 Af ...s...eesian, he 102
Duras Marguerite; novels discussed in J. H.
“Miller article on French criticism of “Je
Nouveat roman” » Bo ooccrcccccccscccceccssecsecssesoses 351
PAGE
Durrell. Lawrence
Clea; sssesashosecasecnstcasecsnnsonnsenecsuncannennesqnessneesanees 493
Dirrenmatt, Friedrich; Comedy of despair.
Article by Hi Ms Waidson: ..)..:0i13..6......0060 34
E
Early lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the.
Vol 1 (1833-1836). Edited by S. Whicher
ESIC Rete Pa LEO EN Wap cracvcnie sesvientopainp dhe seasaanes 232
Eavesdroppers, the. S. Dash, R. E. Knowlton,
ANG Me Mi CO WALES 5 Bia ieuirs co rsxcbtartseee-Loncacepe 54
Ed Wynn's son. Keenan Wynn autobiography 229
Eden, Sir Anthony ‘
Full circle. The memoirs of Sir Anthony
ESTED onss cc ivencttend «eevee» abs cede cnaces 230
Edge of the sword, the. C. de Gaulle. Trans-
lated by G. Hopkins; B .............. ia 535
Edinger, Lewis J., and K. W. Deutsch
Germany rejoins the powers; B .................. 56
1859: Entering an age of crisis. Edited by P.
Appleman, W. A. Madden, and M. Wolff; ae
B i. «cud reenact es PND Pikes Sites say <citaes reeten cusses es
Electric interurban railways in America, the.
G. W:. Bilton and J. Fo Due; Bi incicsss.. 455
Elliott, George P.; article on Raymond
Chandler _.... . 354
Elliott, George 354
Embezzlement
Thief in the white collar, the. N. Jaspan
wath Hi Blacks. Bf. scu.. 88; see also
letter, opposite 481
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Early lectures of.
Edited by S. Whicher and R. Spiller; B... 232
Emerson: A modern anthology. Edited by A.
Useisith Ati Wie Parar: ES ic piccvevescxultsvesssk &. 232
Emery, Clark. Ideas into action: A study of
are Se Canta ESL) y.,. fests theron desserts tent sacetoaee 368
End of empire, the. J. Strachey; B ................ 210
Epidemic of genius, an. Ira Wolfert; excerpt,
Monster in the mine; So... ccccccccecscesece 3
Existentialism; humor of discussed in T.
Southern article Dark laughter in the
GOWEES: eteis scorn Bilacs tol ard octees aneavennanaah>..vo 348
F
Faulkner, William
Existentialist humor in As I lay dying; B 348
Fifth republic,
system. N. Wahl;
Flamm, Irving H.; R ...
Foster, Charles H.; R
the: France’s new political
France. Fifth republic, :
political system. N. Wahl; B ow. 258
France: The new republic. R. Aron; B ........ 258
France, troubled ally. S. Furniss, Jr.; B ...... 258
Beaser, (Rassell” Ate Ry aaney i
Free fall. W. Golding; B .................
Freedom is my beat. J. Dubois; B
French criticism of “Je nouveau roman’;
article by J. H. Miller; B
Furniss, Edgar S., Jr.
France, troubled ally B s.ccccscosessescsecevecececoxx
Fuzz against junk. A. del Piombo; B ..
G
Gaulle, Charles de
Edge of the sword, the. Translated by G.
EOD tris 1s) bene nee... eee, Seaton 535
Era of; three on contemporary
ie (et So tl 3 Jae eke eR oo eet A 258
War memoirs of: Vol. III: Salvation,
1944-1946. Translated by R. Howard; B
Gayn, Mark; R
Gazzo, Michael
Play A hatful of rain
drug addiction;
Gelber, Jack
Play The connection in literature of drug
535
122
in literature of
361
AOdichrar Shs cot... een ee ee 361
Galler, David
‘Walls and) distances suB: -.. ee on ee, 85
Genetics; Radiation, genes, and man. B.
Wallace and Th. Dobzhansky; B ................ 84
Germany, the mind of. H. Kohn; B ........ 537
ermany rejoins the powers. K. W. Deutsch
and L. J. Edinger; B
Gibbon, Monk
The masterpiece and the man: Yeats
knew him; B ;
Gibson, Walker; a
56
85
Lord Cu ;
L, -Mosl€y.;-B64..../.2..00 4 oe. : oH 475
God’s image and man’s imagination. E.
Hareisgh hi. Ree. ee 70
Gold, Herbert
ovel The man who was not with it in
literature of drug addiction; B .
PAGE
Golding, William
Books discussed by M. Green; B ................ 451
Goelks RY GNSitermn sdBietinne fetes. cc 407
Goodell, Francis Y.
Comment on R. P. Wolff review of Max
Weber: an intellectual portrait; letter,
553; see also 516
Graduate school and the decline of liberal
education, the. E. J. McGrath; B ................ 389
Grams Ke Gainries (Bi oe eeee 8a 85
Gray, Asa: 1810-1888. A. H. Dupree; B ...... 102
Green, Jack
Article Peyote in literature of drug ad-
CEL CELI S iiscch cgi sssn coc ceace ELAR el 361
Green, Martin
Article on novelist W. Golding 2.0.0.0... 451
Green, Martins RR -.o.cc..<8hcaevatsiee . 451
Greenaway, Frank; R 406
Greene, David H., and E. M. Stephens
Jee NE. Synge, 1871-1909> BR ..csesseresesns 171
Greetie, “Theodore: Mt Re oo... cccreeeeeses, 555
Gregory, Horace; translator of Ovid’s Meta-
morphoses; B .......
Gregory, Horace; R ..
Gross, Ronald; R
Guérard, Albert J.
Conradiuithe novelist’ B) cnccsececsveece.ecsceveneecs 386
Guthrie, Ramon
Corr yee Breen «ses eee Rea eR aOR oe 85
Guthries Ration Re ts dumees.boiskiccth kien 538
Greene, David H., and E. M. Stephen
eM oydge> 18711909s Be, ae 171
Guttmacher, Manfred S.
The mind of the murderer; B .................... 427
H
Hammett, Dashiell; detective novels compared
with Raymond Chandler’s ........ccccccccccececescecses 354
Harris, Erdman
God’s image and man’s imagination; B .... 170
Hatch qRobertsah, set0),.1 365... 4°s.tree. Ses 257
Hatful of rain, a. M. Gazzo; Booeeececcsecesecsscss... 361
Haugh, Robert F.
Joseph Conrad: Discovery in design; B .... 386
aygood, William Converse, and O. L. Bur-
nette, Jr. (editors)
Soviet view of the American past, a; B .... 173
Hearing before judiciary committee of the
Massachusetts legislature on the Sacco-
Mearizechioasett is tc ae. Seren memes ieee 454
Hilton, George W., and J. F. Due
The electric interurban railways in Amer-
Cd reader ek ee ee 455
orsford, Howard Cor he... enn 426
Hoskins, Katherine
Outinetie: open Bares ee eee 85
Howells, William Dean
Mark Twain-Howells letters, 1872-1910.
Edited by H. N. Smith and W. M. Gib-
SO BY eae a tee nee ea ee 426
Human nature and the human condition. J.
Wieirdtcn eee, 00 Sinan anetck 81
Huxley, T. H.: Scientist, humanist and edu-
Catone, Bibby sib one: 5 0. Meee rs 406
I
Ideas into action: A study of Pound’s cantos.
MOE Fo IS ithe vipssaes he. ee Pesala eas Ee 368
J
J. M. Synge 1871-1909. D. H. Greene and
i. Mo Stephene, By jisti.c.sctha eee enn 171
James, Henry
Strategy for readers of; article by L.
Auchinloss....#-ayaudek..iAl-..acuneed.de 364
Japan; four books on; B .. i
Japanese. C. Beaton; Bo ooceccccccccccccccccc, <i
Japanese film, the. J. Anderson and D. Richie.
. Hatch; MP
Jaspan, Norman, with H. Black
Thief in the white collar, the; B
388; see also letter, opposite 481
a A ia
ea dreamer: definiti bi h: f
Joseph Conrad; B oo ges egg
Johnston, Denis
In search of Swift; B
oseph Conrad. J. Baines; B
oseph Conrad: Discovery in design. R.
BUR aR eco ce crear evevecsys vss esol 386
Joseph Conrad: A study in non-conformity. O.
Andreas; B
(January-June, 1960)
Index
(Vol. 190)
PAGE
K
Kafka, Franz; existentialist humor of; B .... 348
Kaufman, Arnold Sic RR iscssssecscstetscoteeteuerunaent 496
Kazin, Alfred, and D. Aaron (editors)
Emerson: A modern anthology; B .............. 232
Keene, Donald
DAVIN. aOAUS Ueicccactscn asst tahsrata enarreneraace: 278
Khrushchev’s Russia. E. Crankshaw; B ........ 318
Klein, Marcus
Article A fix in the igloo, on literature of
drug addiction
Wiein, larcuss RR: 5.0. .ccc-ac:
Knowlton, Robert E., S. Dash, and R. F.
Schwartz
The eavesdroppérss Bi a.isesscssssatoce-casterseeecanntes 54
Ko, or a season on earth. K. Koch; B ............. 233
Koch, Kenneth
Ko; sora season ON Gagtine ss. eaeeetiresns 233
Kohn, Hans
The mind’ of Germanys) Werte: iapetterecnacs-
Kremlin, the. D. D. Duncan; B
Krutch, Joseph Wood
Human nature and the human condition; B_ 81
L
La Guardia, a fighter against his times,
1882-1933) PA sMarins By er cress oerccss seas 149
La Guardia in congress. H. Zinn; B ................ 149
Lakin, R. D.
Praise for G. Vidal review of Advertise-
ments for myself, by Mailer; letter, op-
posite 129; see also 13
Laughter; T. Southern article Dark laughter
in the towers, on existentialist humor ........ 348
Lauter, Paul
Finds publisher bowdlerized C. Rochefort
novel Warrior’s rest; letter, opposite 237
Lebel, Robert
Marcel! Duchamp Bs oc iie-sccjioz steed doeeeatee 123
Lee, William. See Burroughs, William S.
Leighton, Alexander H.
My name is legion: Foundations for a
theory of man in relation to culture; B. 280
Letters (of J. Conrad) to William Black-
wood and David S. Meldrum. Edited by
Musepack bitin. VB To), ascs ps ierse-nastnepecerye noo 386
Liberalism, up from. W. F. Buckley, Jr.; B 211
Lindsay, Vachel; defense of his poetry. C.
G. Hamilton; letter, opposite 21
Lipset, Seymour
POlitiea lamas: BY 52. 2;,.9 so. seyteensrays kee nent 496
LtvingiJapan, ID. Keenes! Boi ho) cna cies 278
Lohf, Kenneth A., and E. P. Sheehy
Joseph Conrad at mid-century: Editions
andestudies 1895-1955! Bl oot aecscerscecsaes 386
Lord of the flies, the. W. Golding; R ............ 451
Lore and language of schoolchildren, the.
te andes Opie eRe oe Se. peep testtens 321
M
Magic Christian, the. T. Southern; B .......... 192
Magnuson, Paul B.
Ring the night bell. The autobiography of
A MAMESEC OM, PISA. Bet etd odectenie ne 301
NEA OTIC niDLE DIEM S: (Eee reas /cossticae ci cragveegestoeiitsaaeiere 151
Mailer, Norman
Advertisements for myselfs Brit). isis
see also correction, 60; and letter by
Mailer, opposite 89
Man who was not with it, the. H. Gold; B 361
Man with the golden arm, "the. N. Algren; B 361
Mann, Arthur
La Guardia, a fighter against his times,
USS2-LOS Sis Dv mattericttar nyse eteasas 149
Maraini, Fosco
Meeting with Japan’ Bi w2.:..:.)csccsescessossecsouees 278
Marcel Duchamp. R. aoe Besos 123
Maritain, Jacques
The responsibility of the artist; B .............. 150
Mark Twain-Howells letters: The correspond-
ence of Samuel L. Clemens and William D.
Howells, 1872-1910. Edited by H. N.
Smith and W. M. Gibson; B ................ 426
Martin, Jasmies’'Stewarts! R18 Av cevcnsseae 56
Marty, Martin E.
The new shape of American religion; B.... 339
Masterpiece are the man, the. Yeats as I
knew him. Gabbon) Bs. eee 190
Matthews, T. %
Name and address: An autobiography ; B.... 340
Max Nee An intellectual portrait. R.
Bendix; Bs... 516; see also letter, Pe
Mayor,’ Ar ibyatty Re ee As... . 476
Mazlish, Bruce; ithe ok ae 191
Mazlish, Bruce, and J. Bronowski
The western intellectual tradition: From
Leonardo to Hegel; B ................ Sate saZayles tan 534
PAGE
McGrath, Earl J.
Graduate school and the decline of liberal
education, the;
Medicine, on the history of. H. E. Sigerist.
Edited by F. Marti-Ibanez, M.D.; B......... 474
Medicine, on the sociology of. H. E. Sigerist.
Edited by M. I. Roemer; B w. 474
Meeting with Japan. F. Maraini; B . #
Mercier” Vivian si occ tiucess cares ancora
Metamorphoses, the. Ovid. Translated by H.
Gregory;
Mexican Americans; review by J. Bright of
Pocho, by J. A. Villareal;
Miller, an Hillis; article “The anonymous
walkers,” on French criticism of “le nou-
veau roman”
Mind of Germany, the. H. ‘Kohn; B
Miner, Earl;
Mirror of the ministry in modern novels. H.
Davies;
Moser, Thomas; RZ,
Moser, Thomas
Jessep Conrad: achievement and decline;
The pleasure of creative surprise; article
on ten J. Conrad biographies and mono-
graphs: Ses 1 RY. Aes sle-trttce tarteereataret ne 386
Mosley, Leonard
The glorious fault: The life of Lord
Curzon? “Bi siiie: Baten too ee 475
Mosse, George Te SOR) See 537
Murder; two books on; B 427
My adventures as an illustrator. N. Rock-
well, as told to T. Rockwell; B .................... 299
My name is legion: Foundations for a theory
of man in relation to culture. A. H. Leigh-
tone! VB SA ey So esa eee saccs cette 280
Name and address: An autobiography. T. S.
Matthews Bienes ao Bere nec et isiensnasroaeeien 340
Nation, The, contributors; books by "367
Nehru, Jawaharlal
The discovery of India; B ...........:sc000000 193
Nehru: A political biography. M. Brecher; B 555
Nelson, Truman
The ‘satveyans JB 705 etal cet eetinis en eh la tea eaeeee 341
New maps of oe A survey of science fiction.
K. Amis; B 257
ver professors, “the. Edited ‘by, ROO! “Bowen;
Sregiatecsnehecekrkty decane Meme ctr awoeyeresrcumeeerraersere 497
New shape of American religion, the. M. E.
Whatye> WB. ccc ctecste ae aree renee chacea ener stoes 339
Norton David Li; Rotter ee 232
oO
Ol@onnor? (Franc: Revere ee ee 190
Opie, Iona and Peter. Lore and language of
schoolcliidren, ‘the’ 5. Hii... spremscstenscssaestgeaseurs 321
Ovt in the open. K. Hoskins; B ...............:000 85
Ovid
The Metamorphoses. Translated by H.
Gregory; iD *,....cehonpartne cee eres care 35
P
Palmer, R. R.
The age of the democratic revolution. A
political history of Europe and America,
1760-1800. Vol. I: “The challenge”; B 191
Palmer, Stuart
A study of murder; B
Paperbacks; reviewed by R. M. Wallace 193, 341
Pincher Martin. W. Golding; B
Bocho:; J’. A. Villarealge iB) <..s.0.c.scsttssspsicanete 36
Poem itself, the. Edited by S. Burnshaw; B 538
Poetry; what’s right with it. Article by W.
KGIDSOR sbaacendcrs ie acversioPtenei ot fiete ee 85
Political man: (S. Lipsitse 8 :.......meauere 496
Pound, Ezra
Thrones: 96- 109 de los cantares; B ............. 368
Two books on; B
Preston, Charles (ed.)
World of the Wall Street Journal, the; B 16
i eeteavors, the new. Edited by R. O. Bowen;
Siea hes Sigiipesas innenocsk cg Eee Tea acca ee 497
Publishers of books, and publishing
Right to bowdlerize deprecated. P. Lauter;
C, opposite 237
R
Radiation, genes, and man. B. Wall
THD ODZRAM SKY: § (ESF ccavesoy}spszvyiyesde ‘ ae pee 84
Randall, Francis B.; R . ank73
Reagan, SECT) (0 bE a a a 211
Religion, new shape of American. M. E.
Marty 5 8 Si ccertegsaricd ssn Panay eas patented duss eons sie
150
Rexroth, Kenneth; R P 150, 233)" 321, 493
Richie, Donald; Raciessl ee Wa sArairoess! ee 278
Richie, Donald, and J. Anderson
Japanese film, the. R. Hatch: MP’ 2... 284
Ring the night bell. The autobiography of a
surgeon. P. B. Magnuson; B 3
Robbe-Grillet, Alain; novels discussed in J.
Miller article on French criticism of
“le nouveau roman” ; Bo occccsccerscereescteeeee 351
Rochefort, Christine; publisher bowdlerized
English translation of novel Warrior’s rest.
P. Lauter letter, opposite 237
Rockwell, Norman
My adventures as an illustrator. As told
to Thomas Rockwell; B ou... eee 299
Rolph}. CA-Bis Re ccccctseeee ee eee ee 427
Rosenthal, M. L.
Article on pleasures of Ezra Pound .......... 368
Roserthalys Muss) Roy... tise th ss Aeeene 35, 368, 515
Rostow, W.
The stages of economic growth: A non-
Communist manifesto; B o............-:eceeeeeeeees 514
Ss
Sacco-Vanzetti case; hearing before judiciary
somatiee of the Massachusetts legislature
TB svccascenstcnsceacovas Sits nebo antares eee eee 454
Salvation, 1944-1946: Vol. III of war mem-
oirs of C. de Gaulle. Translated by R.
ET OWards UB) cases ieceyesceouce ee ep nae eee 535
Sarraute, Nathalie; novels discussed in J. H.
Miller article on French criticism of “le
NOUVEAU TOMAN? | B_ .......cccecccesscesecseseescseraees 351k
Scene, the. C. L. Cooper, ae aro SOR
Schwartz, Benjamin, 15; (RK p5sig-dseuscc-tem 83
Schwartz, Delmore
Summer knowledge: New and _ selected
poems S19SB-195 Bi WB cs aecese--cse5-: aera 515
Schwartz, Richard F, S. Dash, and R. E.
Knowlton
The Eavesdroppers; B......
Science fiction bibliography;
Scott, Winifred Townley
Scrimshaw;
Scrimshaw. Winifred Townley Scott; B ........ 85
Sea dreamer: A definitive biography of Joseph
Conrad. G. Jean-Aubry; B
Sears, Paul: Bi tpBii cic
Self-made man, the. Reed Whittemore; B .... 85
Sheehy, Eugene P., and K. A. Lohf
Joseph Conrad at mid- century: Editions and
studies 1895- aes Ae ee ee re 386
Shepard) ‘Odell: Ro .n.:.:0:--.--1-.amnetange eens 102
Sigerist, Henry 5
On the history of medicine. Edited by F.
Marti-Ibanez, M.D.3 Bo vccccccsccscsessessseeeteces 474
On the sociology of medicine. Edited by M.
Ly Roemer |B: + scassastareveaveys<cpitebs. detnse secs 474
Silver, George A.; Rice thi Sieben 301, 474
Simon, Claude; novels discussed in J, ‘
Miller article on French criticism of “‘le
NOUVEAU TOMAN 5 B q..ccccccesecerecerssereseesenssveas 351
Sitwell, Sacheverell
The bridge of the brocade sash; B .............. 278
Snow, C. P., and the realistic novel. Article
by By! Miner: 1B. 4.0. 2eeee.. ft ee eee 554
Sociological theory & mental disorder. H. W.
Dunham's. B. ssvsvocrivcssucrscotostageoteeeename den coher 280
Southern, Terry
Article Dark laughter in the towers, on
existentialist humor .[1..c0tui. wenn 348
Article Red-dirt marihuana in literature
of drug gddictions: Briniss...cil.. dee 361
The magic Christian; B ... a 192
Southern, Terry; b : Tc ee 344, 407
Soviet view of the American past, a. Edited
by O. L. Burnette, Jr., and W. C. Hay-
good; B 173
Spain, Through Spain. ‘with Don Quixote, by
R. Croft-Cooke; B
Spillane, Mickey; detective novels compared
with Raymond Chandler’s ....0..0.00 000 ce 354
Spiller, Robert, and S. Whicher (editors)
Early lectures of Ralph va Emerson,
the. Vol. 1 (1833-1836); B 232
Spring books issue of The Nation, “April” 23
Stages of economic growth, the: A non-Com-
munist manifesto. W. W. Rostow; B .......... 514
Stallknecht, Newton P.; R_.......... af . 534
Stature of man, the. C. Wilson; Biskinibla 339
Stein, Gertrude. Third meee the: Gertrude
Stein and her world. J. M. Brinnin; B ...... 320
Steiner, Georges Re hiicd Rl “2 eRe 230
Stephens, Edward M., and D. H. Greene
J. M,. Synge. 18706180997 Bit. Lists. ecrs.tidiinns 171
Stern, Richard G.
Gols” (Bon ti Reet arts seeps usd eee 407
Stevenson, William
The yellow wiry ..ciccsscsoredesonceuhversversen oes 83
Stolle,’ Jere: Ri iiiiehersiveae Atheletes 125
Strachey, John
The end of empires Bo... wtteeld.sscdies itt 210
Study of murder a. S, Palmer; Bo. o.oo 427
Summer gi. New and selected poems
1938-1958, Rchwatte; Bo iainiaiuih 515
Surveyor, a T, Nelson; Boo... wh MnMint SAL
(Vol. 190)
PAGE
Swift, Jonathan. In search of Swift. D. John-
i van poecanenengeuviovnarccuusyitortsnans twetuivs 298
ose J. M., 1871-1909; moanahe. D. EE
Greene and E. M. Stephens; B .................. 171
Szulc, Tad
Twilight of the tyrants; B ..............cce 103
T
T. H. Huxley: Scientist, humanist and edu-
cator. C. Bibby. Forewords by J. and A.
Tet Fae csodvinersovorsovsesvaavetaneeesos 406
Textbooks; ‘“‘payola’’ in. H. Leader; C, oppo-
site 21
Tharp, Louise Hall
Adventurous alliance: The story of the
Agassiz family of Boston; B .................... 102
Third rose, the: Gertrude Stein and
PEM EB oo vccissncccterarcescacaserxssvesrenssvevone 320
Thompson, John M., and C. E. Black (edi-
tors)
American teaching about Russia; B
Thornton, A.
Through Spain with D
Cooke; . 2
Thunder and th alist SDE S GED. Sap a0ce 386
Time, Inc. ae of Name and address:
An autobiography. T. S. Matthews; B ...... 340
Tolley, William P.; Aca hie Sah Ser eee 389
Townsend, Peter, and Lord Boyd Orr
What's ‘happening BXE MOMEIOE SED copccatvesensesess 83
Trocchi, Alexander; novel Cain’s book in
literature of drug addiction; B ............0... 361
Twilight of the tyrants. T. Szulc; B .............. 103
Two curtuses and the scientific revolution,
SUEUR EMESTIO WTS ED i, resenvisavsisceapocesaceaasibexesseese 554
THE NATION COMPANY
Index
U
Up from liberalism. W. F. Buckley, Jr.; B 211
PAGE
Valiatitars, Gabriele at oo... sce cssssccdsvonterpeteves: 170, 339
Vidal, Gore; R ............ 13; see also correction,
60; and letter by N. Mailer, opposite 89;
C, opposite 129
Villareal, José Antonio
OREO ER, Schecshv i OM dL vee val Veceh ca uhuesactbmassetcs 36
Wahl, Nicholas
The fifth republic: France’s new political
MTIRMEIIRO EN 2c Portia 9. Roca Cts cass cdsutes ca cipscaveve 258
Waidson, H. M.; article on Dirrenmatt:
RS VEE | CMDR EN, (icth cs << sutenscoveayonteceechr eta edzo 34
Wallace, Bruce, and Th. Dobzhansky; Radi-
ation, Wenes, did mans Bo... ceecticcetoemea 84
Wallace, Robert M.
Reviews of paperbacks ............ ; 341
Walls and distances. D. Galler; 85
Wall Street Journal, world of. Edite
RR MPMNRRR ES OER eget sco eve « Moment Pandccvascmcxbaain res ue db ei'ek 16
War memoirs of Charles de Gaulle: Vol. III:
Salvation, 1944-1946. Translated by R.
TRRTOP AEA SE Sete, oo ire. <eceeniis Pecvaetasvoavaye vosssutumnst 535
Weber, Max: An intellectual portrait. R.
Bendists B.. dcsscass 516; see also letter, 553
Western intellectual tradition: From Leonardo
to Hegel. J. Bronowski and B. Mazlish; B 534
What’s happening in China? Lord Boyd Orr
BMG Ea MOWSBONE S25 leet n vvedsscsvsevcummaveccenseh
Whicher, Stephen, and R. Spiller (editors)
(January-June, 1960)
PAGE
Early lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson,
the, VolQiGis833-1836)'s Beh ..s.son 232
Whittemore, Reed
ATS MEL E-MAESTIAIL » ES) ee cavaccssteatienieotu ov tvesceess 85
WirlBiams: Gearwennih.. <.c..seccccertiesciensessneucone 497
Wilson, Colin
He (Sag eno Leanbam st We Mec et eoskvssveesscetsaeetvns 339
Wire tapping; review by C. Dreher of The
eavesdroppers, by S. Dash, R. E. Knowl-
tony and R. F:. Schwartz; B .......c.cs0s60: 54
Wolfert, Ira
An epidemic of genius; excerpt, Monster
WIPE Re MRAP OD Cire th te orice, ete eek te 3
Wolff, Robert Paul; R ............ 516; see also
letter, 553
Work and education: The role of technical
culture in some distinctive theories of hu-
manism. J. W. Donohue, S. J.; B ........... 536
World of the Wall Street journal, the. Edited
By RG AP reaiotae te = AG ws sca rsanereentieesnetees 16
Wenn, Keenan
Ed Wynn’s son; autobiography .................. 229
va
Year 2000: A canes biography of Edward
Bellamy. S. E. Bowman; B ..............c:cc00c0- 37
Yeats, William Butler. The masterpiece and
the man: Yeats as I knew him. M. Gibbon;
Sete stented vn ace teins Masrs Ho vwa sansevasen sso ie swetieuca oe 190
Yellow wind, the. W. Stevenson; B .............. 83
Z
NCOLEN EC WARC Wie) ES sccvenstecgsssensasovsuecustaseee 16, 514
Zinn, Howard
La Guardia tnscongresss: Bu iccsciedcsrencsesssesss 149
333 SIXTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 14
ee
4 ,
t
F \!
JANUARY 2, 1960 . . 25¢° I
by IRA WOLFERT
An American novelist brings his craft to bear on
the relentless displacement of men by machines
—- the key social drama of the ’60s.
KAaKKK KKK AK KA H
THE NORMAN MAILER SYNDROME
f by GORE VIDAL
LETTERS
| 12/31/59
Dear Sirs:
When I consider how this decade went:
O tempora! O mores! O debris!
The fifties may be folding up their tent,
But what a world of litter’s left to me:
What shall I do with Little Rock?
Could I hock that old Woodstock?
Who'll bid on a nearly-new chemise,
A vicuna coat or a spare deep freeze?
Nobody wants Dixon-Yates as a gift:
Perhaps I’ll simply cast it adrift
Along with details of the Grace Kelly
trousseau
if (Was it success that spoiled Harvey
Matusow? )
I can’t keep Checkers (I’ve still got
—_—- >
b
t Blaze)
‘ Or the Redleg suit from those dear dead
days
j When only the brave risked losing their
‘heads
And called Cincinnati the home of the
Reds.
Where can I stash away Schine and
Cohn,
Dianetics and Juan Peron,
Eddy-loves-Debby — but not ever after,
The sputnik jokes (and the hollow
laughter),
Offshore oil, payola and Jotto,
“This Is Your Life” and that was
“Dotto,”
Julius La Rosa’s lost humility,
Recollected in whose tranquillity?
t The name of the man (any number may
guess)
Who promoted the
Peress,
i And Baby Doll sucking her neon thumb
In the burgeoning strontium.
man who promoted
Perhaps I'll merely draw the drip-dry
drape
And, being careful not to slam the door,
Say three nil nisi bonwms, then escape
And never go there any more.
Anvy Locan
New York City
Ethie and Dogma
Dear Sirs: Gabriel Vahanian (“This
~ Post-Christian Era,” your Dec. 12 issue),
is making an acute observation in his
leclaration that we live in a post-Chris-
tian period. He seems, however, to la-
Bs rather than to rejoice over this
ued. Our problem ae is to free
r ethics from this same subservience.
If our age is engaging in a cultural re-
jection of Christianity, as Mr. Vahanian
believes, the reason could well be that
Christian thinkers have insisted that
their dogmatic view of the universe vali-
dated their ethics; now the ethics are
being swept aside along with the theo-
logical dogmatism.
What we are witnessing is not only
a crisis for us. It is also an opportunity.
Let us recognize it as such, rejoice in
it, and root our ethic in something
less transitory than a sectarian view of
the universe.
Eucene Wn. Kreves
Plainfield, Til.
Dear Sirs: Dr. Vahanian recognizes
that “every age is post-Christian.” But
to him, the tragedy of our age is that we
are “post-Christian both theologically
and culturally.” (His emphasis.)
This attitude is characteristic of the
very religiosity which Dr. Vahanian so
describes in his article. Our Western
culture is not so much a reflection of
the spirit of Christianity as Christianity
is a reflection of our Western culture.
(It cannot be denied, however, that
there is a dialectic reaction between the
two.)
But to dismiss our era as one in which
“tolerance gives way to religious syn-
cretism” and to denote this syncretism
as having neither content nor backbone
is to throw the baby out with the bath-
water. The syncretistic content is pre-
cisely that body of ethical principles
which Christianity has professed with
varying degrees of enthusiasm, and
which, with a high degree of enthusiasm,
has ignored in practice throughout the
centuries.
The result of this amalgam of “beliefs
and attitudes” will be the living accept-
ance of the concept of the brotherhood
of man, without the ritual and ceremo-
nial trappings.
Jacos GoLpBERG
Chicago, Ill.
Question for Mr. Benson
Dear Sirs: The 86th Congress under
Public Law 480 gave the Secretary of
Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson, the au-
thority to distribute surplus commodities
through a food-stamp plan to needy
people in our own country. So far Secre-
tary Benson has refused to start the
food-stamp plan—perhaps for the reason
that there is “no depression.”
I believe the 5 million underprivileged
and underfed people eligible for aid may
not understand that “there is no de-
pression.” Being hungry and_ poorly
aM “ ‘” J i,
" 4 G vin
iy Wy) ty - }
or not the Secretary of Agriculture f
fi ee
neat is feed on ea wheth tae
os
that a depression exists. i
Since the agricultural surpliss is <a
available, and is costing taxpayers bil- |
lions of dollars for storage, and people —
are hungry, by what right does Mr. Ben-
son decide that this food shall not go
to our own poor?
(Mrs.) Eve Byron Wyatt
San Francisco, Calif.
De Gregory Fund
Dear Sirs: May I call your attention to
the organization of the De Gregory De-
fense Committee. Like Dr, Willard Up-
(Continued on page 12)
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
1e
ARTICLES
3 @ Monster in the Mine
by IRA WOLFERT
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
13 @ The Norman Mailer Syndrome
by GORE VIDAL
16 @ The Pleasures of Business
by EDWARD W. ZIEGLER
18 @ Architecture
by WALTER McQUADE
19 @ Theatre
by HAROLD CLURMAN
20 @ Films
by ROBERT HATCH
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 20)
by FRANK W. LEWIS ‘
OU de
= George G. Kirstein, Publisher .
Carey McWiilliams, Hditor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Wditor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. ‘Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Music
Alexander Werth, Huropean
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, Jan. 2, 1960, Vol, 190, No, lg
The Nation published weekly (except for omis-—
sion of four summer issues) by The Nation
Company and copyright 1960, in the U.S.A. 4
the Nation Associates, Inc,, 333 Sixth Av
New York 14, N, Y. Second class rte bd
at New York, N. Y. we
Subscription Price Domestic—One year
years $14, Three Years $20. Addi ene
per year, Foreign and Canadian
Change of Address: Three weeks’ notice
quired for change of address, vid
made without the old address as well a
Information to Libraries: The ’
in Readers Guide to Periodical murs y
Review Digest, Index to satetaael cles
Affairs, Information Service, Dramatic In¢
~
ARRUUT N01 SONA AEaNaT ANNAN HA TRNGREEONN ALLAAH
WEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 1
THE
NATION
EDITORIALS
|
The Problems of NATO
NATO as we have known it may not be falling
apart, but it is surely not flourishing. A plausible though
not specific explanation is that the NATO of yesterday
is not, and cannot be, the NATO of tomorrow. With
‘only occasional exceptions our mass media, electronic
and printed alike, are giving the public precious little
‘enlightenment on NATO as an evolving organization.
Tt almost seems as if nothing true, honest and incisive
can be said publicly about any grave public ques-
tion, especially where our relations with other govern-
ments are concerned. To read the papers, one would
ink that NATO was being jeopardized by a self-
willed Frenchman, General Charles de Gaulle, whose
predecessors sent the French army to Algeria and who
himself is now administering the cowp de grace by say-
ing “integration is dead,” withdrawing part of the
French fleet from NATO command, denying NATO the
command of his Air Force, and refusing to permit U.S.
Weapons to remain on French soil unless he has a voice
their disposition and possible use. The United States,
IN virtuous contrast, has put at the disposal of NATO
its military forces, its treasure and its sacred honor.
We integrate, de Gaulle balks, and even Eisenhower
Sant move him: according to what Joseph Alsop
youches for as an “excellent source,” the recalcitrant de
Gaulle received Ike’s protestations with a silence that
vas “glacial, even hyperborean.”
All this, though partly factual, is utterly childish as
xplanation, and can only reduce the American TV
istener and newspaper reader to an even lower level
f understanding than he has achieved previously under
he tutelage of these media.
In the first place, the United States is willing to in-
grate — partially — because the NATO commander
is an American general. The integration is only a token
one since the Strategic Air Force is not under NATO
command and Congress would blow its collective top
if anyone suggested that it should be. In sum, only a
minor portion of American air, naval and land power
is under NATO’s jurisdiction, and Britain likewise has
committed only a portion of its strength to the alliance.
De Gaulle has done nothing that the Anglo-American
partnership — itself somewhat tenuous — has not done
before him.
Second, conditions are changing rapidly both inside
and outside NATO. All NATO can do is conduct a brief
holding operation if the Russians move; the Strategic
Air Command must do the rest. In other words, if the
Russians move seriously (for resisting a probing opera-
tion, NATO would be useful) mutual suicide has been
achieved.
Third, the preponderance of power within NATO is
shifting from the United States to Germany. The Ger-
mans know it, the French know it, and de Gaulle is
making his preparations accordingly. Four years ago,
6,000 volunteers joined the German colors; today the
Bundeswehr has 290,000 men in the field with seven
ground divisions, eight fighter and fighter-bomber jet
aircraft wings, and the beginning of a modern navy
which will soon be ready to challenge the Soviet Union
in the Baltic. That army will be no Turkish land force
armed with rifles and cannon and with hardly more
industrial backing than the Confederacy had in the
Civil War. A first-class military power is re-emerging
on the Continent, manned by a new generation which
knows nothing of the horror and anguish of World
War II and thinks that war can be glorious. What do
we expect de Gaulle to do? He has demonstrated more
prescience than most statesmen. The maxim is, if you
can’t beat ’em, join ’em, and, with due caution, he has
ee ON iw nt , au, Le 6 ee,
nay Fy ce) Ae hae
done precisely that with the German Federal Republic.
But he is not irrevocably committing his forces to
the coming German-dominated NATO or any other
grouping. He is, in short, doing approximately what
General Eisenhower would do if he were a Frenchman.
This process will continue, and what the United States
should be doing is making similar far-sighted prepara-
tions for the future. These preparations must center
r not in NATO, but in negotiations with the Russians.
And could it be that de Gaulle, if not Adenauer, has
that same thought in the back of his head and means
to do his own negotiating, rather than let the Anglo-
American partnership act as his agents? It is a hypoth-
esis not to be dismissed out of hand.
Most Virtuous of Men
By now it must be a truism that the only virtue that
¥, matters is anti-communism, and by that standard Syng-
| man Rhee, the aging tyrant of Korea, is the most virtu-
ous of men. So excessive is his excellence that he may
well get us into even more trouble in the future than in
; the past. There was, for instance, the time when he re-
; leased a great force of prisoners of war who, by the terms
7 of the Korean armistice, were to be allowed to choose
go whether to return to North and South Korea. If the
f Reds had stood on their rights, the war would have been
i renewed, and perhaps the third (and first thermonu-
\ clear) world war would have ensued. These potentiali-
: ties remain. Little attention is paid to them by our
' opinion artificers: it is a disagreeable subject. Conse-
quently the man in the street, raw material of the
laborers in the opinion vineyard, has a blank mind on
the subject — which will not protect him if the lid
blows off. Unmolested, Rhee maintains his military
dictatorship, in which he tolerates an opposition as long
as he can keep it impotent. Now eighty-four, he in-
tends to rule, like a king, as long as he lives. His dic-
tatorship is supported by American dollars — some
four billion in the last six years. The flow had better
be maintained, Rhee warns: “People willing to sacrifice
their lives for democracy must be encouraged.” The
bulk of the money has gone to build a 630,000-man Re-
i public of Korea Army with a trained reserve of 800,000
for a nation of 22 million. That little else has been
accomplished | is shown by the economic state of the
bi ountry. It could scarcely have been worse off under
I he Japanese. Imports last year were valued at $284
‘million, exports at $17 million. Corruption is rampant.
i Korean armed forces are under American command
two understrength American divisions, the First
valry and Seventh Infantry, are stationed in Korea.
is ead only bright spot in the picture. They had
hen es ot ene 7 ron p
Running the labor end of a declining industry, he saw
nts af
Honorable Deen
John L. Lewis is retiring. “The strength of man i a
prideful thing,” he once said, “but the unfortunate |.
thing is that strong men do not remain strong.” He
himself was an exception. As he nears eighty, his former
enemies pay tribute to him.
It was not always thus. Down the years Lewis was
called a traitor, a revolutionary, a fellow-traveler of
Communists. He gave considerably better than he took.
President Truman: “a malignant, scheming sort of in-
dividual . . .” Vice President John Garner: “a labor- —
baiting, haleemavine whiskey-drinking, evil old man.”
William Green: “I have done a lot of exploring of Bill
Green’s mind and I give you my word there is nothing
there.” Until the later years, sweet words were not ex-
changed between Lewis and his adversaries, and even
today the memory of the terrible blows lingers on. It is
a fitting exit march. For what are better measures of a
labor leader than the enemies he has made and the ©
abuse he has received? ss
Lewis was not only a tough guy with his fists and
with a phrase. He was also an industrial statesman.
clearly that resistance to mechanization and automation
would be futile, that the only hope was to increase out- _
put and reduce costs. He geared wages not to hours, — A
but to output. The result is fewer miners, shorter hours, —
higher income and greater security. If the society cannot
employ the displaced workers, so much the worse for —
them, but it will be even worse for the society, especial-
ly when it is confronted by a competing system with a ;
[See “Monster in the Mine,”
by Ira Wolfert, page 5 of this issue.] Lewis perceived —
all this with little help from scholars and administrators.
A clear head and a stout heart pass from the scene. ag
built-in labor shortage.
The Apalachin Conspiracy
A federal jury in New York has convicted twenty of
the defendants accused of conspiring to obstruct justice ~ 4
by lying about the nature of the underworld meeting
held in Apalachin, New York, two years ago. The verdict —
has been hailed as a great victory in the endless effort
of law-enforcement agencies to break up the mobs and —
syndicates engaged in organized crime. But in several
respects the Apalachin case constitutes a disturbing —
precedent. The key to the government’s successful pros- :
ecution was the ruling by Judge Irving R. Kaufman
that when the police stopped and questioned the guest s
who had assembled at Joe Barbara’s plush hill-top man-
sion, their action did not constitute an arrest. If the |
defendants had in fact been “arrested,” the arrests.
would probably have been illegal and the government
would not have been able to use the “fruits” as evi-
dence at the trial. But what is a citizen to do wher he
told by a police officer to stop? “Arrested” or not,
e had better stop. A second point to be noted is that
f the defendants perjured themselves, it was in the
ense of either remaining silent during repeated and
prolonged interrogations, or of giving answers which
the government denounced as “preposterous.” Many
tatements, however, sound preposterous which are
not, in fact, false. It should also be noted that the police
who broke up the meeting did not know its purpose;
nor, subsequently, did the prosecution. A group of men
very dubious characters no doubt — had peacefully
assembled for a purpose not stated or proven; on the
face of the facts, they had a right to be where they were.
All of this smacks too much of the notion that any
club can be used if it is used to beat a dog. But apart
rom the dangerous precedent that will be established
if this verdict is upheld on appeal, government agencies
ould be scrupulous about the kinds of weapons they
use, even in the so-called war against organized crime.
You Pay Your Money—
But Where’s Your Choice?
_ If you can find this item in an American newspaper
at all, it is probably hidden away among the shipping
hotices, but in the Canadian papers it is well up front
and in at least one case under a streamer headline all
the way across the page. The armed forces of the
United States found that they were losing more men
through automobile accidents than they had _ lost
through enemy action in Korea. They also found that
exhortation was next to useless. In this dilemma, some
denizen of the Pentagon came up.with a sound idea.
The Department of Defense engaged a well-known re-
search organization, Dunlap and Associates’ of Stam-
ford, Conn., to make a study of 1,000 cars owned by
an insurance company and assigned at random to
salesmen. The cars were of two makes among the “low-
priced” three, which presumably means Ford, Chevrolet
and Plymouth. Dunlap arrived at an unexpected con-
clusion: “On the basis of these results, it may be
strongly inferred that automobile design contributes
appreciably to accident rate. There was an increase in
accident rate of more than 50 per cent from make B to
make A, which is directly attributable to accident-de-
sign properties.”
Fifty percent! If you could reduce your chances. of
sudden death or crippling injury in this ratio, wouldn’t
you do it? Doesn’t everybody owe it to himself and his
family to get rid of, or not to buy, an unsafe car? But
you will inquire in vain which car showed up well and
which showed up badly. The Pentagon doesn’t say. The
taxpayers footed the bill for the investigation, but they
are not entitled to the results. Business comes first,
and civilians must take their chances. But must they?
Perhaps members of Congress who prefer whole con-
stituents to dismembered ones will pry the lid off. Or
some consumer research group may undertake a survey
taking in all three of the “low-priced” leaders. The
matter should not be allowed to vanish in thin air.
[See “The Safe Car You Can’t Buy,” by Ralph Nader
The Nation, April 11, 1959.]
>
I ONSTER IN THE MIN E ee by Ira Wolfert
Statistic: America is still using the
_ same amount of coal, but only a third
as many miners. The reason is the
“machines. Fifteen years ago the
American miner was the champion of
the world at six tons a day. The op-
erator of a continuous miner digs and
loads three tons a minute.
HE MODEL of the continuous
uner we had sold takes about five
jours to unload and set up and the
oss wanted his trucks back as fast
s he could get them. He offered a
onus of $10 a driver and $25 to me
f we used only one day. So we
farted out at 11 at night. That
nould have brought us to the mine
t noon and, with daylight to work
we'd have had time to make it
ck by 7 the next morning.
ry 2, 1960
\ vied q
2
-.
But we were hardly out of Clarks-
burg when it began to rain. It came
down just hard enough to put a
slick on the roads. Those southern
Appalachian highways are not a
pleasure at best, but in that kind of
rain they amount to no more than
snakes wriggling up and down the
hills. There was not enough rain to
keep the windshields clean. I had to
stand out on the running board on
the driver’s side and we couldn’t do
better than low low going down all
the hills and their slippery bends. It
- made the going up even slower. We
hoped the sunrise would burn off the
rain or dash it down hard enough to
wash the road, but it did neither;
and by 10 o’clock we were still a good
six or seven hours from the mine.
We stopped at a diner to let the
salesman telephone the customer. He
was the only one who went in. The
boss was in such a hurry he had
agreed to pay time and a half for
the meal hours if we spent them roll-
ing. But when you stop after such a
night as I had had, you feel the load
IRA WOLFERT is a Pulitzer Prize-
winning journalist and the author of
An Act of Love and other novels.
This story, which has much basis im
fact although liberties have been
taken with names, places, etc., is-in=
cluded in Mr. Wolfert’s next book, a
study of contemporary America at
work, which Simon and Schuster will
publish in March under the title An
[Epidemic of Genius.
ww
:
o
. => *
‘ :
‘
:
ey.
you’ve been carrying. The drivers
didn’t mind. They were being spelled,
one driving while another slept.
With me though it was as if not
only the continuous miner but the
three trucks carrying it had been
lifted off my back, down low where
the hip bones come in, and I kept
my eye on the salesman as he went
to the telephone. If he stopped for a
cup of coffee, I was going to follow
him and say, “Say, that’s a good
idea.”
THE salesman was in no hurry on
this job. He had to stay with the
continuous miner for a week or more
to get the bugs out and train local
crews to operate it. But he went right
to the telephone anyway and came
straight out, stopping only to pick
up a toothpick. He walked slowly like
a man with a full belly and even
after we got rolling again he was still
working the toothpick in his clean,
dry teeth with the look of one whose
mind is idling in neutral while the
rest of him is digesting something.
“There’s been a change,” he said.
“We'll go straight to the hotel and
unload in the morning.”
“What’s the idea? Isn’t the juice
turned on at the mine?”
“T don’t know, but that’s what the
customer wants.”
“Did you tell the boss?”
“In my line the boss is the cus-
tomer.”
“Maybe in your line, but in my
line the customer don’t pay bonuses.”
He shrugged and broke the tooth-
pick in his fingers and threw it out
the cab window.
“No sir,” I said, “we go straight to
the mine. We’ll have a half-hour or
more of daylight to get a good start,
and finish up under lights. That way
we can still make it back in plenty
of time if the rain stops and we’re
running empty. Hell, we'll unload
under the headlights if he hasn’t got
_ the juice on. We can move the trucks
around to put two sets of headlights
on the one we’re working on.”
_ “That’s not going to light up the
woods on the hills around the mine.”
rs stopped thinking for a minute.
““The customer says he wants every-
thing left on the trucks tonight,”
c ues i ued the salesman, “and all the
trucks parked in a bundle at the
hotel.”
“Well, well,” I said at last.
~ Vhat’s: right.”
Now it was my turn to shrug. |
couldn’t blame the miners for want-
ing to destroy a machine that would
take away their jobs. But neither
could I get their point — maybe
because machines have always given
me jobs, and the continuous miner
my company makes is such a beauty
in the way it works you never get
used to watching it. But then a new
thought came to me.
“Who’s going to pay for the hotel
tonight?” I asked. “Because I’m not
sleeping in the trucks tonight and
nobody is, not under these condi-
tions.”
“Nothing’s going to happen.”
“You bet nothing’s going to hap-
pen, not to me. I done all my shoot-
ing for my lifetime in the war.”
“There’s not going to be no shoot-
ing. They’ll shoot off their mouths
is all. I know. I’ve seen it before.”
“All right, but who pays for the
bed in the hotel for the whole crew?”
“Don’t worry. [ll sign for it and
put it on the customer’s bill.”
“Now youre saying something,
because I’m going to give those mine
boys plenty of room to do whatever
they want tonight. My job is just to
give them the machine. What they
do with it is their business, as far as
I’m concerned.”
“They won’t do a thing, you'll
see.”
“How will I see? I’m not even go-
ing to look.”
Still, I was not only scared but
sad. There was no hurry any more.
We took it easy all day. I smoked a
cigar after lunch. But the day was
so gloomy it gave the owls insomnia.
I heard them hooting now and then,
waked up by the _ twilight-colored
light. I got a laugh out of thinking
how they must be wondering, as the
twilight went on and on hour after
hour. It looked as if the clock of the
universe had run down. But the tiles
in the rest room that we took advan-
_ tage of when we stopped for gas were
dripping water and the salt in the
diner where we ate lunch wasn’t just
damp. It had water in it and there
- was water in our hair and running
into our eyes when we drove.
ae
Oh, you "ronal to see a b
amazing machine tool es
and bad feelings to people. Yet y you
also hate to get your head broken in.
And that’s the way I kept going a Mt
day long — up and down, sad and
scared. A funny thing happened. .
Wise, Hazard, Paintsville, Beckley,
omen Kingsport and the other
towns we went through — each one —
became Liége to me, lying in the rai
at the bottom of a long, snaky, §
forest road on a weepy wet day. rT
knew where I was. I knew Liége was —
fifteen years ago, but I could a
the tank treads squeaking in thi
damp stillness like a thousand mic
I couldn’t help myself. Each tim
we'd start down the hairpin tur.
to reach a town at the bottom, T
catch myself looking sideways. int
the woods at the shapes of the mist.
drifting among the trees. I had to }
laugh when I caught myself doing |
it, but it did no good to try to laugh ©
it away. I’d be lost. I’d be in an
other world in another lifetime. I —
wouldn’t know where I was. Then,
at the bottom, I’d wake up with |
start and poakice I was all tensed up |
and crying inside. It hadn’t beer 1s
the murdering that had bothered —
me so much on that day when y
had brought freedom to Liége. It_
was the fact that on such an erran: t:
I had to be afraid in the midst o ,
all the sadness of hills and trees
a dark gray rain.
if
II 7
THE MINE operator had told his
men nothing. He was an heir. The
only thing modern about him was
that his coal seam was getting down
to where it didn’t pay to work it
by the old hand method and so
had had to buy a continuous miner.
For the rest, he was strictly prewar.
I had heard about bosses like that.
My father knew them. A union is
just a mother-in-law to them. |
comes along with what they w
and instead of taking it they’re
ways bickering and nagging a
hoping itll drop dead. They seem to
think that if you explain to you
men that you're risking a lot o
money in automation to keep som
jobs going instead of shutting doy
and putting everybody out of wor
it’s the same as askin re
fy a ee
. “Who the hell are the
’s their attitude.
the men had been half hoping
ere only a rumor being circulat-
to! set brother against brother.
| ut they had been out in the rain
all day anyway, waiting to see
whether we were true or not. They
had waited at the mine until late in
the afternoon and then had come
drifting into town. We saw them as
me went rolling and swaying down
Main Street. There were small
groups lounging against the store
fronts and the grapevine must have
b en working good because there
as a large group across the street
from the hotel. They all stood silent-
ly in the seeping rain. They watched
silently as we pulled up with a roar
n front of the hotel and climbed
down and stretched.
The police were waiting for us and
© were some gun-thugs the mine
oe had armed and deputized.
rhe thugs were getting $6 a day and
‘expenses,” the same as in the old
inion-organizing wars of the thirties.
Nothing ever changes for men like
tha: and they never change either,
T noticed. They had been belting
their expense account so hard they
ould hardly stand up. The salesman
“I see you gentlemen been gettin’
you some real sippin’ whiskey.” But
then they laughed, their breath was
‘ong it made the salesman look
e cross-eyed.
police told us to pull the
s around to a yard in back of
otel. They staggered after us
we drove, their hands on their
But the men across the street
‘no move to follow and made no
. They did not even speak to
other, just watched silently.
| I came back I saw they were
il I there, watching where the trucks
Ill
E WERE two eating places
vn — the Dining Room in the
-and the Café on Main Street.
ince I was on an expense account,
was no doubt in my mind
as going to eat. Saute as I.
A,
mtacted for the Wishes Room, I
could hear it rumbling from afar.
It was the businessmen. There were
big doings going on and, to be in on
it, they were all in town for supper
that night. When I got into the mid-
dle of their rumbling, I could feel
its jollity and unction. It was like
being in the crowd at a hanging.
None of my crew was down yet,
so I went out to the lot in back
where the trucks had been parked.
There was nothing to see, just the
cops and the tarpaulins slick with
rain. But the businessmen kept com-
ing out to have a look. You could
tell how they rated at the bank by
the amount of wheedle in the smile
with which the chief greeted them.
I was surprised to see that there
were quite a few who didn’t rate high
at all. To judge by the way the chief
welcomed them, they didn’t even
make the $24 a day that coal miners
make nowadays. They were just
coat-tail grabbers. But that’s what
they all were, even those the chief
knocked himself out to show the wet
tarpaulins to. A $135,000 continuous
miner was a big deal to them. True,
it wasn’t a deal they were in on.
But it was a deal for men only, not
for boys, not for women, and they
were in on that. They were men. It
seemed to give them a_ growly,
turkey-cock way of talking and
standing around and after a while
I couldn’t take that either and went
back into the hotel to see if any of
my boys were ready to eat yet.
The salesman was down. The mine
operator, his superintendent and the
local banker had surrounded him and
were taking him from group to
group. We had heard a lot about
the mine operator from the chief of
_ Police. It seems the man was just a
would-be everything, even at being
an heir. Thus far it was his widowed
mother who had done all the actual
inheriting — from the operator’s
father and her own. It added up to
quite a few million dollars’ worth of
properties and the old lady ran it .
from a wheel chair in her house, us-
ing her son only to run errands. When h
.
|
there was anything important, the
superintendents and managers took
it up directly with Mama.
THE son didn’t seem to enjoy that.
But, whenever it happened, all he
did was get a brand new $100. bill
from the bank and go down to a
whorehouse across the state line \
where booze was legal. He’d give the i
bill to the Madame and say, “Mama, ery
I want a lot of mothering tonight A |
and when I’ve had $100 worth you
put me in my car and send me home.”
They kept a wheel chair there for roe
him that he had bought and he’d ie:
€ 5}
ride around in that, cackling and
screaming falsetto and trying to run ae ot
over the girls. The wheel chair fold- e !
ed back flat into a bed, too, when he iy
had worked himself up to that. Then
the Madame would telephone the
chief and he’d send a deputy down
to drive the operator home.
The man’s life must have been
hell. It showed on him. He was about
fifty, tall, flabby and washed-out
looking, ill at ease even when he
laughed. Even when he laughed he
kept his eyes down. He never looked
at anybody, just at shoulders or ties
or belt buckles. You might say he
was the kind of man who made you
wonder whether money really was |
everything — maybe what you have ©
to do to get your money counts ios 4
something, too. The salesman knevy
as much about him as I did. Ye t
there he was, working hard to be a
success with the mine operator any-
way. The salesman was a trai
engineer, but he had studied up
Dale Carnegie to learn how to g
hand the customers and he had
glad hand stuck out and ‘wo
like a pump handle, just as
~
a
+f) .
> ae a) 7
I + as
M
oa ae
Sa x:
=“ —.
\
Saeed.
story we had heard about the mine
operator had passed right over his
head.
It was painful to see. The whole
crowd of them gave me a pain, and
IT decided I'd rather spend my own
$1.65 and have supper in the Café.
IV
IT WAS raining hard now. The
streets were empty. The union had
called a meeting and everybody was
there or home. But you could feel a
seething in the quiet behind the wet
boards and bricks, behind the steamy
plate-glass windows of the stores on
Main Street.
There was no one at the tables in
the booths in the Café. A stringy-
haired blonde sat motionless behind
the counter and only one customer
sat on the stools in front of it. He
wasn’t eating, just sitting there. His
name, I learned after a while, was
Harry. He was a short, compact man
with a gray face and black hair that
had only a few flecks of white in it.
He was dressed in city clothes that
were not stiff new, so I knew he
wasn’t a miner. But neither did he
look like a traveling salesman. I
decided he must be one of the book-
keepers or store clerks around town.
He swung around on the stool to
face me when I came in and the
woman stood up.
“You with that continuous min-
er?” he asked me. Before I could
answer, he said, “If I was you Id
turn right around and go back where
you came from.”
“T can’t make a living doing that,”
I told him.
He looked away unhappily and be-
gan to tremble. I saw then that his
‘black hair was a fooler. He was an
‘old man. I figured out by the time
the evening was over that he must
«‘be about the same age as the mine
‘ operator, but he had lived too long
a lifetime for his body in those years.
His hair had stubbornly remained
young, but the rest of him was all
Iry and hollowed out.
“Then you want trouble,” he said,
nbling.
don’t think I want trouble.”
and glared at me. .
yad half a mind to walk out,
, ep rf
wee
awl © +3
“spit at the floor right by my
rere was only the hotel to go
ee FFD) See ae ; fon
ce Tee
=! i ihe
to and I didn’t know which was
worse, to be rumbled over or spit at.
“What’s eating you?” I asked, after
a moment.
The woman interrupted. She had
put down a glass of water and a
knife and fork and spoon. “Do you
want the blue plate or something
special, like ham and eggs?”
“Ham and eggs will be fine if you
turn the eggs over.”
The woman wheeled around busi-
ly and disappeared through a swing-
ing door into the kitchen.
“Why don’t you eat in the hotel
where you belong?”
“Look, mister,” I said, “I don’t
know who you are, but if you want
to try to stop the twentieth century
from happening, you go right ahead.
Just leave me out of it. ea hungry.”
“So you’re the twentieth century.
What do you think I am?”
“Oh no.” I laughed. “You won’t
get me that way. I’d need a gun to
tell you what I think you are.”
“All right.”
MY HEART turned over in me and
nearly stopped. He had taken a mail-
order pistol from his jacket pocket,
a $96 Ruger Blackhawk .44, and
had leaned over and put it on the
counter in front of me. Then he sat
back, trembling more violently now,
even his eyes trembling as he sat
looking up at me from the stool.
“Now you can go ahead and tell me
what you think.”
“I think you’re a kid,” I told him
slowly. “I think you’re a kid who’s
been watching television too much.
I’m bringing civilization into your
mine and a chance to make a decent
living and you treat me like a wild
animal that you got to shoot. So
what I think is that I think you’re
the wild animal and they ought to
shoot you.”
I pushed the gun back to him.
He took it after a moment and
put it back in his pocket. “It’s not
you,” he said. “I sit here thinking
of them all up there in the hotel
blowing on their cigars... . I ought
to blow those cigars right up
their .’ He stopped short and
glanced around, worried that the
waitress might overhear the word
he had been about to say. But she
”
was still in the kitchen.
ih rie
ara iste
‘Tt touched m
concerned to remain: a gentle
front of a lady, even while he
trembling. “Why don’t you try bl
said, and took one out of my pocket.
He didn’t reach for it. I had to put
it in his hands. He didn’t even loo
at it, just held it and stared at me
sera ;
“T’ll buy you a cup of coffee, too,”
I went on. va
“What for?”
“Because I know how you feel.
That’s why I’m here instead of at
the hotel. But I don’t like to eat —
alone.” Le
When the girl brought my ham |
and eggs, he lit the cigar. Then he a
took a cup of coffee. I told the girl |
to bring it to a table in a booth and |
carried my own plate over. After
the coffee, he had a plate of chili
beans. He picked at it nervously,
but as we talked on, the tension sub-—
sided in him until it was just sim-_
mering. After the chili beans, he had |
a plate of noodle soup and, after the
soup, the blue-plate supper — pot
roast and mashed potatoes. He eve
mopped up the gravy on the plate
with some extra bread that I madi
the girl bring. Be
“You got a pretty good appeti
for a man sitting in a restaurant and
not eating,” I said.
oe forgot what I came in fe
was waiting for the union meeti in)
to end and I just came in out of 1 th
rain. I thought maybe it would se
tle me down a bit to sit a while. Bi
haven’t thought much about eatir
for ten days now, ever since I hear (
you fellows were coming.” ‘9
After the pot roast he had apple
pie and I asked him what line
business he was in. He told m
was a business agent for the Uni
Mine Workers of America.
father, he said, had been a |
miner and so had he been, bac
the 20s. But then he had joined 1
union and in the 30s, when the
drive to unionize the southern |
started, he had got into organ
work. He had been teamed with
other organizer, a man named
who had had to quit the mines
he lost a leg under a coal car. —
They went from hill town t
al
an VR
of a ie ie GN Menking con-
" ons. I hid a feeling for that. Now
jt was the machine tool, but then it
had been Harry and Fred. They al-
ways slept together in the same bed
in the hotels in those hill towns.
That was for defensive purposes,
and Fred had whittled a peg leg for
himself out of hickory, the best
wood for clubbing and slugging that
the area grows.
It could seldom be more than club-
bingand slugging, Harry said, because
the hotels did not care to have shoot-
ing on the premises and since the
hotel owner was usually one of the
high-up businessmen in the town, his
desires were catered to. Instead,
they’d drag off the organizers and
shoot them in the hills out of town.
That is, they’d shoot an organizer if
he was foolish enough to carry a
gun. For then they could claim self-
defense.
BUT NOBODY could make a claim
of self-defense against a wooden leg,
not without getting laughed out of
town. So Fred had had his wooden
leg made as thick in the calf as a
chopping block and the ankle long
and slender like a bat handle. It be-
came famous in a dozen counties. At
night, Harry would swing the bed
around so that it faced the door and
Fred would sleep on that side, the
outside, with his wooden leg unstrap-
ped but in the bed beside him. When
their room was broken into at night,
‘I ‘red would jump up on his knees
until Harry had got around to his
side Mere he could help balance
him if Fred had to start swinging.
Then Fred would come out of the
bed and, with a mattress to rest his
‘stump on and Harry to lean against,
he was dug in real solid.
_ They always locked their door and
b aced a chair under the knob, so
that even if the clerk gave the thugs
key they’d have time to take
up the position they’d rehearsed.
Fred would stand and heft his hick-
ory leg. “Come and get me,” he’d
say. So “Come and get me” became
famous, too. The kids used to yell
it at each other when playing.
Their fame began making Fred
nervous. It was a help all right
ong the miners they were trying
nize. he Ly Lewis was only
tne
tO OFf
foie
but Fred be-
But that only made
him more of a challenge to the mine
a celebrity to them,
came a hero.
operators and he was a man who
had lost a lot of his confidence any-
way when he had lost his leg. He had
gone into organizing work mostly
to prove he was still the man he
used to be, but, if he had been, he
wouldn’t have had to prove it. I had
seen the same thing in the war and,
where the man is lucky enough to
get away with his proof, he’s not
harmed too much. He might even
be helped. But that much luck was
too much to expect when a man be-
comes identified as the personal tar-
get of all the big-money owners in
a dozen counties.
ONE NIGHT they were in a town
where the mine owner himself owned
the hotel. Business was so light there
that Fred and Harry could be given
a room on a floor where they were
the only guests. The mine operator
suspended the rule about shooting
on the premises, but it would have
been a little hard to explain even to
the kind of judges they had how you
shoot down a door in self-defense.
So the two organizers were given a
room one flight up and, when the
whole town was asleep, the thugs
crept along an alley and threw a
dynamite bomb into the window.
It only hit the window frame and
bounced back, blowing up outside and
making the thugs scramble for their
lives. But the roar of the explosion
in the midst of his deep sleep drove
Fred right out of his mind. He leaped
out of bed and tried to run with his
wooden leg in his hands, going out
of the room and down the hall in
big, berserk hops. The stairs were
too much for him. He didn’t slow up
for them and fell at the first step,
rolling all the way down to land with
a crash in the lobby. Then he lay
there sobbing his heart out and,
while he sobbed, Harry picked up
the wooden leg and strapped it on
him.
HARRY and Fred were arrested and
fined for “indecent exposure.” They
had forgotten to dress before run-
ning out of their room and the man-
agement complained they had ap-
peared in the lobby in their under-
wear. Harry laughed when he told
me this. That is, his thin, bloodless-
lipped face, so gray and frail under
the strong black hair, laughed. But
his eyes were glittering as from tears.
“Does anybody remember ‘Bloody
Harlan’ where you come from?” he
cried.
“T come from New York original-
ly,” I said.
“So, does anybody in New York
remember Bloody Harlan?”
“Let me tell you something, Harry.
There are more people in New York
who remember than in Harlan itself.”
“How do you figure that?” ,
“Well, just think how many peo-
ple there are in Harlan. Five thou- _
sand? Why, there’s more than that _
in one building in New York.” ‘i
“How about Whitesville and Blue-
field? How about Pocataligo, Black —
Betsy, Lost Creek?” BE ;
“Never heard of them.” a
“How about East Tennessee?” —
“Never heard a thing about it.” _
“Then you listen a minute.”
It got so, he said, it made no
ference the organizers were not ¢
‘eae
Nye wer,
nae
vv;
a
rying guns. They were shot anyway
—in “self-defense.” Then a_ pistol
was planted on them. It didn’t hap-
pen once or twice. It was a regular
thing. In one Kentucky county
alone—Harlan—there was an aver-
age of a killing a week during the
years when the union was getting
started.
“You should have seen those pis-
tols them cheap mutts planted as
evidence,” said Harry, and the effort
to keep his voice down had made
him start trembling again. “They
were a dollar when they were new,
and by the time the operators
bought them for the deputies to use
as evidence they were so gone they
couldn’t have fired a single bullet
without blowing theirself up. But,
what of it? They didn’t have to prove
anything. Money proved it all.”
Harry wanted Fred to stop after
the episode of the dynamite bomb.
But stop was more than Fred could
do and then, one night, when the
gun-thugs broke in, they were
equipped for him. They had a tear-
gas gun. Fred and Harry jumped up
as usual. “Come and get me,” said
Fred, and then saw them lift up the
tear-gas gun. He could only stand
there hefting the wooden leg help-
lessly. Harry could only stand there.
They aimed the shell directly at
Fred’s good leg, mashing it so bad
that it just dangled from strings.
Then they dragged them down the
stairs, across the lobby, across the
sidewalk and threw them into a car.
“Jesus Christ,” Harry heard one of
them say, “keep him off the up-
holstery. He’s bleeding like a pig.”
Then he felt Fred being thrown on
top of him where he lay stuffed in
against the floor and the car owner
complained. “Look at that, it’s com-
ing in the side of the cushion.”
ue up, we'll buy you a new
ar,” Harry heard the other fellow
ali, and the car owner answered,
e Te, igh? That fivesdollar bill
nu still owe me?” They kept on
that all the way out of town.
ed’s life. For instead of taking
1 far out where their bodies
be hard to find, the thugs
hem out of the car just past
of killing them.
of town and just beat them
A i ieee nee a BA, ig at.
y a ie
: ave4,
i é
Tt was a sex orpy. They va
and Fred with Fred’s wooden leg.
It was rape with a wooden leg.
“Come on, say it,” they kept slob-
bering greedily. “‘Come and get
e. Say it!” There was only un-
derwear between Harry and the club
but they tore that off to beat him
because sex had come on them. Fred
was unconscious from loss of blood
before the beating started. When
finally Harry fainted, they hammer-
ed the leg to pieces on a boulder by
the side of the road. A doctor, sent
out to pick up the bodies, found a
splinter sticking in Fred’s rectum
and another in Harry’s.
THAT WAS the end of Fred’s job
as an organizer. The veins and ar-
teries in his one good leg had been
so mangled by the shell that it had
to come off. The union gave him a
desk job. But Harry hated to take
even a vacation. He had fourteen
bones broken in his body. His kid-
neys were pulp. Even after he had
been sent home from the hospital to
convalesce, he was still pulling long
strips of sloughed-off kidney tissue
out of his penis with a tweezer. All
the same, as soon as he was on his
feet again, he bought a revolver that
was a foot long and weighed more
than two and a half pounds, and
went back to organizing.
I got goose-bumps when Harry
admitted that was what he had done.
It was like seeing a flag come out.
I’m a union man myself. I know all
about the crooks. I know everybody
is in a union nowadays only for what
he can get out of it for himself.
That’s the only reason I’m in it and,
if I were situated so as to get it as
a free-rider, maybe I’d be a free-
rider. Maybe not, but more likely
yes. Still, when Harry said he had
gone back to his job after all that,
I don’t know, I just felt I was in
front of the flag.
“Whenever I saw one of their gun-
thugs,” he told me, “I didn’t care
where I was, even on Main Street in
full day, I took my gun out of my
pocket and held it in my hand. I
walked along that way, minding my
own business nice and quiet, but
keeping my finger on the trigger and
my eyes on them. I never had a bit
a trouble once.”
For the sheriff and the deputies
ip Ba d be LF
he wouldn’t just walk: ee ed
“Come and get me.” He didn’t say
that, but only because he didn’t —
rite ai. 3t; They got the message
anyway. He'd just stop short and —
stand there with the revolver in his —
hand and all of a sudden they'd re-
member something they had to do —
and would walk away. They knew ~
he was ready to die for what he |
wanted to do. But for them it was |
only money. Most men are willing
to live for money, but there are not
many willing to die for it.
I thought I'd tell Harry a few
things I had learned. “Do you know _
who paid your wages in those days?”
I asked him. 43
“The union.”
“They just passed them on to you.
The northern mine operators paid
them.”
“That’s what the companies here _
said.”
“They were telling you the truth,
I know.”
“I don’t care,”
“Tt’s the truth. You study a little
history and you'll see that Mark
Hanna and the big mine operators
started the United Mine "00 peril
union themselves because 60 per
cent of the cost of a ton of coal is
labor and, with a union, they could —
standardize that cost. They could |
use every workingman as a cop to
stand guard and make sure the labor
cost remained the same for every-
body. It ended all the throat-cutting |
among the northern operators on
prices and then, in the 30s, they put —
up the money to do the same thing —
in the southern mines. The cut-—
throating on prices was getting
bothersome to them.”
FPL don’t care who put up the |
money,” Harry said. “Some say it
was the operators, some say it Was
the Communists. What do I care 7
Money and prices—that was the least
of it.” ‘”
But I had my own ideas about
that. The southern mines weren’t
really organized until the war came
along to make price-cutting unn
essary for anybody. That was wh
Harry started to prosper in th
union. His only child, a daughter,
became ambitious to go to college
The other girls were reaching onl
.
at: up- on
ea a
7 IS at
ae a. Ey ee ‘ MP ae
Lig is nu isi a oF Ul siness school,
; she wanted to go to a regular
0 Mlege—not to study anything spe-
cial, just to become educated. It took
a while for Harry to understand, but
finally he did. Oh Lord, he must
have been proud! She didn’t want
to get a good job. She wanted to be-
come an educated lady. It must have
made Harry feel he had accomplish-
ed something more in life than just
getting a few extra bucks for him-
self and the other men.
The southern Appalachian winters
are raw and muddy. Sometimes ice
forms in the pools on the banks of
the Clinch. The spring time is just
as muddy and only a little less raw,
_ but suddenly the gray, old, scrawny
hills burst out like young girls in
new dresses. There is yellow and
fee wherever you look. The dead
eaves in the woods rise up to cover
the mud spongily. You walk on
springs in the woods and the sap and
the young leaves smell good as ber-
ties. To go out among the trees is
like airing the winter out of your
soul and giving it a spring cleaning.
_ YET ONE evening when spring was
in full surge Harry returned home
to find his daughter drenched in
such a storm of shame that she
‘couldn’t face anybody. She had
closed herself in her room. Spring
fever had hit her—for the first time
in her life, to judge by the way she
carried on. She had been truant from
school for three days. One day on
account of spring fever. Two days
on account of being too innocent to
figure out how to lie her way back.
‘On the third day, a letter had arrived
from the principal of the high school:
m Barbara ill?
Her mother wanted Barbara pun-
Bil cd She knew what Harry had
had t to go through to rise in the world
to » where his daughter could aspire
to go to college for no reason but to
become an educated lady. The
woman had had to go through plenty
herself. But Harry was rather re-
lieved over what Barbara had done.
Sh 1e had seemed too good to him.
1€ was going into a world that at
bes st turned angels into people. It
vas better, he had felt, for those who
lov Rad the angel to put a few callouses
er innocent heart in a vance
ee ea started t to aoe
i:
a ‘
on it. But how does a father do that
when he has but one angel, and she
a girl? Yet here Barbara was, turn-
ing human all by herself.
All right, I'll talk to her, Harry
told his wife, and went upstairs to
his daughter’s room. There was no
lock on the door. He walked in with-
out knocking, as was his habit. There
was a quick flurry, a scramble and
Barbara was under the bed. Come
and get me. Barbara didn’t say a
word, but the words were in Harry
and for the first time he felt a little
frightened.
He got down on his hands and
knees to look under the bed. Barbara
buried her face in the floor. Harry
lay down on the floor alongside the
bed and began talking to her, try-
ing to show her she wasn’t the worst
criminal the world had ever known.
Figure it out yourself, he told her.
The principal must have sent the let-
ter the first day you were absent.
The letter had come on the third
day, so she must have written it on
the second day and on the second day
she could have had the report only
of the first day’s absence. Now ask
yourself, continued Harry as his
daughter’s face remained buried in
the floor under her bed, why she was
in such an all-fired hurry to shoot
out that letter. Because she knows
spring fever, Harry went on. Every-
body knows spring fever. I played
truant myself plenty of times and
so did your principal, I bet. So did
your mother. Your principal knew
that spring is the time for the epi-
demic of spring fever, and was all
set to move fast before it got out
of hand.
But Barbara was in deeper trou-
ble than just talking and reasoning
could ctire. She somehow had got
the feeling that she had to be better
than anybody. Harry kept on coax-
ing her out from under the bed. It
must have been like trying to coax
a bird out of a tree. But finally she
came and when he held her in his
arms at last he almost broke down
himself. Her face looked as if it had
been gouged and trampled on by
tears. Her eyes looked scalded to
blistering. She never could look
school in the face again. She wanted
to be dead. Harry had to promise to
go with her in the morning himself
to talk to the principal.
The next morning he called the
office of the local to tell the boys
he’d be-in late. Then, while his wife
was fixing breakfast, he pulled the
car out of the garage. They heard
Barbara moving around upstairs, but
she wasn’t down yet when Harry
went into the kitchen. He wondered, 4
would he have to bring her down
by hand? “Bibby,” he called. There
was no answer, but it was all right, ‘a
she had got up her courage, he felt.
He heard her feet scurrying toward
the bathroom and heard the bath-
room door close. fi
He sat down to breakfast. Well, he y
reflected, the next time, instead of «
going through all that suffering, A
Barbara would just tell a lie, and so
we learn, so we learn, he thought,
so the world turns angels into peo-
ple. The most unexpected thought }
came to him then. It came into his ia
mind like a fist: the bathroom door
was the only one upstairs that had
a lock on it. Had he heard the lock
turn when Barbara closed the door?
He listened. It never occurred to him
that, if the lock had turned, he had
heard it minutes before and could
not hear it now. He sat straining to
hear whether he had heard the lock
and he heard a shot. He leaped to
his feet, but his legs wouldn’t stand
and he had to hold on to the table. —
His wife screamed. She stood in one —
place and screamed all the strength |
out of herself, screaming over and
over again at the top of her voice
until she fell unconscious. Somehow
they both knew instantly what | is
happened. The angel had fled t ‘the
world. While ‘his wife screamed.
Harry didn’t know where he °
except drowning in her mouth.
when she fell over with a cras
saw he was walking wy
a
vt are oy 1h, Ae
mre.
| wobbling legs, and began to think
again. “Darling,” he thought, ‘ my
darling, I must go to my darling.”
But he knew that Barbara had got
Be hold of the revolver he had bought
> for his. organizing work and, at his
em call to her, had been galvanized to
oe run into the bathroom, lock the door
7 and kill herself. Except for target
_____—*—practice, it was the only time the
gun had been fired.
ei THE ENDING of Harry’s story was
ha so relentless I forgot to breathe. He
St had been having trouble talking.
Swallowing had got in the way of
his words. He had kept swallowing
as if the tears were running down
inside his face into his throat. His
; eyes started blinking. It was like a
wl twitch out of control. He couldn’t
ie stop blinking and he bowed low over
the table without a word, without a
breath, and rubbed his hands over
his thighs in a keening motion.
ie Had there been something left
: out? I wondered, or something
Harry did not know about, some-
thing between mother and daughter,
something between daughter and
ambitions, between daughter and
P friends? Had something more hap-
it pened during the truancy than just
an airing out of the soul? The an-
swers could not possibly make any
difference in comparison with the
irrevocable thing that had happen-
ed, but I kept asking myself the
questions anyway. It kept me busy.
ch It warded off the mangling pain that
had invaded me. Then I saw that
Harry had taken his massive cannon-
like revolver from his jacket pocket
again and was holding it in his hand.
“Ts that the one it was done with?”
I asked.
“Yes sir, it is,” he replied. “It’s
_ the very one.”
There was sweat on him now. It
seemed to be on his scalp, too. His
black hair had become blacker and
younger. It made his face look so
My hite and pinched. Even the tip of
his nose was pinched together now.
lips touched each other blood-
sly, like a dead man a
ut that away,” cried the stringy-
ed blonde from behind the coun-
nd both of us jumped.
had forgotten anybody else was
. | had seen the woman every
and then fussing behind the
CORES or ae D 5
preparations for the rush shee might
follow the union meeting. But most-
ly she had been out of sight in the
kitchen. They had been having a
gay time in the kitchen with noth-
ing else to do and every time there
had been an especially loud outburst
of laughter she would come out and
fuss, a tight smile on her heavy face,
her colorless eyes darting about
nervously. “Not so loud, girls,” I
had heard her say once when she
went back into the kitchen. “We’re
waking up the mice.” I got the idea
she was one of those secret laughers.
I’ve known people who feel real pain
when taken unawares, when a laugh
comes out of them where somebody
else can see. They have to sneak
their pleasures, or it becomes pain;
and when they’re having fun in a
crowd they have to keep ducking
away to see if anybody is watching.
They don’t really look. They just
pretend to look, as if they have to,
as if fun can’t be fun to them un-
less it’s a sin. That’s the way the
counter girl was. In all her comings
and goings, I don’t think she really
saw us sitting there in the booth
and eating and talking. But she did
see the gun. It didn’t seem to alarm
her. She hadn’t cried out. She had
just scolded.
EVEN as he jumped, Harry stuffed
the gun into his pocket. He was as
obedient as a good child in front of
a teacher.
“Don’t you play with that gun in
here,” scolded the counter girl.
I turned and stared at her. Her
voice fell. Her eyes fell. She began
to putter at things behind the coun-
ter. After a moment she went back
into the kitchen.
“What do you want to carry that
thing around for?” I asked Harry.
He looked at me steadily, without
blinking.
“T ought to have you locked up,”
I said.
“Go ahead, I won’t stop you.”
For a moment I felt he might
want me to call the police for his own
good, to stop him from doing what
he didn’t really want to do. Then
I felt he was daring me to call them.
Finally I realized he was begging
me. He was begging anybody to let
him use his revolver. They had made
a
2
CAN you want is eee ve
workout, don’t you?”
coh nee thinkin’ about it all da 4
long.” os
I noticed that in his emotion he 4
had suddenly taken on the hill ac- —
cent that had been natural to him 3
in his youth.
“You ought to think about it some
more,” I said.
“J been thinkin’ about it for te
days, ever since I heard you wed
coming.”
I stood up. He kept his eyes on
me.
“Go ahead, call them,” he said. “
won’t do a one to stop you.” <
“T’m beginning to think I can rel
on that.”
“You can. But don’t come back
with them. You’re not in this and
you'd better stay out.’
“Oh, cut it out,” I said. “Um: nea ‘
eco any drunken cops on you.” —
I walked across to the counte
and rapped for the girl. “Let’s have %
some more coffee,” I told her when a
she came out. i
There was a glass pot on a. liceiel
gas stove behind the counter and
she turned to it. Se
“Tn new cups,” I said. a
She turned in surprise. “Not —
freshenings?”
“No, and pour it out here. mn
carry it over.’ ;
“T’ll have to charge extra if yo 1
want new cups.’
“If you have to, then go ahead
and do it and, while you’re at ite
clear off our table.” a
She flushed angrily. She seemed o
take my request as a reflection « ont
her and, I suppose, in a way, it was.
I had come suddenly to dislike her
intensely, or rather dislike her in-
difference to Harry’s story. It was
unfair, of course. But that’s the a
I felt and I stared her down and t :
stood over her, holding the two cups
in their saucers, while she cleaned.
away the last of our supper dishes
and wiped the table. “Put out fre sh
napkins and spoons,” I ordered. — bi
She drew herself straight up as if
slapped. Then she noticed that b
Harry and I had taken our
black and had not used the s
she had set out earlier, i
spoons are clean,” she said.
an
st 7 The
s) a
AE
I put the cups down and swept
the spoons to the floor so violently
they hit among the stools across the
room. “They’re dirty now,” I told
her.
She retreated in fright and I fol-
lowed her. “Are you paid to work, or
argue?” I said. “Let’s be people
here. Let’s put out some napkins and
spoons. Make out you're feeding
men, not pigs at a trough.”
I took up the cups again and
waited for her to obey. Harry said
|) nothing. He looked only at me as
| the girl worked. I did not put the
cups down until she had made a
setting for them.
“My wife is a very good house-
keeper and I guess it’s got me spoil-
ed,” I told Harry as I sat down.
“My wife has been like a dead
woman ever since we lost Barbara.”
His coffee was cool enough by now,
but he had taken up a spoon and
Was stirring it rapidly, looking down
at it as he stirred.
“T can imagine.”
“She’s got the radio going all the
time, and the television. We get very
good reception now, except on 8,
ever since we went in on that com-
munity aerial. It’s only $6 a month,
but I’m going to stop it, I think,
maybe, some day. We never look.
We just turn the set on.”
“Are you still working for the
union?”
“Oh sure, it keeps me hopping all
day. But at night we just sit around.
I bet if an undertaker walked in he’d
think we were waiting for him.”
He was still stirring his coffee, as
automatically and rapidly as, be-
fore, he had been blinking. “Why
don’t you drink it?” I said. “It must
be getting ice cold.”
He lifted the cup to his lips obedi-
ently and gave a noisy suck, like a
child at the breast.
“Tf you’re still with the union, how
did it happen you're not at the meet-
g tonight?”
He put the cup down. “What for?
I know what they’re going to do.”
3 “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Does that mean you don’t want
to tell me, or they’re going to do
nothing?”
e ihat’s right.” ©
~“What’s right, that they’re going
(0 do nothing?”
anuary 2, 1960
“What do you think?”
“If I knew what to think, I
wouldn’t ask. They say it’s union
policy to welcome mechanization.”
“That’s right.”
“Then if you’re working for the
union, why are you afraid to come
out and say it?”
“T say it. We don’t go along with
Mr. Lewis on all things. When he
went against Roosevelt, there was
nobody with him, only the opera-
tors. But what he tells us about
union matters—everybody is with
him a thousand per cent.”
“And John L. Lewis says you got
to sit still for these continuous
miners?”
“For any mechanization. We got
to let mechanization take away all
the jobs it can, and explain to the
men that’s the way to have some
jobs instead of none and that in the
long run there will be more and bet-
ter jobs than ever, like wherever
mechanization has brought the
prices down.”
“That’s a fact, in the long run.
But in the long run we’ll all be dead.
Is that the way the men feel?”
“What’s the difference how any-
body feels. Mr. Lewis is right.”
“Do you think so, too?”
“T wouldn’t give Mr. Lewis a sin-
gle minute of my time if I didn’t.
Listen, he’s got more brains in his
little finger about coal than all the
operators in the country got up their
whole backside. The dumb morons,
he’s saved their business single-hand-
ed and they don’t know it.”
“Tf you feel that way, what are
you doing here instead of at the
meeting?”
HIS VOICE had been in high gear
like a man making an old-fashioned
Fourth of July speech. Now sudden-
ly it was as if he had stalled.
“There’s others there, explaining
the rights of it.”
“What others?”
“Others, from the district as well
as the local. I told the district we
might need help and they sent real
good men down, real high-up lead-
ers.”
“But, don’t the men here know
you better? Wouldn’t they take it
from you better?”
He shifted in his chair. He turned
first to one side, then to the other.
It was a slight gesture, but it tore
at me. He seemed like a man in a
cage who had gone first to one side,
then the other, looking for a way
out that he knew in advance he
would not find.
I leaned toward him. I didn’t
know what to say except that I un-
derstood. But I didn’t know how to
say that and suddenly the door be-
hind me banged open. A group of
men stamped in, shaking the rain
off their clothing. Oh God! I thought.
It was the chief of police and about
two-thirds of his drunken deputies.
My hand flew out instinctively to-
ward Harry.
BUT HE sat motionless. He had
taken in the temper of the men at
a glance. The union meeting was not
over yet, but they already had the
news. The mine operator must have
had a spy at the meeting who had
gone running as soon as it was cer-
tain. No strike. No violence. Mech-
anization had won.
The deputies had lost: $6 a day,
plus expenses. “What’ll it be, boys?”
their chief cried with joviality so
fake his grinning face looked green.
“T say black coffee all around—on
me.” It was quite a come-down from
sipping-whiskey and done swift as
snatching the bottle from the lips.
But all that was wanted now was
to keep the deputies off the street
while the meeting was breaking up,
and the operator was doing it as
cheaply as possible.
Harry began stirring his cold cof-
fee again, his face old and pinched
under its young hair. He had lost,
too. Or, had he won? Now the pistol
could go back in the drawer, but
was that victory or defeat?
Had the men come out of the
meeting fighting, the union would
have got them back into line even-
tually. John L. Lewis himself would
have come down into the hills to
take charge personally, had that been
the only way to hammer the men’s
brains back into their heads. But in
the meantime Harry could have used
his pistol on the gun-thugs, to keep
them out of it while the union was
working on the men. It would have
meant his death, but that’s why he
had put his revolver in his pocket.
Is death victory or defeat when a
man elects to die for his work in life
u
instead of merely succumbing to
life?
For ten days now Harry must
have been asking himself that ques-
tion, unable to think of anything
else, even of eating. He would not
go to the meeting to speak up
against what the union wanted, but
neither would he go and speak up
in favor of it. Let the men decide.
Let fate decide. Let the guilt of de-
cision be on the shoulders of others.
Harry had enough to bear in his
cage without that, too.
But the men had decided nothing
for him. The question remained. The
man who is willing to die for his
work has to be willing to live for it,
too. But, is living winning or losing?
Harry sat quietly, his head bowed
over the cup, one hand working the
spoon steadily, intently. Around and
around went the spoon in the cup,
as did the dilemma in him. But there
was no dilemma. I had learned that
in the war. There is no winning in
life, and no losing, not really, only
continuance in a state of obedience to
forces that don’t know a thing about
us. Maybe Harry knew this, too, and
had just invented his dilemma in
order to keep from knowing that he
knew it. Because this is nothing a
man wants to know unless he’s an
old man whose forces are letting go
of him.
“What do you think, excitement
all over?” I asked at last.
“Seems like.”
With a sudden gesture he lifted
the cup to his lips and drained it
without pausing. He wiped his mouth
daintily with the clean paper napkin.
It was only when he put the napkin
down that his hands began to trem-
ble again. “I better get over to the
meeting,” he said, and stood up.
“They'll be wondering where I’ve
been.”
“What are you going to tell them,
that you were playing truant?”
He looked down at me for a mo-
ment. I flushed. I could have bitten
my tongue off. I had only meant
come into his mind for the first time
the | idea of taking his daughter’s
time Frolti the startled way in which
a hit him.
But he put the idea away. I guess
he dida'l hope Hea OF. think ie
did, because of the way he walked
out of the Café. He took a straight
line close to the booths, keeping
away from the counter where the
gun-thugs were sitting and not look-
ing at them, yet showing he knew
they were there the way a man can
show, in the manner in which he
skirts it, that he knows the dog dirt
he’s not looking at is there. Of course,
he’d put the idea away, I assured
myself. Here was a man who had
done a man’s work all his life. He
had gone on being a useful person
in the face of everything. A few
thoughtless words from a_ stranger
couldn’t make him change suddenly.
WHEN I paid the check, the coun-
ter girl took the money and I apolo-
gized to her for having lost my
temper. She looked so funny I had
to laugh. Poor woman, now that I
was crawling, she was ready to rub
my face in it, but she was too busy
to say even a word. She could only
purse her lips for a moment of right-
eousness before hurrying back to
wait on the gun-thugs. “Well, you
boys can sleep safe and sound to-
night,” the chief called out and he
looked so funny, too, I had to laugh
again. He seemed to think it was he
who had kept the peace and I ought
to thank him for the great victory
he had won.
Then, at the hotel, I saw the busi-
nessmen all standing around as if it
was they who had done it. Even the
mine operator looked as if he wasn’t
going to have to run off to his wheel-
chair in the whorehouse for a week
at least. I had to laugh a third time
—but this time at myself. I hadn’t
done a thing for Liége except come
down the hill getting shot at and
roll a German aside when I saw him
lying quietly, either dead or uncon-
scious, I never found out which, in
the middle of a little fire that in-
cendiary bullets had started in his
uniform. I put the quiet little fire
out, and that’s all I did, except keep
going. Yet when the fighting was
over I ducked off to the best hotel
in town, the Swéde itself, as I re-
member, and demanded the _ best
suite to take a bath in. Somehow I
had felt entitled to it because I had
been with the men that had done
the winning. Now I caught myself
‘ae ee
, ot my
> td
een a de e P |
‘Teéldg: aie PACE
ne,
master race had been dead or p
ers by the time I had reached the 4
lobby of the Suéde, but that smell of
cold lard they used to give off while e
lording around had still been present.
Now, “Fotiehby, I was smelling the ©
same sfiotHeritie smell again and §
again I wanted the best suite.
Harry, if you're still alive, if you
can hear this, listen to me: you did
the fighting and you won. You won
for all of us.
Still, I keep asking myself: whee
did he win for himself? What does
any man in this stinking, rotten
world win in the final end — except
for others?
(Continued from inside cover)
haus, just sentenced to a year’s im-
prisonment in New Hampshire, Hugo —
De Gregory faces jail for refusing to an-
swer the Attorney General’s questions.
De Gregory, however, invoked the Fifth
Amendment. New Harlem passed a |
state immunity law which took away
his privilege without in any way reliev-
ing him of liability before the federal —
courts. The Supreme Court refused to —
accept his appeal, with only Justices
Warren, Black and Douglas dissenting. —
New Hanipahink Attorney General Louis
C. Wyman hailed this decision as —
“breaking the back of the Fifth Amend-
ment.’ a _
Inquiries and contributions would be |
gratefully received by the undersigned a
oa‘
Mrs. Priscilla di Giovanni
De Gregory Defense Committee
Box 103, Hanover St. Station —
Boston 13, Mass.
Best Peacemonger
Dear Sirs: Your editorial, “The The ne
Is Peace,” in the December 19 issue, is
absolutely right in saying that the
Democrats could exploit the peace issue
to far better advantage than the Re- |
publicans. And their best candidate or
this major task would be Adlai Steven-
son. It was Stevenson who, almost our |
years ago, had the courage to make the
banning of nuclear-weapons testing a
campaign issue. It was Stevenson whe
a year ago in Moscow, suggested va Mrs
Khrushchev that he visit the
States. t
On the peace issue — as on mam
others — Stevenson stands ace high
Auven Kuen
Mt. Vernon, N.Y. 1 ae
BOOKS and the ARTS
ADVERTISEMENTS FOR MYSELF.
i By Norman Mailer. G. P. Putnam’s
Sons. 532 pp. $5.
Gore Vidal
I FIRST heard of Norman Mailer in
the spring of 1948, just before The
Naked and the Dead was published. He
was living in Paris or had been living
there and just gone home when [I ar-
rived in France, my mood curiously
melancholic, no doubt because of the
most dubious fame I was enjoying with
the publication of a third book The City
and the Pillar; at twenty-two I should
have found a good deal more to please
me than I did that spring and summer
in the foreign cities. I do recall at one
point Truman Capote telling me about
The Naked and the Dead and its au-
thor: a recital which promptly aroused
my competitive instincts . waning,
let me say right off, and for reasons
which are relevant to these notes. Yet
at that time I remember thinking
meanly: so somebody did it. Each pre-
vious war had had its big novel, yet
so far there had been none for our war,
‘though I knew that a dozen busy
friends and acquaintances were grimly
taking out tickets in the Grand War
Novel Lottery. I had debated doing one
myself and had (I still think) done
something better: a small cool hard
ovel about men on the periphery of the
action; it was called Williwaw and was
ritten when I was nineteen and easily
the cleverest young fox ever to know
how to disguise his ignorance and make
a virtue of his limitations. (What an
attractive form the self-advertisement
s: one could go on forever relighting
one’s image.) Not till I began that third
book did I begin to get bored with play-
ng safe.
I took to the field and have often
wondered since, in the course of many
excursions, defeats, alarums and am-
bushes, what it might have been like
0 have been a safe shrewd custodian
of one’s talent, playing from strength.
did not suspect then that the ambi-
Hous, rather cold-blooded young con-
emporary who had set out to write the
ig war novel and who had pulled it off
vould one day be in the same fix I was.
WECORE VIDAL is both novelist and stage
Wend television dramatist. He is now
ompleting a play for production next
imuary 2, 1960
—
mM Pa) 'e
The Norman Mailer Syndrome
Not safe. Not wise. Not admired. A
fellow victim of the Great Golfer’s Age,
then no more 'than a murmur of things
to come in the Golfer’s | murmurous
heart.
My first reaction to The Naked and
the Dead was: it’s a fake. A clever, tal-
ented, admirably executed fake. I have
not changed my opinion of the book
since, though I have _ considerably
changed my opinion of Mailer, as he
himself has changed. Now I confess I
never finished The Naked and the Dead.
But I read a good deal of it. I recall a
fine description of men carrying a dying
man down a mountain; but every time
I got going in the narrative I would
find myself stopped cold by a set of
made-up, predictable characters taken,
not from life, but from the same novels
all of us had read, and informed by a
naiveté which was at its worst when
Mailer went into his Time-Machine and
wrote those passages which resemble
nothing so much as the prose poems of
Weary Reilley in Studs Lonigan.
Sourly, from a distance that year I
watched the fame of Mailer quite sur-
pass John Horne Burns and myself, as
well as Truman Capote who had made
his debut earlier the same year. I should
explain for those who have come in
late or were around then but inattentive
that the O.K. list of writers in 1947 and
48 was John Horne Burns, Calder Wil-
lingham and myself. Capote and Mailer
were added in 1948. Willingham was
soon dropped; then Burns (my own
favorite) sank and by 1949 in the after-
math of The City and the Pillar I too
departed the O.K. list.
“I HAD the freak of luck to start high
on the mountain, and go down sharp
while others were passing me,” so Mail-
er wrote, describing the time after
Barbary Shore when he unexpectedly
joined the rest of us down on the plain.
Now the descent, swift or slow, is not
agreeable; but on the other hand it is
not as tragic as Mailer seems to find it.
To be demoralized by the withdrawal
of public success (a process as painful
in America as the withdrawal of a
drug from an addict), is, I think, to
grant too easily a victory to the society
one has attempted to criticize, affect,
change, reform. It is clearly unreasonable
to expect to be cherished by those one
assaults, It is also childish, in the deep-
est sense of being a child, ever to expect
justice. There is none beneath our moon.
One can only hope not to be destroyed
entirely by injustice and, to put it
cynically, one can very often flourish
through an injustice obtaining in one’s
favor. What matters finally is not the
world’s judgment of oneself but one’s
own judgment of the world. Any writer
who lacks this final arrogance will not
survive very long, especially in America.
That wide graveyard of still-born
talents which contains so much of the
brief ignoble history of American let-
ters is a tribute to the power of a de-
mocracy to destroy its critics, brave
fools and passionate men. If there is
anything in Mailer’s new book which
alarms me, it is his obsession with public
success. He is running for President,
as he puts it. Yet though his best and
most interesting works have been un-
justly attacked, he should realize that in
this most inequitable of worlds his one
worldly success was not a very good
book, that The Naked and the Dead is
redolent of “ambition” (in the Mary
McCarthy sense of the word — pejora-
tive, needless to say) and a young man’s
will to be noticed. Mailer himself nearly
takes this view: “I may as well confess
that by December 8th or 9th of 1941
. . » | was worrying darkly whether it
would be more likely that a great war
novel would be written about Europe
or the Pacific.” Ambition and the day
coincided and a success was made. Yet
it is much less real a book than Burns’s
The Gallery, or even some of the stories
of Robert Lowry, works which had the
virtue of being felt, possessed entirely
by the men who made them, not cre
ated out of a stern ambition and a
dogged competence. But, parenthetically,
most war books are inadequate. War
tends to be too much for any writer,
especially one whose personality is al-
ready half-obliterated by life in a de-
mocracy. Even the aristocrat Tolstoy,
at a long remove in time, stretched his
genius almost to a breaking point to
encompass men and war and the thrust
of history in a single vision. Ernest
Hemingway in A Farewell to Arms did
a few nice descriptions, but his book,
too, 1s a work of ambition, in which can
be seen the beginning of the careful,
artful, immaculate idiocy of tone that
since has marked both his prose and
his legend as he has declined into that
sort of fame which, at_ moments I hope
are weak, Mailer seems to crave.
But it is hard for American writers
13
pom
a
ee
*
wee.
sa
not to measure themselves according to
the standards of their time and place. I
recall a conversation with Stephen
Spender when I lapsed, unconsciously,
into the national preoccupation: some
writer had unexpectedly failed, not gone
on, blown up. And Spender said rather
pointedly, “The difference in England
is that they want us only to be dis-
tinguished, to be good.” We order things
differently; although our example is con-
tagious: recently, the popular British
press has discovered writers in a way
ours never has. Outside the gossip col-
umn and the book page no writer ex-
cept Hemingway is ever mentioned as
news in the American press, but let the
latest young English novelist attack the
Establishment and there are headlines
in London. Mailer can denounce Eisen-
hower as much as he likes in Dissent
but the readers of the Daily News will
never know the name of Mailer, much
less the quality of his anger. Publicity
for the American writer is of the per-
sonality kind: a photograph in Harper's
Bazaar, bland television appearances .
the writer is a minor movie star, and
as unheeded.
MAILER and I finally met in 1954. I
had just published my last, or perhaps
I should say latest, novel Messiah and
it had sunk quietly into oblivion in
America (if it were not for the con-
tinuing interest of Europe, especially
England, a great many of our writers
would not survive the various seasons
of neglect). I liked Mailer, though I
am afraid my first impression of him
was somewhat guarded: I am suspicious
of people who make speeches at me.
And he is a born party-orator. I have
not the slightest recollection what we
talked about. I do recall telling him that
I admired Barbary Shore, and he was
shrewd enough to observe that probably
I had been driven to read it to see
if it was really as bad as everyone
thought. Which it was not. Of his three
novels I find it the most interesting,
the least diffuse and, quite literally,
memorable. It is hallucinatory writing
of a kind Mailer has only tried, as far
as I know, that one time; and though
I think his talents are essentially nat-
_uralistic, he does seem again in his new
ee el (judging from the advance sam-
piles he offers in Advertisements) to be
ee for that revelation through will-
ful distortion that he achieved in
Barbary Shore. One is curious to see
e result.
have gone into the chronology of
ailer’s days and mine because they
n parallel, occasionally crossing, and
se the book he has just published
. ne , . ;
more or less his entire career with par-
ticular attention to the days of the
Golfer’s dull terror. Mailer gives us his
hfe and his work together and therefore
it 1s impossible to review the book with-
out attempting to make some estimate
of both his character and the corpus of
his work, the tension of his present and
the shape of his future. Mailer is sly
to get himself all this attention, but I
must point out that it is a very danger-
ous move to expose oneself so completely.
Indeed, in other times it would have
been fatal for an artist not yet full
grown to show us his sores and wounds,
his real and his illusory strength. Until
very recently the artist was a magician
who did his magic in public view but
kept himself and his effects a matter
of mystery. We know now of Flaubert’s
suffering, both emotional and aesthetic,
during the days of his work, but it is
hard to imagine what would have hap-
pened if the court which prosecuted
Madame Bovary had had as evidence
a volume of his letters. In effect, Mailer
has anticipated his own posterity. He is
giving us now the storms and_ the
uncertainties, private and public,
which he has undergone. He has armed
the enemy and not entirely pleased his
allies.
However, it may be possible to get
away with this sort of thing today, for
we live in the age of the confession.
What Mailer has done is no different in
kind than what those deranged and
fallen actresses have accomplished. in
ghost-written memoirs where, with a
shrewd eye on the comeback trail, they
pathetically confess their sins to Demos,
receiving for their tears the absolution
of a culture obscenely interested in gos-
sip. I suspect Mailer may create more
interest in himself by having made this
“clean breast of it” than he would
have got by publishing a really distin-
guished novel. The audience no longer
consumes novels, but it does devour per-
sonalities. Yet, what happens after one
is eaten? Is one regurgitated? Or does
the audience move on to its next dinner
of scandal and tears, its previous meal
assimilated?
But I am fairly certain that Mailer
will survive everything. Despite a nice
but small gift for self-destruction, he is
uncommonly adroit, with an eye to the
main chance (the writer who has not
this instinct is done for in America; ex-
cellence is not enough). I noted with
some amusement that, despite the air of
candor, he makes no new enemies in this
book. He scores off those who are lost
to him anyway, thus proving that es-
sentially the work is politic. His confes-
sions, when not too disingenuous, are
often engaging, and always interesting
as he aan record
different men who eat his food.
‘5 rf ss
Mailer, simply, does as begin 1
what he believes or is or wants,
drive seems to be toward power of a
religio-political kind. He is a messiah
without real hope of paradise on earth —
or in heaven and with no precise mission —
except that dictated by his ever-chang- —
ing temperament. I am not sure, final- —
ly, that he should be a novelist at all,
or even a writer, despite formidable’ ;
gifts. He is too much a demagogue; he
swings from one position of cant to an-
other with an intensity that is visceral
rather than intellectual. He is all frag- —
ments and pieces. He appears to be look- —
ing for an identity and often it seems —
that he believes crude celebrity will give
it him again. The author of The Nake
and the Dead, though not the real —
Mailer, was at least an identifiable sur- —
rogate, and duly celebrated. But Mailer —
was quickly bored with the war-novelist § )
role and, as soon as possible, he moved — ;
honorably to a new position: radical § |
politics, i in the hope that through Marx- — .
ist action he might better identify him- — ‘
self to us and to himself. But that failed — ,
him, too. Nor is the new Mailer, prophet | a ;
of Hip and celebrator of sex and it i.
connection with time, apt to interest
him or us for very long. Va
I also noted at moments toward the
end of this book that a reaction was
setting in: Mailer started using mil- —
itary allusions. “Back in the Philippines, —
we...” that sort of thing. And ther
were references to patrols, ambushes.
was startling. Most of our generation
was in the war, usually ingloriously, yet.
I have never heard a contemporary —
make any reference to it in a military
way. The war to most of us was a pro-
found irrelevance; traumatic for son
perhaps, but for most no more than al
interruption. When the 1959 Mailer re
minds us that he was a rifleman on
Luzon, I get embarrassed for him and
hope he is not going back to his first
attitude to get the attention he wants, —
NOW for the book itself. It is a collec-
tion of stories, essays, notes, newspaper
columns and part of a play. It beg
with his first story at Harvard and e
with part of his new novel. The play, —
which I read in an earlier version, col |
be remarkable on stage. But the b
work in this volume is two short
stories. “The Language of Men” tells 0 of |
the problems of an army cook who | a
an abstract passion for excellence as W
as a need for the approbation of
with them and himself and his’
to be good is beautifully got a
many ways one of ths pee
mer sk
ae (Ea ss P
s kind T have read, certainly prefer-
able to Hemingway’s The Old Man and
the Sea, which it resembles in theme.
But where Hemingway, as usual, was
pretentious and external, Mailer is par-
ticular and works from within his char-
acters with gentle grace. The other story,
The Patron Saint of McDougall Alley,
is a wildly funny portrait of an arche-
typal drifter and I think it is of perma-
nent value: we have had this sort of
fool in every age (Catullus and Juvenal
each dealt with him) but I have- not
seen him done quite so well in our day.
By and large, excepting “The White
Negro,” I did not like the essays and
the newspaper columns. Mailer is for-
ever shouting at us that he is about to
tell us something we must know or has
just told us something revelatory and
we failed to hear him or that he will,
God grant his poor abused brain and
body just one more chance, get through
to us so that we will know. Actually,
_ when he does approach a point he shifts
into a swelling, throbbing rhetoric which
is not easy to read but usually has
something to do with love and sex and
the horror of our time and the connec-
tion which must be made between time
and sex (the image this bit of rhetoric
_ suggests to me is a limitless gray sea of
time with a human phallus desperately
poking at a corner of it). He is at his
best (who is not?) when discussing his
own works and days. The piece about
getting The Deer Park published is par-
erty good, and depressing for what
reveals about our society. But, final-
A. in every line he writes, despite the
‘bombast, there is uncertainty: who am
‘I? what do I want? what am I saying?
He is Thomas Wolfe but with a con-
science. Wolfe’s motive for writing was
perfectly clear: he wanted fame; he
wanted to taste the whole earth, to name
all the rivers. Mailer has the same pas-
sion for fame but he has a good deal
more sense of responsibility and he sees
that the thing is always in danger of
spinning down into meaninglessness.
] othing i is quite enough: art, sex, pol-
itics, drugs, god, mind. He is sure to
get tired of Hip very soon. Sex will be
a dead end for him because sex is the
one purely existential act. Sex is. There
nothing more to be done about it.
Sex builds no roads, writes no novels,
and sex certainly gives no meaning to
anything in life but itself. I have often
thought that much of D. H. Lawrence’s
self-lacerating hysteria toward the end
Mf his life must have come out of some
‘bl od knowledge” that the cruel priapic
was mad, bad and dangerous to
and, finally, not even palliative to
niversal estrangement.
PERHAPS what has gone wrong in
Mailer, and in many of our fellow clerks,
is the sense that human beings to flour-
ish must be possessed by one idea, a
central meaning to which all experience
can be related. To be, in Isaiah Berlin’s
bright metaphor, hedgehog rather than
fox. Yet the human mind is not capable
of this kind of exclusivity. We are none
of us hedgehogs or foxes, but both si-
multaneously. The human mind is in con-
tinual flux and personality is simply a
sum of those attitudes which most often
repeat themselves in recognizable ac-
tions. It is naive and dangerous to try
to impose on the human mind any sys-
tem of thought which lays claim to
finality. Very few first-rate writers have
ever subordinated their own apprehen-
sion of a most protean reality to a man-
made system of thought. Tolstoy’s fa-
mous attempt, in War and Peace, near-
ly wrecked that beautiful work. Ulti-
mately, not Christ, not Marx, not Freud,
despite the pretensions of each, has the
final word to say about the fact of being
human. And those who take solemnly
the words of other men as absolute are,
in the deepest sense, maiming their own
sensibility and contraverting the evi-
dence of their own senses in a fashion
which may be comforting to a terrified
man but is disastrous for an artist.
One of the few sad results of the col-
lapse of the Judeo-Christian ethical and
religious systems has been the displace-
ment of those who are absolutists by
temperament and would in earlier times
have been rabbis, priests, systematic
philosophers. As the old establishment
of the West crumbles, the absolutists
have turned to literature and the arts,
and one by one the arts in the twentieth
century have become hieratic. Serious
literature has become religion, as Mat-
thew Arnold foresaw. Those who once
would have been fulfilled in Talmudic
debates or suffered finely between the
pull of Rome and the Church of Eng-
land have turned to the writing of no-
vels, and worse, to the criticism of
novels. Now I am not sure that the
novel, though it is many things and per-
haps as Lawrence said: “the one bright
book of life,” is particularly suited to
didacticism, It is certainly putting an
undesirable weight upon the novel to
use it as a pretext for sermons or the
resuscitation of antique religious myths.
Works of fiction, at best, create not
arguments but worlds, and a world by
definition is an attitude toward a complex
of experience, not a single argument or
theme, syllogistically proposed. In the
nineteenth century most of our critics
(and many of our novelists) would have
been ee books of sermons and quar-
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—“\. gf x
A,
a a oat
<a
f
~
reling over points of doctrine. With
religion the intellectual
world they now write solemnly and un-
easily about novels; they are clearly im-
patient with the vulgar life of the bet-
ter novels and were it not that they had
another’s books about books to
analyze, 1 suspect many of them would
despair and falter. The novelists don’t
seem very bright to the critics and
their commentaries seem irrelevant to
the novelist. Yet each affects the other;
and those writers who are unduly eager
for fame and acceptance will write
novels which they hope might interest
religious-minded critics. The results
range from the sub-literary bleating of
the Mailer’s portentous: “I
am the way and the life ever after,
crucify me, you hackers, for mine is a
ritual death! Oh, Scott, oh, Herman,
oh, ancestral voices murmuring, take
my flesh and my blood, partake of me
and know mysteries!” And the curious
thing 1s that they will crucify him; they
will partake of his flesh; yet no mystery
will be revealed. For the priests have
created the gods, and they are all of
them ritual harvest gods.
gone out of
one
Beats to
I WAS most struck by this remark of
André Gide in the posthumous Ainsi
Soit-il: “It is affectation that makes so
many of today’s writings, often even the
best among them, unbearable to me.
The author takes on a tone that is not
natural to him.” Of course it is some-
times the work of a lifetime for an art-
ist to discover who he is and it is true
that a great deal of good art results
from the trying on of masks, the affecta-
tion of a persona not one’s own. But it
seems to me that most of my contempo-
raries, including Mailer, are — as Gide
suggests — desperately trying to con-
vince themselves and the audience that
they are something other than they are.
There is even a certain embarrassment
about writing novels at all. Telling
stories does seem a silly occupation for
one fully grown; yet to be a philosopher
or a religious is not easy when one is
making a novel. Also, in a society such
as ours, where there is no moral, polit-
ical or religious center, the temptation
to fill the void is irresistible. There is
the empty throne so... seize the crown.
Who would not be a king or high priest
in such an age? And the writers, each
in his own way, are preoccupied with
power. Some hope to achieve place
_ through good deportment. Universities
are filled with poets and novelists con-
ducting demure and careful lives in imi-
tation of Eliot and Forster and others
who through what seems to have been
_ discretion, made it. Outside the univer-
ey: 16
Vee
sities one finds the buccaneers who mean
to seize the crown by force, blunt
Bolinbrokes to the Academy’s gentle
Richards.
Mailer is a Bolinbroker, a born
usurper. He will raise an army anywhere,
live off the country as best he can,
helped by a devoted underground, even
assisted at brief moments by rival claim-
ants like myself. Yet when all is said,
none of this is the way to live. And it is
not a way — a least it makes the way
harder — to make a literature, which,
no doubt quixotically, remains the
interest of each of us. I suppose if
it helps Hemingway to think of litera-
ture as a Golden Gloves Tournament
with himself pounding Maupassant to
the mat or fighting Tolstoy to a draw,
then no doubt the fantasy has been of
some use. But there is also evidence
that the preoccupation with power is
a great waste of time. And Mailer has
had the honesty to confess that his own
competitiveness has wasted him as he
worries about reviewers and bad pub-
licity and the seemingly spiteful suc-
cesses of other novelists. Yet all the
time he knows perfectly well that writers
are not in competition with one an-
other. The real enemy is the audience
which grows more and more indifferent
to literature, an audience which now can
be reached only by phenomena, by
superior pornographies or meretriciously
detailed accounts of the way we live
now. No serious American novelist has
ever had any real sense of audience.
C. P. Snow made the point that he
would, given a choice, prefer to be a
writer in England to a writer in Amer-
ica because, for better or worse, the
The Pleasures of Business “-
THE WORLD .OF ‘THE WALL
STREET JOURNAL. Edited by
Charles Preston. Simon & Schuster. 485
pp. $6.50.
Edward W. Ziegler
BUSINESS began as a reaction to bore-
dom. Although an invention of distrac-
tion, it has now grown so important
that most of this nation heartily en-
dorses its ethic as our raison d'etre.
Conventional American judgment re-
jects any suggestion that there is some-
thing radically amiss in our headlong
pursuit of profit. Still there are those
who can only exclaim at the unprecedent-
EDWARD W. ZIEGLER, a_ former
newspaper man, is now an editor at
McGraw-Hill.
UN
ta ,
nee a Mw * pte . ‘ates
Establishment of his country would
him and know him as he knew them,
as the Greek dramatists knew and were |
known by the City’s audience. One can-
not imagine the American President —_
any American President — reading a
work by a serious contemporary Amer-
ican writer. This lack of response is to
me at the center of Mailer’s despera-
tion. He is a public writer, not a private
artist; he wants to influence those who
are alive at this time, but they will not
notice him even when he is good. So
each time he speaks he must become
more bold, more loud, put on brighter
motley and shake more foolish bells —
anything to get their attention and,
finally (and this could be his tragedy),
so much energy is spent in getting the
indifferent ear to listen that when the
time comes for him to speak there may
be not enough strength or creative im-
agination left him to say what he
knows; exhausted, he becomes like Louis
Lambert in Balzac’s curious novel of
the visionary-artist who, having seen |
straight through to the heart of the
mystery, dies mad, murmuring: “The
angels are white.” on
Yet of all my contemporaries I re-—
tain the greatest affection for Mailer as
a force and as an artist. He is a man
whose faults, though many, add to—
rather than subtract from the sum of —
his natural achievement. There is more _
virtue in his failures than in most of —
those. small premeditated successes
which, in Cynic’s phrase, “debase cur- |
rency.” Mailer in all that he does, |
whether he does it well or ill, is honor-
able, and that is the highest praise I
can give any writer in this piping time. —
ae
/
ed frivolity of it all. For business, say
what you will, remains a means—to an_
end that Americans prefer to leave ill- |
defined. iF
Minute, ethereal and fleeting hints —
that The Wall Street Journal may en-
tertain similar thoughts make that paper
a fascinating organ. Or perhaps on¢
sees in it what one yearns to see. The
bulk of the evidence points the other §
way: the loving, tender—even senti- —
mental—vignettes of American business- |
men and consumers impelling their per
sons, their talents, their hopes and their
capital with frightening constancy to-
ward some transitory and _ probably
worthless goal. wee
The newcomer to the Journal, or t
this, anthology from its pages, ca
expect the paper to be predictab
om
cept highs patient It makes busi-
ae s Took like pleasure, it is against big
government, big taxes and big labor;
it is for the Individual—particularly if
he pays his bills; it is for Eggheads;
and it is for the simpler life of the
farm (particularly if it is a farm that
refuses government subsidy). It is also
for business (big, small, or indeter-
minate) and capital.
In its daily version as well as in this
anthology the Journal is a tightly edited
paper. The genre of its “leader” story
is such that it cannot be mistaken, Often
it will begin in this fashion:
As a young man on his way up,
Larry C. had his problems. He has
just been promoted to assistant per-
sonnel director of a major food pro-
cessing company, but the job entails
some basic decisions. There’s the
matter of a car. “I’m not ashamed to
ride my boss around in the old beat-
‘up car; I refuse to build my whole
life around the company... .”
This sounds like the real story of
actual people; a high-class Look for-
mula, But there is a difference: The
Journal’s mission is to inform, educate,
clarify; and, on its own level, it succeeds
admirably. Certainly there is no better-
mannered style in the mass media. The
paper is polite, its aim is high and
it vents its opinions with excellent
vigor and humor.
- Yet one cannot finish an issue—or
this anthology—without a feeling of
mental malnutrition. For the Jowrnal’s
‘genius is in going only so deep—in
developing a subject in details but in
begging the fundamentals. Hence one is
‘treated to a glittering, sometimes bril-
liant, series of essays on first-rate trivia
(as opposed to the big-slicks’ and tab-
loids’ second- or third-rate trivia).
Nevertheless there is much to applaud
in even this degree of profundity. The
fact that 600,000 Americans pay for its
reasonably serious reading matter (and
that a probable 1,200,000 others read
behind these subscribers) makes the
Journal an enduring minority report to
the mass opinion of television, the cloa-
cal press and all the others who estrange
igfrom reality.
‘The essays on personal economy and
myriad MirsG.’s) J’s,C7s Ors: and
.’s, are less Sparkling when put in a
book than when brightening an other-
wise all-business front page. There is
ar ‘ineffable dreariness about the people
the Journal writes about when one
meets them seriatim. They seem to be
i llards \ whose every thought is of con-
ption. The American, as here chron-
, is one | of the vot bores of Wea
may be specifically fictitious, he is gen-
erally authentic.
I’m paying so much on the house,
the car, insurance and interest on the
loans, I just can’t seem to put any-
thing aside.
I suppose if I were willing to take
a chance I could be making $3,000
or $4,000 a year more, but I can’t
afford to gamble. We’re on a tight
budget, and the money has to keep
rolling in. . .
When a fellow is in my income
bracket, he automatically goes into
the oil business.
I hope to be married; I’m going to
business school instead of college,
and I’d like my husband to be mak-
ing $200 to $250 a week, and I'd like
to live about 40 miles out of the
city. es
ONE article that is certain to have
stopped three-fourths of the readers
started with this dead-pan observation:
“Top executives are finding it tougher
and tougher to get fired these days.
Some do, of course. The piece
goes on to explain that there is an
apparent hesitancy in industry to
cashier the top brass. This is unques-
tionably true, but probably not for
the reasons the writer assigns: an in-
ferior man at hand is better than no
man at all because “. . . Men with exec-
utive ability are hard to find.” The
evidence is growing that the corpora-
tion has creeping paralysis. It cannot
admit a mistake; it is deathly afraid of
adverse reaction if it should, in effect,
admit a mistake by firing a top execu-
tive. Consequently, spectacular depar-
tures are rare. Coincident with this
progressive corporate ossification has
been the growth of the consultant. This
is dealt with in another Journal essay
on “Throat Cutting.” The suspicion is
growing that only a consultant can
break a corporate log-jam. He comes
in as nobody’s man, ostensibly, and in
many instances (notably, Westing-
house’s Mark Cresap) he stays to as-
sume top rank.
The problem initially arises because
the team-play concept makes it ex-
tremely difficult to assign proper blame
for incompetence. At the same time, a
high-salaried man who has reached a
“safe” level tends to sink down in his
foxhole. Often he simply can’t be found
when the shooting begins.
Not the least of the Jowrnal’s accom-
plishments has been a general and wide-
spread elevation of the standards of
business journalism. It has challenged
most of the oldest doctrines of trade
journalism. For one thing it has been
brave. It secured some detailed data on
General Motors cars a few years ago
in advance of the time G.M. wanted
the information released. Unperturbed,
the Journal ran its information. General :
Motors retaliated by yanking its ad- /
vertising. The Journal remained un- N
ruffled. A reported meeting between \
ranking Dow-Jones (which publishes the \
paper) and G.M. executives ironed out \i
the differences shortly thereafter. The ii
message was clear to the business press:
Courage pays.
A second icon shattered at 44 Broad
Street is that businessmen don’t und>r-
stand or want humor. The Journal has
one of the wittiest airs of any news-
paper—general or specialized. Although
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not included in this anthology, one of
the more amusing editorials appeared
about a year ago. The Journal listed
Uncle Sam’s expenditures for foreign
aid, domestic farm subsidies and various
public-works projects. Then it asked,
“Now, Virginia, what was that question
again?”
The minute hints of disillusion alluded
to above took their most tangible form
in an essay, “Keats and the Beats,”
that appeared in late 1958. In a close
discussion of Jack Kerouac’s Dharma
Bums, the paper was high in its praise
of Kerouac and strangely sympathetic
to one of his heroes, Japhy Ryder. The
concluding paragraph is astounding:
It is not hard to picture Japhy in
a few years. He’ll live in Palo Alto
or Winnetka or Westport. He’ll be
an account executive or a book editor
with a too-expensive family, a white
Jaguar, a collection of Maxwell Bo-
denheim poems, a Hammond organ,
ae at, oe -
a hi-fi set and a mild delusion he
is somehow shaping the future of
the world. Then, and only then, will
he be really beat.
The Journal has thrown a fright into
the daily newspapers by its octupine
operation (printing simultaneously in
New York, Washington, Dallas, Chicago
and San Francisco). is one paper
that has finally skirted the trap of
“news.” Its front-page “leaders” could
not possibly be dated by the events
of a single day. In quality, they approach
fiction. It is living testimony that the
newspaper as we know it is obsolescent.
But for all its majesty the Journal
is infuriating. It repines editorially for
the simpler day when there was no
big government, big taxes, big labor,
or groupthink. It wants a speedy return
to the primitive state for all such. But
big business? Or big business news-
papers? Things will work out—if the
government will just leave them alone.
ARCHITECTURE
Walter McQuade
A MONTH OR TWO AGO, on a
sunny, summery fall day, I had Junch
at the Hotel Plaza in New York with
one of the best of Japan’s architects,
Kenzo Tange, his wife and some other
friends. The Plaza, designed a half-cen-
tury ago by Henry J. Hardenbergh in
Hohenzollern style—in which every nu-
ance was made a complete gesture—
attracts this kind of visiting firemen’s
lunch, I suppose, because Frank Lloyd
Wright liked the building, and now peo-
ple remember, pleasantly, having lunch
there with him and getting the dogtrot
tour of the place.
After lunch we walked down Fifth
Avenue, pausing at 54th Street to peer
west toward the chaste backyard wall
of the Museum of Modern Art, over
which you could see the plastic-roofed
dome of the bare, spiney, cantilevered
truss of the current outdoor exhibition
devoted to R. Buckminster Fuller, the
inventor and builder. The structures
looked good in the sunlight. The gold
framework of the truss glinted opti-
mistically; the geodesic dome, clad in
putty-colored plastic, bulged buoyantly
above the decorous gray brick wall. And
farther down the sidewalk, facing us
a under one of the little trees planted in
he sidewalk, stood Fuller himself with
0 of his lieutenants, pointing up the
wall at the truss, and. then gesturing.
ee eth from the corner, his motions were
- easy to understand. He was suggesting
that they extend the endless truss out
above the wall and over 54th Street.
Why not?
Fuller’s ambition is to cover every-
thing with a light, cheap, industrially
produced spider web of metal and plas-
tic, to go on endlessly, abundantly, al-
most weightlessly. Man needs shelter,
and Fuller thinks it should be abun-
dant. Recently his progress has been
considerable, but it first took years
and years of pamphleteering. He has
spent most of his lifetime promoting in-
dustrial solutions so imaginative that
they threatened to bankrupt the in-
dustries concerned. He had a _three-
wheeled automobile, a house hung from
a mast to eliminate foundations, a bath-
room pressed in a single piece of porce-
lained steel, and many other visions.
The automobile industry blinked, the
house-builders smiled, the plumbers
grunted and everyone refused to do any-
thing about it.
But then he came up with the geo-
desic dome, a technique so simple its
parts could be produced by cottage in-
dustry—at most, in any machine shop.
All that needed to be manufactured
were light metal struts and fairly simple
connectors; he had worked out a pattern
by which sets of them could be put
together into wide-span roofing-walling
systems to be skinned with tough plastic
fabric. They made shelters with a weight-
enclosure ratio that was sensational.
ae 8 em
“e “i
( Ina conventional Seaneiraraa struc E
it probably takes fifty pounds of build-
ing materials to enclose each square foot r
of floor space; with the geodesic system
you can shelter a square foot with less
than a single pound of structure. This
is important; you pay for structure, like
steak, by the pound.) With the dome
Fuller not only by-passed large indus-
try; he succeeded in standing the design
world on its ear, for the structure of
the geodesic dome also has great visual —
strength, although appearances do not
really interest Fuller. Aesthetically
speaking, he would rather grow hybrid —
vegetables than flowers.
However, beauty is what he gets —
delight—and this show proves it.
The other two Fuller constructions in-
cluded—the truss and a strange struc-
ture called a tensegrity mast—are even
more aliye, visually, than the dome.
The truss is also slightly less novel
than the others. Essentially, it is made
of many triangular struts built together
in planes which are skeletally strong
because each is braced, not only in
width and length, but in depth also.
For years this kind of Tinker-Toy struc-
tural framework has been sketched,
talked about and even implied strongly
by certain scaffolding systems and ex-
hibition designs. But Fuller’s contribu-
tion is major: the connector, that fist
that grabs the clusters of struts at —
the point where they come together. —
This connector has always been the awk- —
ward link in the practicality of such |
a prefab system, and he may now have —
licked it.
a
BY FAR the most fascinating of the —
three constructions on display, and the |
most reticent technically, is the ten- —
segrity mast, a magician’s dream, tech- —
nical yoga. It too is made of short struts
and cables, and climbs up like a minor
radio mast into the sky, cabled for ;
security to the ground. Credited to
Kenneth Snelson, a student with Fula
for several years, its form is a series of —
vertebrae held together in tension by |
tendons of steel. But it is also like |
a bracelet or necklace, unclasped, stand-
ing startlingly straight up, unsupported, |
It is shown as an example of “discon- ]
tinuous compression,” and I find this
just as baffling to the eye as to the
ear. If there is tension in a structure, |
there must be compression to balan
it. Equilibrium demands it—mine, if not
nature’s. [’ll admit only (and perhar
I am about to be outmoded)
Fuller has succeeded in localizing the
compressive forces tremendously, to | the
point of concealing them, and thus
produced a very te rary air
ue)
kite frames. It
The whole show is, in fact, beautiful,
me of the museum’s really excellent
lays on architecture, a subject that
sw other galleries in the world can
ckle knowledgeably. No one could do
nore for these structures than display
hem full size, and the Modern has done
; jauntily.
That sunny day on 54th Street, we
ecosted Fuller, and as always he was
cheerful and charming. His head tilted
yack (he is not a tall man) he beams
t you courteously from behind his for-
nidable glasses, his eyes swimming
argely, apprehending everything. His
diction is wonderful, his voice like a
4q
JGO BETTI’s Time of Vengeance
York Theatre) is a provocative play.
am not certain of its meaning. This
‘not necessarily a fault: I have never
een entirely certain of what Ham-
et, Oedipus Rex, Rosmersholm and
ost of other world-famous plays mean.
am not suggesting that Time of Ven-
eance is in a class with any of these,
merely wish to point out that in-
elle ctual clarity i is not the ultimate vir-
in art, that in fact a certain elusive-
; is Biavadteristic of many master-
jeces.
Time of Vengeance is, to begin with,
ysterious in the manner of a detective
ory. I used to think of Pirandello’s
zzles as a kind of mordant mystifica-
n which cold calculation was com-
ded with hysteria, as if a mad lo-
an had tried to turn a tragedy into
ractical joke. But just as I realized
contact with certain Swedish
, films, paintings that Strindberg’s
ys were not only an expression of
$ own strange genius but a manifes-
ion of something in the Swedish
racter, so I am now beginning to
ct that Ugo Betti writes as he
t because he has been influenced
irandello but because they both
t certain traits indigenous to the
1 Italian environment.
The reader may have seen a French
jon picture called Le Beaw Serge in
a young man from Paris returns
native village to visit a former
ate whom he remembers as a
ow, but who has become ruined
hate, drink, despair, moral in-
ores self-destructive rae
‘ . a
Rien te
eae. bar ele RP ioe hea
iu mas fi m in ee
reo” if
fe _
shy, or civilized, radio announcer’s, his
conversation suggestive, his imagery in
words as enticing as it is in structural
design. We congratulated him on the
show.
“Yes, isn’t it good,” he said. “And,
you know, I really had very little to
do with it. They put it all together. We
just furnished what they requested, the
parts, and you know, I didn’t have to
do anything.” A man who has had to
bolt many of his designs together with
his own hands to prove to long rows
of doubters that it could be done, he
sounded somehow regretful, a little left
out. But then he reflected, “Of course,
that’s what we’ve been driving toward,
I guess.”
THEATRE
Harold Clurman
that seem to pervade the whole miser-
able place. When the boy from Paris
tries to remedy some of the more fla-
grant ills he witnesses, his unhappy
friend comments, “But he doesn’t really
understand.” What is not understood
is that the village is deeply attached
to its disease. It is, so to speak, unified
and preserved by its pain as if it were
a sacred tradition.
So in Time of Vengeance a tiny vil-
lage calls in a police official from Rome
to investigate a petty theft. But the
villagers and the mayor who have sum-
moned help also seem to fear and resent
the presence of the person who has come
in answer to their call. There exists in
this village a combination of poverty,
jovial loquacity, petty intrigue, duplicity,
piety, parochial affability, lubricity and
shame: qualities we recognize from many
accounts of life in the small towns of
Sicily and at the bottom of the Italian
boot.
What is going on in Ugo Betti’s vil-
lage? A clerk in the mayor’s office has
a crippled daughter (the “goose”) who
craves tenderness but is shunned by
everyone because of her deformity. The
mayor, moved by pity and lewd desire,
deflowers the girl. Her father pretends
not to know this, for he commiserates
with his daughter’s loneliness. Other men
in the town—themselves bedeviled by
hopelessness or meanness—follow the
mayor to the girl’s bed. The wretchedly
poor clerk profits from the situation;
he steals from the girl’s complacent
“lovers.” The appeal to Rome for police
intervention is the townsfolk’s effort to
cleanse themselves of the abscess they
have created. Yet they fear any change
in their condition: they live through
their sin. For despite its degradation
it represents pity, passion, the sharing
of a common secret and hunger for
expiation.
Evil as a means to satisfy a need
for good of which the ordinary besmir-
ched mortal does not seem capable is
the central theme of the play. It is not
a social study — though it has social
implications — it is more than a nat-
uralistic report. It has religious im-
plications and it symbolizes far more
than its surface story or locale. It is
not moralistic; it does not preach. It
is a parable and possibly a poem with-
out strict definition. The play pene-
trates one’s conscience and troubles it.
The production is unusually aware.
If it does not possess all the authentic
color it needs — the homely plausibility
that lends so much conviction to the
best Italian films — it has at least a
sense of what such color is supposed
to reveal. The cast is a sensitive one —
particularly Lou Gilbert as the clerk,
Sy Travers as the mayor and Merri-
man Gatch as the victimized girl. The
direction by David Metcalf admirably
brings out the human significance.
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FILMS
Robert Hatch
I HAVE seen a good many hortatory
films and, more specifically, I under-
stand how Stanley Kramer operates. So
I went to On the Beach thinking | knew
pretty well what to expect. In a sense I
was right, but I had quite failed to
estimate the force of horror and pity —
and terror — that Kramer would evoke
with his hallucinatory realism.
The picture follows Nevil Shute’s
novel in faithful detail but, strangely
enough, it is small protection to have
read the book. Because Shute’s weakness
is that his characters and situations are
a little too glib to be credible, and it is
one of Kramer’s major talents that he
can take contrived material and throw
a glare of commanding veracity over it.
In this case he asked one thing of his
cast as they took on the assignment of
showing how a small group of people in
Brisbane waited for and succumbed to
the radiation sweeping down from the
Jast war of the great powers: he asked
them to be intensely alive. That they
are, and it is indescribably awful to
watch people so wholesomely delighting
in their good, ingenious bodies when you
know —and I swear you do know —
that they are living out the last few
weeks of the human experience. Actual-
ly, I am not certain that Gregory Peck,
Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony
Perkins and Donna Anderson are vital
beyond their normal gifts: Kramer pho-
tographs them with a sensuous appre-
ciation of flesh that makes them shine.
Kramer works his effects very deliber-
ately. It is, for example, a blatant trick
when he throws a good, strong voice
over a drunken quartet singing “Waltz-
ing Matilda” at the line which goes:
“You'll never catch me alive,’ said he.”
Some of the dialogue — particularly the
love dialogue — rings with the clunk
of false coin, and I am sorry that An-
thony Perkins was asked to play a hus-
band, even a very young husband: he
is immature beyond his years and his
attempts to sustain a woman in anguish
look embarrassingly like masquerade. He
js much better when he is on duty as
the Australian naval lieutenant.
You might, in short, call this film
poster work, not art. But poster paint-
ers, when their hearts are in it, do know
how to get an idea across. Of actual
horror there is very little. Too little, I
suppose, for though Mr. Shute’s vision
of the future is grim, his expectations
of human behavior are optimistic to the
point of fantasy. We have had plague
20 .
rang. 7" Same Res
in our past and we know what happens
when all hope is lost. Men do not go
about muttering “bad show” and _pre-
paring for decorous death. They turn
horribly mad. But Shute is not con-
cerned with the pathology of despair; he
is concerned to make extinction popular-
ly vivid; and this Woman’s Day ap-
proach to total extinction is prob-
ably what strikes home. There is one
horrible passage — the running of the
world’s last automobile race, when car
after car hurtles off the track in crash-
ing flames, the drivers quite literally
caring more about victory than life it-
self. The audience giggled as the drivers
died — it is a way audiences have of
cushioning shock.
And at the end — as the last flicker
of life disappeared —the audience ap-
plauded. That is unusual movie-house
behavior and I wondered what they
were applauding. Had they “enjoyed”
the picture or were they glad to be
alive? If so, would they do anything to
stay alive? That, I would suppose, is
what Mr. Kramer now waits to see.
NO DOUBT a close student of the
meanders. in the adamant Stalin line
could reconstruct the reasons why Part
One of ‘Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible
was released and Part Two so long sup-
pressed (the two. sections are now
showing together in New York). How-
ever, to viewers more interested in
movies than in the vagaries of ideology,
the content and tone of the two seg-
ments will seem very similar. They were
made at the same time, with basically
the same cast and often the same sets.
The two-part story is a hymn to a hero,
and it therefore clashes against the old
Soviet dictum that only the people can
be heroic — or indeed display any will
or personality — which long made life
difficult for Russian story-tellers. But
Ivan was filmed as World War IIL was
about to break; it is a patriotic rite of
the sort all nations observe when they
are about to gamble with destiny in the
field. How Eisenstein intended to re-
solve his drama can never really be
known, for he died before he could be-
gin the projected Part III. As it is, the
saga breaks off in mid-breath, with the
insistent question—where should power
reside?—frozen at a pitch of suspense.
It is perhaps a measure of both the
stature and the limitation of Juan the
Terrible that one is vividly aware that
it is not Shakespeare. The situation is
Shakespearean — the legendary Tsar,
with a vision of national grandeur, uses
the peasants to beat into subjection the
boyars (the great barons), who are
armed with tradition, endlessly resource-
ful for intrigue and bloated with priv-
i».
&
thi
ilege. It is Elizabethan, surely, to as-
sume that the ancient affairs of state are
proper entertainment for the populace.
But however heavily Shakespeare leaned
on Holinshead for plot, his characters
were his contemporaries, men of steely
suppleness, complex and unpredictable.
Eisenstein’s antagonists, by contrast,
are true figures from tapestry, brilliantly
vivid but flat. His tone is operatic, or
better — since Prokofieff’s music never
comes on stage to control the action —
it recalls a masque for gigantic mari-
onettes. The figures move with the
bravura sweep of noble dolls on strings
and the illusion is intensified by the
architecture of Eisenstein’s interiors,
which is low-arched and so achingly
heavy as to bear down even on the
necks of the audience. At critical mo-
ments, Eisenstein manages his lights
and camera so that enormous shadows
of the actors usurp the attention, and
the flow of the picture (except for two
great moments of spectacle, it never
escapes into the air) is that of a black
river pouring’ through endless caverns.
How all this affected the Russians as —
they prepared once more to throw back
a mad conqueror I do not know. I
should suppose that it made them proud
of their high heritage, but somewhat un-
easy as to their own fates when the jaws
of power snapped shut. To one less
closely involved in the allegory of Ivan’s
myth, the picture seems to turn his- —
tory into a lava flow — slow, majestic, —
inevitable and incalculably destructive.
This last effect, to be sure, could be —
caused by the fact that the plan was —
never completed. In the parts we have,
Ivan is a mill grinding the opposition —_
how he would have built the future, in-
deed, whether it would have been given
him to build the future, belongs to the |
section of the film that was never made. a
Toward the end of Part II, there is a q
scene in which Ivan, bitter and exhausted, |
dresses his idiot nephew, claimant to the |
throne by virtue of his mother’s pas-
sionate ambition, in the trapping of —
Tsardom and sends him into the cathe- |
dral to meet the assassin’s knife. There —
is a wickedly feline wit about this 4
stroke of justice; it fulfills the Tsar's
oath that he will never lift hand against |
his own blood, but it has the taint of —
mad maneuvering that Richard IIL |
would have relished. This episode
might foreshadow a new, more humanly
responsive quality in the matter to_
come; but, as far as we have it, van
the Terrible is not a story of men a lit
tle like gods, but of personified blind
powers of nature, Powers, indeed, very
like what awaited those mortally u
historical Germans who were about t
move in from the West,
yy 7 A ey.
a ne Ms
-~
— Ps
-
Te he ?
i
BY Es
Crossword Puzzle No. 848 | |
By FRANK W. LEWIS
PUBLICATIONS ha
THE FIFTIES
3rd issue Now Out!
SATIRES AND INSULTS
TO OLD FOGIES such as
Gilbert Highet, Norman
Cousins, ete. A Parody of
Diana Trilling’s article in Spring ‘Par-
tisan.”’
POETRY OF THE NEW IMAGINATION
by Paul Celan of Germany—Mirko Tuma
of Czechoslovakia.
AMERICAN POETS: Louis Simpson,
James Wright, Denise Levertov, George
Kresenky and others.
Editors: William Duffy, Robert Bly
Enter my subscription for $3—4 issues—
THE FIFTIES, Briarwood Hill, Pine
m a
Island, Minn. Also at 8th Street Book-
store.
Give your friends—or enemies
—a real challenge!
THE NATION’S |
BEST PUZZLES
58 Selected Crosswords
Mailed to you—or your victims!
Send $1.25 to:
FRANK W. LEWIS
702 Devonshire Road
Takoma Park 12, Md.
td ie .
/
See | | tT | he
GOOD USED BOOKS, 50c-$1
Postal brings free lists
Editions, Desk N, Hempstead, N.Y.
SERVICES
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RESORT
ACROSS: 7 The way the lip senses an oyster
1 and 26 Equivalent to holding the should be. (9)
King and Queen of trumps? (5, 3, 5)
One would expect a following if this
might be grooved. (6)
Powerful literary hero returns with
a lot inside the same way. (7)
Act employing plunging into water.
Is Ben responsible for 9 and 6? (5)
‘3 Don’t attach so much importance!
Theatre of the Kildare narrative.
What grandma put up is no longer
quiet, but they might give support.
Might be sent when a sort of jacket
gets old. (8)
Circuits might be run together this
way. (5)
Tom on horseback, or another ani-
mal? (9)
See 1 across.
Are climbers put in condition this
way? (7)
9 The one called 30 gets fat as a
philosopher. (7)
The son of the head of 29 was. (6)
Rather more this than a ‘hot line?
DOWN:
Crazy get-up, but not quite all in
the music! (8)
Do they bring out the character of
the first part of the first book? (5)
8 Means rain, parendips to the coun-
try people.
Undercover aera without remand, in
a way. (7) :
[anuary 2, 1960
8 Burke sai dthe Rights of Man was
a this of anarchy. (6)
9 and 6 Where a guy goes to pick up
a date (for the musical show or the
serious play?) (1,5, 5)
15 Watches the following cause of
headache? (9)
17 A careful gentleman has such a
splendid quality! (9)
18 Makes a minister finish with some
hesitation, when not part of the
original offering. (8)
20 Is the drug so bad as to take care
of rattlers? (6)
21 Leaders belonging to a Greek city’s
uprising. (7)
23 Suppress drink! (6)
25 Could they be aliases when one is
on the mount? (5)
27 A custom from 1776 to the present?
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 847
‘ACROSS: 1 True bill; 5 Attack; 9 Par-
venu; 10 Precede; 11 English; 12 Lob-
bies; 13 Toeing the mark; 15 Prepos-
sessing; 21 Thereto; 22 Compeer; 23
Paddock; 24 Errands; 25 Sadism; 26
Eyesores. DOWN: 1 Tappet; 2 Upright;
3 Beeline; 4 Laughing stock; 6 Trem-
ble; 7 America; 8 Keepsake; 10 Polite
society; 14 Epitaphs; 16 Emended; 17
Onerous; 18 Immures; 19 Greener; 20
Trusts. :
se
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LETTERS
Variations on Payola
Dear Sirs: The recent reports that cer-
tain auto-driving schools have been con-
niving with official auto-driving exami-
ners in New York is a form of payola
that might conveniently be called
“motorola.”
Incidentally, one wonders how much
payola is involved in the text-book field,
where new texts are so often assigned
to the same course each year, render-
ing last year’s texts unsaleable? Per-
haps the penitent Mr. Van Doren might
be quizzed on this.
Hersert Leaver
Andover, Vt.
Price of Principle
Dear Sirs: At the end of last summer
The George Washington University be-
gan a restudy of my “qualifications and
suitability” to join its faculty as an as-
sociate professor of history. At this
time my name and my courses were al-
ready listed in the university Catalogue.
During the re-examination, I appeared
| before two committees, On neither oc-
casion were specific accusations made
t against me.
Neither committee suggested that I
had used the classroom to spread prop-
aganda. Many of my former students
testified as to my objectivity in teach-
i ing. No school at which I have taught
has ever expressed doubts about me.
Both committees were primarily in-
terested in my thoughts and associations
off-campus. This interest arose because
the House Committee on Un-American
Activities had questioned me primarily
about alleged Communist activity while
, I was a graduate student at Harvard a
decade and more ago.
I bitterly resent even the most distant
insinuation that I am in any way un-
American. I have never participated in
a conspiracy. | have never advocated
the overthrow of the government by
force or violence. During the Second
. World War, I flew with the Fifteenth
= Air Force.
At times I have held unorthodox be-
hiefs. I declined to tell The George Wash-
ington University, under duress, what
_ those beliefs may have been or may be.
No authority, neither that of the gov-
ernment, nor of one’s employer, has the
right to inquire into the innermost work-
ings of a man’s mind. Because | held
- to this principle, The George Washing-
ton University found me “unqualified”
and “unsuitable,” and notified me, on
Stk, we
December 22, that my two-year contract
had been “withdrawn ... as of August
21, 1959.”
Ricuarp W. Reicuarp
Arlington, Va.
Safe Harbor
Dear Sirs: Joseph O’Brien [Letters’ col-
um, Dec. 19 issue] has not told the
whole story regarding the role of the
Russian fleet in the American Civil War.
The Russians, facing the prospect of
war with France and Britain in 1863,
sent the fleet to friendly ports to prevent
it being bottled up in the Baltic, not
because of any altruistic friendship for
the Union cause. F. A. Golder demolished
the Russian fleet legend in 1915, using
information he discovered in the Im-
perial archives.
Unlike Mr. O’Brien, I don’t believe
in miracles.
Joseru A. Boupreau
Los Angeles, Calif.
Peculiar Censors
Dear Sirs: 1 encountered some of the
absurd results of book censorship de-
scribed by Donald E. Strout (November
21 issue) the other evening in a branch
of the N.Y. Public Library. Studs Loni-
gan, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake are
relegated to the back office to “keep
them away from youngsters” while the
open shelves offer Lady Chatterley’s
Lover and the Decameron.
Does this mean that censorship, as
practiced by New York’s librarians, is
a branch prerogative or that the
N.Y.P.L. directive is not bold enough?
Surely, with a little more imagination
the back rooms could be stocked with
a fine collection.
Nancy E. Hever
New York City
Not All Junk
Dear Sirs: It is sad to read a contem-
porary versifier pontificate that Vachel
Lindsay’s poems were not very good
(The Nation, Nov. 28, 1959). This could
be said of most post-Lindsay poets in
this land; and how would they know
good poetry? Lindsay wrote much junk,
almost as much as Wordsworth and Ten-
nyson and Masters, but he wrote much
more. “The Congo” is understood and
appreciated in many a Negro college
course. When we again produce poets as
we did in 1910, it will be time to re-
ASSESS. . « + :
Cuaries G. HAMILTON
Editor, Crossroads
Booneville, Miss.
.” ° g »
fl ; vif ar male
ous % > .
CU ete’
—
ia r aaa
Gentlemen Songsters |
Dear Sirs: The Paris letter [The Nation, —
December 5| by Maurice Grosser about
the Victor Hugo Museum interested me
very much. The little poem quoted
therein—written by Hugo and dedicated
to his son—inspired me to attempt a
translation:
Robin Redbreasts, swallows, larks!
Fly through the air and over the water
All you little gentlemen songsters,
Come hither, sing here your riotous nup-
tial joy
To please another little gentleman, my
little George, my boy.
Harriet W. Parrerson
Rochester, N. Y.
In This Issue
EDITORIALS af
21 @ D
ARTICLES |
24 @ Salazar: Man and Mask
by HENRIQUE GALVAO
26 @ Blue Cross: Retreat from
Idealism
by LAURENCE BARRETT
82 @ Basketball: the Fix Is Still On
by WILLARD MANUS
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
‘y W
34 @ Diirrenmatt: the Comedy of
Despair fa
by Ul. M. WAIDSON a
35 @ The Real Right Ovid 3
by M. L. ROSENTHAL \
36 '® The Cut-off People ‘t
by JOHN BRIGHT )
37 @ Catching Up with Bellamy i
by IRVING H. FLAMM i
38 @ Cascades and Fountains (poem) t.
by MARYA ZATURIENSKA at
39 e Art By
by FAIRFIELD PORTER
40 @ Music Mt
by LESTER TRIMBLY rf
40 @ Out in the Cold (poem)
by DAVID FURRY
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 40) Bk
by FRANK W. LEWIS n
HOA
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, Hditor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Wditor
Robert Hatch, Books and ‘the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. ‘Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Music
= =
Alexander Werth, HWuropean
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
¥ i
The Nation, Jan, 9, 1960. Vol, 190, No, 2 3 |
see Se ese Ss SS
The Nation published weekly (except for omis-
sion of four summer issues) by The Nation
Company and copyright 1960, in the U.S.A, by a
the Nation Associates, Inc,, 333 Sixth Avenue,
New York 14, N. Y, Second class postage paid
at New York, N. Y¥.
Subscription Price Domestic—-One year $8, Two-
years $14, Three Years $20, Additional posta o
per year, Foreign and Canadian $1,
Change of Address: Three weeks’ notice ;
quired for je of address, cannot be
made without the old addvess a8 well as the ne\
.
DOOR ETL vance ATTA
EDITORIALS
THE
NATION
Don’t Cheer, Boys
Governor Rockefeller’s withdrawal from the Republi-
can Presidential contest leaves Mr. Nixon in sole charge
of the dunghill. But he is wise enough not to crow. The
Democrats should be equally discreet. Their happiness
is premature, and the theory on which it is based is fal-
lacious in all its aspects. One is that the Democratic
strategists can now argue that Mr. Nixon’s nomination
was rammed through by Old Guard reactionaries. But
this won’t convince any large body of voters unless Mr.
Nixon is willing to be so identified, and he obviously
won’t be. Why should he, when the GOP conservatives
failed to nominate Mr. Taft in four pre-convention
contests in succession (1940, 1944, 1948 and 1952)?
With this record, it is scarcely likely that Mr. Nixon
stands in awe of his right-wingers. He can easily dis-
sociate himself from them to the degree required to
cadge independent and liberal votes (Mr. Nixon never
“gives unnecessary offense, except to Communists and
suchlike). No matter what he does, the Old Guard will
still have to support him and — politics does make
strange bedfellows—so may the Communists.
- Another facet of the we-can-lick-Nixon theory is that
he is a meanie who has made enemies of all the upright,
honorable, intelligent people in the country by his
delinquencies in the past. His dirty infighting on the
-way up may indeed cost him some votes. But how
many? Popular moral revulsion did not prevent him
from extricating himself. from his pre-election trouble
in 1952; all he needed was Murray Chotiner, Checkers
and a good television director. This election will be held
in 1960, which is twelve years after 1948. Few voters
have memories so long and sensibilities so acute that
they still remember that Mr. Nixon did Mrs. Helen
Gahagan Douglas in the eye. The run-of-the-mill voters
will vote against Mr. Nixon only if the Democratic
candidates give them reason to—a tall order.
_ There are various corollary issues which the Demo-
‘erats can and will use, such as that the Republicans
: responsible for our lag in space, and these will swing
votes. But the best vote-getting tools of all are,
laborers. At the end of the war, he was tried as a war
as of now, firmly in Mr. Nixon’s hands. One is Presi-
dent Eisenhower’s support, a major factor and one
which can be further amplified if the President chooses
to give his Vice President some more assignments like
the 1959 trip to the Soviet Union. This mission bene-
fited Mr. Nixon in no small measure, and the end is
not yet. The other issue is related to the Soviet journey,
and there is no reason to suppose that the Vice Presi-
dent will cease to take advantage of it. The issue is i
peace. It is not that American voters would have flocked
to Mr. Nixon’s standard because Mr. Khrushchev said
that Mr. Rockefeller was a warmonger. It is only that
they have a fairly acute appreciation of reality when a
both sides have transoceanic rockets and hundreds of <3
megatons of nuclear explosives on tap. Ashes to ashes
and dust to dust, but neither Americans nor Russians
want to be dust sooner than they have to. And if and
when they have to, they would like their children to
be able to carry on. Mr. Nixon will use that considera- y
tion for all it is worth, and it is worth a great deal. It é
is especially valuable because the Democrats have man-
aged, with costly maladroitness, to give the opposite
impression: that they are the party of the aerospace
interests and the tough line. If it is not already too v4
late, the Democrats had better bestir themselves to
erase that impression, to muffle Mr. Acheson if they
can’t persuade him to adopt the 1960 look, and to select
as their candidate someone with the intellectual and
moral stature to make Mr. Nixon look like what he has
been, is, and will remain—a shrewd politician and climb-
er. And, even after that, the Democrats will have to run
scared to win.
Making War Pay
Consider the success story of Alfried Krupp, the more
or less repentant munitions baron. He joined the Nazi —
party in 1938 and during the war became head of the
Krupp empire. His factories — and they were his, { for
Krupp is a family enterprise — covered five square
miles and employed 160,000 workers, including slave
PPA ry ie, ee aq y ; : m F
t ve
| j
criminal and sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment
and the forfeiture of his property. In February, 1951,
John J. McCloy, the United States’ High Commissioner,
commuted the sentence and returned to Herr Krupp
what had been his on condition that he dispose of part
of his holdings. However, on the ground that he can-
not find a suitable buyer, he has since been released
from this stipulation.
The Krupp company has made what The New York
Times calls a “spectacular recovery.” Its 1959 sales
were over a billion dollars, none of it for munitions.
Still, Herr Krupp has had his share of misfortunes. Two
wives successively divorced him and the Times captions
his picture, “A lonely man rebuilds an empire on new
foundations.” The house near Essen in which he was
born had 117 rooms; the one in which he now lives has
only fifteen. But all things considered, he has done
pretty well in comparison with ordinary citizens who
never built a cannon. He is even acquiring a reputation
as a moralist. Recently he got a good press by agree-
ing to pay his former Jewish slave laborers, of whom
there are estimated to be 2,000 still alive, up to $2,380,-
000 “to heal the wounds of World War II.” The sum
will not make much of a dent in Herr Krupp’s net
worth, and it would seem that he took his time about
healing the wounds.
On the other side of the world, the Japanese have
likewise taken steps to heal the wounds of the war,
and in a sense they have done even better by them-
selves than did their German colleague. Their repara-
tions amount to slightly over $1 billion, of which $175
million has been paid or allocated. The foreign benefi-
ciaries are South Vietnam (North Vietnam can go
whistle), Burma, Indonesia and the Philippines. The
domestic beneficiaries are the very interests that touched
off the war in the first place, for the deal calls for the
expenditure of the reparations in Japan, largely for
heavy industry and development projects. For instance,
Japan will heal the wounds of its former enemies
with ships built in Japanese shipyards. The shipyards,
naturally, will make a profit. The Japanese manufactur-
ers who build turbo-generators for South Vietnam gen-
erating stations will likewise make a profit. Only the
taxpayers will lose — and that includes U.S. taxpayers
who helped finance Japan’s industrial recovery.
The moral of all this is obvious. If there is a chance
to go to war, don’t neglect it. Economically you can’t
lose. The atomic bomb may have changed all that, but
perhaps not. The greater the damage, the greater the
reparations and profits to the lucky losers.
The Heirs of Magellan
It was one of the five ships of a great Portuguese ex-
plorer that completed the first voyage around the world
in 1522, proving the roundness of the earth, revealing
‘iu
» a Ay tie
va | SM eo. ) yf ?
Des t Sa
America as a new oH and emelutiont nee mai ns
ideas about the relative proportion of land and water. |
But the Portuguese soon exhausted their stock of bold- |
ness, soon slaked their thirst for adventure. For cen- |
turies they have lived in a historical cocoon, dozing, —
docile and pious; ignorant, listless and — except for a
thin upper crust — desperately impoverished. The
1950 census revealed that 40 per cent of the population
over the age of seven is illiterate — an illiteracy rate
three times greater than that in Spain. For all the rich-
ness of its colonial possessions, which have been theirs
to develop for centuries, the annual per capita income
of the country is the lowest in Europe ($321).
But recently, historical forces have been pushing the
Portuguese out of their cocoon. Salazar’s “discreet dic-
tatorship” was rudely shaken in 1958 when Humberto
Delgado, the Portuguese Air Force General who had re-
ceived the American Legion of Merit for his service as-
military attaché in Washington, courageously challenged
the dictator and actually won the election (see article
p. 24). More recently, the 10,000,000 natives in Mozam-
bique and Angola—the combined area of the two terri-
tories is about the size of Western Europe—have grown
restive and with good reason. Tribally, these natives are aa
related to those of the Belgian Congo, where a strong in-
dependence movement exists. Hard on the heels of the
Leopoldville riots of last February came news of Belgian
willingness to make concessions. The natives of Mozam-
bique and Angola promptly caught on.’ Panic spread
among the Portuguese officials, who began making ar- —
rests on a large scale in March. Another large wave of
arrests took place in July and the jails are now bulging.
The facts show clearly that the natives of Mozam-
bique and Angola have even/more reason to be rebellious |
than those in the Congo. The Belgians, the French and
the British have at least started their African charges on
the road to self-government; the Portuguese — with no
democracy at home — have yet to make the first move
in this direction. The natives of Mozambique and An- —
gola have no political rights whatever and forced labor |
is widespread; Professor Marvin Harris of Columbia i
University has provided the documentation in a recent §
study. But here, too, time has overtaken the slumbere
ing Salazar regime. The U.N. Trusteeship Committee —
has just adopted a resolution which, without naming —
Portugal, is clearly intended to apply to its colonies. —
The resolution calls for the appointment of a six-man—
committee to establish criteria for judging what is a |
colonial or “non-self-governing” area and what is not
(the Portuguese, of course, contend that neither Mo-—
zambique nor Angola is a colonial holding). The com- —
mittee’s report should throw light on conditions in |
Portuguese Africa and open the way for U.N. action,
Rudely, violently, Portugal is being dragged into the
twentieth a The process would accelerate if the
eae) ae es
i
resistance movement which Henrique Galvao heads Pp
”
INS 7 ION J
= cm ¢ . Vf aN : a . Py 7 Cr ‘
from his exile in Venezuela should succeed in over-
throwing the Sulizar dictatorship. The best hope of
planting the seeds of democratic practice in Portuguese
Africa consists in securing democratic rights in Portugal.
Research and the Soldier
The soldier, sailor and airman would be helpless with-
out the technological advances which research provides,
but this does not mean that the military should domi-
nate research. Very largely they do, however (see The
Nation, Dec. 26, 1959, editorial on “The Research
Fetish”); the rest is largely routine product improve-
ment. Thus the public impression that all is well with
research, since we are spending more money than ever
before, is badly mistaken. How badly, Dr. Wallace R.
_ Brode brought out at the annual meeting of the Amer-
ican Association for the Advancement of Science, of
which he is president. He is also science adviser to the
Secretary of State. Dr. Brode made it clear that he was
expressing only his own opinions, but these opinions
are certainly not those of a visionary or outsider. Mil-
itary agencies, he says, account for about 85 per cent of
the total outlay for government research, and the result
is something approaching chaos. Universities, having
been partially bailed out of their financial difficulties
by defense contracts, are now largely under the control
of those who let the contracts (how strange that those
who blanch at government control of the schools do not
turn a hair at this form of government control). For-
“eign scientists don’t like to take part in our research
programs, because of this domination by military agen-
cies, There has been increasing proliferation of govern-
ment agencies concerned with research, but prolifera-
tion has not resulted in order or in vifitione utilization
of funds, In the meantime, civilian government agen-
Cies, such as the Bureau of Standards, the Weather
Bureau, the Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines,
have stood still. Dr. Brode thinks there should
be < a Federal Department of Science with Cabinet status
and | a long-range, balanced program.
There may be arguments against such a solution, but
the public should realize that the present situation is
bad, and by all indications will grow worse. And the
crux of it is that the military have taken over a field of
a t ivity which is vital to the national welfare and which
few of their members are qualified to administer.
es
v Vhat Show Do Vout Fancy?
a _ The cry of ¢ ‘why didn’t 7 think of that” is going to
e heard again in the land as word of Theatrical In-
vestors, Inc. gets around. This small firm has been
m odeled precisely on the Wall Street investment house
D at advice and contacts” for would-be Broad-
S. pPbbattical, Investors rates enery, forthcom-
sat,
the show on the basis of the past forms of producers,
directors, playwright and actors (a technique not un-
known to the habitués of Havre de Grace), and issues
a bimonthly bulletin giving particulars of the opportun-
ities available. Plays are rated from Group I (one
chance in twenty of paying off) to Group IV (almost
sure bets—and a rare classification).
Seymour Vail, president of T.I., plans now to set up
syndicates for the benefit of small angels, and looks
forward to a time when shares can be traded on a spe-
cial stock exchange. If this extends the mutual fund
idea to Broadway, it will probably be the key to the
success of the venture. Because T.I.’s study of all the
shows produced on Broadway in the past five years
shows that, while the chance of success for a play chosen “a
at random is not good, the industry as a whole has Al
paid net profits of 25 per cent to investors. .
Amateurs of the theatre can be expected to turn a ‘ 1
fishy eye on this new development. It is obviously a
further business inroad into the aesthetic world of the
drama. But the angel system now prevailing — in |
which plays are put on the block for wealthy backers ‘oa
who are often ill-informed and almost always ego-am-
bitious—is anything but an aesthetic treat. If Mr. a
Vail’s firm can broaden the base of inyestment in Broad- oe
way, it may perform a public service while turning an {
ingenious buck.
Sold! i
In the first flush of their industrial maturity, Amer-
icans were known the world ’round as superb salesmen,
hustling orders and hawking their wares from Lisbon va
to Hong Kong with boundless energy and exuberance.
But for nearly a decade, now, we have permitted our
trading instincts to be thwarted by the assumed exigen-
cies of the cold war. It is an act of historical kindness
that our ancestors were saved the anguish of witnessing
us, their descendants, turn away customers who came
knocking at the door, anxious to buy, with money in the
bank, Fortunately, some of these customers have been
persistent enough to overcome our hesitancies, For over
a year, the Russians have been trying to penetrate
Washington’s trade curtain; at long last their persistence
has been rewarded. Despite a long series of rebuffs and
a stoutly maintained bureaucratic resistance, they have |
finally succeeded in inducing us to sell them $20,000,000
worth of textile machinery — the first such transaction —
since the end of World War II. Signed last week, the
contract far exceeds the total value of United States
exports to the Soviet Union in 1958. Yet there are tl
who still say that Soviet-American trade is a mi
We may not be willing to sell, but the Russians are
viously eager to buy. Who knows but that those ol
_ dormant Yankee trading instincts may yet revive 1
der the stimulus of such eager Russian rere
5 é
SALAZAR: MAN and MASK
SALAZAR’s rule in Portugal is es-
sentially no different from the pat-
tern of twentieth-century dictator-
ships established by Mussolini, con-
tinued by Primo de Rivera and
Hitler, and still surviving in the
Iberian Peninsula and in three na-
tions of Latin America (not to men-
tion the Communist bloc). It is
Portuguese only in that its dictator
was born in Portugal. Salazar’s total-
itarian oligarchy occupies the coun-
try by force, just like a foreign in-
vader. One sees the same cult of
personality, the same idea of per-
sonal power, with the people reduced
to the status of animals, a herd be-
reft of will. It uses a political police
in the same terroristic way (the
PIDE is a twin of the Gestapo,
AVO, Cheka, etc.). There is the
same sterilizing censorship, the same
entrancing propaganda, the same
labyrinth of special laws and judges,
alongside rampant administrative
and social corruption. It propounds
the same slogans and _ nationalistic
rhetoric, reducing the genuinely pa-
triotic feeling of the people to mere
verbalized propaganda.
Nonetheless, Salazar has managed
for many years to appear as a dif-
ferent sort of dictator, ruling an ac-
ceptable tyranny. In this he has
evidently been favored by the fact
~that Portugal is less important to
world politics than Italy, Germany
iS or even Spain, and by the lack of
s principles of the great democracies.
He has managed so well that even
some Portuguese outside the oli-
garchy have been taken in.
HENRIQUE GALVAO, distinguish-
ed Portuguese historian and novel-
ist, formerly served the Salazar
regime as Chief Inspector for Over-
seas Territories. Jailed by Salazar in
_ 1951 for a report he prepared on
contract-labor abuses in Angola, he
was tried in 1958 and sentenced to
sixteen years’ imprisonment. He
managed to escape to the Argentine
Embassy in Lisbon and was subse-
— quently given sanctuary in Argenti-
na. He now lives in Venezuela, This
article has been translated from the
Portuguese by Gregory Rabassa.
mid 294
PGE ee at
ew
LWA ;
a
e°¢e
It is his talent for fraud which
alone distinguishes Salazar from
other dictators and gives his own
dictatorship a different appearance.
He has always been a constant and
clever liar. Even so, his prevarica-
tions have never deceived anyone
who has taken the time to examine
closely the Portuguese regime and
the personality of its dictator. In -
1948, for example, Martin Serrano
took a moment to look carefully at
this man who was spending so much
money to create a public image of
himself that had no relation to real-
ity. Writing in Les Temps Modernes
(August, 1948), Serrano says:
If Salazar is known as one of the
most mysterious men of our day, it
is because his legend has been mod-
eled on that of a calendar saint. His
mask carefully hides his real features
and no one as yet has made an ef-
fort to penetrate the mists of his
“philosophy,” to see his morals at
close hand, or to examine his deeds.
OTHER observers who have “ex-
amined his deeds” (which the Portu-
guese people have felt in body and
spirit) have not hesitated to tear
away the mask. Yet actually few
foreigners have taken an interest in
the Portuguese situation, which is
of small importance in the mare
magnum of the political problems of
a world in turmoil. Governments and
leading parties in the great Western
democracies look upon the human
and universal aspects of democratic
principles from vantage points much
too dehumanized to allow for any
interest in the sufferings of a people
not American, English or French,
and lacking in oil riches or interna-
tional influence. And the ordinary
people of the world, as well as the
intellectuals and artists, absorbed in
the great stage of world affairs, only
hear and read, on the radio and in
the press, what Salazar’s propaganda
says; they remain completely un-
aware of what this propaganda costs
those who pay for it in Portugal.
Under all these conditions, Sala-
zar’s old and proven ability to lie
has led to an easy and prolonged
success. It has apparently trans-
formed him into a dictator different
a.
by Henrique Galvao”
from the rest — the caretaker and
shepherd of the Portuguese people.
And the Portuguese themselves, the
victims of this success, are astound-
ed to hear him described abroad as
a sort of strict but just parent. This
is what they hear of a dictatorship
which, under the guise of “paternal-
ism,” has robbed them of their fun-
damental liberties, degraded them
to the status of a flock herded by
police, sterilized them in spirit, and
kept one-fifth of them in hunger and
sickness.
And it is the image of the shep-
herd, a firm but kind leader, which
has been circulating like counterfeit
money in circles of Western opinion
beyond the Pyrennean Curtain.
SALAZAR began his dictatorship
promising “politics based on truth,”
but at the same time he stated that
“in politics what seems to be so, is
so.” Thus he instituted in Portugal
the most colossal lie in its history,
but he did comply faithfully with
the program implicit in the second
statement: “In politics, what seems
to be so, is so!” So by seeming to be
what he least has been, namely pa-
ternalistic, he and his system of
masked dictatorship have succeeded
in passing for what they seem to be —
before the eyes of a world having
little interest in things Portuguese.
What an actor the theatre has
lost!
While other dictatorships — Fas-
cist, Nazi, Russian and Spanish —
were foisted upon their respective
nations as the catastrophic conse-
quences of profound political and so-
cial crises, originating or terminating
in a war, the Portuguese dictator-
ship, provisionally established by the
military, was the result of nothing
more than a crisis of order and ad-
ministration brought about by the
difficulties of a nascent republic.
And while the Italian, German, Rus-
sian and Spanish dictatorships were
established at the great personal
risk of their authors, Portugal’s dic-
tator, lacking in active political back-
ground, the obscure member of a
Catholic party, prudently assumed
the powers of an already established —
The var! ON
be)
"aly e
f
he
fi
ae
( rorship without any personal
tisk whatever, abusing the trust the
nation had placed in him as a finan-
cial expert. Where most other dic-
tators took power through brute
force, Salazar used fraud.
This difference of circumstance
does not alter the specific forms of
brutality which are characteristic of
all totalitarianisms, but it cannot
help having considerable influence on
the mask assumed by the dictator
involved. The great dictators, crea-
tors of their own systems and
ruling large demographic, eco-
nomic and military powers, stride
the stage with a forceful arrogance
born of the strength dedicated to
the maintenance of the violence and
lies of their regimes. Portugal’s lit-
tle dictator, of rural origins, was
educated in a provincial seminary
and a listless university. He spent
an inactive and unvirile youth stig-
matized by the timidity of misogyny.
With this background, and lacking
the political or military power with
which to impress Europe, with no
genius for revolution, a mere imitator
and adapter of systems created by
others, Salazar had to present him-
self to the world and to his people
with a different mask and build up
a less arrogant and warlike facade.
He decided upon a mask which
would least contradict certain per-
sonal traits, such as his tendency
towards misogyny, his position as an
objective professor of economics, and
his vaunted, albeit Tartuffean, Cath-
olic faith.
Thus he built up the image of a
humble, modest person, one who
eschewed worldly glory and ambi-
tion — a mask which seemed to
make his regime one of peace and
order (of the kind, one notes, that
ee et pte ee,
are found in cemeteries). And_ so,
for the single party whose leader he
became, he appeared as a sort of
medieval saint; for the heterodox of
his faith, a tyrant in the service of
God; zoologically, a rare, peculiar
species of “carnivorous lamb”; in
the propagandistic projection of his
figure, a wise man and philosopher
turning his genius toward politics.
But behind the facade built up for
the world, there remained the ef-
fective reality of a dictator like the
others, basically more dangerous be-
cause he was better disguised; the
master of a system of dehumaniza-
tion, the public leader of an oligarchy
of the privileged, the jailer of a peo-
ple reduced to an inert mass, bled
by taxes and bent beneath the yoke
of a ubiquitous police.
UNTIL 1945 — especially when the
fortunes of war seemed favorable to
the totalitarian powers — Salazar,
who at the time made a show of the
autographed picture of Mussolini he
kept on his desk, maintained his
mask and the facade of his regime
in a state of near transparency. The
fundamental institutions of the sys-
tem operated openly in the country.
There were concentration camps,
police torture, mass deportations,
campaigns of fear and terrorism, and
the idolatry of the leader; all props
of Hitlerian and Soviet usage. In
foreign affairs, he openly practiced
a neutrality partial to Germany and
Italy, and made no secret of his
dislike for the Allies.
With the Allied victory in 1945,
which toppled all his hopes and
threatened the existence of the sys-
tem he had imposed upon his na-
tion, Salazar saw himself obliged to
render his facade more impenetrable
and to soften the more ferocious as-
pects of his mask. Keeping in force
against the Portuguese people all the
inhuman practices of the regime, he
created a series of legal mystifica-
tions, democratic in appearance, with
which he deceived the rulers of the
Western Allies.
Nonetheless, no lie is eternal. Even
in politics, where lies can easily find
their natural habitat, they can be
offensive or defensive weapons only
where an incontrovertible truth is
lacking. Salazar’s lie was discovered
" ee
Salazar
years ago in body and soul by 80
per cent of the Portuguese people,
and it is beginning to be discovered
as well by other peoples of the West
— those whom it sought to deceive
more than the Portuguese. Now the
lie is maintained only by the brute
force of arms and the corruptive
power of money. It holds itself to-
gether as a force which has been de-
feated, although not yet overthrown.
The Presidential elections of 1958
brought to light a decisive phase in
the decomposition of the regime.
Neither brute force, nor threats, nor
jails filled with political prisoners,
nor the mobilization of the army
could prevent a mass manifestation
of the people which revealed how il-
lusory the mask of the dictator was.
In spite of the fact that they were ©
unarmed, that they were almost —
everywhere watched by the political —
police, that the democratic parties —
were disorganized and fiercely per-—
secuted, the people of the provinces —
and overseas possessions—cities and
villages, youth, Catholics, the Church —
itself, which for so many years had
supported the dictator—all showed
by every means possible and some
considered impossible that they
could no longer bear the dictator
and his regime. The candidate of the
democratic opposition (not Com-
munist) was elected overwhelmingly.
The candidate who was actually and
legally defeated was able to assume
office only by a coup de main by
Salazar. The fraud was obvious and
so clear that not even the most in-
genuous or most susceptible to prop-
aganda were fooled. Here was the
manifestation of a decay which had
been evident for many years, but
never before in such visible form.
NOW THAT the mask has fallen, the
facade razed, after thirty years of
fraud, violence and suppression, the
results are plain to see:
§] Administrative corruption which
A ee
taxes the’ noni “(In Angola
and Mozambique, Portuguese col-
ones which I came to know well in
my former position as Chief In-
spector of Overseas Territories, 70
per cent of the administrative offi-
cials spend more than they officially
earn.)
§| Forced labor in the Portuguese
provinces is today indistingushable
from outright slavery.
§| Of the Portuguese budget, 32
per cent is spent on the military and
less than 6 per cent on health.
| The Portuguese diet is among
the most meager in Europe; 20 per
cent of the population suffers from
malnutrition.
{| Portugal has one physician for
every 1,400 inhabitants. In contrast,
Oy ae ee ;
no country in Europe has more drug
stores in proportion to population.
The government has built more
stadiums than hospitals (although
Portugal is a country without ath-
letes). The country’s death rate
from tuberculosis — 44 per thousand
in 1958—4s more than twice that of
any country in Western Europe.
§| The complete sterilization of in-
teliectual life.
Portuguese patriots inside and out-
side the country pray that democrats
everywhere in the world judge the
dictator of Portugal not by his prop-
aganda, but—as Martin Serrano sug-
gested — “by looking at his morals
at close hand, and examining his
deeds.” This becomes progressively
less difficult as time goes on.
RETREAT FROM IDEALISM
BLUE CROSS o 0 oe peuronce Barrett
BLUE CROSS is in deep trouble;
the non-profit movement that made
health insurance popular on this con-
tinent is under attack from within
and without. Some of its own nation-
al leaders now criticize it for being
too conservative. In New York, hos-
pitals and labor groups — respective-
ly Blue Cross’s founders and best
customers — are heaving verbal
brickbats at an organization that
‘ until recently was above reproach.
Across the country, rates shoot
iy up while the level of benefits re-
mains static. In Canada, Blue Cross’s
failure has been so complete that
provincial governments in most areas
are assuming the primary responsibil-
ity for hospitalization insurance.
In this country, the organization
is rapidly losing ground to com-
mercial insurance companies. Al-
ready the profit-making carriers
cover some 40 per cent of the popula-
tion, while Blue Cross has only
about 30 per cent. In 1958, the prof-
_ it-making companies wrote policies
for 1,800,000 persons; in the same
'
LAURENCE BARRETT is on the
staff of a New York metropolitan
li il i
-
a.
period, the seventy-nine approved
independent groups that constitute
Blue Cross in America signed up
just 400,000. This is ironic when one
considers that it was Blue Cross,
starting at a Texas university in
1929, which first proved voluntary,
large-scale hospital insurance to be
feasible.
Does it matter that Blue Cross is
falling behind its commercial com-
petitors? I believe it matters a great
deal. Blue Cross, theoretically, at
least, is a public-service organization
in a field where community welfare
must be the first consideration; the
service benefit is the heart of the
Blue Cross program. Again theoreti-
cally, Blue Cross subscribers get ben-
efits as determined by their need,
not by an actuary’s slide rule. The
profit-making firms follow the in-
demnity principle, which is the only
way to make money in the insurance
business. That is, commercial firms
pay according to a set schedule up
to a maximum. Then the patient is
on his own. Furthermore, Blue Cross
makes an attempt to cover the whole
community; one of the reasons why
the commercial rates are more at-
tractive in some areas is that the
private companies aim to restrict
coverage to the lesser risks.
There are some who argue that
Blue Cross is in trouble because it
has been too liberal, and that it
should compete on a purely business
basis. This report will seek to show
that the opposite is true. Blue Cross
is groping ineffectively because it
has stopped midway in its trail-blaz-
ing march. Instead of following up —
its breakthrough with firm strides
forward, it is marking time while the
community demands the _ progress
that is its due.
CERTAINLY, a large part of Blue
Cross’s financial trouble results from
the tremendous increase in hospital
costs in recent years. The average
price of a day’s hospital stay has
gone up 73 per cent since 1950, and
is expected to continue rising in-
definitely at a rate of from 5 per cent
to 10 per cent a year. The hospitals
themselves are not blameless here.
Another serious problem confront-
ing Blue Cross is decentralization, |
Every Blue Cross plan is a local or-—
ganization. There are six national co-
ordinating agencies, including the
allied Blue Shield. These seem to
a |
a
;
4
ty
wi
re ach other’s way. And in ad-
dition to the seventy-nine local
groups that operate with national
recognition, there are several others
doing business under the Blue Cross
name which have no affiliation with
any of the co-ordinating agencies.
The Blue Cross Commission is an
integral part of the American Hos-
pital Association. The oldest of the
national groups, it was set up to
compile data and establish minimum
_ standards for individual plans. Some
of its co-ordinating functions over-
lap those of the Blue Cross Associa-
tion, which is primarily a national
sales and promotion agency. The
association is owner of the stock of
the third national group, Health
Service, Inc., an insurance setup
which aids local Blue Cross units
to provide benefits which normally
they could not offer because of fi-
nancial limitations.
There are also the Blue Shield Com-
mission, which performs functions
roughly comparable to those of the
Blue Cross Association and Blue
Cross Commission, and Medical In-
demnity of America, the Blue Shield
counterpart of Health Service, Inc.
And finally, the Joint Operating
Committee attempts to link the work
of the two underwriting groups,
H.S.I. and M.I.A.
BUT the first ailment that must be
cured is Blue Cross’s schizophrenic
attitude toward itself — half public
service and half business-is-business.
While the need for reform is nation-
wide, I propose to concentrate here
on Associated Hospital Service of
New York, which covers seventeen
counties in and around New York
City. With 7,232,000 members, it is
the largest plan in the country. It
ought to be among the best, but is
far from that -—— and its failings are
shared by many other locals.
Listen to this appraisal:
I have watched the developments
{of Blue Cross] in Canada and in
other countries, and I have observed
the inevitable breakdown of the
voluntary hospital prepayment idea
when continued advances expected
by the public and by hospitals do
not materialize.
In my judgment, Blue Cross can-
_ not survive the social and economic
* impact of the developments we can
January 9, 1960
Piss
Lm Tay ares Sher wm eee er
reasonably expect in the decade of
the 1960s unless a far stronger pro-
gram than exists today, and one more
clearly oriented to the public interest,
is aggressively developed and effec-
tively implemented.
These are not the words of a
spokesman for organized medicine
who wants to return public health
to free enterprise. Nor are they the
words of a supporter of socialized
medicine, who rightly sees Blue Cross
as a formidable obstacle to his ob-
jective. They are the words of Dr.
¢
lala—
Basil C. MacLean, a grand old man
of Blue Cross, who stepped down on
Dec. 31 as president of the Blue
Cross Association.
Listen to some others interested
primarily in the New York situation:
Moe Iushewitz, secretary of the
city’s powerful Central Labor Coun-
cil: “The Associated Hospital Serv-
ice of New York has had two rate
rises — 22 per cent and 26.5 per cent
— since September, 1958. They give
us nothing in return. Our feeling is
that we are being done in. About
3,000,000 union people and depend-
ents are covered. If we have to, we
will take our people out and form
our own plan.”
Dr. Franz Goldmann, formerly
with the Harvard School of Public
Health: “If voluntary insurance is
to make headway and become truly
effective, many reforms are neces-
sary.”
Dr. Martin Cherkasky, director of
Montefiore Hospital: “Associated
Hospital Service has been run more
as a business than as a community
service. I don’t think it has succeed-
ed too well as either.”
Dr. Martin Steinberg, director of
Mount Sinai Hospital: “Blue Cross
could exercise a favorable influence
on hospitals. The opposite occurs in
many cases.”
A Manhattan physician: “The ex-
clusions in the Blue Cross contracts
cannot be justified. If you have ill-
ness A, you have to pay the bill. If
it’s illness B, Blue Cross pays. If we
don’t know what is wrong with you
and have to put you in a hospital to
find out, Blue Cross does not pay.
The result is general confusion and
cheating.”
Of more than a score of people I
talked to about Associated Hospital
Service, only two were not severely
critical. Paul Drescher, executive
vice president and operational head
of the agency on a temporary basis
since July, said that, on the whole,
A.H.S. was in good shape. “The fu-
ture looks very bright to me,” he
added. And a physician insisted that,
whatever its faults, A.H.S. has ac-
complished a good deal in providing
protection.
While the physician’s assertion
cannot be denied, I do not believe
it can be used as an excuse for
A.H.S.’s failure to fulfill its poten-
tial. This failure can best be analyzed
in two parts — A.HLS.’s service to
the consumer and its relationship to
the hospital.
OF THE 3,150,000 individual and
family contracts outstanding in the
New York area, all but 50,000 pro-
vide the so-called standard twenty-
one day coverage. This pays for
nearly all hospital costs for twenty-
one days in a semi-private room of
an affiliated hospital, and half the
costs for the next 180 days.
Unlike some subscribers to com-
mercial insurance, A.H.S. subscribers
keep their contracts no matter how
often they may enter claims. In-
dividuals as well as groups are en-
couraged to join, and those who leave
a group for any reason may convert
to individual coverage.
All of this is fine — but
{Infants up to ninety days old are
not covered at all — while infant
mortality is rising in New York City.
{Only $80 is allowed for maternity — 4
27
cases — about half the average cost
in routine deliveries.
{Children up to sixteen are not
covered for any communicable di-
sease except polio.
{|The only hospitalization provided
for in connection with mental ill-
ness is when shock treatment or
surgery, such as frontal lobotomy,
is involved. (Yet half the hospital
beds in the country are in mental
institutions. )
§/An anesthetist’s fee, which may
run from $20 to $150, is paid only
if the anesthetist is an employee of
the hospital. This forces many pa-
tients with limited means to go into
wards as charity patients.
{/Preventive medicine appears to
be the current frontier of medical
science, but A.H.S.’s standard con-
tract does not provide for diagnostic
admissions.
{It has been proved, as we shall
see later, that out-patient care and
visiting nurse service can reduce
long hospital stays. Yet now, a year
after the New York State Legislature
authorized A.H.S. payments for
home care, there is still no provi-
sion for them.
MR. DRESCHER | acknowledged
that there might be some need for
change. “This is an evolving pro-
gram,” he told me. “I think benefits
should be expanded in keeping with
the needs of the times.” He did not
want to discuss specific reforms be-
cause “a new program is being con-
sidered.” But he pointed to contract
improvements that have been made
from time to time as evidence of
A.H.S.’s sensitivity to public need.
In 1950, for instance, fifteen years
after A.H.S. was organized, polio
victims, regardless of age, were cov-
ered for the first time. Since then,
there has been no major change.
To demands for a better contract,
the routine answer is that it would
“cost too much.” The public is not
ready to pay for improvements, say
the custodians of a movement that
once breathed the pioneer spirit. On
the other hand, they aren’t hesitant
to go to the public to ask for higher
premiums in exchange for no im-
provements. In New York, there is
no doubt that another premium in-
crease will be asked for — and
granted - — this ur; th
tion is whether this time the public
will get something more for the ad-
ditional money.
How valid is the contention that
the public is unwilling to pay for
better coverage? The Cleveland Blue
Cross Plan, probably the most pro-
gressive in the country, gives full
payment for 120 days and imposes
few of the exclusions found in the
New York contract. Cleveland
charges double the New York premi-
um of $2.61 a month for one person
in group enrollment. In the other
classifications, the Cleveland charge
is nearly twice that of New York.
Yet the Cleveland plan has signed
up more than 80 per cent of the
population in its area, while A.H.S.
has enrolled less than 65 per cent of
its potential market.
Let us examine more closely some
of the exclusions in New York, many
of which are also found in other
plans. Dr. Harold Jacobziner, di-
rector of the Child Health Bureau
of the city’s Department of Health,
emphasized that 82 per cent of infant
deaths — deaths before the first
birthday — occurred by the end of
the third month. In 1955, he said,
there were 25.8 such deaths per 1,000
live births in New York. This figure
was up to 26.4 by 1958, and the fore-
cast for 1959 indicates a further rise
to 26.8. This upward trend is ex-
pected to continue as long as the
Negro and Puerto Rican population
in the city is expanding. At a State
Insurance Department hearing on
Blue Cross last spring, Dr. Jacob-
ziner said:
It is strongly believed that by in-
cluding [in Blue Cross contracts]
maternity benefits and care for new-
born infants from day of birth, mor-
tality and morbidity of mothers and
new-born infants would be greatly
reduced.
And how much would be neces-
sary to pay for the coverage of in-
fants? The present family contract,
under group enrollment, which now
costs $6.60 a month, would have to
go up 21c, according to an author-
itative estimate made on the basis
of 1959 costs.
Probably the most serious gap in
the New York contract is the limit
of twenty-one days’ full payment
OL 7
fora semi-private room. This k 12 aa]
the standard since the New York
plan was organized. The A.H.S. cor- |
rectly states that under it four out of J !
five non-maternity patients have ©
their bills paid in full. But pity that
fifth patient! In New York in 1958, fp!
7 per cent of Blue Cross subscribers E
— some 40,500 of them — stayed in
hospital more than twenty-one days,
and had hospital bills rang-
ing from a few dollars into the
thousands.
THE picture is clearer on the na-
tional level because of the availabil-
ity of certain statistics. According
to a recent study, only 5 per cent of
the 23,000,000 hospital patients a
year stay in general, short-term in-
stitutions for more than twenty-one —
days. But this 5 per cent incurs 21
per cent of all hospital charges.
Ideally, there should be no time
limit to hospital coverage. The max-
imum now offered by any plan is
120 days. Such coverage reduces to
1 per cent the proportion of patients
with insurance who would still have
to pay for care. An independent
study made last year indicates that
in New York it would cost 26c a
month extra for individuals to be
covered for 120 days and 33c more
for families. The same research team
calculated that 120-day hospital
coverage could be extended to in-
clude mental patients in general hos-
pitals, and nearly all other exclusions _
in the New York plan could be
eliminated, for a total monthly in-
crease of $2.40 for families. (Ad-
ministrative costs were not included
in the estimates. )
A word more should be said on
mental illness. A majority of mental
cases go to public institutions, tradi-
tionally crowded and understaffed.
How many mental patients of moder-
ate means would be spared long, un-
pleasant stays in public institutions
if they could obtain better care else-
where has never, to my knowledge,
been estimated. I suggest this is a
field worthy of intensive profession-
al study.
To carry the question of coverage —
one step further, it is not inconceiv- —
able that even the restriction of 120
days could be lifted. One official of
the Blue Cross Association told me
' sas 7 = Tee
J 74. ‘4
us iT = : ,
that in areas w ere the comprchen-
sive, 120-day program is already the
standard, it would take less than 10
per cent more in premiums to remove
the limit. In short, the patient would
be assured of all the care required
by his condition, at absolutely no
cost beyond the prepaid premium.
WHILE A.H.S. has maintained seri-
ous gaps in its coverage, it has devel-
oped an efficent regulatory system.
The contractual restrictions and
their rigorous enforcement have giv-
en A.H.S. one of the lowest utiliza-
tion rates in the country. But it also
has one of the highest ratios of ad-
ministrative cost to premium income.
It takes money to insure that physi-
cians and patients are not conspiring
to cheat (which they do to a de-
gree anyway ).
In 1958, 9.5 per cent of subscriber
premiums went for administration.
Mr. Drescher said this percentage
dropped to 7.5 per cent last year and
will drop to about 6.5 per cent in
1960. He was quick to point out,
however, that the reduction is not
due to any economy in operations.
On the contrary, administrative cost
in 1959 stayed at $12,000,000, Mr.
Drescher said, and is likely to re-
main at that level this year. The
proportion of administrative cost is
going down only because premiums
have been raised. In 1959, A.H.S.
collected about $160,000,000 in pre-
miums and paid out $157,000,000 in
claims.
_ Two years ago, A.H.S. hired a
_ management consultant firm to point
the way to internal economy. Its
report contained certain technical
_ proposals which have now been put
into effect, Mr. Drescher said.
As a rule, this type of investiga-
tion does not get to the core of an
-operation’s problem because the core
usually consists of the persons who
hired the efficiency experts. This
_ survey was no exception. Most of
_ the report, a copy of which was made
available to me, was concerned with
- pennies where dollars and principles
were and are involved. The docu-
ment did explain, with charts, why
a premium increase was necessary —
one thing A.H.S. executives wanted
to hear. Even so, the precision-
ninded experts, in their report, could
January 9, 1960
Aa)
eo
not completely overlook A.H.S.’s in-
consistencies:
The program administered by
AHS. is relatively complex in com-
parison with those of other major
Blue Cross organizations over the
country. The large number of re-
strictions, exceptions and limitations
applying to A.H.S, contracts is neces-
sarily reflected in relatively higher
administrative costs compared with
those Blue Cross programs where
coverage is more general and less
circumscribed.
And the cost-conscious business
advisers found it necessary to give
the officers of a non-profit commu-
nity service group the following re-
minder:
Regardless of whether or not a
role of broadened responsibility was
sought for A.H.S., or even envisaged
by its founders, it is a fact that the
very success of the national Blue
Cross program has had the practical
effect of thrusting an expanded role
upon all Blue Cross plans, including
the largest plan, Associated Hospital
Service of New York. A.HLS., if it is
to remain a solvent and effective
enterprise without the introduction of
further outside controls, cannot avoid
the responsibility imposed upon it by
changing conditions.
This report was given to A.H.S.
on Dec. 6, 1958. Since then, admin-
istrative costs in dollars have not
gone down, although Mr. Drescher
says all the efficiency recommenda-
tions either have been, or are being,
implemented. The exclusions and re-
strictions still exist and there has
been no evidence that A.H.S. has
suddenly found its social conscious-
ness. '
On the subject of contract enforce-
ment, Mr. Drescher said, “We don’t
believe that we are policing to the
extreme. As a matter of fact, I don’t
like the word ‘policing.’ We are not
policemen.”
Now a new and broader study has
been made by a research team un-
der Dr. Ray E. Trussel of Columbia
University, paid for in part by
the eight Blue Cross plans in New
York State. It will consider Blue
Cross’s entire role in the community.
While the final version has not yet
been released, one may safely as-
sume that it will recommend broad
expansion of coverage and seek to
justify further rate increases. And
undoubtedly there will be proposals
to improve Blue Cross’s relations
both with subscribers and with the
hospitals.
IT IS noteworthy that Blue Cross
received hospital support from its
beginnings. For Blue Cross not only
promised protection to the individ-
ual, but it also held out to hospitals
the hope of sound financing. Even
today, in prosperous times, hos-
pitals fail to collect a significant part
of their billings not covered by in-
surance.
For indigent patients, hospitals
in New York City receive inade-
quate reimbursements. Government
grants and philanthropy do not
cover all the teaching and _ re-
search that the larger voluntary hos-
pitals consider necessary for the ad-
vancement of medical science.
These problems — just a few of
the many faced by hospitals — are,
or ought to be, the concern of all of
us. The community at large pays
for hospital deficits either through
higher bills, increased insurance
premiums, philanthropy, govern-
mental subsidy or, if all of these
fail, by accepting inferior medical
care.
New equipment, drugs and medi-
cal techniques are increasingly ex-
pensive. In 1958, New. York City’s —
voluntary hospitals—the sixty-seven |
major, private, non-profit institu-
tions — had a total deficit of $36,-
000,000, excluding plant deprecia-
tion. Between 1938 and 1958, the
average cost of providing a day’s
ys
ts
care in these short-term, general in-
stitutions rose from $6.45 to $27.60,
an increase of 328 per cent.
In most parts of the country,
Blue Cross supplies a substantial
part of member hospitals’ patient
income. Most voluntary and propri-
etary (profit-making) hospitals in
New York derive at least 50 per
cent of their operating income from
A.H.S. The question immediately
comes to mind: does A.H.S. use its
tremendous potential influence over
hospitals for good or ill? From the
community’s point of view, it ap-
pears that the influence has been in-
creasingly negative.
One reason for this harsh judgment
is A.H.S.’s uniquely complex and
illogical reimbursement — system,
which has the effect of rewarding
mediocre hospitals and penalizing the
great institutions that provide the
best care and contribute most to re-
search and medical education.
Until September, 1948, A.H.S. had
paid hospitals at a uniform rate.
But the vast differences among in-
stitutions had made this so grossly
unfair that a new formula was de-
vised: each hospital’s charges for the
first part of 1948 were averaged and
these became the base rate for reim-
bursement. Adjustments were then
made quarterly, according to
the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ in-
dices of labor and food costs. These
are now weighted 90 to 10 in favor
of the labor costs.
THE faults of this system — which
is basically the one now in use —
soon became apparent. Hospitals
which charged too much in 1948 to-
day receive more than they deserve.
Others, especially those that have
been subsidizing semi-private care
with endowment income, are put at a
disadvantage. Also, the labor and food
indices do not keep pace with rising
hospital costs. The result is a con-
stant agitation on the part of hos-
pitals for individual rate adjust-
ments. Because there is no uniformly
accepted method of computing hos-
pital costs in New York, and be-
- cause negotiations are carried on by
a handful of persons, there has been
considerable room for politicking.
A.H.S., which was generally co-
operative in supplying information
to me for: this sur
close the reimbursement rates of in-
dividual hospitals. No explanation
of why the figures are confidential
was given me. None was necessary.
A.H.S. does not want to get the
victimized hospitals even angrier
than they are already by letting
them see comparisons. That the pub-
lic is entitled to know just how its
money is being distributed does not
seem to enter into A.H.S.’s thinking.
A member of the Blue Cross Com-
mittee of the Greater New York
Hospital Association confessed to me
that even his committee, supposedly
expert in A.H.S.-hospital relations,
has been unable to learn the figures.
The feeling is that more hospitals
are being underpaid than overpaid.
The committee estimates that reim-
bursement in 1958 and 1959 was
$13,000,000 behind costs for Blue
Cross patients.
Until recently, adjustments out-
side of the formula could be made
only if a hospital’s costs rose as a
result of new services or facilities.
But with no uniform standard of
comparison, cheating has been easy.
The director of one small hospital
bragged to me that he came out “
dollar or two ahead” on every pa-
tient-day charged to A.H.S. Once
assured of anonymity, he said: “Any
experienced administrator who is
friendly with the Blue Cross people
and knows how to keep books can
make money for his hospital from
Blue Cross.”
The public will soon be able to
find out which hospitals have been
making money on A.H.S. and which
have been losing. The State Super-
intendent of Insurance has given
permission for a retroactive adjust-
ment for the year 1958. A hospital
can get up to 8.42 per cent more than
its 1958 reimbursement if it applies
and can prove it lost money on
A.H.S. patients. It will be interest-
ing to see which hospitals do not
apply.
Other A.H.S. practices in relation
to hospitals can be considered almost
anti-social. The organization makes
no distinction between accredited
hospitals and those not approved by
the Joint Commission on Accredita-
tion. Proprietary hospitals actually
get a 5 per cent bonus to help pro-
a pr
York State at the beginning of 1959,
there were fifty-eight proprietary —
hospitals affiliated with Blue Cross,
of which only fifteen were accredited.
(On the other hand, large majorities
of the governmental, religious and
secular voluntary hospitals are ac-
credited.) It is true that some pro-
prietary institutions offer excellent
care. But the majority do not, and
yet they get 5 per cent more than
non-profit hospitals do. This is a
clear case of subsidization of medi-
ocrity.
BLUE CROSS generally could ex-
ercise a beneficial influence on hos-
pitals simply by forcing them to
raise standards where necessary. City
and state regulation of hospitals is
minimal. Why should not A.H.S., as
the only body directly representing
a large segment of the New York
hospital- -using public use its power to
improve hospitals? Or, at the very
least, would it not be reasonable to
hope the A.H.S. would not reward
second-rate institutions with higher
payments?
When questioned on this subject,
Mr. Drescher said: “It would be
completely unrealistic for a paying
agency like Blue Cross to operate
hospitals. For us to influence stand-
ards of efficiency would be tanta-
mount to hospital operation.”
It is not at all clear why Blue
Cross must be merely a “paying
agency.’ ” Agreed, its primary func-
tion is hospital insurance; yet there
is nothing to prevent it from meeting
more than one public health need.
And Blue Cross could perform a
valuable service in seeking to in-
crease hospital efficiency. Every
discussion of public health involves
rising hospital costs. Some of the
factors in this rise, such as the price
of labor, are beyond Blue Cross’s
influence. (It is interesting to note
that in 1940, wages and_ salaries
amounted to 57 per cent of the oper-
ating expenses of New York City’s
voluntary hospitals. In 1958, the pro-
portion rose to 66 per cent. Wages
and salaries rose 12.6 per cent during —
1959, largely as a result of a strike —
last spring by non-professional em-
ployees at seven hospitals. The up-_
shot of it all is that hospital labor is
The Nat I ON
i ,
|
Bt
till unde soon be
mand ing more than the $1 an hour
‘minimum now prevalent.) But other
- factors are distinctly open to in-
fluence.
As a result of technical progress,
the average hospital stay is becom-
ing shorter. However, largely be-
cause of hospital insurance, admis-
sions are growing in frequency. The
Health Information Foundation re-
ports that, between 1928 and 1943,
admissions nationally averaged 56.7
per 1,000; in a re-survey taken in
1957-58, the figure had grown to
99.4 — an increase of 75 per cent.
The complicated and _ expensive
capital equipment and new proce-
dures of the modern hospital —
things like radioisotope laboratories
and open-heart surgery — make the
difference between life and death in
a growing number of cases. But there
is no agency in New York to regu-
late the installation and use of these
innovations. Therefore, as is widely
acknowledged in hospital circles,
wasteful duplication exists.
Because all boards of trustees
and medical staffs want to see their
hospitals as modern as possible, the
general level of care is improved.
Because all boards and staffs crave
every new mechanism invented, even
though the hospital down the street
might already have met the com-
munity’s need for that particular de-
vice, the cost of that care goes up
- unnecessarily. There is no measure of
_ this waste. Indeed, there is a general
_ shortage of reliable, up-to-date in-
formation on hospitals.
A.H.S. could play an important
part in ending this type of waste.
What is needed is some sort of com-
munity agency to control both hos-
pital construction and _ expansion.
~ Blue Cross should support the estab-
_ lishment of such an authority and
co-operate closely with it. Should a
hospital refuse to abide by the
—agency’s decisions, A.H.S. could re-
fuse to increase its reimbursement
rate or, in the extreme, cancel its
~ Blue Cross affiliation.
We do have in New York a master
plan for hospital construction. Be-
fore a hospital moves to a new loca-
tion or builds a new wing, it is sup-
posed to clear the change with the
Hospital Council. But the council’s
"pa aid and vill
|
de-
authority in such matters seems to
be deteriorating. There are a num-
ber of agencies, each with too little
jurisdiction, operating in this area.
Something new is needed, and be-
cause so much public money is be-
ing paid out by A.H.S., the organi-
zation should not hesitate to take
the initiative.
A.H.S.’S POTENTIAL in the field
of hospital utilization is more direct.
Superficially, it would seem that
simply shortening the hospital stay
would be beneficial all around. This
is not the case. Let us assume a hos-
pital is charging $30 a day. A pa-
tient is staying ten days—a $300 bill
for Blue Cross. But the hospital’s
expenses are not uniform during the
ten days. For the first few days, care
is intensive and costs are high. The
hospital makes it up on the con-
valescence.
What is needed is not just a paring
of hospital stays, but a substantial
slicing down. The ultimate goal must
be reduction of the number of beds
in proportion to population.
A study of one institution. showed
that a hospital bed with a patient
in it cost $8,500 a year to maintain.
An empty bed in a occupied area
—one staffed by nurses, porters,
ete—cost $6,500 and produces no
revenue. The result is Blue Cross, as
well as other income sources, must
make up the deficit.
Complicating the situation is the
attitude of some physicans and pa-
tients. Despite A.HL.S.’s stringency,
cheating does go on, The contract
clause most frequently abused is the
prohibition on payment for diagnos-
tic admissions. From both the pa- q
tient’s and the doctor’s point of view,
it is often cheaper and more con-
venient to stretch the truth. |
Thus the present system encour-
ages both admissions and long stays. |
If a person could get diagnostic cov-
erage on an out-patient basis, fre-
quently he could avoid complete
hospitalization. At
The lack of provision for visiting
nurse service also encourages longer 4a
stays. Basil MacLean put it this Ah
way: “To keep medical costs within
reason, we must keep the patient
vertical whenever possible. Once we
put him between sheets, the bill be-
gins to get out of hand.”
Between 1955 and 1957, A.HLS.
participated in a study involving 500
patients’ experiences with early dis-
charge followed up by visiting nurse
service. The published conclusions
said, in part: n
eget a he
~
pie
——
mF
pte]
As estimated by the physicians who
discharged the 500 patients, hospital i
stays were shortened by a total of
7,948 days through use of visiting ae
nurse service... . This means that ae
700 patients could have been hos- #5
pitalized for an average stay of eleven AG
days in beds not needed by the 500 a
discharged patients. . . . [This kind
of service] would result in better use
of the dollars already allocated to Le
health care by Blue Cross sub- ra
scribers. B
A survey performed last year ¥
brought out’ another interesting
point. Groups of 100 persons cover- .
ed by Blue Cross and its weak com-
panion medical program, Blue Shield,
experienced 68.8 patient-days in hos- :
pital a year. Similar groups covered
by Blue Cross and HIP (Health
Insurance Plan of New York) aver-
aged 58.8 patient-days. This would
indicate that the HIP approach,
based on group medical practice that
provides maximum service while the —
patient is ambulatory, is more ef-
ficient than Blue Shield. The latter
is an indemnity-oriented program;
its emphasis is on individual medical |
practice and in-hospital service.
SOME EXPERTS, like Dr. Mac-
Lean, Dr. Cherkasky and Dr. Hen
Pratt, director of New York Ho:
pital, would like to see the hospitz
become the center of all medical
care. This has been done in certain
institutions, such as the Ford Hos-
pital in Detroit. In this system, all
services are conveniently available
to the public on an out-patient basis.
Only the most serious cases require
actual’ hospitalization. This mil-
lenarian setup is not within easy
reach. Said Dr. Pratt: “The accept-
ance of this type of medical practice,
which I think would provide the
highest quality care at the lowest
cost, is retarded by the attitudes of
certain segments of the organized
profession. These partisans of the
old way allege unethical conduct
when in reality the problem is one
of economics.”
Dr. MacLean would cover the cost
of this all-around care Reeth a single
contract. It would i very easy to
read, since it would have no exclu-
sions or restrictions. Not even the
mildly visionary Dr. MacLean thinks
this system is close at hand. But his
dream is the ideal climax for the
Blue Cross story.
Nationally, there is a movement
to merge the two main co-ordinating
groups—the Blue Cross Commission
and the Blue Cross Association. It
would not be surprising if this were
accomplished soon. As things stand
now, the two units overlap. It has
been suggested that such a .consoli-
dation would result in more nation-
wide leadership. One Blue Cross
Vs a ees ae The
leader has proposed ‘that the’ dome :
bined organization seek a Congres-
sional charter like Red Cross’s.
Unquestionably, the paramount
need of Blue Cross, both nationally
and locally, is for strong, dedicated
leadership. The situation in New
York, where A.H.S. has been with-
out a president since July, is the
most glaring example of this lack.
The leadership must be bold, will-
ing to experiment. It was this kind
of courage that originally made Blue
Cross the greatest private health-
insurance instrument in the world.
With this quality regained, Blue
Cross could be worthy of its own
beginnings.
Basketball: The F 1X Is Still On e e by Willard Manus
“Two Pitt Basketball Players Say
Dentist Attempted to Bribe Them.”
“Tampering Reported by St. John’s
— Coach Says Redman Star Got
Offer to Switch Schools.”
—New York Times, Dec. 22, 1959.
THE FIXED FIFTIES have come
full circle.. This flabby decade has
ended where it began: with a basket-
ball scandal. True, its proportions
have shrunken, its reverberations
are fewer; today only one fixer will
go to jail, while in 1950 seven col-
leges, thirty-two players and a good
dozen fixers provided the headlines;
but the current scandal stands as an
almost too-pat symbol of the moral
journey to nowhere that college
basketball is making.
What corrupted the game yester-
day has corrupted it today and will
corrupt it tomorrow. Nothing has
been learned in the last ten years,
nothing has been changed. Despite
the crew-cuts and pink cheeks, col-
lege basketball is, as it was ten years
ago, a maggoty mess of moral hy-
pocrisy, out-and-out dishonesty, side-
of-the-mouth connivery. The game
still meets sports writer Jimmy Can-
non’s old description of it: “The
slot machine of sports.”
WILLARD MANUS is the author
of The Fixers, a novel based on the
basketball scandals of 1951.
32
The two headlines quoted above
are the key to the whole story.
Where there is recruiting and tamp-
ering there will, inevitably, be fix-
ing. They are but different forms of
bribery.
“Recruiting. That’s the start of it.
How they went out and got us to
play,” said Ralph Beard, ex-Ken-
tucky and professional star, when
he was arrested on fix charges in
1951. “It got so big. Too big.”
Make no mistake’ about it, col-
lege basketball is big business. More
than 15 million people paid to see
college games last year; television
carries the games into three times
that many homes throughout the
season; there are dozens of locally
promoted tournaments which cut the
top teams in for a fat slice of the
gate receipts; lucrative coast-to-
coast tours are arranged for those
same top teams. To stay where the
money and the prestige are, these
teams must win. Not every three
years — the peak of a team’s natural
performance cycle — but every year,
one after the other. The major col-
leges that win consistently — Ken-
tucky, Bradley, North Carolina,
etc. — are basketball factories; they
recruit the best players on the mar-
ket. Round and round it goes: they
recruit their players to build winning
teams, to attract crowds, to get gate
receipts in order to recruit more
players to win more games to recruit
more players.
The players are recruited in any
number of ways — through tuition
scholarships, lavish room-and-board
allowances, summer sinecures, a new
job for daddy, under-the-table cash
handouts. Most are in flagrant viola-
tion of every standard of amateur
sport that currently exists. The
NCAA and the various other col-
lege athletic councils have at one
time or another passed Sanity Codes
that call for severe penalties for
such things as “subsidization eligibil-
ity infractions,” but, as the euphe-
mism indicates, the issue is never
met head-on, the codes are eventual-
ly emasculated, and the game con-
tinues on its dollar-merry whirl.
ALL THIS has been said before,
even as far back as twenty years
ago by the Carnegie Foundation.
But criticism of this kind runs full-
smack into the roadblock of the
American success ethic, behind which
most of the men who control col-
lege basketball hide. “We do not
wish merely to participate in sports.
We wish to be successful in sports!”
So proclaimed Adolph Rupp, for
thirty years the basketball coach at
the University of Kentucky, in an
article last year in Sports Illustrated,
The Nati ON
ay ee ,
i is. Eris. ) To ‘Be’ wut, Rupp’ s
teams have always won for him and
he has had the kind of success which
has enabled Kentucky to build a
four-million-dollar memorial coliseum
seating nearly 15,000 people, but the
most telling thing about his article
is that it never once touched on the
six Kentucky players who were in-
dicted in 1951 for fixing games. Ob-
viously Rupp sees no connection be-
tween the conquistador philosophy
of the game and the corruption of
its athletes.
This connection has already been
analyzed by Judge Saul S. Streit,
who tried fourteen of the thirty-two
indicted players back in November
of 1951. Streit showed that by brib-
ing players in the first instance to
choose one college over another, the
player’s “ethical standards are de-
stroyed and his moral armor pierced
at the very act of entering college.
The player begins to compare the
adequacy of his compensation with
the financial returns to the institu-
tion. The self-justification which so
often is a prelude to crime is thus
created.”
BUT AS STREIT himself admitted,
he only scratched the surface of the
corruption: “Four-fifths of it is as
yet beneath the level of legal proof
and indictment.” This is corruption
which ranges from the coaches and
athletic directors collecting payola
from promoters to the whole com-
plex and fantastic gambling ap-
paratus surrounding the game.
Bookmakers handle an estimated $15
million a day in basketball wagers.
This illegal operation involves the
phone companies, Western Union,
politicians, police chiefs and gang-
sters, as the Kefauver committee in-
vestigating the transmission of
_ gambling information proved several
years ago. Basketball odds are de-
termined by the various clearing
_ houses around the country, where
_ professional handicappers study in-
side information on the games sup-
plied by local sports writers, stu-
dents, tipsters and, it is rumored, by
_ players, trainers and coaches. The
bookmaking syndicates then begin
taking bets at these opening odds,
_which have declared one team a fav-
ier by a specified number of points.
%", ras cit oie
‘Te ts this. difference in gents —
called the point spread — which
makes basketball more vulnerable to
the fix than any other team sport.
To be specific: say Team A goes
into a game the gambling favorite
by seven points over Team B. The
fixed players on Team A can still
lead their team to a win, but if the
winning margin is under seven
points, all those betting on Team B
would collect.
As one of the bribed players said
in 1951: “A small group of players
can control the points without the
slightest danger of being detected
by their coach or even by their own
teammates. A real smart operator
can win the game for his team,
grab off the headlines as the star
of the game, and still make the
score come out the way the gamblers
want it. He can, for example, play
hard on offense, score a pile of points,
but make up for it by committing
simple mistakes on defense.”
It is not the bookmakers, how-
ever, who look to fix games; it is
the bettors. Some of these men are
professional gamblers. Some — like
Irving Schwartzberg, the mastermind
of the Manhattan College scandal—
are professional fixers. Others are
in or around the rackets. Others are
just plain dentists — with larceny
in their blood. Together they infest
the arenas and field houses where
big-time basketball is played today,
sitting courtside with the rest of
the gambling crowd, openly making
bets on the game.
Given this pool-hall atmosphere
of doubt and cynicism in which they
must perform, and given the corrupt
internal structure of the college game
itself, is it any wonder that the play-
ers sometimes go for the dump? Re-
member, these are but tall children
in a commercial world which does
not know the meaning of integrity.
Above all else, college has taught
them how to steal and get away with
it. And so what has made them spe-
cial may very well destroy them.
PEOPLE “in the know” are talking
fix these days, just as they did in
the days before the 751 scandal
broke. There are rumors about the
pro game, too. Professional basket-
ball was fathered by the ’51 scandals
and by televsion. With college ball
temporarily staggered then by the
fix revelations, the promoters — the
same gents who had wrung millions
out of a so-called “amateur” sport —
decided it was time to elevate the
play-for-pay boys into major status.
They did it by pandering to the
lowest tastes of the new fans of the
TV age — armchair addicts who
crave high scores, sensational shoot-
ing matches, speeded-up action. Out
the window went all the old subtle-
ties and niceties of the game: in-
tricate zone defenses, possession
play, clever passing and _ strategy.
The pro game became all offense and
no defense. To these eyes, watching
it is about as exciting as watching
a pinball game for two hours.
Whether or not the pro game is
fixed is something else. At any rate,
the pro league has the police ap-
paratus to investigate itself. What
is of more urgent concern is the col-
lege game:
mess, it is dishonest from top to
bottom. It is futile to call on those
within the sport to clean house; they
didn’t do it ten years ago, so why
should they suddenly do it today?
fixed or not, it is in a
The only thing that can save the |
game — particularly its kids md
from another shabby fix scandal is
some kind of outside investigation. —
Congress has found it necessary to
haul all the other pro sports before
its committees; why have they ex=
cepted college basketball?
;
noe ceceine
Sat eae
Sea
—
an eh
NR Oey. .
_ BOOKS and
Durrenmatt: the Comedy of Despair
H. M. Waidson
THIS SWISS author, born near Berne
a in 1921, has established for himself
tess reputation, since the death of Brecht,
as as the most important dramatist now
writing in German. American and Brit-
ish audiences were not, apparently, par-
ticularly enthusiastic in their first reac-
tions to The Visit (Der Besuch der alten
Dame, 1956), his most recent full-length
play and the one chosen to introduce
him in English. It is one of the grimmest
of his plays, and the sharp wit of the
dialogue, together with the calculated
buffoonery of a number of the minor
characters, only serves to emphasize the
fundamental harshness of its attitude.
ops The old lady is a multi-millionairess,
, controller of Armenian oil and other in-
ternational business trusts, who returns
to visit the seedy, impoverished little
town from which she was forced to flee
forty years earlier. “Claire Zachanassian
does not stand for justice or the Mar-
shall Plan or even the “Apocalypse,”
Friedrich Diirrenmatt writes in an epi-
logue, “let her be just what she is, the
richest woman in the world, enabled
by her wealth to act like a heroine of
Greek tragedy, uncompromisingly, terri-
fyingly, like Medea for instance.” The
purpose of her visit is to be avenged on
the man who once loved her and de-
- ceived her. He is a respected citizen,
i lord-mayor elect, confident that the
i town will support him and reject the old
Fa lady’s offer of a billion marks for his
. dead body. But he is mistaken in his
belief that moral decency will triumph
over cupidity. The town gradually ra-
tionalizes its own greed and condemns
him to death, in the midst of the tele-
vision cameras which have come to
celebrate the millionairess’ latest mar-
riage. “The temptation is too great, the
poverty too bitter.” The minor figures
in the play are grotesques, the old lady’s
character is fixed and unbending, so
that our sympathies have to be con-
centrated entirely on the ex-lover, whose
ast and present behavior arouses little
confidence. A play whose two principal
characters are over sixty is evidently
not aiming at an easy mass appeal; wit
Mi
H. M. WAIDSON, author of The
Modern German Novel and other studies
of German literature, is senior lecturer
im German at the University of Hull.
roy
and clever stage effects are incidental
in a relentless satire of what the author
conceives as man’s willingness to betray
anybody or any principle for the sake
of money. Diirrenmatt is a moralist and
a preacher, though some may think that
The Visit is more like a horror comic
than a “tragi-comedy.”
His first play, lt Is Written (Es steht
geschrieben, 1947), is set in sixteenth-
century Miinster and shows an Ana-
baptist community which aims, by a
fundamentalist adherence to the letter
of the Bible, to realize the kingdom of
God on earth. But once in power, the
leaders of the new movement are found
to be as prone to the corrupting influ-
ence of power as were their predecessors.
The destructive criticism of the Ana-
baptists’ ideals recalls the manner of
Sartre. Diirrenmatt claims in this play
to be seeking truth beyond disillusion-
ment: “I write knowing about the ab-
surdity of this world, but not despair-
ing, for, even though we don’t stand
much chance of saving it — unless God
is merciful to us — at least we may
still be able to survive it.”
THESE two plays, both with desperate
and deadly endings, might usually be
called tragedies, but Dirrenmatt is re-
luctant to admit the applicability of
the term to modern drama. In his es-
say Problems of the Theatre (1955) he
maintains that historical tragedy, that
is, drama concerning the conflicts of
political rulers, is impossible today be-
cause political power itself, in the hands
of men like Hitler and Stalin, has be-
come so gigantic and uncontrollable that
it ceases to offer the possibility of ef-
fective drama; in contemporary polit-
ical life everything is so large-scale and
impersonal that no one can “help it”
or be made responsible. “Our world has
led just as much to the grotesque as to
the atom-bomb.” And so he advocates
comedy as a genre which has more
chance of successful realization today
because it is concrete and finds its basis
in society. Comedy may be an expres-
sion of despair, but if the dramatists
can ridicule the tyrants of today, that
may well be a more effective gesture
than tragic pathos.
Indeed Diirrenmatt’s three most at-
tractive stage plays are comedies. Romu-
lus the Great (Romulus der Grosse,
1949) is light comedy, with an unex-
pected, but all the more welcome, happy
ending; it is the most suitable of his
plays to take one’s young daughters to.
Romulus, a late-Roman emperor, de-
votes his attentions to poultry rearing,
and his headquarters, somewhere in
north Italy, are virtually a farm. Bar-
barians from the Germanic North, hated
and feared by all true Romans, are ad-
vancing with disastrous inexorability.
The queen and the whole entourage
make a panic-stricken last-minute flight,
but Romulus stays behind to look after
his chickens, the only person who is
serene and unafraid, irritating the con-
ventional terrors of the others with his
absurd irreleyancies and witticisms. The
invaders duly arrive, but their leader
Theodoric is a mild, middle-aged gentle-
man with tastes similar to Romulus,
who can now abdicate, relieved that he
is no longer expected to behave like a
tragic hero.
Nearly all Diirrenmatt’s plays are
concerned with the breaking up of a
conventional world by the irruption of
radical forces of change. An Angel
Comes to Babylon (Ein Engel kommt
nach Babylon, 1954) relates the indif-
ferent intervention of an angel in the
affairs of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon;
the setting is that of a rococo fairy
tale, and Diirrenmatt’s neatly parodistic
approach to the past enables him here
to depict ancient Babylon in the spirit
of one of Voltaire’s satires. As always,
his first interest is the drama of ideas;
if his characters are concerned with
problems of faith and philosophy, he
says in Problems of the Theatre, it is
because intelligent human beings are
concerned with such problems, and he
would find it boring to portray “nothing
but blockheads.” In Romulus the Great
and An Angel Comes to Babylon Diir-
renmatt is closest in mood to Bernard
Shaw. In the latter, the Lord has given
one of his angels the task of establishing
upon earth imaginative beauty, in the
shape of a young woman who inflames
men with wild yearning. The angel is
perfunctory in the performance of this
duty, sublimely ignorant of the human.
race and obstinately confident that there
is no such thing as unhappiness. Man’s
problems are of little importance within
the framework of the universe as a_
whole, he implies: “After all, ’'ve got a
job to do.... I’m not an anthropologist, —
I’m a physicist. Suns are my specialty,”
Ideas, comedy of situation, the dry
The N TION
(5 ee
Akal
%
_)
ment of ¢
quick, neat bsputtectod of theatrical
~ devices which owe something to Bertolt
Brecht and to Thornton Wilder, make
The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi (Die
Ehe des Herrn Mississippi, 1952) one
of Diirrenmatt’s most characteristic
and successful plays. If the action of
The Visit is too straightforward in its
rigid progress to doom, Mississippi is
quicksilver surrealism, full of unexpected
twists and complexities. The stage
finishes by being littered with corpses,
but the atmosphere of comedy is re-
tained. The central character is a public
prosecutor whose duty it is to bring
criminals to book in the name of the
state, a duty which is also a pleasure,
for his private hobby is to collect death
sentences as some collect postage
stamps. Mississippi is motivated by a
stern faith based, like that of the
Anabaptists in /t Is Written, on Old
Testament fundamentalism; the ancient
' Greek idea of fate is replaced by Cal-
vinist predestination as a metaphysical
basis for dramatic inevitability. Missis-
sippi extracts from the beautiful An-
astasia the admission that she has killed
her husband; but instead of arresting
her, he proposes to her. He wants to
marry her, not from love, but from
“absolute justice,” for he too has poi-
7 A
soned his own wife: “I have condemned
myself to marrying you.”
represents faith, two other characters
represent hope and charity. Saint-
Claude, the man of hope, leads a Com-
munist. revolt, and shares with Missis-
sippi a Beebe | in “the law” and in exe-
cutions. But his revolt is easily put
down, and indeed its taking place at all
has only given the ruler of the state a
plausible excuse for asking the United
| States for more “aid.” Charity is per-
| sonified in the figure of Bodo von
ia Ubelohe, a doctor from Lausanne and
another victim of the femme fatale
|
If Mississippi
Anastasia. In chagrin at her marrying
Mississippi and in remorse at having
_ provided her with the poison for getting
rid of her first husband, he goes off
| to the East Indies as a relief worker.
ia The end of the play shows the extinc-
| tion of Calvinist faith, Communist hope
and of sheer sex; but charity is still left,
and Bodo has ita last word when ie
pleads for the maintenance of humani-
tarian ideals, even if they may be
“quixotic and weak in the face of fanati-
cal rena or materialistic complacency.
WITH his shihony atk with themes
of justice and death by execution, it is
‘not surprising that Diirrenmatt should
have turned to the detective story.
Beopehiees "the
—— lle ee
Phat
1953) and The Judge and his Hangman
(Der Richter wnd sein Henker, 1954)
are simpler than the plays, for the au-
thor keeps to the conventional rules and
sees to it that the right man—the crimi-
nal—is suitably disposed of at the end.
The most recent detective novel The
Pledge (Das Versprechen, 1958) con-
cerns a detective’s dilemma in face of
the implications of a sex murder he has
to investigate. The background of con-
temporary Switzerland is more realistic
in these novels than in the plays, and
the style less complex.
Diirrenmatt’s inventive and uncon-
ventional mind seeks to bring new life
to the theatre and to treat it as an in-
stitution worthy of intellectual respect.
There is no room for realism on the
modern stage, he says, for the film, “the
The Real Right Ovid © |
OVID: THE METAMORPHOSES.
Translated by Horace Gregory. Vik-
ing Press. 461 pp. $7.50.
M. L. Rosenthal
IN TRANSLATING The Metamor-
phoses, Gregory has caught Ovid’s crys-
tal sophistication. More, he has caught
Ovid’s mingled delight, terror and awe
before the mystery of transformation —
ultimately the mystery within the pro-
cess whereby myth and art come to
birth. For us today, Ovid’s recapitulation
of tale after tale from the sacred lore of
Mediterranean and Near Eastern civil-
ization illuminates not only the sensibil-
ity of his time but our own deepest-
rooted interests. Yet except at rare mo-
ments, he does not theorize. The meta-
morphoses of which he writes are pre-
sented as literal experiences, “simple”
and thrilling. So, in the Gregory trans-
lation, he describes the change of Daph-
ne as she fled, “a naked wraith in wil-
derness,” from Apollo’s ardor:
. .. and as she spoke
A soaring drowsiness possessed her;
growing
In earth she stood, white thighs em-
braced by climbing
Bark, her white arms branches, her
fair head swaying
In a cloud of leaves; all that was
Daphne bowed
In the stirring of the wind, the glit-
tering green
Leaf twined within her hair and she
was laurel.
The elastic but masterful lines ac-
commodate © themselves unerringly, i
T ales such as Suspicion (Der Verdacht, - both original and translation, to see
‘
democratic form of the court-theatre,”
can give the illusion of reality much
more effectively. And so the modern
stage will hint at place and time, but
not depict them with anything ap-
proaching verisimilitude. The theatre
must be experimental, and not rest
content with the occasional revival of
old masters; it is not enough for the
theatre to become a museum. Diirren-
matt is effectively at work to prevent |
that from happening.
(Diirrenmatt’s works are published in
German by the Arche Verlag, Ziirich.
English translations of some of the
novels have appeared, but not of the
plays. H. F. Garten’s stimulating survey
of Modern German Drama (Methuen,
London, 1959) includes a discussion of
Diirrenmatt. )
they embody. “A soaring drowsiness,”
and the lovely feminine outlines are :
caressingly absorbed into a tree that re-
tains something of the girl’s_ erotic
beauty. Essential to Ovid’s style at wf
these heightened moments is his fluid a:
empathy, and that is the translator’s
greatest challenge. Compare Gregory’s a
version with this passage in Golding’s es
famous sixteenth-century translation and wi
it becomes clear how real a triumph the ;
American poet has won. Golding’s phras- ‘wi
ing is less vividly alive, and his rhyme
and versification (like those of Dryden’s
incomplete translation in the next cen-
tury) are too insistent:
This piteous prayer scarcely said, her
sinews waxéd stark,
And therewithal shout her breast did
grow a tender bark. ‘
Her hair was turnéd into leaves, her
arms in boughs did grow,
Her feet that were erewhile so swift,
now rooted were as slow.
Her crown became the top, and thus
of that she erst had been ;
Remainéd nothing in the world but
beauty fresh and green... .
What we, the whole modern age, have
been after is the experience close up, —
in detail; but also the experience as re-_
velation, as the language of meaning.
Symbolism and imagism, the crowding
of the poetic canvas with multiple, ;
centrated evocations, Yeats’s picture of —
the sudden assault on Leda and er
slow surrender, Joyce’s cramming 0
mythical and lieerary tradition into |
subjectively realistic and autobiogra)
cal novel are strangely Foreshadtet :
the Ovidian method. i tell us, 0 _
dinarily, what happened: Medea restored
the aged Aeson’s youth; Daphne was
turned into a tree to escape being ravish-
ed by the god; Phaethon lost control of
his father’s chariot and almost destroyed
the earth. Ovid tells us how it happened,
and how it felt while it was happening,
and he invests this information, which
he himself invents, with a significance
that far surpasses the original sacred
and ritual meaning attaching to the
incident as an unelaborated “fact.” Thus
he anticipates the modern scrutiny of
myth for its psychological and symbolic
meaning apart from conventional in-
terpretation. When poor Semele is
tricked by jealous Juno (Saturnia) to
beg her lover Jove to take her “the way
you take Saturnia in your arms” and,
full of spiritual agony, he tries in vain
“to make his strenuous powers lighter”
so that she will not be burned to ashes
by his embrace, we are deep in a con-
templation of tragic fatality and willful-
ness and suffering in their own right.
Again, the story of Iphis and Janthe il-
lustrates, as Gregory points out in his
introduction, the influence of Egyptian
religious cults on Rome. More important,
it is an absorbed play of fantasy over
the sexual mysteries and the mysteries
of the subjective life. It is so absurd
and yet so moving—a triumph of will
THE RIGHT OF SAYING
The Status Quo..
Politicofellowship .
What I Am Ashamed.
eee har MAIL
THE MINORITY OF ONE
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THAT TWO PLUS
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—From the introductory article in the first issue.
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over reality that is- gay ea witty and
still quite serious. The girl Iphis is
transformed by Isis into a man so that
she may marry lanthe, and so a bon-
fire is lighted under pathos and all be-
comes joy, a glory of felicitous language.
The present translation allows us to
discover these intrinsic, and intriguing,
aspects of Ovid as no other translation
of the whole Metamorphoses does. Dry-
den achieves some infinitely debonair
effects—it is the virtue of his defect—
that are almost impossible in twentieth-
century English. And I do not think
anyone can match the tale of Acoetes
and Bacchus (Book IX) as Pound
handles it in Canto IJ — though his
presentation is incomplete and only in
part a translation; more a_ recasting,
perhaps. But Gregory remains amazing-
ly true to his original in spirit and tact
and virtuosity. He sustains a tone over
long pages, and when he rises to bril-
liant heights it is because he is moving
with Ovid. The tremendous intensity of
the story of Phaethon, with its “modern”
impression of Apollo as an overpermis-
sive father, the sheer desperation of the
tale of Philomela with its echoing hor-
ror, the pitiable sweetness of Dryope,
the pure imagination suffused with sad-
ness of the story of Icarus — each of
these unique qualities is conveyed marvel-
IT WILL EXERCISE
TWO MAKE
. Between Communism And
The Shy Censors...
. Politicocharity, Reneonene et
TODAY
SAAOAEREAHANORERAPAAEAREAUAOHRAEANDAOABEEAUONNEAEOCH OOO RAE GGUS IAERLAISUEREAUSUAEHEEREEOSASHRANAOOHOSES
NAPAAOAEREAHAUEOAAUAPEESHAEAISESREEAGAOORASIOEEAY GC eEACHEO AHAAAHAREAREASIARASGASUREEARRAEAEAEAOREAEOHE®
ii in its own way. Gregory
through the right modern idiom and _
pacing, and at a pitch of rhythmic real-
ization impossible in prose: =|
And the unlucky man, no longer
father,
Cried, “Icarus, where are you, Icarus,
Where are you hiding, Icarus, from
me!”
Then as he called again, his eyes
discovered
The boy’s torn wings washed on the
climbing waves.
The spirit is modern, but it is Roman
too. Ovid is smooth and formal and
nevertheless full of excitement, a little
like Chaucer at certain moments in his
paradoxically noncommittal involvement.
It would have been easy for Gregory to
forget that fact and force him into
cheaper effects—especially through being
overly colloquial. He
temptation, and as a result we now have
the real right Ovid for this age.
The Cut-off People
POCHO. By José Antonio Villarreal.
Doubleday & Co. 235 pp. $3.95.
John Bright
OF los pochos and pochismo, their cul-
ture, very little of probity has been
written. There have been periodic socio-
logical studies and some _ penetrating
journalism. But fiction — good plays,
novels and poetry — have been lament-
ably few, and all created by “outsiders.”
Even these are uneven in quality, rang-
ing from Guy Nunn’s moving White
Shadows to the sentimentalisms of
John Steinbeck, who should know bet-
ter. Unlike Negroes, Jews, Italians, Irish
and other second-class citizens, the mil-
lion-odd immigrants from Mexico and
their second-generation offspring have
not yet produced their spokesmen and
their bards. Therefore Pocho, a first
novel by a young California Mexican, is
notable not only for its own intrinsic
virtues, but as a first voice from a peo-
ple new in our midst who up to now
have been almost silent.
Pocho is told from the viewpoint of |
Richard Rubio, son of a typical migra- —
tory worker, a refugee from the Mexi-
can counterreyolution. The boy is intel-
writer,
pochos, “City of Angels,” which had
the honor of being closed by the Los —
Angeles police. oh)
The Na
‘is no t ca
competing with Ovid, not “using” him,
but is bringing him into perspective Ba
disdained the’
=>
—-.
- |= SS Slee OU
a cal Gi = oe
ee ee eh ltl ee
az
JOHN BRIGHT, dramatist and screen |
has written a play about los —
i
i
CT ee ee Pe ees: Wy
lectually qu stick fois cathe tin blindly
ebellious, a striking mutation from the
agged horde of second-generation kids
roaming the California agricultural val-
leys; but this very unusualness becomes
the novel’s virtue, heightens its sense
of reality, and removes it from the
picaresque. All the familiar experiences
of maladjustment, anguish, poverty and
discrimination, anxieties about God and
the Church, sex and the family, are
here filtered through brown eyes of
special sadness.
A classical Spanish dictionary de-
fines “pocho” as “faded away” or “cut
off.” Folk definition links the term to
the fact that Mexican women upon ar-
riving here cut off their hair in the
yanqui fashion; another attributes the
word to the briefer, choppy American
way of speech. The etymologies are not
unrelated, because one of the most sig-
nificant single truths about the Mexi-
-can-Americans is their feeling of being
isolated from a culture which condemns
them — most unfairly and myop-
ically, and with a hint of envy—as
renegades, and at the same time their
| failure to achieve integration in this
strange land north of the border.
|= Yet these native-born Mexican-Amer-
| icans try hard. Try desperately to be
more yanqui than the gringos, chew
more gum, play more baseball, drink
more Coca-Cola—and ape the worst
traits of the Anglos more often than the
best. (In the present healthy hullabaloo
about integration, it should be pointed
out that assimilation need not equate
with conformity—that if it does, a dan-
gerous sterility can follow from a demo-
cratic trend.)
There are signs that the ghastly Los
Angeles “zoot suit riots” in 1943 marked
the low in Anglo-pocho relations, and
that some peaceful fusion of the two
peoples is growing in the Southwest out
of the tolerance of continued prosperity.
‘Still, the process is slow and spotty,
with the city police and rural con-
stabulary braking the motor of history.
Acceptance seems to be in ratio to the
ability of los pochos to attain middle-
class status in Anglo rather than their
own terms, their becoming “respectable”
and un-Mexican, and the taking over of
their role as the cheapest of labor by
other ethnic groups, as occurred with
the Okies and Arkies in the thirties.
That prejudice lingers stubbornly is evi-
denced by the defeat of Henry Lopez
for Secretary of State on Pat Brown’s
Jandslide ticket last year.
Mr. Villarreal’s beautiful novel is a
work of self-expression that earns his
ple a place as Americans on their
| terms. 4
ra a we
ae
> | are
- er a nee lL SS
ive . v7 , at
Catching Up with Bellamy
THE YEAR 2000: A Critical Biography
of Edward Bellamy. By Sylvia FE.
Bowman. Bookman Associates. 404
pp. $6.
of his day. It sparked the organization
of Bellamy clubs and a “Nationalist”
movement which attracted many no-
tables, among them William Dean
Howells, Henry Demarest Lloyd,
Frances Willard, Margaret Fuller and
IF “best-seller” lists had been in vogue the youthful Clarence Darrow. The
in the decade preceding the turn of populist party gained much of its
the century, no novel of that period strength from Bellamy supporters.
would have rated even close to Edward In Europe Bellamy is still a potent
Bellamy’s Looking Backward, published influence. Touring Holland a_ few
in 1888. It remained a best-seller for months ago, the writer learned that a
many years and as the debates over Bellamy Society, still functioning in
the author’s utopian vision continued, Rotterdam, circulates a _ fortnightly
foreign publishers took hold of it and journal devoted to its Socialist princi-
translations in many languages circu- ples. In the Amsterdam public library,
lated throughout the world. the list of publications by and about
The romantic tale by its main char- Bellamy is longer than those found in
acter, Julian West, who went into a most American libraries. Among old-
coma in 1887 from which he was arous-_ sters here the memory of Bellamy is
ed in the year 2000, his description of _ still cherished, but to younger genera-
the before-and-after contrasts in the tions he is almost unknown, his ideas
way of life in his native Boston, had _ lost in the noisy promotions of the
a profound influence on the intellectuals free enterprisers. Keeping the spotlight
on the convulsions following the revo-
lution that was to produce the first
Socialist state, they play up every evil
as proof that regimentation, tyranny
and dictatorship are inseparable from
Irving H. Flamm
IRVING H. FLAMM, retired from the
Chicago bar and now living in Cali-
forma, is the author of An Economic
Program for a Living Democracy.
Ss
SS
Sa
[< _—
=
EP Det? Sut
re you ll f tolid ? ‘Prssats ?
Pedestrian 2 Unimaginative Z
THE FALCONS WING DRESS”
INDIAN HILLS. COLORADO
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are Quality books, in the proper sense of
the word.
Our beautiful catalog is yours for the
ashing.
We pa
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City
iy
socialism. This, no doubt, has contrib-
uted to the decline of Bellamy’s influence
and the Socialist movement.
It is, therefore, a fitting tribute to
this gentle, compassionate figure that,
sixty years after his death, a new
biography should appear. Dr. Sylvia
Bowman, an assistant professor of
English at Indiana University, is a
specialist in utopian novels. The Year
2000 is the first volume of her Bellamy
study; the second will deal with Bel-
lamy’s influence on Europe. In prepara-
tion for her task she studied all of
Bellamy’s novels, short stories, essays,
available letters and manuscripts, in-
terviewed surviving relatives and read
all the published items she could find
by Bellamy critics. In this book she
vividly displays Bellamy as a person
and competently sorts out his views
and arguments for the industrial
democracy he envisioned, His earlier
fiction was a “vehicle to reveal his ideas
and interests, and to pave the way tech-
nically and ideologically for his major
works, Looking Backward and Equal-
ity.” In the former he was “principally
concerned with the presentation of a
mirage of the ideal state which would
entice the panacea-hungry citizenry to
accept the principles of state socialism
— peacefully evolved from tendencies
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oF
toward [industrial] consolidation” and
finally culminating in “the universal
partnership of the people.” Equality was
written to answer the criticism engen-
dered by the preceding work.
The improved moral tone and the
elevated cultural and economic levels
of the people in his industrial democ-
racy (his. vision of “democratic
socialism”) Bellamy attributed to the
transformation from a competitive
jungle to a co-operative society. The
economic enterprises were owned and
operated for the equal benefit of all
the inhabitants, governmental agencies
being regarded as democratically con-
trolled instruments, not as mere centers
of oppressive power. In Bellamy’s indus-
trial army every citizen served a
twenty-year hitch, after which he was
pensioned at full pay for the rest of
his life. Pay was equal for everyone,
since Bellamy felt that economic
equality is an essential ingredient of
political democracy; that each person in
such a society would naturally contrib-
ute his share of work as a matter of
pride and duty. The spirit of patriotism
that prevailed in that “industrial army”
is what William James must have had
in mind in his call for “the moral equiva-
lent of war.”
It is difficult to estimate how many
were made aware of the social prob-
lems of their time by Bellamy, His in-
mee; Tee nes
direct influence ‘through ‘teachers and
writers (John Dewey,’ Bernard Shaw ~
and Heywood Broun, for example) was,
no doubt, a substantial factor in the
reform movements of this century.
During the depression years, one could
see Looking Backward in a most con-
spicuous part of the White House book-
case. To quote Dr. Bowman:
The novel’s . influence, however,
was to be no less amazing than its”
popularity, for it was to supply the
incentive for. the founding of
Nationalist clubs and to stimulate
the Christian Socialist and the
social gospel movements. Eventually
Looking Backward and the imme-
diate program of the Nationalist
clubs were to supply material for
the platform of the Peoples’ Party.
Its influence also contributed to the
publication of many newspapers as
well as many «= social-problem and
utopian novels. Because of its wide-
spread influence, Looking Backward
was to play an important role in the
formation of American liberal
thought.
Dr. Bowman points. out that,
though both believe in the essence of
the Socialist philosophy, there has al-
ways been a running antagonism —be-
tween the Marxists and the Nationalists,
Bellamy avoided (as did Henry
Caseades and Fountains
Drawn from deep sleep, the dark, dim waters run,
Fountains of living waters night and day
They wash my life away.
Surely they gush from dry rock, the thirsty sun,
Splendid and fertile spraying the dead grass
With light as in a golden fastness.
Slow life, and slower change, muted, immutable,
Running like water quick and shallow, clear:
Dark year on hurrying year—
Beneath the glowing heaven, under the nimble heels
Of rushing worlds you keep
All that the sleepy and resentful dreamscape feels.
Fons rejwventutis,
healing flood—
The pure limbs of beauty enter you,
nergy fresh and brilliant, the reviving blood,
Warm eyes and springing hair
Meet in your flood, dissolve, and are united there,
While the wild waters flood time’s crumbling stair.
Toward the Atlantis of the soul you move:
Worlds flung underseas, an abyss closed and sealed,
Sources of life forgotten and revealed,
Foam alleluias rising from above
In watery peals of love
Unlocking passions like a choral flood
That sing within the blood,
Marya ZATURENSKA
eT. 5 . hae) T~ +
George) the Socialist label as an alien
product burdened with notions of
revolution and violence; and the Marx-
ists in turn regarded the Bellamy
groups as_ unscientific, sentimental
idealists. The injustices and cruelties
perpetrated by the Stalin regime and its
unconcealed contempt for those Social-
ist groups who were critical widened
this breach. If the Khrushchev regime
should now begin moving toward
political democracy as well as higher
living standards, if it could earn the
confidence of the many Socialist and
semi-Socialist factions in every country,
the world might move ahead much
faster toward something resembling
Bellamy’s new Boston.
ART
Fairfield Porter
HOLDERIN’s poem, Nature and Art,
characterizes the Golden Age as a time
when the ruler of heaven and earth “ut-
tered no command, and still not / One
of the mortals by name had named
him.” (Vernon Watkins’ translation.)
In the Saturnian age the world ap-
peared new: things had no names, there
was no past or future, all concepts were
unconscious, and all order. The radiance
of such an age has been expressed by
poets; but has it ever been expressed in
painting or sculpture? Perhaps in fifth-
century Greek sculpture, and perhaps
sometimes by Monet, and oftener by
Sisley. But these Impressionist paint-
ers expressed it in a generalized way, and
only by color. The color of nature
is disappearing from painting, even
though non-objective painting repre-
sents a turn away from conceptualism
and toward direct experience. Non-
objective painting is more graphic and
emotional than open to sensation; and
realist painting is less interested in na-
_ ture than in ideas, as: what is natural,
or what should painting be about? An
expression of the immediacy of experi-
ence—for what else is the namelessness
_ of everything—is proper to poetry and
natural to photography. I know no
photographs that express this so well
as the color prints of my brother, Eliot
_ Porter who, like Audubon, is known for
his record of the birds of America.
He has made a series of color photo-
graphs illustrating Thoreau on the sea-
- sons, which were shown last month at
_ the Baltimore Museum, and are now on
exhibition at the Eastman museum in
Rochester. They are not like other color
Photographs. There are no eccentric
la Mu ary 9, 1960
Opie
oe
7%
en es tere oe
i. A. oe LL ere
wt ’
~
angles familiar to the movies, snapshots
or advertising, and the color is like a
revelation. The color of photographs
usually looks added: it floats in a film
above the surface; it is a dressing-up.
And it is usually rather inattentive. It
is inattentive in the way that printers
in this country are inattentive to the
accurate shade, and the way color re-
productions are almost invariably in-
sensitive. It seems that the fact of
color itself is considered enough: one
knows the sky is blue, and the grass
green, and you can let it go at that.
But Porter’s colors, with all the clear
transparency of dies, have substance as
well. They are not on top.
HIS range of colors contributes to
their namelessness. For photography
has limitations comparable to those of
paint — there are primary and _ sec-
ondary colors. Memory contracts and
symbolizes; and one thinks of his win-
ter photographs as pale yellow and
white; spring as blue-green; summer as
red and green; autumn as orange and
yellow; however if you look again, you
discover that you cannot generalize,
you cannot conceptualize, the colors do
not correspond to words you know,
they are themselves, a language that is
not spoken. The color indications are
all primary, as a poet might use words
as though they were new, without
precedent or possible future, but tied
to the event. The color is tied to the
shape and the context; no habitual
meaning is suggested. In the corner of
this grayish wall of trees, that blue, is
it sky? No, it is ferns. It is as much
of a discovery as the broken color of
Impressionism. The shadows of leaves
are yellow or black, the light on them
white or blue. The weed stems in the
snow are yellow, better set in and
stronger in their contrast than Wyeth’s
black virtuosity. But you cannot de-
scribe one language with another.
Drawing and painting have a language,
but literature and photography are lan-
guage. This is what Maholy-Nagy
must have meant by his suggestion that
the illiterate man of the future would
be he who could not use a camera.
These photographs make wonder the
natural condition of the human mind.
Have you ever seen before the redness
of grass, the blueness of leaves, the
orange cliffs of autumn, the two circles
of sunflower blossoms, or a kerosene
lamp against the sun in a window? Or
that where a tree has fallen, it seems to
have fallen with intention? There is no
subject and background, every corner
is equally alive.
Photography is nature, and so critics
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have thought that it was not art. But
if these photographs did not show you
what they did, you would never have
been able to discover it. The golden
age of the child’s omnipotence is suc-
ceeded by the Jovian world of adults
and of art. Adults classify, generalize
and ignore. But the ability to distin-
guish comes first. Can we as adults be
sure that we see more deeply, through
art, than the photographer who pre-
tends to do nothing but pay the closest
possible attention to everything? He
distinguishes endlessly and he dares not
ignore. What does love come from if
not just this scrupulous respect and
close attention? The trouble with art
is that, in choosing, the artist ignores.
The trouble with the realistic artist is
that he is indirect, and between himself
and his experience he puts concepts: a
steely equality of detail, conceptualistic
anatomy, or the métier of the old mas-
ters. The non-objective artist is closer
to the photographer in his reliance on
direct experience. But, because he is
not interested in objective nature he
tends to lose his contact with concrete
variety. The trouble with this is that
it leads to a loss of a feeling for plural-
ism, as though all experience were be-
coming one experience, the experience
of everything.
MUSIC
Lester Trimble
THERE is always excitement in the air
when Stravinsky appears in public. This
was certainly true of the recent Town
Hall concert at which he conducted four
American composer-pianists (Samuel
Barber, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss,
Roger Sessions), the American Concert
Choir, a group of solo singers and a
percussion ensemble, in his masterpiece
from the period 1917-1923, Les Noces.
The standing ovation as he came on
stage from the wings was even longer
and more fervent than usual. Only a
few individuals, no doubt tinged with
the same iconoclasm that has been a
part of the composer’s mental equip-
ment, remained stubbornly rooted in
their chairs. | was glad for both demon-
strations.
Despite the general atmosphere of
brilliance, however, a sense of incipient
sadness also hung over the evening.
Stravinsky has aged rapidly in the past
few years; his sprightly, grasshopper-
like way of moving about the podium
has changed radically, and one cannot
avoid seeing that his seventy-eight years
Vs ne
weigh heavily upon him. This, com-
bined with the fact that there were on
the program an Epitaphium (1959) for
Prince Max Egon zu Fiirstenburg; a
Memoriam (1959) for Raoul Dufy
(both by Stravinsky); and a Trio-Satz
(Opus Posthumous-1925), by Webern,
darkened one’s spirits a little. The pro-
gram notes for the Bach Cantata, Aus
der Tiefe rufe ich, Herr, zu dir (con-
ducted by Stravinsky’s protégé, Robert
Craft), lent their bit to a perhaps ac-
cidental image by reminding us that
the work “might possibly be a funeral
cantata, since no particular Sunday is
indicated.” I don’t know who planned
the program, but it’s a good thing a
jolly piece like Les Noces was there at
the end.
INDEED, had it not been there, the
concert would have been a failure.
Epitaphium is only seven bars long; too
short to make any impression beyond
the one that it was a Dadaesque idea to
write it at all. The piece is scored for
flute, clarinet and harp, and the only
memories | retain of it are certain lovely
bass-register harp sonorities, a feeling
that it was about equal -in time-space
to a three-inch newspaper obituary, and
the thought that “chic” can get very
close to “chi-chi,” even with Stravinsky.
Memoriam, for string quartet, is a
bit longer, lasting perhaps two and a
half minutes. It consists of a double-
canon. For some reason which I have
not been able to trace, its spiritual am-
bience reminded me of the late Beetho-
ven Quartets, which is to say also that
it was very beautiful. It was not “con-
centrated,” as are the ultra-brief works
by Webern. Its brevity, like that of
Epitaphium, seemed an externally, will-
fully imposed factor, and thus disturb-
ing. A short double-canon is fine, but
unless it gives a sense of aesthetic ful-
fillment, it is not an oewvre, but an es-
- 7
say in contrapuntal technique. These
two minuscule pieces are, to my mind,
nothing more than elegant autographs
from the hand of a master. Their ele-
gance and accuracy are admirable, but
when the canon reminded me of Bee-
thoven, it also reminded me that the
earlier composer was humbler and more
generous when he dealt with a noble
idea.
Les Noces is prime Stravinsky, and
threw everything else into shadow. ‘To
have Messrs. Barber, Copland, Foss and
Sessions at the four pianos was an en-
tertaining idea, and they played very
well indeed. But as a whole, the per-
formance was not particularly spirited.
Stravinsky seemed tired. The soloists
—Mildred Allen, Elaine Bonazzi, Re-
gina Sarfaty, Loren Driscoll and Robert
Oliver—were, with the exception of Mr.
Driscoll, possessed of splendid voices.
They were not, however, entirely at
home with the music. Nor was the chorus.
Possibly there was not enough rehearsal,
-but whatever the reason, there were
moments where the music’s Slavic ex-
traversion seemed almost an embarrass-
ment to Anglo-Saxon personalities. As
for the text, sung in English, it might
as well have been in Urdu, for not more
than five words were understandable.
And yet, as always, Les Noces was a
wonder to the ears. | wish it would be
done in New York with the ballet which
is one of its integral parts. This would
be expensive, no doubt; but what an
extravaganza!
There is not much to say about the
rest of the program. Mr. Craft conducted
competently enough, but neither the
Bach Cantata nér the Monteverdi Ballo
delle Ingrate is a particularly fascinat-
ing work, The latter is entirely too long
and full of recitatives for present-day
audiences. Before it was over more than
a few heads were nodding — mine among
them.
Out in the Cold
The sun shines in the ice of my country
As my smile glitters in the mirror of my devotion.
I live on the edge of the land. Flat is the scene there.
There are a few scrub bushes. The frozen sea
Lies locked for a thousand miles to the north, to the Pole.
Meager my mouth, and my knuckles sharp and white,
They will hurt when I hit. I fish for a fish
So thin and sharp in the tooth as to suit my malice.
It stares like any fish, but it knows a lot,
Knows what I know. Astonishment it has not,
I have a hut to which I go at night.
Sometimes there is no night and the midnight sun
And I sit up all night and fish for that fish.
We huddle over the ice, the two of us.
Davip Ferry
The NATION | |
27
me ‘
Crossword Puzzle No. 849
By FRANK W. LEWIS
ACROSS:
1 This and 7 were subjects for dis-
cussion as a title of 20. (8)
5 Inquire about a pledge? Quite the
opposite when a court player makes
it. (6)
One of this things found in Steven-
son’s garden, (5)
Insolence is little less than indis-
cretion. (9)
The ear-shell, to a degree, is un-
accompanied. (7)
A canine’s closest companion. (7)
and 16 down The place to find Hero,
a spot obviously not out of the way
for polities. (6-2-3-4)
Empty talk with studies of such
people as D’Artagnan. (7)
A trick is able to send one sprawl-
ing. (7)
Leave a sort of 1 down here. (6)
One might have been a 30. (7)
Truth, like this, cannot be soiled
by outward touch, implied Milton.
Mend a torn decoration, possibly.
Lytton reminded us what curses
come home to, (5)
A sort of side street, in short. (With
a stop sign?) (6)
Proving an early traveler might be
a card user. (8)
DOWN:
10
11
12
13
14
15
18
21
24
26
28
29
30
. 1 and 23 Implying one should be care-
ful in getting a den with a decoy,
alternatively. (6, 6)
January 9, 1960
¥
i
2 A horse sounds pure-blooded, but
might not be well-mannered! (9)
3 Glandular, if one did a well-known
operation. (7)
4 Certainly couldn’t be described as a
good looker, (4, 3)
6 Offers evidence of Madison Avenue
leaders in foreign style? (7)
7 Their heads are reputedly not easy
to find as companions to 1 across.
8 It’s theirs to prove he must some-
times prove otherwise. (8)
9 Bound to be a flower! (6)
Burning in the round. (8)
There are things about a fast time
that show it becomes less cruel. (7)
Related to a stout doorman. (6)
If one ealls, it is placed in the brim.
Not necessarily. blank charges, but
the report isn’t real. (7)
One might be indicative of things
which might be blue. (5)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO, 848
ACROSS: 1 and 26 Magna cum laude;
5 Chased; 10 Dynamic; 11 Dousing; 12
Ibsen; 18 Valueless; 14 Arena; 16 Re-
serves; 19 Messages; 22 Fused; 24
Catamount; 28 Trained; 29 Abelard;
30 Honest; 31 Isotherm, DOWN: 1
Madrigal; 2 Genes; 3 Armenians; 4
Uncover; 7 Spineless; 8 Digest; 9 and
6 A Doll’s House; 15 Eyestrain; 17 Re-
fulgent; 18 Addendum; 20 Gourds; 21
Satraps; 23 Scotch; 25 Manes; 27
Usage.
<= *
RESORT
RELAX in a friendly atmos-
phere. Golf at a magnificent
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FAirbanks 5-7227
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Gums LAKE MAHOPAC, N. Y. coma
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" TRAVEL ste
If you know the seldom-advertised ways of reaching forelgn countries, you
don't need fantastic sums of money in order to travel. You coyld spend $500-
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can travel all the way to Argentina through colorful Mexico, the Andes, Peru,
etc., via bus and rail for just $134 in fares?
You can spend $5000 on a luxury cruise around the world. But do you know
you can travel around the world via deluxe freighter for only a fourth the cost
and that there are a half dozen other round the world routings for under $1000?
There are two ways to travel—like a tourist, who spends a lot, or like a
traveler, who knows all the ways to reach his destination economically, com-
fortably, and while seeing the most.
Norman Ford’s big new guide HOW TO TRAVEL WITHOUT BEING RICH
gives you the traveler’s picture of the world, showing you the lower cost, com-
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What do you want to do? Explore the West Indies? This is the guide that
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how to make one dollar do the work of two. Visit Mexico? This is the guide
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HOW TO TRAVEL
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There’s a job waiting for you somewhere: on a ship, with an airline, in over-
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The full story of what job you can fill is in Norman Ford’s new book HOW
TO GET A JOB THAT TAKES YOU TRAVELING. Whether you’re male or
female, young or old, whether you want a life-time of paid traveling or just
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complete with names and addresses and full details about the preparations to
make, the cautions to observe, the countries to head for.
You learn about jobs in travel agencies (and as tour conductors), in importing
and exporting concerns, with mining and construction companies. Here’s the
story of jobs in the Red Cross and the UN organizations, how doctors get jobs
on ships, the almost-sure way for a young girl to land a job as airline hostess,
the wonderful travel opportunities if you will teach English to foreigners, and
the fabulous travel possibilities for those who know stenography.
“Can @ man or woman still work his or her way around the world today?”
Norman Ford asks in this book as you might ask today. And he replies in
75,000 words of facts, ‘‘The answer is still a very definite Yes.”
To travel and get paid for it, send today for HOW TO GET A JOB THAT
TAKES YOU TRAVELING on a money-back guarantee if not satisfied. Price
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Will Your Next Vacation Really
Be Something to Remember?
The surest way to guarantee a new, different, and ex-
citing vacation is to learn the hundreds of things you can
do and the places you can visit on the money you want
to spend.
Norman Ford, founder of the world-known Globe Trot-
ters Club, tells you that in his book Where to Vacation
on a Shoestring. This is the man who has spent a lifetime
searching for the ways to get more for your money in
vacations and travel.
In his big book, you learn
— about low-cost summer paradises, farm vacations, vacations on far-off
islands, on boats drifting down lazy streams while you fish.
—about vacations at world-famous beaches, under palm and eucalyptus
trees, in government-subsidized vacation resorts, in Indian country, along
rugged coastlines, on ships and by rail.
— about dude ranches you can afford; what to see, do, and how to save at
national parks ard in the cities most Americans want to visit.
— about low-cost sailing ship cruises, houseboat vacations in the North
Woods, fantastically low-cost mountain vacations, the unknown vacation
wonderlands almost at your front door.
Of course, Norman Ford knows where to get real vacation bargains in all
America, from Maine to California, and in Canada, Mexico, etc. At no time
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and how to get more for your money (if you travel by car, he shows how most
auto parties can save $6 to $7 a day).
You can’t help but learn something that is just areent for you. vet, WHERE
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FRANCE?
HAWAII?
WEST INDIES? BRAZIL?
MEXICO?
Read what The Christian Science Monitor says about a
new way to travel that sometimes costs 4% to % less.
BRB the travel editor of The Christian Science Monitor:
Many fascinating travel booklets pass over this desk in
the course of a year but the one that arrived the other
day so interested this department that it cost the office
several hours of work in order that we might absorb its
contents. The booklet is entitled “Travel Routes Around
the World” and is the traveler’s directory to passenger-
carrying freighters and liners. In no time at all you find
yourself far out to sea cruising along under tropical skies
without a care in the world. You find yourself docking at
strange ports and taking land tours to those places you
long have read about. Most interesting of the vast listings
of ships are the freighters which carry a limited number
of passengers in quarters comparable to the luxury offered
in the so-called big cruise ships which devote niost of
their space for passengers.
The booklet first of all answers the question: What is
a freighter? The modern freighter, says the booklet, ranks
with the deluxe passenger vessels so far as comfort and
accommodations are concerned.
LARGE ROOMS WITH BEDS
It 1s important to realize that in most cases today, freighter passengers are
considered first-class passengers, although the rates charged are generally on
a par with either cabin or tourist-class fare. Most passenger-carrying freighters,
to quote the booklet, have their private bath and shower, and these cabins offer
beds, not bunks. The rooms are generally larger than equivalent accommo-
dations aboard passenger ships, and the cabin of a modern freighter is
sometimes even twice as large as first-class cabins on some of the older pas-
senger ships. It goes without saying that your room is on the outside, and
amidships, the most expensive of all locations, for which you are usually
charged a premium over the advertised minimum fares on passenger ships.
This booklet points out that it is frequently astonishing how low freighter
fares are as compared with passenger ship fares; for example, less than one-half
of the passenger ship fare to California is the amount asked on freighters. On
most of the longer runs, the difference in favor of the freighters is regularly
from a third to half of the passenger ship fare.
SERVICE AND MEALS RATED EXCELLENT
Service and meals on a freighter leave little to be desired. You will be treated
with consideration. Stewards will go out of their way to make your voyage
pleasant. On ships with East Indian stewards you will be waited on almost
hand and foot, in a manner that is completely unknown to Americans and
most Europeans.
Foreign ships offer their own specialties says the booklet. Thus vessels in
the East Indian trade serve Rijkstafel, the East Indian dish which can run to
as many as 50 different courses, Scandinavian ships serve Smorgasbord every
day and some of their desserts (like strawberries smothered in a huge bowl of
whipped cream) are never forgotten. Another feature of freighter travel is in
its informality. No formal clothes are needed. Sport clothes are enough.
Other valuable information such as how to tip, shipboard activities and
costs are covered in the booklet, ‘‘Travel] Routes Around the World.’ Some of
the trips listed include a trip to England for $160, a 12-day Caribbean cruise
for $240, or a leisurely three-month Mediterranean voyage.
The booklet is published by Harian Publications, Greenlawn, New York,
and may be obtained by sending to the publisher. So, when it arrives all you
need to do is sit down and take your choice. The booklet lists literally
hundreds of ocean trips.
“Travel Routes Around the World” is yours for just $1, and the big
130 page 1960 edition includes practically every passenger carrying service
starting from or going to New York, Canada, New Orleans, the Pacifico
Coast, Mexico, South America, England, France, the Mediterranean, Africa,
the Indies, Australia, the South Seas, Japan, Hawaii, etc, There's a whole
section called How to See the World at Low Cost, plus pages and pages of maps.
A big $1 worth, especially as it can open the way to more travel than you
ever thought possible. For your copy, simply fill out coupon,
Mail to HARIAN PUBLICATIONS, 74 Duke Street
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I have enclosed $ (cash, check, or money order).
Please send me the books checked below. You will refund my money if I
am not satisfied.
I
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| O) How to Get a Job That Takes You Traveling, $1.80
| (1) Where to Vacation on a Shoestring, $1.
|
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(J Special offer: All books above for $4. —9
. PRINT NAME
1
‘ s
ADPH EAS rs a aT TE ae inst eee Ea nn n\n,
u : : '
crry ZONE — BTA r
pete fF BUBEMNSANE ON
JAN 15 196@ f
ATION)
JANUARY 16, 1960 . . 25c
ip { ane | TERARY |
PUE t Art tf]
/
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C: Wer
RUSSIA:
From Terror to Incentive
Alexander Werth
&EEEEE REESE EERE EEC OH CGS CS
Dixie Hate in Yankee Suburb _
Robert Gruenberg
OSCRERE SH EEHER OHH EEE ERASE DSS
THE BOAT-SHOW CIRCUS
Joseph Whitehill —
LETTERS
Doing His Share
Dear Sirs: Vm just a little guy who has
just finished reading the October 31 is-
sue of The Nation. I simply want to
thank you for printing “The Shame of
New York.”
If I had thirty bucks, I'd order 100
copies and give one to each of my
friends. But I’m a vet, just finishing col-
lege and I’m a little pressed for cash. So
instead of ordering the 100 copies, [ll
spend 30 cents for a book binder and
I'll cover my priceless issue and lend it
to anyone who wants to read it. And I
hope in this small way to do my share in
keeping the people of New York in-
formed.
As for the authors, Gleason and Cook
...they’ve done a magnificent job.
Joun R. Lance ttorri
New York City
[See offer on back page. — Envrrors.]
Secret Menace
Dear Sirs: Your editorial in the issue of
January 2 entitled “You Pay Your
Money But Where’s Your Choice?”*
struck this writer as very significant. I
also attempted to obtain the name of
the car that had this terrific increase in
accidents. The results of this attempt
added up to a complete nil.
Here we have a case where a matter
was investigated with the taxpayer’s
and motorist’s money, yet no one will
reveal the data that may save a driver’s
life and mitigate the severity of a motor-
vehicle accident.
Freep Fetp
Newark, N. J.
*The editorial commented on an in-
qury, sponsored by the Department of
Defense, into the safety qualities of two
of the three U.S. autos in the “low
price” field. The inqury showed one car
to be 50 per cent more “accident-prone”
than the other. The cars were not named.
—Eprrors.
Our Own Petard
Dear Sirs: Judging from the back cover
of the December 19 issue (“Give 7'he
Nation for Christmas”), Beatty, in his
article “Christmas Ad Absurdum” (same
issue), should have appended the legend
“present company excepted.”
R. G. Gauvey
Urbana, O. wi
Christmas Cheer
Dear Sirs: The following programs were
offered on the Philadelphia TV chan-
nels to delight viewers on Christmas Day.
(The descriptions are taken from the
TV GUIDE.)
In the morning.
Way of Life: (1) AN. Y. priest is ac-
cused as accessory after the fact in a
burglary.
(2) A chaplain helps in shaping
strategy at the Battle of the Bulge.
In the afternoon,
Day In Court: Woman who shot at her
husband.
In the evening.
Shotgun Slade: A piano player scorned
by a singer threatens to kill her.
Rawhide: Incident of the Calico Gun.
Trouble Shooters: Kodiak investigates
a minor theft... .
Lock Up: Police hold prize fighter for
the murder of his wife.
Man from Blackhawk: . . . Thompson
is killed by a hired gun.
Sunset Strip: ... Her brother was killed
for refusing to co-operate with juke-
box racketeers.
M Squad: Three college boys made to
rob a bank.
Detectwes: A murderer escapes from
prison and sets out to kill his former
wife.
Black Saddle: An injured man .. . tells
how he is being unjustly hunted.
Movie: A singer searches for her brother,
wanted for murder.
Movie: A convict suggests his wife ac-
cept a marriage proposal from a
wealthy suitor.
Movie: A policeman obsessed by por-
trait of girl whose murder he is at-
tempting to solve.
Movie: A mad doctor and a_psycho-
pathic killer escape from prison...
Interwoven with these were programs
celebrating the coming of the Prince of
Peace and the message of good will to-
ward men.
Coiin W. BELL
Swarthmore, Pa.
Misunderstanding
Dear Sirs: In the editing of my article,
“Diplomas for Sale,” which appeared in
your Dec. 26 issue, the following sen-
tence was added in your office: “The
truth is that most of them are not fit
to teach.” I wrote nothing to justify the
inclusion of this sentence. The point of
my argument was that able liberal-arts
graduates who do not teach in public
schools because they can’t and won't
meet certification requirements are large-
ly
ever to say about the teaching abilities
of those few persons who are liberal-arts
graduates, who teach in private schools,
and who are not eligible to teach in pub-
lic schools.
Cleveland, O.
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
41
ARTICLES
dd
47
50
52
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
54
55
59
60
TAA
Fie rs, ae ee hs 4 ae
32 e
non-existent. I had nothing whatso-
Myron LIcgBERMAN
@ Russia: from Terror to Incentive
by ALEXANDER WERTH
@® Dixie Hate in Yankee Suburb
by ROBERT GRUENBDRG
@ Death of a Steelworker
by JOSEPH ERSHUN
® The Boat-Show Circus
by JOSEPH WHITBHILL
@ The Enemy Is Listening
by CARL DREHHUR
@ Travels of the Sage Narada
(poem)
by JOHN BERRY
@ The Durable Germans
by JAMES STEWART MARTIN
@ Letter from Uruguay
by VANCE BOURJAILY
e@ Films
by
@ Chain
by
@ Music
by LESTER TRIMBLE
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 60)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
ROBERT
(poem) -
PAUL PETRIB
MATCH
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey MeWiilliams, Wditor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Wditor
Robert Hatch, Books and ‘the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Musie
Alexander Werth, Wuropean
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, Jan. 16, 1960. Vol. 190, No, 3
The Nation published weekly (except for omls-
sion of four summer issues) by The Nation |
Company and copyright 1960, in the U.S.A. by |
the Nation Associates, Inc., 333 Sixth Avenue,
New York 14, N. Y. Second class postage paid
at New York, N. Y. k
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years $14, Three Years $20, Additional postage
per year, Foreign and Canadian $1,
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made without the old address as well as the new, —
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in Readers Guide to Periodical Literature,
Review Digest, Index to Labor Articles, Pu
Affairs, Information Serylce, Dramatic n
— 7 ' a)
5, |
* ‘
“NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1960 THE
VOLUME 190, No. 3 N. A’ E TON
EDITORIALS
The ‘Prat Fall in Steel + Dave, I wasn’t talking about destroying you person-
ally,” he explained. “I was talking about destroying the
A standard comedy device is the discomfiture of the union.” Did he think he wouldn’t be quoted? What Mc-
high and mighty. Its origins go far back in stage history. Donald could not do by himself, Cooper succeeded in i
It is particularly effective when the great ones slip on —_ doing: he united the union behind McDonald.
their own banana peels. Such has been the fate of the The folly of the whole performance is, in retrospect,
negotiators for the steel companies, and few will com- — almost incredible. The union did not want to strike. It
miserate with them. There is, however, in this grand would have settled for some changes in the work rules
fiasco a lesson for industrialists capable of learning from and a small wage increase. But Cooper and Company i
’ other people’s experience. It is a case of the wrong peo- drove for a massive change in the work rules: hence-
ple doing the wrong things on such a scale that they forth they were going to run the plants as they saw
cannot well be called to account, yet a repetition else- fit, laying off whom they wanted, when they wanted.
where might be perilous, now that the results in steel | Whatever disunity remained among the Steelworkers
can be seen and evaluated. } was thereupon forgotten. The irony of it is that an early
Steel management overreached itself badly and lost; | compromise could so easily have been reached. A. H.
the unfortunate part of it is that the country loses too. | Raskin, labor editor of The New York Times, suggests
The strategy of the steel negotiators is not difficult to that a strike-free settlement could have been reached 4
discern and at the outset it was superficially plausible. “if the industry had put as little as a nickel on the
The negotiators, Messrs. Roger M. Blough, R. Conrad — table without pressing the explosive work-rule issue.”
Cooper, et al, were a new team, out to establish a repu- _—_ His conclusion is that the steel producers “tried to ac-
tation for toughness. This was to be their year. Union —complish too much too quickly and .. . suffered almost ;
labor in general was under the cloud of the McClellan total defeat in the process.” (On page 50 of this issue,
investigations. In addition, the Steelworkers’ union had = Joseph Ershun details one aspect of the work-rules
its own sickness in the conflict between President David — problem: safety regulations. )
~MeDonald and the insurgent group led by Don G. The strike could not be allowed to resume after the
Rarick. injunction period ended. Richard Nixon and Secretary
The steel industry had some legitimate grievances: | of Labor James Mitchell did not find it too difficult to
much of the opposition to automation had simply been __ bring the industry representatives to terms. Nixon rep-
obstructive. Its representatives came up with a public- — resented Eisenhower; Congressional action was in the
relations angle which looked effective: riding on Eisen- offing. Once the union had its back up, it could not be
_ hower’s coattails, they posed as the enemies of inflation. coerced, but the industry could. For Nixon and Mitchell
Steel inventories were high, the industry had had a __ it is, of course, a handsome political bonus which may
prosperous season and it was well heeled. How could it — pay off next November.
lose? The attitude was summed up by Cooper’s state- So the mighty fell. If the manager of a supermarket
ment to. McDonald, quoted by B. J. Widick (“Big showed as little adroitness in human relations, he would
Steel’s Blunder,” The Nation, November 28, 1959): soon find himself on the street. The moral for industry
‘Unless you change your attitude, Dave, we are going _is that the tough team doesn’t necessarily win. Modera-
to destroy you.” At the next bargaining session Cooper tion still has its uses, and industry would be well ad- —
5 d to soften ee but he went about it in an odd way. __ vised, in its own interest, to lay aside the big stick.
sy
Cherchez le Lockheed
It is the fashion just now to depict General de Gaulle
as a stiff-necked soldier bent on sabotaging NATO.
Editorializing on this topic in the issue of January 2,
The Nation suggested that this view was too simple.
Some further evidence has come to light indicating that
General de Gaulle, though less flexible than an eel at
any time, becomes stiff in proportion to the efforts of
his dear friends and allies to do him in.
The Providence Sunday Journal of January 3 gives
the latest developments in the “containment” of the
French Mirage III interceptor, and they account in con-
siderable measure for de Gaulle’s recalcitrance. “Plane
Lobbies Widen NATO Rift,” is the title of the story
by George W. Herald, which begins, “A billion-dollar
battle for Europe’s military aircraft markets . . . threat-
ens to undermine the Bonn-Paris entente and with it
the whole Atlantic alliance.” This entente, it now ap-
pears, was based partly on the French expectation of
becoming the main supplier of the new German Luft-
waffe and other NATO air forces. The Mirage III was
not to be constructed entirely in France — the Germans
were to get a share of the business — but France was
to get both revenue and prestige out of its adoption.
But then American aerospace manufacturers began
to invade Europe. Among them were the stalwart
salesmen of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, who per-
suaded German Defense Minister Franz-Joseph Strauss
that the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was the interceptor
of the future, assuming that interceptors had a future.
Biko Lockheed bought into Heinkel-Messerschmidt, and
Heinkel-Messerschmidt began manufacturing Star-
fighters for Germany and other NATO partners. Herr
Strauss also used his good offices in Belgium and Hol-
land to assist the Lockheed salesmen there. The up-
shot was that Lockheed got a $400 million order from
the Dutch, and Belgium may follow Holland. The
French sent their Foreign Minister, M. Couve de Mur-
ville, to Holland in an effort to counter the Lockheed
seduction, but in vain. Le Monde comments, “Unless
France can make NATO accept her product . . . she
has only the choice between building other people’s
planes under license or ruining herself... .” The cartoon-
_ ists can have their sport with General de Gaulle, but in
the light of all this, his behavior appears less strange—
in fact, not strange at all.
_ The Dialectic of Democracy
Prince Edward County is located deep in southern
_ Virginia’s tobacco-rich Piedmont country between the
James River and the North Carolina border. There are
no cities or large towns; the principal trading center is
_ Farmville, a town of neat white houses and numerous
} 3 churches, The county has between 15,000 and 16,000
Pea, a pe it is aed that 47 per cent som
Wad
Negro and 53 per cent white. The school population —
reverses this ratio: 53 per cent are Negro (1,780),
while 47 per cent are white (1,562). Over the years,
the residents, white and Negro, have not been keen
about voting; only a small number (1,800) of the total
adult population turned out to vote in the last election.
Of recent years, the county has been bothered by only
two serious social problems, both of which are now well —
on the way to solution. The first, that of school segrega-
tion, has been disposed of by simply closing the twenty-
one public schools in the county and setting up a sys-
tem of private schools, financed by voluntary contribu- —
tions, “for whites only.” Since September, Prince Ed-
ward has enjoyed the unique distinction of being the
only American county without a public-school system.
Now, apparently, it is about to solve the second of its
social problems, voter apathy. Of 3,400 potential Negro
voters, only 759 had been registered; and of these, only
half voted in the last election. But a new issue — “We
Want to Change the Board of Supervisors” — is bring-
ing them to the registrar’s office in droves (there is
nothing to hinder Negro registration in Virginia).
There is a very good chance that the next election will —
bring out the largest vote in county history.
But in the measure that Prince Edward County suc- —
ceeds in solving the problem of voter apathy, it may
be forced to reconsider its ingenious, but rather harsh,
solution of the school problem. The dialectic of democ-
racy is often obscure and retarded, but despite the ©
frustrations and exasperations it sometimes breeds, - it
works fairly well over the long haul.
The Hole in the Theory
The question of detecting underground nuclear ex- —
plosions has become so confused that the ordinary
citizen may be pardoned for turning to the sports page.
Last January, the United States announced that tradi- —
tional underground tests had indicated that the detec- Ri:
tion system tentatively agreed to at Geneva would
be less effective than the experts had originally thought. —
The next counter-step was the so-called Berkner Re- |
port, prepared by a committee of experts named by the -
President and released on June 12. This report in-
dicated that research might well raise the efficiency a
seismic detection of underground nuclear blasts to a
point roughly equal to what had been originally calcu- |
lated. The report took note of the so-called “decoupling”
effect of an underground explosion conducted in a |
cavern; in such an explosion the source of energy would
be separated from the medium (rock and earth) through —
which the effects would be transmitted to the detectir ‘
instruments.
_ The answer to this was she declassification, i in | Oc- Ye
colt of a Rand Corporation — report hen had beer
: t i ane ah ye ii fi
4 Pe) eee iY f
‘2h
ih
th
hi
Wis The Nation
at ae ‘
*
wee Beater peer
prepared at the suggestion of Dr. Edward Teller. The
Rand report calculated that a bomb twenty times the
size of the one exploded at Hiroshima could theoretical-
ly be fired in a cavern under such conditions that the
seismic instruments would record it at one-three-
hundredth of its size. This calculation, known as “the
big-hole theory,” has been widely reported in a manner
that suggests that atomic blasts in caverns are virtually
undetectable. But there is a big hole in the big-hole
theory. Professor Jay Orear, who collaborated with Dr.
Seymour Melman in a study of detection systems, says
that to apply cushioning to a 100-kiloton bomb, an
underground cavity 800 feet in diameter would be re-
quired. Such a cavity would hold a dozen R. C. A.
buildings, it would probably take several years to build,
the explosives required for excavation would probably
agitate hostile seismographs, and the moving of the
millions of tons of rock would scarcely escape the notice
of intelligence agencies, or, if an agreement had been
reached, of control stations. Dr. Orear points out that
cushioning has been discussed in Geneva and he con-
cludes, “. . . put into its proper perspective, the new
technique of cushioning does not make obsolete the
improved inspection system that was agreed upon by
‘both sides at the recent ‘experts’ meeting in Geneva.”
The small risks that a test ban entails are as nothing
compared with the enormous risks of unrestricted test-
. ing. The choice before us is whether to accept a suspen-
sion agreement backed up by a reasonably efficient in-
_ spection system that can be steadily improved, all as a
first step toward disarmament, or of continuing the
-nuclear-arms race which may well lead to war. The “big-
hole theory” is ingenious, but it is merely one of a
series of detours away from a suspension agreement
_ which those who are eager to resume unrestricted test-
ing have from time to time devised.
Albert Camus
_ Albert Camus, essayist, novelist, dramatist of the
“absurd,” was killed on January 4 in a stupid automobile
accident at the age of 46. With his death France and
the world suffer a deep loss. As Anatole Bvanee said in
his funeral eulogy of Emile Zola, Camus was “a moment
‘in the conscience of mankind.” Aieat conscience was less
desperate in Zola’s time than in ours. Then writers be-
lieved they could remake the world; today, as Camus
himself said, our task is to keep the world from destroy-
g itself.
What made Camus a symbolic and inspiring person-
: ality to us was not the literary and artistic excellence
of his work — fine as that is — but his spiritual
strength that was rooted in a soil of bitterness and dis-
may. He was no faith healer, no ideologist with a
aranteed | solution of anything. He found himself in
lation sun me the Majorit x rng men
of our time: “the heir of the corrupt history” of the
past fifty years. His early work is a-reflection of the
nihilism of the generation that reached the age of
twenty just as Hitler was seizing power, witnesses to
the war in Spain, the Second World War and now the
threat of a future war of annihilation. ‘he
In this nightmare of negatives Camus recognized his Me
role of “rebel”: a heroic sanity reaffirming itself against
all rational quibble. He believed in nothing so much as
the need to fight for life against falsehood and slavery.
“In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there
was in me invincible summer.”
> Camus said in his
beautiful speech upon the award of the Nobel Prize in
1957, “possessed only of his doubts and of a work still
in progress.” In his acceptance of his doubts (and his
ability to face them), as well as in his readiness to
progress with his work toward the goal of saving a
humanity enfeebled by guilt, indecision and confusion,
Camus became a leader and a light for civilized men
everywhere. He admitted that in a sense we are in ruins;
he felt just as devoutly that because we are still alive
we must begin to build anew from the wreck.
HaroLtp CLuRMAN
“T am a man still almost young,
Welcome to WBAI
Part at least of the fetid atmosphere created at year’s
end by quiz-show frauds and payola scandals, has been
dispelled for radio listeners in the New York area by “ns
the fact that, as of January 10, WBAI-FM (99.5 mc)
is being operated as a non-commercial, listener-sponsored
station by the Pacifica Foundation. Pacifica also owns
and operates KPFK and KPFA in California. Its for-
mula—recorded music and a wide variety of news and x
discussion programs—has been thoroughly tested by re
the two West Coast stations and should prove equally if
successful in New York. The extraordinary fact that it
is impossible to buy time to place commercials of any
type on WBAI invests the station with immunity from
the pressures that have helped bring commercial radio
and TV, to their present low estate. Appropriately, the
opening discussions on WBALI included a panel on “Pay- _
ola and Mental Poverty.” For January 15, the station
has scheduled a two-hour discussion on “The Coming
Death of Caryl Chessman” which will be of special in-
terest to Nation readers; participants will include for-
mer Governor Goodwin J. Knight, several of Chess-
man’s legal advisers, a psychiatrist and a physician
formerly on the medical staff of San Quentin Prison.
The Nation has been invited to present over WBAI’s
facilities a bimonthly program on current events. De. ,
tails on the date and time of this program, as well as
information concerning WBAI’s listener-sponsored plan,
il be obtained directly | — the station (30 E. 39 .
eet, New York 16, N. ¥. a | re
eat
ee
~~ —
RUSSIA: From Terror to Incentive. . by Alexander Werth
Readers of The Nation and of several
British publications (the Sunday Times,
Manchester Guardian, etc.) will recall
the remarkable wartime journalism of
Alexander Werth, one of the few for-
eign correspondents who watched World
War II from inside the Soviet Union.
Mr. Werth summarized his Russian ad-
venture — it lasted from 1941 to 1948
— in three books: The Year of Stalin-
grad, Leningrad and Musical Uproar in
Moscow (a critique of Zhdanovism).
Now European correspondent for The
Nation, Mr. Werth has returned to the
Soviet Umion for the first time since he
left, in 1948, at the height of Stalin’s
power. This is the first of two articles
on the changes he has found.
Moscow
THE TWO MONTHS T have just
spent in the Soviet Union, after an
absence of eleven years, have left me
with such a multitude of impressions
that I had better start with a sim-
ple enumeration of those which seem
to me most significant.
I
First, of course, there is the great-
ly improved living standard: thou-
sands of apartment blocks (in Mos-
cow alone 240,000 families, or about
a million people, were moved into
new apartments in the last year, and
there are similar developments in
other cities); the large quantities of
food to be seen everywhere; the bet-
ter standard of dress; the universal
passion for “gadgets”—cameras, TV,
refrigerators, washing-machines, elec-
tric razors; installment buying—“for
anyone regularly employed in Mos-
cow”’—of TV sets, watches, clothes,
jewelry, furs, coats, etc.; the
“Westernization” of everyday life by
means of such widespread innova-
tions as the network of self-service
bars and restaurants (albeit still
rather primitive), store deliveries to
regular customers, the sale of pre-
cooked dishes which need only heat-
ing before serving; an important’
(though not spectacular) increase in
the traffic, with 5,000 taxis and 30,-
000 purely private cars roaming
oscow’s streets; the vast improve-
ments in urban transport, etc. True,
along with all this, one can. still
travel for miles in a Moscow bus and
#
see little except rows and rows of
rather decrepit wooden 1zbas; you
can still find that many people earn
a miserable wage of 350 or 400 rubles
a month (neminally $35 to $40, in
reality even less); that good-quality
shoes and clothes are still expensive
(a better man’s suit costs 1,000
rubles, or an average month’s wage);
that many houses are still as over-
crowded as they were in the days of
Zoschenko, with ugly squabbles go-
ing on in the communal kitchen.
But all this is now said to belong
to the realm of “survivals of the
past”; today houses are built on the
principle of one-family-to-one-apart-
ment; minimum wages will shortly
be nearly doubled; clothes will be-
come cheaper. It is already possible
to buy cheaply presentable-looking
shoes and clothes made of those syn-
thetic materials at which Khrushchev
recently asked his fellow citizens not
to sneer; he said they were a triumph
of the vast new chemical industries
that were now springing up. “During
the war,” he said, “we used to laugh
at the German soldiers dressed in
uniforms ‘made of wood’; yet the
principle of the thing was correct.”
One cannot escape the impression
that, by and large, and for the first
time in her history, Russia has the
feeling of belonging to the “have,”
not to the “have-not,” nations, and
that Stalin’s ruthless policy of in-
vesting in heavy industry is at last
beginning to pay dividends to the
consumer. Alréady the consumer—
who once bought anything that was
available—is grumbling about qual-
ity; but it is not doubted that this
quality will soon “catch up with the
West.” That is why last summer’s
American trade fair did not make
quite the overwhelming impression
it was expected to make; many Rus-
sians even complained that “it was
too much like a department store,
and didn’t give us any idea of the
grandeur of industrial America.”
In many fields, the quality is
catching up with the West: books
are both excellently produced and
cheaper than in the West, while
phonograph records, which used to
be shockingly bad, are now quite as
good as any made in the West. One
can buy a twelve-inch Szymanowski
Sonata and Concerto played by
Oistrakh, or two late Prokofiev so-
natas alae by the equally stu-
pendous Sviatoslav Richter for the
equivalent of $1.
II
Another and only slightly less ob-
vious impression is that, despite the
ever-growing similarities with the
“Western way of life,” the society
that is shaping in the Soviet Union
is not the same as a Western society.
The argument often used in the West
that “Communism has not conquered
the soul of the Russian people” can-
not, I feel, be accepted as being cor-
rect. No doubt, as Khrushchev has
remarked, “self-interest” is a very
important factor in human behavior;
and it was only by strongly encour-
aging this “self-interest” among the
peasant masses, so ruthlessly and un-
economically exploited under Stalin,
that he has managed to bring about
a very noticeable increase in Soviet
agricultural production in the last
few. years.
But years of indoctrination have
also produced in Russia not only a
very strong “Soviet-patriotic” sense,
sometimes verging on chauvinism,
but also a strong sense of citizenship,
with a clear understanding of a cer-
tain code of human conduct which
must, as far as possible, be observed.
The pressure of “public opinion” is”
very strong in this respect, and im=
poses on people i in the cities (though
rather less in the villages) certain
standards of “Communist ethics”
which cannot be readily ignored. The
“collective’”—whether at an institute,
a university, a government office or
a factory—keeps an eye on people’s
personal behavior, and it is not easy
for anyone to get away from this’
pressure, as exercised by the local
Party, Komsomol, or trade-union or- |
ganization, This “control” restricts
drunkenness and an unduly disorder-
ly love life; it also tries to stop peor
ple from believing in God and going:
to church (religion is considered an=
other “bourgeois survival”).No doug bi i
there is. still plenty of religion i
Russia, but in the cities, at any rate
os he NATI
‘ We Na (
‘ Wha 4 a he
oor ~
; : Ta
the science craze among the young
und the “science-versus-religion”
propaganda has had, in recent years,
a very far-reaching effect. This “con-
trol” cannot, however, be looked
upon as a form of “direct” coercion;
it corresponds largely to a widely
accepted code of ethics.
III
In recent years the question has
often arisen whether there is in Rus-
sia such a thing as a “New Class”—
an equivalent of the American Power
Elite, or of the ruling class in any
other capitalist society. I certainly
met plenty of members, of the Soviet
“ruling class’—high officials, high
‘party members, highly paid scien-
tists, writers and artists. They live
well, they are admirably dressed,
they look like wealthy people in
other countries. But the feeling one
has is that you can belong to the
“ruling class” for only one genera-
tion. Your children must work ex-
tremely hard and show outstanding
ability in their own right, for privi-
lege cannot be inherited; and though
money can be, money in itself does
not help the next generation to main-
tain their parents’ status, or even to
keep up for any length of time things
like cars, country houses, etc. No
doubt, the advantage a young per-
on Hehies from having an im-
portant father is not altogether negli-
gible, for nepotism is far from dead;
all the same, it does not go very far.
Stalin’s only daughter holds a very
umble teaching post.
IV
The personality of Khrushchev
has created a much more “familiar”
attitude to the Soviet leadership than
existed in Stalin’s days. As distinct
from Stalin, Khrushchev is very in-
sistent on the fact that he is merely
primus wmter pares—the No. 1 man
of a collective leadership who can-
not decide anything without the okay
of the government or the Central
Committee. During his U.S. trip, he
made a point of saying that he per-
sonally could not decide (he’d have
to “consult his colleagues”) whether,
for instance, the USSR would, or
would not, take part in an interna-
tional exhibition the United States
was planning.
of course, very different from any-
anuary 16, eer:
' ty
ea eee.
_As Russia’s boss, Khrushchev is,
7 Sar Me yee ms”
reeves 1 ¢ ey
” “~~ -
4
thing the Russians have ever seen
before. Lenin, though described in
present-day folklore as “deeply hu-
man,” kept his distance; Stalin, as
time went on, became more and more
the “superman,” ruthless and _ re-
moved. Occasionally—for instance,
at some meeting with foreign lead-
ers—he could be jovial and witty;
in December, 1944, he hugely enjoy-
ed himself pulling de Gaulle’s leg.
But with the Soviet people, no man
was less of a backslapper.
Today, six years after his death,
I found the Russian people’s attitude
towards him curiously mixed. I met
many people who had been arrested
and deported in 1948-51; to them,
the death of Stalin was a heaven-
sent deliverance. Others compared
conditions now with conditions under
Stalin, and agreed that life had be-
come much more pleasant and easy.
At the same time, there was an un-
mistakable tendency to try to be
“fair” to Stalin; to say that he rep-
resented the indispensable “iron age”
in the Soviet Union’s economic de-
velopment; it was thanks to in-
dustrialization that, despite some
desperate moments, Russia had suc-
ceeded in beating off the German
invasion. Also, Stalin had been a
good wartime leader; he had never
lost his nerve—not even on that Oc-
tober 16, 1941, when Moscow panick-
ed; and he had handled Roosevelt
and Churchill cleverly. Insofar as
Khrushchev’s “secret” report to the
Twentieth Congress was resented at
all, it was because its author had de-
nounced Stalin as an incompetent
war leader; soldiers I met felt that
this was particularly unfair. No
doubt, they argued, he had made
mistakes, but one had to judge by
results; and it was he who had ap-
pointed Zhukov and Rokossovsky
and Konev and the rest of the bril-
liant generals who, in the end, made
mincemeat of the German armies.
It was the general view, on the
other hand, that something very
strange had happened to Stalin dur-
ing the last years of his life. Some
openly spoke of his paranoia, or per-
secution mania, which had resulted
in such monstrosities as the “Lenin-
grad Affair” and the “Jewish Doc-
tors’ Plot.” One writer, who had
greatly admired Stalin in the past,
now spoke of his last years as a
“Shakespearean tragedy” in which
Beria had played the role of the
blackest of all villains.
KHRUSHCHEY’s present great pop-
ularity was not won overnight. For
him, it was a long uphill fight. He
had first to discredit Malenkov by
showing that he (Khrushchev) was
a better friend of both the consumer
and the peasant, and by publicly
associating Malenkov with some of
the worst crimes of the last years of
Stalin. Apart from a certain tech-
nocracy which regrets the removal of
Kaganovich (for now these tech-
nocrats are much more exposed than
they used to be to “democratic criti-
cism from below”), few shed any
tears over the elimination of the
“anti-Party group”; it was clear that
if they had not been politically de-
stroyed, they would have destroyed
Khrushchev—perhaps physically as
well as politically. As for Marshal
Zhukov, his downfall is attributed
chiefly to one unfortunate phrase he
used—that the Army “would stand
no nonsense from the anti-Party
group.” This suggested that the
Army was a state-within-the-state,
an implication intolerable to the
Central Committee, the supreme
power in the land. So Zhukov went,
and the Army did not stir. After
that, Khrushchev had no rivals left,
and between the twentieth and
twenty-first Congresses, strongly aid-
ed by Kiurichenko, he managed to
change the composition of the Cen-
tral Committee in such a way that
practically all its members are now
“his” men.
The tremendous scientific successes
of the Soviet Union in the last few
years (Sputniks, ICBMs, moon
rockets, etc.), as well as the accom-
panying “reduction in international
tension,” have become associated in
Russian minds with the name of
Khrushchev. Three years ago, peo-
ple in villages still sang ribald chas-
tushki about him and he was nick-
named “kukuruzmk” (the guy crazy
about growing corn); and many (in-
cluding intellectuals) would sneer at
his garrulousness, his “vulgarity,”
his easy, backslapping ways, his “lack
of dignity.”
ALL THIS has changed now. The
Premier’s popularity became enor-
mous after his visit to the United
States. He was the fellow who could
speak as a perfect equal to the Presi-
dent of the United States; he could
make friends of peaceful Americans
and tell hostile Americans where
they got off. He became “the world’s
greatest propagandist for disarma-
ment.” (And think what we could do
with $25 billion a year if we didn’t
have to spend it on armament!”)
At the same time people discovered
that he had a curious dignity of his
own in speaking to foreigners; he has
become “the worthy spokesman of
the Soviet people.” He is now being
familiarly and warmly referred to as
“Nikita Sergeievich.”
Can one speak of a “personality
cult” of Khrushchev? He is certainly
receiving unprecedented publicity in
Russia today; pages and pages of his
(often highly entertaining) speeches
are published in the press, sometimes
for days in succession. Certainly he
has eclipsed all other Soviet leaders:
a film was recently produced telling
the success story of N. Khrushchev,
the “barefooted miner boy,” and his
progress all the way from the capital-
ist mine in 1912 to the steps of the
White House (shots showing Malen-
kov and Bulganin were all cut out).
The Khrushchev in America film has
been showing in thousands of So-
viet cinemas; and in ideological arti-
cles, the Premier’s words are quoted
now much the same way as Stalin’s
used to be quoted in the past.
Such fame and publicity might
well go to anybody’s head. And yet
46
there continues to be a big differ-
ence in the people’s approach to
Khrushchev and to Stalin. Stalin was
the “genius,” the “superman”; Khru-
shchev continues to be “one of us,”
a nice, simple guy telling those for-
eigners just the right things “on our
behalf.”
This gradual discovery of Khrush-
chev as a great leader is one of the
most curious episodes in Russia’s
recent history. Already people are
getting worried about his death, his
blood pressure; they say he should
take greater care of himself. And
they like him because life under his
regime is easier, and there is no
great danger of war any longer, and
people are no longer afraid of get-
ting arbitrarily locked up by the
Secret Police.
V
And this is another of the signifi-
cant impressions I took away from
Russia: Since Stalin’s death, the
Secret Police is no longer a state-
within-the-state. Henry Shapiro, in
my opinion the best-informed for-
eign observer who, as chief UP—now
UPI—correspondent, has lived here
for over twenty years, has called this
virtual liquidation of the MVD (ex-
NKVD, ex-GPU, ex-Cheka, etc.)
the “Fourth Russian Revolution.”
State Security is no longer an in-
dependent government department;
it is controlled by a committee at-
tached to the Central Committee,
and presided over by Shepilin, a for-
mer leader of the Komsomol—i.e., a
man not belonging to the sinister
old MVD. The green-capped frontier
guards (who also had a sinister repu-
_ tation in the past) are now con-
trolled by the Ministry of Defense.
The police themselves are partly
under the authority of the Ministry
of the Interior, partly under Shepi-
lin’s committee. Not that the Rus-
sian police have become gentlemen
overnight, but the unlimited arbi-
trary powers of arrest and conviction
have been taken away from them;
no one can be arbitrarily arrested
any longer without a regular court
or procuratura’ warrant, or sentenced
without a regular court trial. “So-
1The procuratura, or Public Prose-
cutor’s Office, presided over by the
genevralny Prokuror, who holds cabinet
rank, is a distinct government papas
ment.
6 af lu -
ie a Sept a
cialist Legality” is thus not an empty —
word,
Moreover, the vast industrial
MVD empire has been liquidated,
except for a few camps for ordinary
criminals. The general opinion here
is that there are no more “political”
prisoners left in these camps; and
from individual cases I was able per-
sonally to check, this seems to be
true: people whom I knew who had
been “picked up” in 1948 have all
been released. With the destruction
of the (wholly uneconomical and
internationally highly damaging )
MVD empire, there is no inducement
any longer for the police to engage
in mass arrests.
“Socialist Legality” is defined and
codified by the two famous laws of”
December 25, 1958. No doubt,
- flagrante delicto arrests can still be
made; and certain cases (espionage,
sexual crimes, etc.) can be heard in
camera; but the guarantees for the
accused appear to be pretty fool-
proof, and the authors of the “So-
cialist Legality” laws, no doubt with
an eye on the purge trials and the
“Jewish Doctors’ Plot,” have also
made the application to the accused
of threats, blackmail and torture
completely illegal.
THE result of it all is that Siberia,
large parts of which were once a net-
work of MVD camps, is now being
built up as a great romantic land
for pioneers. Young people are at-
tracted to it by good pay, good hous-
ing conditions and the loudly boost-
ed “pioneering spirit” which today
entails many fewer physical risks
than those run, for instance, by the
Komsomols who went to Siberia in
the days of the First Five-Year Plan
to start new industries and build
new cities. Those working today on
the Bratsk and other new gigantic
power stations, or who are develop-
ing the new diamond deposits of
Yakutia (“biggest diamond industry
in the world outside South Africa”)
are earning good money; also, nu-
merous incentives are created for
young people to work temporarily
(or settle down permanently) in the
virgin lands of Siberia and Kazakh-
stan.
This disbanding of the MVD em- —
pire began immediately after Stalin’s
death, and Malenkoy deserves great
ae
pn eae Pre
credit for it; but the at ae raat?
has now, of course, gone to Khrush-
chev. The number of MVD prison-
ers has varied: many were released
at the beginning of the war, but in
1945 the camps were replenished with
Vlassovites and other German “col-
laborators.” In 1948, another wave
of mass arrests swept Russia, and
continued for the next four years.
Henry Shapiro reckons that, by 1952,
there were between three and four
million people in the camps (not
counting the “disloyal” nationalities
_—Volga Germans, Chechens, Cri-
mean Tartars, Kalmuks, etc. who
had been resettled in the East).
Nearly all the nationality groups, as
far as can be ascertained, have now
been allowed to return to their old
homes, while the “politicals” have
apparently all been either amnestied
who had been
_ mains reserved,
or rehabilitated.
In Moscow, I met many people
“in trouble.” With
the exception of German “collabora-
tors,” to whom people’s attitude re-
all are treated with
special kindness by their fellow citi-
zens. At the same time, it is striking
that these people ( whe include some
‘in important government posts) are
very reluctant indeed to talk about
of meeting foreigners at all. Perhaps
those days, especially to foreigners.
Some are actually scared to death
this is an understandable reflex, since
es
i
ar)!
—
DIXIE HATE IN
| P , Derk Ill.
7 IS. SUBURB of Chicago, — it
lies s twenty-four miles to the north—
1s “one of the split-level Paradises
that rim our great cities. Here ten
uusand people live cozily in trim
ss, each is surrounded by gudtions
ns and manicured — shrubbery.
Every eee Deerfield’s husbands
many Gf those arc@iMed after 1947,
at the height of Stalin’s spy mania,
were accused of having had suspect
contacts with foreigners. Today they
fear that under a new “vigilance
campaign” there might be another
search for spies and their “accom-
plices,” and that “Socialist Legality”
might not, in such a case, protect
them sufficiently.
The attitude to foreigners con-
tinues, indeed, to be somewhat re-
served. Yuri Zhukov, head of the
Cultural Relations Committee with
foreign countries, recently wrote in
International Life that American
tourists were welcome, but that cau-
tion toward them was to be recom-
mended all the same; many Ameri-
can travelers were being indoctri-
nated and instructed (even if they
scarcely knew any Russian) to miss
no opportunity of embarking on
tricky and insidious conversations
with any Russian they happened to
meet! Similarly, in Pravda, Zaslav-
sky argued that no matter how
friendly relations became with the
United States, the ideological battle
would become not less, but more
acute. Hence the slogan “Cultural re-
lations—sure, but no Trojan horses!”
This shotian goes rather far: thus,
no foreign newspapers, except Com-
munist papers, are allowed to be sold
in the Soviet Union. And in negotiat-
ing the new Cultural Agreement with
the United States, the Russians re-
jected the proposal of an American
Reading Room in Moscow.
But to return to “Socialist Legal-
ity”: there have been changes not
only in legal procedure, but also in
the system of punishment. The ten-
dency is to avoid long sentences.
Thus, I heard of an engineering stu-
dent who had committed a gross act
of “hooliganism”; formerly, he would
have gotten five years; now he was
given fifteen days. But during his
brief sentence he was made, under
the supervision of a policeman, to
sweep the street outside his own
school and do other menial jobs; his
fellow students would walk past and
laugh at him. Young people are said
to be much more afraid of this kind
of punishment than of a long sen-
tence.
An important innovation is also
the “Comrade courts,’ which will
deal with misdemeanors and even
with minor crimes. These are de-
scribed as forerunners of that Com-
munist society in which persuasion
and moral pressure will take the
place of coercion. In my next arti-
cle I will deal with the status of
communism in’ today’s Russia, as
well as with Soviet attitudes toward
morality, literature and the arts; and
I will try to answer some questions
on Soviet foreign policy, including
relations with Peking.
YANKEE SUBURB ee Robert Gruenberg
— junior executives, for the most
part — peck their wives dutifully
on the cheek as they leave them and
station wagon for the day’s occupa-
tion in advertising, brokerage, law,
sales, schools and other such white-
collar offices in Chicago’s Loop. On
Sundays, before golf and backyard
barbecue, they pause at one of the
seven Protestant churches, or the one
Catholic church in town, for an hour
of spiritual rejuvenation.
The town has had its problems,
of course — the kind Shimon to all
- communities of its
Bi 1g traffic, schoo
ever happened here unpleasant
enough to get into the Chicago
newspapers. The problems of race,
housing, poverty, were far away;
life was good, and if it got any bet-
ter, there were always the higher-
status towns immediately to the east
to which one could move — towns Mi
like really exclusive Kenilworth and _
Lake Forest, on the lakeshore.
Today, Deerfield bids fair to hea
come the Little Rock of the Nor
— not yet with the violence of Lit-—
tle Rock, but with all its exposed —
passions ‘bad: threat of long-lasti ing
scars. In. another sense, it will become
ng a ‘monument: to a 1 principle as im
"ig
portant as the educational one laid
down at embattled Central High
School: whether a builder who
builds homes for all people, including
Negroes, can be defeated by con-
stituted authority acting under the
guise of building-code enforcement,
park improvement and _ school-play-
ground enlargement,
TROUBLE came to this town after
word spread in early November that
Progress Development Corporation,
a subsidiary of Modern Community
Developers of Princeton, New Jersey,
was planning to sell to Negroes ten
or twelve of fifty-one homes in the
£30,000 to $35,000 class which were
to be erected at the west edge of
town. The parent firm had had ex-
perience in building interracial com-
munities in Philadelphia and Prince-
ton. Its advisory council, according
to the firm’s officials, included Adlai
Stevenson (whose Libertyville home
is scarcely ten miles from Deerfield
as the crow flies), Mrs. Eleanor
Roosevelt, Senators Joe Clark of
Pennsylvania and Jacob Javits of
New York, and Philip Klutznick.
(Klutznick is the founder and de-
veloper of Park Forest, another or-
ganization-man’s town — it has been
dubbed America’s “model commun-
ity” — thirty miles south of Chica-
go. Until the end of 1959, Park
Forest had no Negro family among
its population of 30,000. There is
reason to suspect that Klutznick to-
day regrets that he didn’t establish
Park Forest as an interracial com-
munity at the outset.)
Progress Development Corpora-
tion had counted on enlisting the
co-operation of the local clergy and
community leaders in explaining the
idea of “controlled occupancy” to the
community. What the company ran
into, instead, was shock and dismay.
Soon the word got around: the
Negroes are coming. Meetings and
telephone calls went on all over town
on how to meet this new and unex-
pected development. At a meeting
between Morris Milgram, the youth-
ful president of Modern Community
Developers, and Deerfield citizens
and clergymen, a proposition was
put to him: set aside money in es-
crow for five years, to be used to
compensate property owners should
48
y
they suffer financial losses as a re-
sult of the interracial development.
Milgram not only turned the prop-
osition down flat; he told the peti-
tioners that integration had come
to Deerfield.
The town was on fire, thenceforth.
The flames blazed high at a town
meeting a few days later and the
thin veneer of gentility that had
distinguished Deerfieldians from
their more earthy Chicago neighbors
was burned away completely.
“The people are demanding that
action be taken to maintain their
property values and the social fabric
of the village,’ announced the presi-
dent of the village board. “The board
asks and will continue to ask for
a calm and considered approach
to the problem that it may be re-
solved in a manner both legal and
conducive to the continuance of
Deerfield as a fine place in which
to live and bring up children.”
A housewife announced that peti-
tions were being printed calling for
the park board to condemn the pro-
posed building site and added — to
ringing applause — that Milgram
and his project should clear out.
“What kind of white people would
move into that development with
them, anyway?” another woman
shouted.
“How did we get euchred into
this?” a man asked.
“We moved here from Chicago to
get away from them,” someone else
called.
When a Lutheran minister at-
tempted to explain that there was
“no violation of the law,” that “we
can turn Deerfield into another Lit-
tle Rock or we can react like mature
intelligent adult people,” he was
told to “sit down and shut up.”
One man wanted to know if there
wasn’t “some way” to stop the proj-
ect “legally” — a forecast of things
to come. The meeting adjourned,
but the ugliness lingered on in the
comments of the scattering crowd.
There was talk of burning down the
framework of the two homes that
had already been started.
ANOTHER meeting was called late
in November by the village trustees
“to gather facts and gauge senti-
ment — to separate fact from fic-
J s - oh a Ay? na
tion.” There was more of the same
kind of hostility among the 600 who
showed up. But amid the boos and
the catcalls, eight brave persons
spoke up for the project. The most
eloquent was a young high-school
teacher who stood before the crowd
and said: “I teach American history
and [I have taught many of your
children. I could not continue in
good conscience to teach if I were
not in favor of the integrated com-
munity.”
“Fire him!” someone shouted.
“Firing doesn’t frighten me a bit,”
he answered calmly. “If there is a
shortage more acute than housing,
it is the shortage of teachers.”
This little band of eight was rep-
resentative of the outnumbered and
outshouted voices of reason, the
Deerfield Citizens for Human Rights
and the North Suburban Human
Relations Council. They were to
wage an uphill, losing battle in the
“poll” and referendum yet to come.
“What does the country think of
Deerfield?” “Let’s not create a monu-
ment to hate and prejudice,” they
pleaded with their fellow citizens in
the following weeks.
WHIPPED up by the meetings, the
town was prepared for the “poll” to
be taken December 6 by a newly
formed “residents association” head-
ed by Harold C. Lewis, a Chicago
investment banker, on whether it
favored the new interracial subdivi-
sion. The result: 3,507 against the
admission of Negroes to the village,
460 for it. Hardly anyone raised the
question of whether the taking of
such a poll conformed to the spirit
of American democracy in the first
place.
Coupled with this survey of “pop-
ular sentiment” was the harassment
of the builder by the village build-
ing department. “Violations” of the
building code were suddenly dis-
covered in the first two homes un-
der construction. Once construction
was ordered halted because a “spot
survey” of the building site hadn’t
been filed with the village. A build-
ing inspector admitted to a reporter
that such a survey, showing the dis-
tances of the homes from the street,
sewers, other homes, etc., was not
usually asked for prior to the secur-
The Nation —
se ee. he >” *
(aw. ‘ ;
ty ' . = . . =
ng of a building permit or the start
of construction.
While the building department
was discovering “violations,” the
residents’ association kept the pot
_ boiling on the non-governmental
front. “They are trying to force in-
tegration down the throats of the
people of Deerfield and we are re-
sentful of the manner in which this
situation was brought about,” de-
_ clared Mr. Lewis. “If they get away
with this here, it will encourage
other builders throughout the coun-
try to do the same thing,” he said.
As the arguments raged, the Deer-
field park board, apparently with the
tacit consent of the board of edu-
cation, proceeded along its own care-
fully laid out plan to deal with the
situation. This was to acquire the
two sites — they totaled twenty-
three acres —on which the subdivi-
sion had been planned, along with
four other sites in the village, for
parks. The move seemed particular-
ly ironic, since in an election last
April 22, Deerfield voters, while ap-
proving the levy of a recreation tax
to provide funds for a park program,
defeated a proposition to purchase
three parcels of land for $250,000
for school-park purposes. They had
also voted down an increase in the
borrowing power of the local park
district. “Deerfield,” said Chicago
Daily News columnist Jack Mabley,
himself mayor of nearby Glenview,
“has something of a reputation on
the North Shore for turning down
bond issues for parks.” But now
Deerfield was suddenly deciding that
it needed parks. A vote on a $550,-
000 bond issue was set for December.
MEANWHILE, signs of the ugliness
‘that has characterized attempts at
‘integration in Chicago appeared also
in this genteel community. A forty-
year-old recreational worker who
had appeared at a village board
; eeting and charged officials with
using the village’ s need for parks to
thwart integration, three days later
found a partly burned, three-by-
five-foot cross on his lawn. And
only a few days earlier an official
of the building firm discovered nine-
teen studs had been chopped out of
the model homes by “vandals.” The
village police chief blamed the inci-
January 16, 1960
TF
dent on irresponsible juveniles from
outside the town and promised to
keep an eye on the structures. When
a reporter asked if neighbors had
seen or heard any suspicious goings-
on, an investigating officer replied,
“What are you trying to do, make a
mountain out of a molehill?”
The voters prepared for the bond-
issue election against a background
of battle between integrationist and
segregationist forces in which the
latter cited “the demoralization re-
sulting from intermarriage” in an
“argument” on “the religious aspect”
of the question. Eighty-six per cent
of the voters, the largest in the com-
munity’s history, went to the polls,
and the bond issue was carried, 2,635
to 1,207 — a far cry from the 8-to-1
poll against integration reported
earlier by the residents’ association.
Whether some voters had been edu-
cated in a short time or whether
sense seeped in when a tax-conscious
electorate thought of the added tax
burden, is open to question. Report-
ing the results, the Chicago Tribune
said, “The largest turn-out of voters
in Deerfield’s history approved the
. . bond issue, spelling imminent
defeat for a development company’s
proposal to build interracial hous-
WTiGyn) ea
Defeat was not so imminent. The
next day the builders slapped a
$750,000 civil-rights damage suit in
the federal court in Chicago against
twenty-one officials of the village,
the park board and two of the anti-
integration citizens’ committees. The
SACS IORIHN
developers also sought an order to
block condemnation of the land for
parks, and an injunction restraining
village officials from interference
with construction. By nightfall, the
injunction had been granted by fed-
eral Judge Joseph Sam Perry, who
promised to review the condemna-
tion matter before the year was out.
“T cannot interfere with the lawful
acts of these individuals [village and
park officials], but if it is found that
the condemnation is done as part of
a conspiracy, they have done it at
their peril,” he warned. The hear-
ing was marked by a village charge
that the builders were “segregation-
ists.” Reminding the court of the
plan to sell a number of the homes
to Negroes, the village spokesmen
said “they are creating color bars to
suit their convenience . . . the gist
of their plan is to divide real estate
on racial lines.” Meanwhile, more
vandalism was reported as window
frames were smashed and stolen and
lumber destroyed. Last week Judge
Perry began hearings on the builder’s
plea that the town be enjoined per-
manently from interfering with the
construction project.
DEERFIELD has stirred Chicago,
but it has stirred even more the
other predominantly white suburbs
which had thought that “it couldn’t
happen here.” -
Chicago’s quiet, moneyed Beverly
Hills, at the south end of the city,
one al the last all-white strongholds
in the city proper, has had its con-
science jolted by seventeen Protes-
tant ministers who publicly pro-
claimed “common cause” with a
youthful Methodist pastor who had
been asked to take his choice be-
tween resigning from an interracial
community group or his church post.
“T can in conscience do neither,” he
said.
An estimated 175,000 Negroes live
in the suburbs around Chicago, about
half of them in the industrial towns
of Gary and East Chicago. An in-
finitesimal few live in white neigh-
borhoods in the rest of the suburbs.
Nevertheless, Deerfield has brought
home the lesson that “it can hap-
pen” to any suburb. But not all
residents are thinking in terms of
fleeing. Many are simply tired of
fleeing; and more important, there
is a great number of new residents
DEATH OF A STEELWORKER ee by Joseph Ershun
... The Company shall continue to
make reasonable provisions for the
safety and health of its employees at
the plants during the hours of their
employment. — From agreement be-
tween United States Steel Corp. and
the United Steelworkers of America,
August 3, 1956.
The safety section of our basic la-
bor agreement is one of the most
glaring examples of management’s
bleeding the contract. The never-
ending parade of union men_ being
sent home for refusing to work under
unsafe or unhealthy conditions is
conclusive evidence of the purpose
and intent of the United States Steel
Corp. regarding this section of the
contract. — Fairless Union News,
November, 1958.
WITHIN four weeks of the injunc-
tion that forced the Steelworkers
back to the mills, production at the
giant Fairless works of U.S. Steel had
soared to a fantastic 95 per cent and
Sidney Adler, a worker in the open-
hearth department, had met a flam-
ing death in an accident.
JOSEPH ERSHUN worked im the
open hearth of U.S. Steel's Fairless
Works from 1952 to 1957, during
which period he founded and edited
the local union newspaper.
50
eu
in these suburbs who came from the
city and who, while not seeking out
Negroes as neighbors, are ready to
accept them. Many are asking each
other how they can best establish
a truly interracial neighborhood with
good neighbors and solid property
values. They are watching Deerfield
with heightened interest because it
may be the crucible in which the
quota system — the admission of a
set number of Negro families to a
white neighborhood — will be tested.
The quota system got its first big
airing in Chicago last May when
Saul Alinsky, writer and sociologist,
proposed it before the United States
Commission on Civil Rights.
Modern Community — Builders
adopted “controlled occupancy” be-
cause, said John W. Hunt, attorney
for the firm, “it is the only means of
He was not the first worker to be
killed at this most modern U.S. Steel
mill. He will not be the last. He is
just the most recent.
Adler’s tragic death makes it easier
to understand the Steelworkers’
stubborn resistance to any company
demand that the union’s already
weak “say so” over day-to-day work-
ing conditions be further weakened.
(It is noteworthy that last week’s
strike settlement did not include an
agreement on working conditions;
the problem was put into “escrow”
for solution by a special committee. )
In the all-important area of safety,
the union’s power is so pathetic that
the use of the word “power” in this
connection, no matter the number
of modifiers, becomes a gross misuse
of the English language. It may come
as a surprise to steel management’s
negotiators that even the most com-
pany-minded and “loyal” worker is
concerned not about how “powerful,”
but how weak, the union is in this
area.
Under the present contract (which
the steel industry wants to “cor-
rect” because it gives “too much
power” to the union), management
and management alone determines
assuring both Negroes an
. eae
q
ve
d whites
that an integrated development. will
not become all Negro and segregat-
ed.” Those who criticize the quota
system for its undemocratic aspect
have provided no practical, construc-
tive solution — as Alinsky called for
in his testimony before the com-
mission — on how else to deal with
the racial problem in housing.
If the Deerfield battle is won —
and many believe it will be won after
time and money have been spent —
it will mark the beginning of the
Tite
end of the “easy way” out — the j
flight to the suburbs, away from the k
city’s myriad problems, which h
include integrated living. For after
Deerfield, there will be other such
projects. A time is coming for a new
alignment of values, human as well
as real estate. ;
what is and what is not safe. More-
over, the privilege of characterizing
a job or practice as unsafe, and cor-
recting it, is almost invariably ex-
ercised by the company after an ac-
cident, as many a man who has pro-
tested an unsafe condition has learn-
ed to his despair. The steelworker
assigned to an unsafe job has the
“right” to refuse the job; but he
knows that if he maintains his pro-
test long enough, the company won’t
find any other “suitable work” for —
him as provided for under the con-
tract. Thus, a worker’s refusal to
undertake work under unsafe condi-
tions in effect means a wage cut.
Beyond that, the worker is likely to
be stigmatized as a “troublemaker,”
a designation with all kinds of dark
implications for the bearer.
FOR ANYONE who has not worked
in a mill, it is difficult, in the face
of the company’s display of safety
rules, literature and safety programs, —
to understand the workers’ and fore- _
men’s cynicism. Yet the cynicism is
founded on bitter experience. The |
worker who has seen safety factors |
triumph over production considera-
tions is even rarer than a disk jockey _
The Nat ON
rw
*
woe Py res
aye) =¥ woah le ei)
wie thout payola. In such a daiflict of
interests, there is no question as to
which is going to take the count.
The foreman who can withstand the
constant production pressures to
weigh objectively the hazards of a
given situation is a hero. And all too
often the worker who refuses to per-
form the unsafe job has to be some-
thing of a hero as well.
A realistic approach to the prob-
lem of safety would recognize how
absurd it is to place the responsibil-
ity for solving it in the hands of those
whose first concern is production.
Every worker can tell a story to il-
lustrate this. One of the most point-
ed of such stories was told me by a
maintenance man. Called on to fix a
crane with a defective cable, he dis-
covered that the only safe procedure
was to change the cable. Upon re-
porting to the foreman what had to
be done, he was told to “patch it
up,” to “fix it when we’re not so
busy.” When he protested that this
might lead to an accident in the in-
_terim, the foreman said brusquely,
“We're in the steel-producing busi-
ness, not the crane-fixing business.”
The foreman’s attitude is shocking,
but it is preferable to the hypocrisy
of top management which preaches
safety on the one hand and simulta-
neously creates intolerable produc-
tion pressures on the other.
IT WOULD be wrong, in stating the
ease for giving the union at least
equal power in safety matters with
the company, to argue that the
company is not at all concerned with
accidents, particularly those leading
to death and serious injury. The real
‘question is the depth and serious-
ness of this concern. Ask a man,
“What is the first thing that hap-
‘pens after an accident?” and he'll
tell you, “Well, first they clean up
the area where the accident hap-
pened so that instead of the usual
‘mess, it shines like Marine barracks
ready for inspection. Then they call
a safety meeting to instruct you
that the job you’ve been protesting
along as unsafe is unsafe and
anybody caught doing it will be
penalized, etc., etc.’
adds significantly, “We all know it’s
a lot of bull because in a few days
Jam ary ‘16, 1960 a
* be
ee he
APS ae a\Ky
> Then the man
the accident will be forgotten, the
oF be.
area will he the usual mess, and
everybody will be running around
like crazy, pushing like mad to get
out the next heat in record time.”
The man’s bitterness is justified,
even though the company usually
does something after an accident.
The company investigates the im-
mediate cause, and does what it can
to eliminate the immediate condition
that led to it. But the ultimate and
real cause of most of today’s acci-
dents is production pressure — and
this silent, ghostly, ever-present wit-
ness is never called upon to testify
at these inquests. The result, of
course, is that even if the given situ-
ation is corrected, the same danger
will keep cropping up in slightly dif-
ferent forms elsewhere in the shop.
THE investigation of the accident
that caused Adler’s death is reveal-
ing. It was established that Adler,
driving a monster Euclid truck load-
ed with hot slag over an unpaved
road in a heavy fog, had driven off
an embankment, causing the slag to
burn up the truck with the driver
trapped in the cab. A pusher—cer-
tainly a very apt name for a straw
boss in the context of this situation
—was riding with Adler, throwing
flares because of the dangerously
thick fog and hazardous driving con-
ditions. The pusher saved himself by
jumping out of the cab just as the
truck went over the embankment.
The cause of the accident ob-
viously was the incredible lack of
lighting on this dangerous road lead-
ing from open hearth to slag dump.
Flares could not begin to cope with
the thick fog. Immediately after the
accident the company went to work
on the road. By means of floodlights,
sparklers, fences and guide posts,
the primitive, dangerously unlit rut
on which Adler had driven to his
death was transformed into a decent,
well-lighted and safe road.
Now, while the company and the
union fight over the company’s de-
gree of responsibility for the obvious-
ly unsafe road, the basic question is
not even eled: What kind of pres-
sure existed in the mill that com-
pelled a man to drive under such
clearly hazardous conditions? And if
production pressures were so heavy
on Adler as to make | him tempt
fate in this way, what kind of pres-
sures must there have been on the
pusher, who in the past two years
has been in two accidents, one of
which almost led to his death and
resulted in months in the hospital?
(Now a three-time loser, the pusher’s
luck is regarded in the shop with the
same awe we all have for somebody
who returned from the dead. As to
the state of his nerves, that is an-
other matter. )
If the sincerity of the company’s
concern with safety can be question-
ed, its very real concern with the
safety image it presents to the pub-
lic cannot. And the image that
emerges from its public-relations de-
partment is that of an industry fan-
tastically and fanatically dedicated
to safety. Safety-slogan campaigns,
with their modest rewards, are ever
present. Every worker gets a set of
safety rules for his job. Company
magazines are full of stories and pic-
tures of men and departments hold-
ing aloft signs proclaiming their
safety records. Wherever possible,
attempts are made to plant the pic-
tures and stories in the press. Of
course, accidents are played down
while the safety records are played
up; everybody knows Americans
prefer the upbeat to the downbeat.
Moralists might condemn the mo-
tivation for these safety campaigns,
but the Steelworkers would not quib-
ble about motives if the desired
goals were achieved. The truth is
that the campaigns are fraudulent
not only in the image they present
of company safety-consciousness, but
they are misleading in the figures
they present of the accident rate.
Worse still, they are self-defeating,
since they tend—ironically enough—
to create anti-safety pressure on the
job.
The emphasis on safety records
leads to an open conspiracy on the
part of management personnel at al-
most every level to conceal the real
extent of accidents. An important
statistic in getting a true picture of
_the extent and seriousness of acci- —
dents is the days lost in produc- .
tion. But management, to make its
unit or department look good, will
go to any extreme to get an injured
worker, no matter how badly hurt, —
back into the mill. As long as he is
is an immediate
in the mill, even if he is transported
there by ambulance — as has hap-
pened—and spends his day on a
couch in the general foreman’s office
reading comic books, the department
record shows it free of lost-time acci-
dents. A department may have five
or six such seriously injured men,
but technically it can report a per-
fect record. Obviously a very safe
department!
Such practices with regard to lost-
time accidents are the rule not the
exception. Under these circumstances,
how reliable can company statistics
on accidents be? Such misrepresenta-
tion leads to lulling people into a
false sense of security. And, of
course, it makes it more difficult for
the union to raise the safety ques-
tion with a company that is doing
such a fine safety job.
The emphasis on “records” leads
to shameless pressure on the part of
top management and foremen upon
the workers not to report accidents.
Here’s how this works: A man gets
a slight injury—a burn or a cut. He
reports it to the foreman in order
to go to the dispensary, as provided
by company regulations. The result
“chewing out” by
the foreman for “spoiling” the safe-
a
7
ty record of the department. The
foreman then conducts an investiga-
tion, not so much to find ways of
eliminating recurrence of such mis-
haps, but for the purpose of pinning
the blame on—guess who? Pretty
soon lots of men get the idea that
it’s not the accidents that concern
the company as much as the report-
ing of them. The result of such an
atmosphere leads to a dangerous un-
derestimation of the little accidents
which often lead to major accidents.
The man who persists in reporting
“little” accidents is of course “acci-
dent prone.” I have seen a man so
frightened by this kind of pressure
that he refused to report a burn, let-
ting it fester all day long and going
to his family doctor only after his
shift was over. What price safety
records? ,
The foreman who tries to be re-
sponsible and encourage his men to
report all accidents no matter how
seemingly minor, will soon find him-
self on the spot. He can’t help
“catching hell” for the poor safety
record of his gang or unit. So, added
to the production pressure that mili-
tates against safety, he has the safe-
ty-record pressure constantly to con-
tend with.
oe es oy g Dat ' ae%
ye . x yy
;
safety in the mills is. the incentive
system. If the foreman’s pressure is
the club against the man’s safety,
then the incentive is the carrot that
the man chases, too often to the ex-
clusion of all safety considerations.
Incentive, a self-descriptive word, is
the system of bonus payments to the
worker based exclusively on rate of
production. The system has built-in
guarantees that a man can become
not only his fellow worker’s worst
enemy, but his own as well.
FROM ALL this it should be clear
that saving more men from injury
and death is not a simple matter of
getting rid of some particular bru-
talized foreman. The “nice guy” fore-
man is as vulnerable to production
pressures (in some ways, since he is
more sensitive, he may be more vul-
nerable) as the “bad guy” type.
The only hope for making Adler’s
death the last instead of the most
recent lies in removing exclusive con-
trol over safety matters from those
whose first consideration is produc-
tion, and placing at least equal power
in the hands of the potential victims
of unsafe practices and conditions—
the men in the mills.
THE BOAT-SHOW CIRCUS.. . Nach ae
THIRTY YEARS ago, when the
sunset gun was fired from the yacht-
club lawn, every flag on every yacht
in the harbor went down simultane-
ously. A typical small schooner of
the time, say sixty feet long over-
all, flew at least three flags: the
American Ensign, the club pennant
and the owner’s private signal. Each
of these flags was struck at the same
moment—beautiful timing that was
achieved simply by posting one paid
crew member at each halyard or staff.
Now that yachting ‘has died and
boating has replaced it, flags either
are allowed to fly night and day or
JOSEPH WHITEHILL is an engi-
neer by training, a novelist and
short-story writer by vocation and a
yachtsman by avocation.
52
are ignored altogether. There is,
though, a rash of “joke” flags of
wonderful tastelessness, made by op-
portunists and bought by imbeciles,
that are illustrated with silhouettes
of hatchets or cocktail glasses or
chamber pots, and are supposed to
elicit chuckles from the spectators
over what is presumed to be going
on aboard at the moment. If you
like, you may order a quantity of
these flapping vulgarities, for your
own use or for gifts, at any metro-
politan boat show you attend this
year. Thirty years ago the other ex-
hibitors would have thrown the ras-
cal out. In those days boat shows
were affairs of dignity where really
large and costly motor yachts were
offered for the inspection of men who
could afford them. (Few, large sailing
craft were shown because there were
then almost no builders offering a
stock line. )
Progress and the emergence of a
new leisure class and the cozy mar-
riage of our two great political par-
ties have brought boating within the
reach of all, and the character of the
merchandise exhibited at the shows
betrays this trend. The fine big
yachts by old-line, reputable build-
ers are still to be seen on the floor,
though many of them show, in their
deckhouse shapes and the overlove
of looping lines, evidence of having
been “styled.”
But alongside these yachts you
will find, under the brightest lights
and in positions of most prominence,
a number of dead-looking objects
that appear to have been squeezed
The Nation
he, Sa
Finally, working directly ne
Bion a tube and saree to harden
in the washbasin. These things have
the impregnated color and chrome
strips and mammary bulges so well
taught by the juke-box industry;
they have the streamlining now
awarded (in E. B. White’s words)
“to objects whose chief virtue is their
immobility, like bathtubs and seis-
mographs”; they have all the gro-
tesque lack of proportion that re-
sults when you give people what
they want instead of training them
to want the best. These objects are
boats, and you can prove it by look-
ing underneath, where you will find
an honest-to-God propeller.
ANY citizen with the 10 per cent
down payment and a steady job to
assure the maintenance of the in-
stallments may buy one of these rigs
and go forth on the water unencum-
bered by knowledge of seamanship
or motor maintenance, killing and
maiming and committing other nui-
sances until he drowns himself. The
sad thing about his drowning is that
usually he has already begotten his
children and thus has assured the
next generation’s supply of fools.
You will find at the boat shows,
alongside the well-designed hardware
and equipment produced by people
who know what they are about, an
inexhaustible cornucopia of junk—
shiny trash to distract the eye and
complicate boathandling. It would
appear that certain manufacturers
have made every conceivable effort
to suburbanize the waterways. Au-
‘tomatic refrigeration, electric light,
gas cooking and television are stand-
ard extras now. Hot water and air
‘conditioning are common offerings.
Everyone is clamoring for a slice of
the more than $2 billion spent each
year on boating, and the befuddled
‘consumer must cover his ears.
~ Manufacturers of marine equip-
ment regard the shows with wariness.
2 is enormously expensive to rent
space, build a display, move in mer-
cchandise that is often cumbersome
and heavy, and staff the booth for
welve hours a day with affable, in-
telligent, and therefore high-salaried
|) men. The best executives in the fac-
| tory must do booth duty. The min-
|| imum cost for a week’s presentation
|) of even a small article in a small
b eae appears to be about | yay;
|
i
the major outboard-motor manu-
facturers who maintain hotel suites,
acre-sized displays staffed by their
best engineers, continuous motor-
service training films for visiting me-
chanics, and celebratory award ban-
quets for franchised dealers, spend
astronomical amounts.
THE small manufacturer on a tight
show budget will find that his booth
location is never the best, for it costs
a great deal to get out from behind
that three-foot-thick marble column;
his booth neighbors on each side
seem invariably to have devised more
striking displays than his; just up
the aisle from him is another of the
light-flying boys showing a_ hand-
made model of something he hopes
to get enough firm orders for to per-
suade the bank at home to lend him
enough money to buy the tooling to
produce the products to fill the
orders he has sworn to ship by’
March; he stares in jealousy at the
dimpled knees and taut bosoms of
the damsels his competitor has hired
to pass out the throwaways.
All week long he stands behind his
counter or sits in an embayment
he has phonied up to look like a
“lounge,” and watches the people go
by. In his younger days he thought
it anomalous to charge a man a buck
to let him in to see a display of mer-
chandise for sale. Now he wishes the
tickets were ten dollars, or perhaps
twenty, hoping that the higher price
might thin the crowd and dam out
those lower forms of life that flow
to public places like flies to garbage.
Yet he must deal with all these demo-
cratically—the feelers and touchers,
the vacant gawks and (O frequent
sort!) the leaflet collectors, who lift
one piece from each pile of literature
in sight — ey, Buster, those four-
color offset jobs cost thirty-seven
cents a copy—and go home in the
evening to wallow in vicarious pur-
chasing power. (These compulsive
folk are often surprised when they
winnow their harvests to discover
such heterogeny as temperance tracts
showing a boat on the cover sinking
in a sea of beer, and last-chance ap-
plications for automobile insurance,
and the mounting instructions for a
chromium-plated sun lotion dispenser
disguised as a tiny ship’s wheel.)
Besides these he must deal with
the usual parade of tired mothers,
lost children, urgent men looking for
the john, pickpockets, wiseacres, ex-
perts who know his product better
than he does, and, rarest of all,
a Customer. Unfortunately, that
charming but timid fellow with
money to spend and the determina-
tion to spend it is usually driven
back and defeated by the loud
swarms of folk who intend to buy
nothing whatever so help them. The
Customer goes home and orders it
by mail like any decent man.
The hours are long and our man’s
feet swell, and by the last day of
the show he is drinking three mar-
tinis at lunch and two more at four
o’clock just to stay with it, and is
longing hard for the Spee worries
of manufacturing.
If the boat shows are so dreary,
why do they survive? Who profits
from their continuance? Of course,
the eleemosynary group that hires
the hall and retails the space to the
exhibitors shows a profit for its or-
phanage or old soldiers’ home. Some
sales are made —accidental orders
over the counter. The exhibitors get
a frightened look at what the com-
petition is up to. Manufacturers’ rep-
resentatives shop for high-discount
items to fill out their lines. And the
small manufacturer on the tight show
budget goes back year after year, led
on by the hope that he may meet
somebody in the trade with whom he
can be reciprocally useful later on.
No doubt this sort of contact-making
is invaluable—but the cost is very
high. One manufacturer said, “We
haven’t any idea whether or not the
boat shows do us as much good as
they cost us. But we do know we
can’t afford to find out by not being
there next year.”
tation over the years,
BOOKS and
ihe’
ARTS”
The Enemy Is Listening
THE EAVESDROPPERS. By Samuel
Dash, Robert E. Knowlton and
Richard F. Schwartz. Rutgers Univer-
sity Press. 484 pp. $6.50.
Carl Dreher
FOR $2.50 you may have a telephone
installed. Thereafter, it will cost you
about $5 a month for local service, plus
toll charges and federal tax. For this
necessity of modern living, you deal with
the business office of the telephone com-
pany, represented by the smiling young
woman pictured in the introductory
pages of the directory. Certain unad-
vertised services may also be purchased
—at prices considerably higher than
those mentioned above, but free of tax.
Perchance you suspect your wife or hus-
band of infidelity? Or you wish to know
the plans of your business competitor,
or to bust a union or to blackmail some-
one? Telephonic assistance can probably
be arranged. You do not speak to the
smiling young woman; nevertheless it
is usually a telephone employee, or for-
mer employee, who provides the infor-
mation or technical aid necessary to in-
‘stall and maintain the special conveni-
ence desired—a wire tap.
The telephone company frowns on this
traffic and engages “special agents” to
ferret out employees guilty of illicit tap-
ping. However, if the data of The Eaves-
droppers are authentic, as I believe they
are, the special agents are rarely over-
zealous. As for the higher officials, their
overriding aim is usually to minimize
publicity and keep everybody smiling.
They are engaged in the great national
effort to keep the lid on, thus thwarting
the foreign foe. The authors of The
Lavesdroppers have succeeded in pry-
ing up the lid, in what is certainly a mat-
ter of valid public concern.
Most of those who help in a research
project of this kind—bookmakers, cops,
judges, private detectives, wiretappers—
are necessarily anonymous, but The Fund
for the Republic, which made the project
possible with a $50,000 grant to the
Pennsylvania Bar Association Endow-
ment, may be publicly mentioned. Once
again, and despite some cautious reorien-
the Fund has
CARL DREHER, an early radio opera-
tor and engineer, is a Fellow of the In-
stitute of Radio Engineers. Mr. Dreher
writes frequently for The Nation.
earned the gratitude of the unbrain-
washed American.
The report is not confined to wire
tapping. “Bugging’—the planting of
concealed microphones—is_ extensively
covered, and there is considerable ma-
terial on- the rapidly growing use of
closed circuit television and a variety of
photographic, optical and _ electrical
means for spying on employees (“inter-
nal security”), apprehension of thieves,
bandits and shoplifters, detecting tres-
passers, and other purposes, legitimate
and otherwise. However, the telephonic
aspects of modern surveillance practice
are probably of greatest interest to the
ordinary citizen. Vocationally, he expects
some sacrifice of privacy. He is not really
injured if a department store trains a
TV camera on him. Although, by an
ingenious extension of the technique of
salesmanship, he may be bugged in the
automobile dealer’s conference room as
he “privately” discusses with his wife
the purchase of a car, he has a good
chance of escaping bugging in his home.
It’s just too much trouble, as a rule,
for the ends in view. But, especially if
he is engaged in certain businesses or
holds dissident political views, it is not
unlikely that his home or business tele-
phones (or both) have been, are, or will
be tapped.
WIRE TAPPING is not a new problem.
Telegraph lines were tapped before the
Civil War. The modern problem is great-
ly complicated by the widespread use
of telephonic wire tapping by law-en-
forcement agencies. The Federal Com-
munications Act of 1934 forbids unau-
thorized interception of communications
by wire or radio. The FBI, state, and
local police have generally ignored the
federal statute on the ground that it
was not intended to apply to them, that
even if it was so intended it could not
be enforced against them, that state
laws, which in some cases permit police
wire tapping, superseded federal law, or
simply that wire tapping was indispen-
sable in police work. The trouble is
that, even when it begins as a law-en-
forcement technique, tapping corrupts
the police, much as prohibition did. Most
tapping is done, not to apprehend crimi-
nals, but to shake them down. This is
true particularly of gamblers. In New
York City, which is a great plexus of
rio
official and private wire tapping, the
telephone system provides supplementary
income for a large part of the police
force and for telephone company em-
ployees who work with the police and
private tappers. The Eavesdroppers con-
tains an interview with a former New
York plain-clothes man which should be
read in its entirety. The following ex-
cerpts throw some light on how the
police engage in what a Tammany poli-
tician has called “honest graft”:
Q. Did you engage in wire tapping as
a plain-clothes man?
A. I did any number of illegal taps.
Most of mine was what you
would call an illegal tap.
Q. You mean a tap without an order?
A, Without a court order. In fact, I
wouldn’t know how to go about get-
ting a court order. But I can tap
your telephone for you.
Q. Were some of the plain-clothes
men working closely with some of the
bookies?
A. Yes, that’s very true—very true.
. If P'm a plain-clothes man and
. I go in on a pair and I come |
up on a hot pair... well, that could
be worth anywhere from $500 to $1,-
000 to me personally.
Q.... the figure, I imagine, would
be based on the amount of business
they’re doing? ;
A. That’s right. . . . It’s a standard
practice. If you grab a bookie’s work-
sheet . . . and you’re going to court.
that afternoon with it—which is also
standard practice—and he wants his
worksheet back, you charge him for
his worksheet according to the amount
of play he has on his worksheet. If
he doesn’t come across, as the saying
goes, you just pass the word in the
neighborhood or just let everybody
see him get pinched, and_ then
everybody puts in a winner. He has
no way of knowing who plays what
and you put him out of business.
Then all he can do is pay everybody.
So it’s cheaper to pay you.
Q. How extensive is that practice?
A, Oh, let me say that any man who —
is susceptible and needs an extra dol- |
lar will do it.
Reco men?) +
wT don’t like to say this bec use
yl, mine
oh ae hh
Q. And would that be true of most — ‘|
ow Se
on eS 5* ® 7 .
: he
Ve *
[like being a policeman, but T think
it’s true of almost every cop. I don’t
say all.
QO. To what extent is this practice
known by the supervisor of police per-
sonnel?
A. Well, let me put it this way. A
telephone costs $1,500.
QO. To get a telephone in?
A. No, to keep a telephone would
cost you approximately $1,500 a
month. And that has to be divided
all the way down the line. The di-
vision plain-clothes men realize about
$10 of that $1,500 individually. Now
if you have ten plain-clothes men—
now that’s $100 . . . believe it or
not that’s the ratio. Then you have
a lieutenant in charge. First you have
the two shooflies. They’re supervisors
in plain-clothes. They could be a
lieutenant, they could be a sergeant.
They have to be cut in for a share.
The borough office has to go in. His
boss has to go in—it goes right up
the line.
|
|
Q. What does the plain-clothes man
think about taking this kind of
money?
A. Well, sir. I'll tell you. The average
policeman doesn’t look on bookie or
policy money as dirty money. .. . If
you take prostitution money, it’s
dirty money, and a patrolman who’s
been taking from a bookmaker will
look down on you. .. . Or if you
take narcotics money or you
shake down a degenerate. These are
disgusting things to us and believe
me, I’ve never taken a penny from
them in my life. You can offer me
| $100,000 to let you walk away with
an ounce of heroin and I'll lock you
_ up. But plain-clothes men are not
worried about gambling. . . . Well,
as we always put it. They gambled
for Christ’s clothing and they haven’t
alleviated it since then, so how am
I to knock it out? Maybe it’s not
the right way of thinking of it, but
we’re all human,
Although the aggregate is large, such
Operations fall into the category of small
_ business. Much tapping by private de-
tectives is likewise a matter of climbing
poles or hooking into junction boxes in
cellars. Some private wire, tapping, how-
ever, is on a more impressive technologi-
_cal scale. In 1955, a New York City wire-
tap plant operated by the lawyer John
_ Broady with the aid of a few technicians,
including two employees of the telephone
company, was uncovered by the New
{ P. anu
January 16, 1960
ata
ger
York Anti-Crime Committee. From an
engineering standpoint this was an ad-
mirable operation. The headquarters was
in an apartment around the corner from
a telephone building housing ten midtown
exchanges. Ten telephone pairs ran be-
tween the two locations. Any one of 100,-
000 telephones, including those of many
of the social and business elite, could be
connected at the main frame of the ex-
change to one of Broady’s ten recording
machines. When the receiver was lifted
the recording machine started automati-
cally. According to testimony at Broady’s
trial, more than a third of the tapping
in this memorable installation was for
purposes of commercial espionage.
The authors of The LEavesdroppers
stress that their investigation in New
York ended in 1957, so they have no way
of knowing whether the torrent of wire
tapping in this area has abated. It may
be that big operations have been dis-
couraged, but it scarcely seems likely
that total volume has been affected.
OWING to the different approaches
taken by the states to the various forms
of eavesdropping, the United States pro-
vides an excellent laboratory for a study
of the problems involved. In some states
law-enforcement wire tapping is legal,
with certain formalities required, al-
though not necessarily observed. In New
York, for example, a wire can be legally
tapped by court order, in Massachusetts
with the written consent of a district
attorney or the attorney general, in
Louisiana without any authorization or
regulation whatsoever. Pennsylvania,
Illinois and California flatly prohibit
wire tapping. But the result everywhere
is the same. The police tap freely, and
so do private detectives and others. Mr.
Dash and his colleagues covered New
York (Manhattan and Brooklyn), New
Orleans, Baton Rouge, Boston, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Phila-
delphia and Las Vegas, and studied prac-
tice in England, where the authorities
wire tap through the post office—on a
relatively small scale.
In the United States the general pat-
tern is one of cozy co-operation between
the police and telephone company em-
ployees, and often also between tele-
phone company employees and gamblers,
racketeers, or private detectives. Some-
times the technicians operate as double
agents, collecting from both - sides.
Sometimes the police tip off gamblers
that other police have tapped their lines.
“For the right amount of money,”
the authors say, “anybody in Phila-
delphia could have a wire tap installed
on anybody else’s phone or a microphone
concealed in anybody else’s office or
home.” And Philadelphia is no different
from any other city.
The only remedy for the individual
is to follow the rule of the military
services: assume that every telephone
circuit is tapped by the enemy, and say
nothing that he can use. Assurance of
telephonic privacy—and even it is not
absolute—is provided only between two
pay stations, prearranged under condi-
tions in which surveillance is impossible.
As for precautions against bugging, the
section of the book written by Mr.
Schwartz, a kind of do-it-yourself trea-
tise, contains some useful suggestions.
Special care is advised for patrons of
the brothels of Las Vegas. It seems that
a “high-ranking law-enforcement officer”
installed a microphone in every room
of one of the most popular of the
pleasure palaces and recorded the con-
versations of “visiting dignitaries.” The
records were preserved for sale, presum-
ably to the dignitaries themselves.
Mr. Dash, who acted as director of
the Eavesdroppers investigation, is a
former trial attorney of the United
States Department of Justice and former
District Attorney of Philadelphia. Mr.
Schwartz teaches at the Moore School of
Electrical Engineering of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania. Mr. Knowlton,
who is responsible for the concluding
section on “The Law,” is a professor at
the Rutgers Law School. The book de-
picts a thoroughly unpleasant society.
Travels of the Sage Narada
The gods go barefoot, but they do not walk.
Either they stand on one foot or they fly.
I saw them practicing to appear as men:
Stumping about on their bare heels, they smiled.
The legs of gods are too short for their honor,
Although their gold humanities dazzle the eye.
They love their bodies so, as you may too,
And wonder at them tranquilly.
Only flight puts them at their ease,
Or when they sit and let themselves be loved.
_Joun Berry
— German
The Durable Germans bs
GERMANY REJOINS THE POW-
ERS. By Karl W. Deutsch and Lewis
J. Edinger. Stanford University
Press. 320 pp. $6.50.
Tames Stewart Martin
FOR THE very reason that the authors
make no secret of their own highly sym-
pathetic attitude toward Germany and
aspirations, the result of this
study should appall the planners of
German policy in our State Depart-
ment. The book itself may not gain a
wide readership among general readers,
because it is presented as a scholarly
study in political science. It makes the
usual attempts at objective formulation
that we expect to find in modern social
studies, with tables of figures, popular
opinion surveys, mention of elites and
all the rest.
What should jar the “Germany is
our bulwark” wing, which has been car-
rying on where John Foster Dulles left
off, is the clear evidence that the West
Germany of today, like the united Ger-
many of recent memory, is as ready as
ever to play the middle against both
ends, and has in fact been doing so with
increasing success over the past four-
teen years. In this respect the title of
the book is misleading. The word “joins”
carries a connotation of mutuality or
sharing of a common purpose that the
facts fail to support; whereas Germany’s
traditional position of Deutschland iiber
alles is one that everybody except the
State Department seems able to grasp.
After a brief discussion of the elite
concept and its limitations, the authors
open with a résumé of popular opinion
polls showing the historical memories
and present aspirations that set the
mold for popular opinion in Germany.
They outline the presently popular
views on foreign policy issues such as
neutralism, national reunification, re-
armament and the fear of war; and they
point out that opinion on these matters
has been relatively stable for ten years.
In the light of this stability of opin-
ion, there is a brief section discussing
the established social strata in West
German society, concluding with the
key point that “the most important
underlying cleavage is between friends
and enemies of the Republic. . .. In
practical terms, this still means the in-
JAMES STEWART MARTIN headed
the Decartelization Branch of U.S. Mih-
tary Government in Germany im the
postwar years. He is the author of All
Honorable Men, the story of decarteliza-
tion in Germany.
conspicuous but persistent difference
between Nazis and anti-Nazis. ... The
large majority of West German voters
is against communism as it is against
sin. Nazi sympathizers are alternately
vehement in denouncing communism
and ready to play with the thought of
making alliances with Communists
against the West, in line with the old
Stalin-Hitler pact of 1939 and with
some more recent ‘national bolshevist’
propaganda themes.”
According to the authors’ estimates
based on the polls, about one German
in eight is a “hard core’ Nazi; about
one-sixth of the younger voters, aged
eighteen to twenty-nine, would wel-
come a new Nazi party and declare that
National Socialism was “a good idea.”
About one voter in four shows up as
an emotional supporter of the Nazis on
all. salient points; and about one in
three favors the Nazi position on specif-
ic issues, such as anti-Semitism.
WHILE recording this relative stability
of the general political philosophy, how-
ever, the authors recall many historical
examples of drastic, almost overnight
shifts in German foreign policy, the
switching of alliances, the breaking of
commitments wherever German na-
tional interests seemed to require it.
“These reorientations were more dra-
matic than many of the policy changes
in other Western countries; they were
not gradual but rapid and sweeping;
they took many contemporaries by sur-
prise, but they were accepted by Ger-
man opinion.” In effect, the stable, per-
manent backing of opinion in Germany
is for the idea that German national in-
terests must be paramount, The choice
of the means and the manner of serv-
ing that paramount interest is subject
to abrupt change, with the likelihood of
full popular support for whatever new
alignment or orientation,
Having concluded their opening dis-
cussion of the “policy images in popular
opinion,” the authors turn to the insti-
tutions and elites which in their judg-
ment actually take part in framing Ger-
man foreign policy. These run from the
formal governmental institutions which
are supposed to act, through the polit-
ical parties and their leaders—described
“key groups for decisions”—to the
several legislative and executive elites
comprising the “official actors.” Then
comes the consideration of the impor-
‘closer to the traditional foreign service
tant parties behind the parties: the in-
terest groups which act sometimes by
gaining direct representation in the
Bundestag or getting appointments to
Rew: ‘
a" i
oe a: “al
executive positions, sometimes by ap-
proaching officials and lobbying, and
sometimes by other means.
AFTER discussing briefly the trade un-
ions and the various groups like the
Committee of Christian Employers, the
Committee for Refugee Problems, and
others which are linked rather directly
to political parties, the authors move
to the crucial matter of the giant Ger-
man business organizations. “Big busi-
ness, tightly organized into national in-
terest associations and dominated by
relatively few men, has long been the
most powerful effective private interest
group in Germany. . . . German banks,
corporations, and business associations
generously subsidized political parties
and leaders who appeared willing and
able to further their interests in the
executive and legislative branches of the
government. . . . Despite allied efforts
during the period of occupation to di-
minish the concentration of German
business organizations and the power
of their leaders, the German business
elite today exercises an influence in na-
tional affairs which rivals that of any
period in the past.”
The authors mention eight’ national
associations of German businessmen as
most powerful in this area. An analysis
of the ten men who in 1956 controlled
these associations indicates that in back-
ground and experience they are much
and military elites than to the political
elite that now forms the government of
West Germany. They conclude that the
support of the Adenauer government by
the business groups has been based
solely on the fact that their interests for
the moment coincide. They cite a study
that Gabriel Almond made in 1954 of
the political attitudes of German busi-
ness leaders. Almond “concluded that
they supported the Adenauer govern-
ment ‘because it has followed a sound
economic policy from their point of
view, and because it has been successful
in rehabilitating Germany on the inter-
national scene.’ The ‘basic pattern of
political irresponsibility’ which charac- —
the
‘fundamentally
terized the business elite in
Almond — found
changed.’ ”
General Clay’s military government,
with State Department approval, scut-
tled the postwar policy against recon-
past,
un-
centration of control in German indus-
try and put these same politically ir-
responsible business leaders back into
power, There they have been making “9
shirt front of the Adenauer government —
just as surely as they and their pre-—
decessors made a puppet of the Briin
ing government patina) Bie ht te
;
: Ns iT) 1ON
fs mys)
= =<. o-oo
<< —° «= —<mem
In the light of the findings, the
third major section of the book, de-
picting “the system in operation,” takes
on added importance when it shows how
the tremendous input of U.S. financial
aid, which was so necessary to the “eco-
nomic miracle” of West Germany’s
rapid recovery in the late 1940s and
early 1950s, is of declining significance
today. There follows a subsection on
the European Coal and Steel Commu-
nity, showing its contribution toward
the recovery of German influence; and
then other subsections leading to the
discussion of the growing importance
of themes related to German reunifica-
tion. The handwriting on the wall
should have begun to decipher itself by
this point. In connection with the pos-
sibilities of increased trade and invest-
ment to the East, and the need felt for
German unification, an about-face, a
tying-in with Soviet interests by a fu-
ture German administration, just as
abruptly as in the case of the Hitler-
Stalin pact of 1939, is by no means im-
possible or improbable.
THE concluding section of the book,
on “Prospects and Perspectives,” should
be studied in the light of the authors’
own biases which are quite openly de-
_ AS WE got ready to leave, things were
finally cheering up in Uruguay — as
they do each year in Florida — because
_ the tourists were coming. For Uruguay,
_ the tourists are the prosperous Argen-
_ tinians who spend their Australian sum-
-mer on the beaches they annually make
fashionable. Earlier, we had found Uru-
—guay a sad, grasping little country. As
_ it made preparations for the annual
fleecing of Argentinians, I was reminded
again and again of resort areas at home
‘in similar states of preparation.
We left, perhaps, just as things were
_ getting good, so as not to be fleeced any
further. A North American tourist is
both a curiosity and a dream here; it
is as if the people, who expect our
government to solve their government’s
financial problems, imagine that the
coming of individual North American
families as clients could solve each Uru-
guayan’s individual financial problems
yas well.
i
VANCE BOURJAILY is the author of
The Violated oe Press).
le at ee ail
he Hound of Earth (Scribner’ s) eed
L* ie
clared at the beginning of their account:
We cannot think about Germany
without a sense of sympathy, of
compassion for her tragedies, of
warm affection of all that is lovable
in her culture and her people... .
For better or for worse, the authors
of this book are committed to the
search for truth. Less than three dec-
ades ago, German democracy crum-
bled, and German culture and the
German people drifted to destruc-
tion, with vast suffering for them-
selves and for their neighbors. We
shall try to identify the influences
in Germany which are now working
against a recurrence of this tragedy.
But where we found evidence of
trends or conditions working for in-
stability and another possible catas-
trophe, we have tried to name them.
The evidence of “trends or conditions
working for instability and another pos-
sible catastrophe” brought out by the
authors appears ample, whereas the in-
fluences working against recurrence re-
main largely to be demonstrated. Thus,
the hopeful concluding projections chat
depict a possibly brighter future, when
read in conjunction with this statement
of the authors’ predilections, are not
overwhelmingly convincing.
er LETTER from URUGUAY
Vance Bourjaily
A few weeks ago, for example, we
arranged through a mutual acquaintance
to visit a large ranch, an estancia, with
the notion that we might want to spend
several months there as paying guests.
It is a remote place and hence neces-
sarily self-sufficient, slaughtering its own
animals for meat, growing its own fruits
and vegetables, to feed the couple who
run it and their fifty hands. To have
us there would not increase the over-
head much, and we were told that the
couple, daughter and son-in-law of the
owners, would be glad of some company.
THE house turned out to be large, but
disappointingly fixed up with much
chintz; the occupants had visited the
States and apparently absorbed a lot of
interior decorating influence from our
bungalow belt.
I talked with the man, and my wife
with his wife. I was not his dream of a
North American; he was surprised that
I spoke Spanish and asked worriedly
whether it wouldn’t be necessary to sup-
ply us with a lot of whiskey. I said we’d
drink whatever they did, and reflected —
_about a leading contender for the
The Facts |
About
NIXON
AN UNAUTHORIZED ae
BIOGRAPHY a |
by William Costello
Here are the unvarnished facts
Presidency — facts as they have
never been presented before, by ‘By
an independent political reporter. ne
Why has Nixon’s reputation
grown while his party’s fortunes |. ee)
have waned? What does his voting
record indicate? What has his
role been both in and out of the Av
Eisenhower administration? What Hy.
is significant about his foreign
travels? What makes him tick?
In this carefully documented rec-
ord, the conflicts and contradic-
tions that have raged around him
take on new clarity and meaning,
and give admirers and enemies
a sharper picture of his entire
career.
Other profiles of Richard Nixon
have described him; this is the
first attempt to analyze and un-
derstand his controversial public
personality. Indexed, $3.95
THE VIKING PRESS
625 Madison Ave., N.Y. 22
—_
that this was not my dream, either, of
the rough, vigorous and wide-open es-
tancia life, a dream I carried with me
from reading W. H. Hudson. However,
the couple was lonely and seemed to
want us; for my part, I thought it would
be a good place for the kids, and a quiet
one for me to work in. I could hunt
there, too, and might learn to accept the
fact that W. H. Hudson hadn’t been in
Uruguay for a hundred years or so.
I had been concerned over what to
offer them in payment, and now felt
that, in view of how highly-developed
the house was, I ought to offer a little
more than I’d have had to for the kind
of life we’d have preferred. Moreover,
I wanted to be generous, and so I said:
“Perhaps around nine dollars a day?”
Which was the rate for room and meals
at the rather nice resort hotel where we
were staying.
I had expected him to be elated; in-
stead his face fell. “No, no. Thirty dol-
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58
lars a day,” he said, with a kind of aw-
ful, naked cupidity which made me feel
sad and stupid; I had imagined it was
us they wanted.
I AM willing to believe that Uruguayans
have come recently to cupidity, as recent-
ly as their nearly total dependence on
the tourist business. It has not been
long since a comfortable blanket of
wool was pulled away from them by, as
I understand it, growing self-sufficiency
in wool of countries which had been
their customers; before that, it was meat
they exported. Now there is nothing
much to export, and nearly everything
they use must come from outside, for
there is little manufacturing and no local
material for it. The quite tidy Socialist
government, which had taken such nice
care of the old and poor and, it seems,
of half the middle-class population of
Montevideo as well, could no longer
continue to operate smoothly with its
income cut 60 per cent by inflation.
And the one key Socialist measure which
might have made recovery possible is
the one which even this most Socialist
of all South American governments has
never dared take: the redistribution of
land. Accordingly, small farmers and
ranchers, who could grow the food Uru-
guay needs, and who might have the
flexibility to convert quickly from wool
and meat to crops which would have
export value, simply do not exist.
I would have faith in the Uruguayan
campesinos (the word gaucho isn’t used
any longer) as small ranchers, were they
permitted the role, and for a_simple-
minded enough reason: I like campesi-
nos. They are tough, good-natured, gen-
erous and ingenious — and they are dis-
appearing into Montevideo at the rate
of thousands a year. They are, or so
every Uruguayan I’ve talked to agrees,
the country’s most important resource
when they stay on the land, and the
country’s most severe problem when
they move to the city. But in the coun-
try, there is nothing for them; in. the
city, they can join the relief rolls, com-
pete for jobs as hotel kitchen helpers, or
become criminals; they learn to wear
the long face of the Montevidean mid-
dle class.
I DO not know if Montevideans were
always long-faced. There may have been
joy in the days when the Uruguayan
peso was the continent’s most stable
currency — so true was this that mil-
lions were banked here by South Amer-
ica’s war profiteers, and one cannot be
sorry that the inflation, when it came,
wiped out almost two-thirds of these
hoardings. On the other hand, one must
be a little sorry for the middle-class
Montevideans themselves, for they had
so little preparation for the scrounge
and scramble which is characteristic of
other middle-class life in South America.
That things have run out for the
Uruguayans, and that they are hurt and
baffled by it, accounts perhaps for the
present stagnation of what was once
a great literary tradition. There’s some
energy here in the theatre, but other-
wise the cultivation of men like Rodo is
a half-forgotten memory rather than a
live tradition, something which belonged
to the fathers of present-day Uruguay-
ans. I could not even buy a copy of a
contemporary novel several people
recommended to me; it is out of print,
and no one considers reissuing it.
Life now takes energy here, and the
ones who have it are mostly Italian
and Spanish immigrants; and one of
the chief uses for the energy is the daily
battle with bureaucracy which, estab-
lished to serve these people, now exists
to obstruct them. A man with something
in customs, for example, may spend half
a year in daily trips to government of-
fices, getting authorizations and rulings
to get it out; it is worth telling prospec-
tive tourists that Uruguayan customs is
the most obdurate, complicated and ir-
ritating of all the customs systems I’ve
encountered in South America.
BUT why should there be prospective
tourists, if things are as I say? The
beaches for one thing. The ocean beaches
are really magnificent, and the fishing
from them first-rate. The beaches along
the Rio de la Plata, on which Montevi-
deo is situated, have, I do not doubt,
quite a gay club and casino life in sea-
son. But for me the main attraction of
Uruguay has been something- quite spe-
cial; I like birds, both watching them
and hunting them and, as a man I know
there remarked, the whole country is an
aviary.
This is a change from much of South
America, where there has been so much
hunting pressure on game birds that,
having recently had an abundance like
that of North America in the early nine-
tenth-century, they are now entering a
period of depletion as bad as the one
we suffered before the establishment of
modern game laws and conservation
practices.
In rural Uruguay this is not so; there
have been reductions in some species of
upland game birds, but there are thou-
sands of doves, and | know at least one
waterfowl area, of which people here are
generally unaware, which must be one
of the world’s great concentrations.
This, with one or two nice friendships,
balanced our stay in Uruguay somewhat
but, in sum, we were glad to leave,
tg ee ee
F ‘
Se Pe” 2 5
veer. og “
FILMS
Robert Hatch
FROM those who saw it, I gather that
Suddenly, Last Summer was not one of
Tennessee Williams’ most satisfactory
plays. But surely it must have gen-
erated more speculation, or legitimate
suspense, than is provided by the cur-
rent movie version. Since Mr. Williams,
with the help of Gore Vidal, prepared
the script, I wonder whether there is
something in Joseph Mankiewicz’s direc-
tion that produces the serial thriller tone
the work now displays. He has turned
out a polished film, and one that deals
boldly with the ugly theme, but he has
certainly not wasted any subtlety on
the job.
When Katharine Hepburn, playing a
rich widow and bereaved mother, makes
her first entrance descending in a ba-
roque private elevator and clad in what
appear to be rich winding sheets intri-
cately draped; when she takes the bril-
liant young brain surgeon (Montgomery
Clift) into a steaming garden that fea-
_ tures carnivorous plants and chained
carrion birds, there to tell him—with
many an odd irrelevancy and alarming
collapse of intonation—that she and her
son, Sebastian, enjoyed a spiritual com-
-munion unavailable to the run of mor-
tals, the viewer is entitled to suspect
that the lady is mad. When she then
makes clear that she will pay a million
dollars to have a lobotomy performed
on a niece whose brain harbors shocking
memories of Sebastian’s last hours, the
film collapses into an issue of medical
ethics too naked for dramatic effect. The
girl, played by Elizabeth Taylor, is ob-
viously no more in need of brain surgery
than she is of bust enhancement, and
_ the hanky-panky as to whether good Dr.
Clift will get out his saw and earn the
mew research institute is flat tedium.
Since Tennessee Williams does not write
Grand Guignol, the girl’s pretty head is
never in serious peril.
I had wondered how the screen would
handle the now-notorious “off stage” tale
of Sebastian’s death. This aspect of the
work was well done. As Miss Taylor,
under hypnosis, relates the story of per-
version, turning into pack blood lust; of
Sebastian pursued, pulled down and
ritually eaten by the Riviera beach boys,
the film sketches the episode in the key
of a ferocious ballet. Sebastian’s face is
never shown, but whoever portrays him
beautifully demonstrates by gesture and
attitude the epicene young tyrant his
mother’s infatuated monologue has
earlier suggested. As a result, this bizarre
homosexual nightmare becomes the one
artistically persuasive © section in an
otherwise coldly fabricated melodrama.
BLACK ORPHEUS,. made by the
French director, Marcel Camus, in Rio
de Janeiro, is an example of taste in
search of a style. It is full of good ideas
and moving perceptions, the performers
are naturally alive and often beautiful,
the grandiose scenery is worked cogently
into the narrative (though the color
looks applied) and the poignant tale of
found-lost love is appropriate to the
primitive urban society from which it
is made to spring.
But somehow the film never ignites.
In part this is because the direction
does not sustain the virtually untrained
actors in the difficult task of playing mun-
dane roles with mythic overtones. There
is no point in calling your characters
Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes, etc. unless
the actors can convey something of the
implications. These quite charming per-
formers would, I suspect, have worked
Chain
e I was chopping wood when I heard it, wild and clear
across the daring interval of snow
like the cry of a newborn child. The axe fell
from my hand. The echoes cracked within my ear like ice
before the wind. I put my snowshoes on
and started out. It took an hour to find him —
a loon, his foot half off, his eyes bleared
with pain. I drew the steel jaws apart.
He slid to the ground. His wings shuddered twice,
ais: and were still. I raised him up, thinking of the warmth
. within. His beak fastened like a vice. My cry On
rang out in silver links across the dark,
and echoed on the lake, the hills, the wind. a
_ Pau Pens
‘BEST PLAY 2.00%
Critics’ Award
“uf
a raisin in the sun
starring CLAUDIA McNEIL
OSSIE DAVIS * RUBY DEE
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be ee
brilliantly as young men and women of
Rio’s seething Negro community, if they
had not been turned stiff by a quick
course in the Greek pantheon. They
could have responded sensitively to a
tragedy in their own terms, for they
show inherent sensitivity at many turns,
but the story has been thickened by the
attemped allegory.
And the editing is heavy. Carnival in
Rio becomes an oppression of noise, with
excessive close-ups of fast action and
with overlong scenes of the undifferen-
tiated jiggling dance that is apparently
the native form. I was grateful for spe-
cific scenes—a hilarious, bawdy, yet
tender love passage between two of the
supporting players, a frightening religious
orgy in a crypto-Christian church, a
ferryboat (it looks like one of the Fort
Lee ferries, sold down the river in its
old age) pulsing with hundreds of stomp-
ing celebrants-—but I felt in the end
that the film gave up a chance for sim-
ple and tragic beauty by trying to be
significant and spectacular. Ambition
corrupted the style.
MUSIC
Lester Trimble
THE FIRST program in the New York
Philharmonie’s Mahler Festival was con-
ducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos; it of-
fered Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, and
with it the Grosse Fuge, Opus 133, by
Beethoven, in Weingartner’s string-or-
chestra arrangement. Two movements
of the featured work were given before
the intermission and two after; a splen-
did way of handling a difficult program-
ing situation and of helping to relieve
the weight of length in this inordinately
long symphony.
_ Mahler has always been a controver-
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sial figure. He is one of that special
breed of composer whose music wraps
a mystique about itself like an Arab
tent, the inside of which smells like
heaven to some people and smothers
others. In my experience, the ones in
this country who feel most at home on
the inside are likely to be expatriate
Viennese musicians or critics who find
Mahler’s melodic style a handy club
with which to beat contemporary com-
posers. There are, also, a very few en-
thusiasts among the composing frater-
nity itself. These are usually musicians
who want desperately to continue the
Germanic symphonic tradition, which
is supposed to have died after Mahler,
and to make warm contact with a mass
audience. For the latter purpose,
Mahler’s sprawling, late-romantic ‘kind
of composition appears a likely answer.
Shostakovitch, as a particular instance
among contemporary Soviet musicians,
has shown his affection for Mahler. If
the Russian’s music had not been
harmed by the very diseases of giantism
and diffuseness which he caught from
the earlier composer, this would be a
better recommendation.
I HAVE never stayed with any de-
termination either inside or outside the
Mahler tent. Eavesdropping at the flap,
much of what I have heard has been
attractive. But I do not believe in art
which cannot be appreciated or judged
except by special, or lax, criteria, and I
am resistant to all-night monologues.
Mahler, it seems to me, has no real re-
lationship to the mainstream of twen-
tieth-century music. But there is a
flawed beauty in his work which I find
intriguing.
Of the four long movements in the
Fifth Symphony, the only one that
really holds together is the Adagietto.
This is often played as an independent
piece, and I suspect the public has made
Admission Te
it a favorite partly because the feelings
and form are disciplined sufficiently to
achieve coherence. It has a very special
mood and a very distinct something to
say.
Unfortunately, Mitropoulos did not
conduct this movement very tellingly.
The pervading difficulty of the Adagiet-
to — its vagueness of pulse — was al-
lowed to get out of hand, and as a re-
sult there was at one moment no pulse
at all, and at another such an excess of
rubato that a series of awkward, ficti-
tious pulses were erected,
The other movements of the sym-
phony wander around in the subjective
miasma that only a programatic sym-
phony dares entertain. Since Mahler dis-
liked spelling out the scenario of an
orchestral work, the listener has one of
two choices in his response: either he
grants. the composer freedom to go
anywhere he likes, without respect to
abstract musical logic — which is to say
that anything at all goes — or he ad-
mits to himself that he is lost in a sea
of arbitrariness. My response is the
latter. The Rondo-Finale, as an ex-
ample, seems to me the absolute apothe-
osis of the non sequitur; its fugal razz-
matazz getting nowhere; the music
changing direction every few bars, es-
pecially toward the end. By almost any
standards, it is a very messy job of
composition.
BEETHOVEN’S Grosse Fuge, on the
other hand, is one of the most amazing
works in the entire literature. It is the
only Beethoven opus which almost seems
to bear out the contention of some of
the composer’s contemporaries that he
was mad. He was not, of course. But
the Grosse Fuge embodies such con-
centrated demonic force, and moves so
boldly beyond the rhythmic and contra-
puntal boundaries which, even to the end
of his career, Beethoven usually stayed
within, that it ends by staggering both
intellect and feeling. I was glad to hear
the work even in the Weingartner ver-
sion, But the Grosse Fuge does not real-
ly speak properly except when played
by the quartet of strings for which it
was written, Some of the tensile quality
goes out; the superhuman concentra-
tion of foree within a capsule of instru-
ments cannot take place. The Grosse
Fuge is a bizarre piece, but no feat of
orchestral expansion will normalize it.
Editor’s Note
GORE VIDAL has asked us to
state that he did not supply the
title used for his essay on Norman |
Mailer (The Nation, January 2). |
’ rrr
Ti Na TLON
4
A A
‘
Crossword Puzzle No. 850
By FRANK W. LEWIS
7
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| January 16, 1960
ACROSS:
One way of making a livelihood uses
nibs, ete. (11)
An article that’s best surrounded
by a coarse person. (5)
Where one might land on the other
side of 4 and 14. (4)
Put off the track. (7)
Mention the wrong branch of learn-
ing in it, and get salt. (7)
How more than one 10 was taken
in by the craft of 80: (3, 2, 3)
Put an end to the game! (6)
Plot system. (6)
When I was born,
promise! (8)
Eats around the edge of what might
keep an 18 from coming off. (4-3
It’s wrong to lie, as it is to keep
apart. (7)
mae apterous heart of the music.
they showed
The part of the match the watch-
man makes. (5)
ae grand old man of the shanty.
The best diner is not necessarily on
the right side. (4, 7) ;
DOWN:
Without power to surround a num-
ber incapable of being defended. (9)
a7
Oo
es
Strangely enough, it might be the
object painted! (7)
and 14 What 31 has at the table
isn’t left. (9)
I resent such intrusions! (7)
The logical season for a prank. (5)
Cohan was a real live one. (6)
Its rag can’t be paid for. (6)
Push over, perhaps, in a winding
Cuban lane. (9)
and 9 Military order? There ought
to be at least one on the Acropolis.
(6, 4)
Andersen imply his
meant nothing to him? (7)
A knowing one suggests where to
look for a hard quality in turn. (7)
clothes
3 A good king to humor—archaically,
besides. (6)
The way one might assume the pot
is cracked? (5)
Victor, perhaps, deserving an em-
brace, but nothing more, (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 819
ACROSS: 1 Cabbages; 5 Basket; 10
Verse; 11 Impudence; 12 Abalone; 13
Incisor; 14 and 16 Middle-of-the-road;
15 Gascons; 18 Cantrip; 21 Vacate; 24
Templar; 26 Sunbeam; 27 Adornment;
28
Roost; 29 Desist; 30 Crusader.
DOWN: 1 and 23 Caveat emptor; 2
Barbarian; 3 Adenoid; 4 Evil eye; 6
Adduces; 7 Kings; 8 Theorist; 9 Spring;
17 Scotland; 19 Relents; 20 Porter; 21
Visitor; 22 Canards; 25 Moods.
See 68
RESORT
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SPECIAL ISSUE: 50 OCTOBER 31, 1959
Ms, Rota ne 1
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jarticle “The Shame of New|who shou “ont
:York” to make “many of usjin this co of t.
uncomfortable.” admission the :
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ee ended After Probe ; + city
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THE
NATIO
JANUARY 23, 1960 . . 25c
CASTRO’S CUBA
The Picture in Focus
Robert Taber
THE DOCTOR SHORTAGE
H. Jack Geiger
LOBBY of a MILLION GHOSTS
John O’ Kearney
LETTERS
Trujillo’s Troubles
Dear Sirs: 1 have just read the interest-
ing article on Trujillo by Jimenes-
Grullén in your Dec. 26 issue. I will
make good use of it when I have an
opportunity.
I am reliably informed that Trujillo
is in real trouble financially; that a lead-
ing New York bank turned him down
for a loan and that the Canadian banks
no longer will give him any further
credit. Recently he was given an 11%
million dollar credit by the International
Monetary Fund, but it seems to me that
they may have made a bad mistake.
Cuares O. Porter
Member of Congress
Washington, D.C.
Another Deportation
Dear Sirs: Today, after having lived in
the United States for thirty-one years
—since she came here from Canada
when she was but six years old — Mrs.
Jo Ann Santiago faces separation from
her husband, an American citizen born
in Puerto Rico, and her three American-
born children, the youngest being five
years old, under a Jaw which is a con-
stant threat to every family — the
Walter-McCarran Act.
There is still a small ray of hope left
to appeal this case. Your financial help
could transform this hope into reality.
Please send your contributions to the
Jo Ann Santiago Defense Committee,
P. O. Box 1422, Grand Central Station,
New York, N. Y.
(Miss) Rurw Tasak, Chairman
New York City
Nixon’s Candidacy
Dear Sirs: Richard Nixon lacks the very
most important and essential qualifica-
tions for the Presidency. The President
must be devoted to the welfare of the
whole country. He must be prepared to
place this devotion above any narrow
personal or factional interests. This nec-
essary preparation Richard Nixon has
never demonstrated. In his notorious
campaigns he has shown himself the
foulest kind of politician, willing to ex-
ploit one man’s race, to accuse others of
disloyalty, to give and break specific
promises. His performance as President
of the Senate has not been distinguished
by any lesser devotion to personal ad-
vantage.
Unfortunately, American newspapers,
the overwhelming majority of which are
controlled by Republican interests, will
continue to try selling Richard Nixon
to the American people as the “best-
prepared Presidential candidate in... .”
By its own irresponsibility, the press is
creating the very real possibility that a
man equally as dangerous as Richard
Nixon might one day see fit to interfere
with its freedoms. It is in effect writing
its own death sentence.
Nep K. Hopkins
Los Angeles, Calif.
Avowal on a Vowel
Dear Sirs: In regard to Fairfield Porter’s
review of the exhibition at the Zabriskie
Gallery in your December 19 issue: It
is bad enough to have to put up with
Mr. Porter’s New Yorkisms about the
West Coast. ... One might expect how-
ever, that he would go to the trouble of
ascertaining the correct spelling of the
names of the artists whose work he re-
views. The painter whom he refers to
seven times as Wanner is in reality Paul
Wonner. Your correction of this error
will be in line with Mr. Porter’s concern
for respect for the individual.
FeLix Lanpau
Los Angeles, Calif.
In the same mail with Mr. Landauw’s
letter was a notice from the Longview
Foundation, informing us that they had
made a cash award to Fairfield Porter
im recogmtion of his art columns in
The Nation.—The Editors.
The Last Word
Dear Sirs: The letter of Joseph A. Bou-
dreau in your Jan. 9 issue calls for an
answer. Many writers of accepted his-
tories, including F. A. Golder, have
attempted to discredit the official rec-
ords of the two visits of the Russian
naval fleets in 1863, when foreign inter-
vention was planned to break the Union
blockade.
Franklin K. Lane was Secretary o
the Interior in the Cabinet of President
Woodrow Wilson, and in this office
Lane had charge of Alaska. In the
Letters of Franklin K. Lane (pp. 260-
261) we find complete confirmation of
the interpretation given in my letter of
Dec. 19,
Josern O’Brien
New York City
Regretfully, Tur Nation must now
put an end to this battle of historians
over the significance of the | isit of
Russian naval fleets to U.S. waters in
1863. More recent events have a better
claim to this space. —Eprrors
eee
Attias
Trailing Clouds’
Dear Sirs: Teacher victims of the Senate
and House inquisitions are still hounded,
blacklisted, denied their careers, ten
or more years after the disgraceful per-
formance of the McCarthyites and their
stalwarts. It doesn’t seem to matter
that this brutal punishment is meted
out to men and women who serve with
distinction and rare dedication to the
best interests of our society, when they
have the opportunity.
When will the slate be ined clean?
Davin PERLOFF
Philadelphia, Pa.
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
61 @
ARTICLES
63 @ Castro’s Cuba: The Picture iz
Focus
by ROBERT TABER
yet @ Registrars: Key to Nego Voting
by KENNETH N. VINES
"12 @ In Search of Athens, U.S.A.
by DAVID CORT
76 @ Lobby of a Million Ghosts
by JOHN O’K BARNEY
78 @ The Doctor Shortage
by H, JACK GHIGER
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
81 ® The Allies of Hope
by PAUL B. SEARS
82 @ Paris at Night (poem)
by W. S. MERWIN
83 @ A Little Knowledge of China
by BENJAMIN I, SCHWARTZ
84 @ Man’s Most Dangerous Path
by PHILIP SIEBKEVITZ
84 @ The Part (poem)
by DENISE LEVERTOV
85 @® What’s Right with Poetry?
by WALKER GIBSON
87 @ Theatre
by HAROLD CLURMAN
88 @ Art
by FAIRFIELD PORTER
88 @ Our Lucy (poem)
by PAUL GOODMAN
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 88)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
OA
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Harold ‘Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Musie
Alexander Werth, Muropean
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, Jan, 28, 1960, Vol, 190, No, 4
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EW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 1960
OLUME 190, No. 4
THE
NATION
| EDITORIALS
The Quiet American
The first requisite of a politician is to be noticed.
But, like most rules, this one has exceptions, and if the
American public looks hard, it can find one right now:
the Hon. Richard Nixon, Vice President of the United
‘States. In his quest for the most fiercely lighted job in
‘the world, Mr. Nixon avoids light of any sort: if he
could change himself into a mole between now and the
official start of the Presidential campaign, the chances
are he would do it. What are his views on birth control
in relation to foreign aid? Silence. Does he favor federal
voting registrars in the South? Silence. Is the country
safe from the foreign foe? Silence. Even in his triumph-
ant settlement of the steel strike, the praises of Nixon
the great compromiser were sung by Secretary of Labor
“Mitchell, while the wonder worker himself remained
‘modestly aloof. (There was only one break in the pub-
licity curtain, when the photographers. happened to
drop around at the end of the heal-the-wounds dinner
which was the steel industry’s reward for belated in-
dustrial statesmanship. )
How long can Mr. Nixon keep it up? Into the spring,
one would guess; for, when you come down to it, he
‘really isn’t hot news and, in his personal make-up,
never has been. And this last point, if it is valid, may
be the explanation of why this particular strategy has
been adopted by the Nixon brain trust. It is not only
f} the customary caution of the Presidential candidate
§) who is leading, but also a consciousness of the defects
of the Nixon virtues. The virtues are that he is an adroit
politician, a tireless climber and an opportunist of
whom it can be said, as Pasteur said about discoverers,
that chance favors the prepared mind. These are the
gifts that God gave him, but He did not see fit to
endow him with magnanimity or any of the qualities
mankind admires more than it rewards. Nixon is only
the All-American Boy writ large; not much different,
inside, than when he was politicking at Whittier High
School. This partial vacuum bothers people somewhat,
and makes it necessary for the candidate to tread even
more cautiously than would another in his position.
It makes him favor press agents rather than press con-
ferences, and he slides his hat into the ring where others
toss it. It also dictates efforts to build him up as more
of a human being. A TV columnist reports that some
of the Nixon supporters are seeking a ghost writer who
can provide the candidate with a sense of humor. Some-
thing can no doubt be done for him: the public image
of the politician is always more or less synthesized, and
more so now than ever before in our history. And Nixon
needs that kind of help more than any earlier Presiden-
tial candidate.
This is not to say that he will be a weak candidate.
He does have political acumen and you can fool a lot
of the people a lot of the time. All that can be said is
that the image-makers will leave the Nixon soul exactly
what it has always been and many Americans, even
while they vote for him, will have a vague and highly
justified sense of uneasiness.
The Swastika Pandemic
Now that everybody has had his say on the wave of
anti-Semitism which has spread over the world from
West Germany, ranging from the notion that the
pogroms are about to be revived to the notion that
this is a fad as harmless as Kilroy and the hula hoop,
The Nation would suggest an approach which at least
has the merit of not dealing merely with symptoms.
It should be obvious, at the outset, that German anti-
Semitism has a special character and must be taken
more seriously than swastika-scrawling in countries
where the disease never took on an acute form. It is
also worth noting that anti-Semitism existed in Ger-
many and Austria long before Hitler and rose to its
peak of rapine and murder in exact step with German
rearmament. History is now repeating itself, as it must
" _O€T 99
whenever understanding is deficient and earlier con-
ditions recur. And it is clear that these earlier conditions
are recurring.
Given a continuation of West German rearmament,
this time with nuclear weapons, a return to something
like the Hitler era is predictable. There is such a thing
as a German character, as there is a French, a British,
an American character. It is not that the Germans have
an original nature different from the rest of mankind,
or that they are incapable of change in the long run. It
is only that recent experiences have left their mark on
the Germans, and that there has been among them no
general contrition, only a pushing out of consciousness
of a disagreeable experience — disagreeable only be-
cause it ended in defeat. True, the young did not ex-
perience the defeat; but the dream and the delirium have
been transmitted to some of them, and they are ready
to try again.
In consequence, as the Germans are now constituted,
they cannot remilitarize without simultaneously turning
against elements which, in the Hitler and pre-Hitler
terminology, failed to qualify as “echt Deutsch.” Given
the same stimulus they will once more override internal
opposition — there was opposition to Hitler, too —
and proceed methodically to persecute and finally to
murder the remnant of 30,000 Jews left in Germany.
Then they will proceed to murder half-Jews, and when
the half-Jews are gone they will invent Jews. This is
the price of taking in the Germans as full, and indeed
dominant, partners in NATO. The British are beginning
to see the handwriting on the wall, and it is time we
saw it too. If we do not, or if we consider German rear-
mament as a necessary evil, we must be willing to share
responsibility for what is certain to follow. ©
is the Fix in on Civil Rights?
The President’s political advisers have placed him in
a position on the proposal for federal voting registrars
which is both intellectually and morally indefensible.
The proposal is simplicity itself: it calls for the appoint-
ment of federal registrars to enroll Negro voters when
state registrars will not do so (see Kenneth N. Vines’s
article in this issue, p. 71). Asked about the proposal
at last week’s press conference, the President lamely re-
plied: “I don’t even know whether it is Constitutional.”
But of all civil-rights proposals, this one has the firmest
Constitutional sanction; more important, it was ad-
vanced by a distinguished commission selected by the
President himself, and was endorsed by five of its six
members (the dissenter being former Governor John
S. Battle of Virginia). In fact, the chief architect of the
proposal is the Civil Rights Commission’s Vice Chair-
man, Dean Robert G. Storey of the law school of South-
ern Methodist University (‘Vexas), and a recognized
authority on Constitutional issues.
62
a
On the question of enfranchising the Negro, at least,}”
the white South is sharply divided; a substantial South-}
ern opinion supports his right to vote. If, therefore, the}
President were to throw his support behind the pro-
posal, he would split the opposition and might well
succeed in aligning such states as Texas, Florida, Ten-}
nessee, North Carolina and Virgina in its support. Not
only would this represent a distinct political triumph,}
but it would insure passage of a measure sounding the
death knell of Jim Crow in the South. For, as the Civil
Rights Commission has pointed out, “The right to vote
is the cornerstone of the Republic, and the key to all
other civil rights.” Moreover, there is the clearest pos-
sible factual basis for federal intervention. On this point
ation
esp
can |
is th
into
und
bral
gon
Cam
the conclusion of the President’s commission is unassaitl- | ™
able: “Against the prejudice of registrars and jurors, |“
the U.S. Government appears under present laws to be Pa
helpless to make good the guarantees of the U.S. Con- |”
stitution.” teed In
The President’s problem, of course, is that the Re- bn
publican ‘leadership has made commitments to the }
Dixiecrats which it thinks must be honored. To free | *
civil-rights legislation from the Rules Committee by a
discharge petition requires a majority of House mem-
bers, or 219 votes; minus Dixiecrat support, the Demo-
erats cannot muster them. At this session, therefore,
primary responsibility for the fate of civil-rights legis-
lation rests squarely on the President, the Vice Presi-
dent and the Republican leadership. As Senator Wayne
Morse pointed out in these pages (The Nation, Novem-
ber 7, 1959), the Republicans hold the balance of power
on civil rights both in the Rules Committee and on the
floor of the House and the Senate. The question, then,
is this: a hundred years after the election of 1860, is the
Republican Party prepared to betray the Lincoln her-
itage? Or, stated more crudely, is the fix in on civil
rights?
The Desperate Season
More and more politicians and experts on the cold
war, writes a columnist, are “living in a state of quiet
desperation.” Most desperate of all are the high-ranking
officers of our armed services and their colleagues in
Congress. Their agony also has a time parameter which
is as predictable as Christmas, and in fact comes two
weeks after Christmas. It is in January, the month
when Congress assembles and the battle of the budget
begins, that the threat to the survival of the United
States climbs to a plateau which is then maintained un-
til the funds have been allocated and the Army, Navy,
Air Force and Marines each knows the extent of its
deprivation, Then, except for sporadic outcries, there
is a lull until January rolls around once more.
This year they are climbing their Calvary with a —
heavier cross than ever before. Even Brig. Gen, Thomas
T le AT!
(GANS
eee ws ty,
R. Phillips, U.S.A. (Retired), probably the most level-
headed military analyst in the country, heads his col-
umn in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “America’s Armed
Forces Facing the Year Ahead with Feeling of Dis-
may.” “They are waiting out the year in passive desper-
ation,’ General Phillips reports, and he sounds a little
desperate himself. The Army’s chief complaint, if one
can be given priority in a picture almost totally black,
is that the Administration refuses to put Nike Zeus
into production. Nike Zeus is the anti-missile missile
under development by the most powerful electronics
brains of the nation, yet there are those in the Penta-
gon who say it won’t work. The Navy wants more
carriers and is so poor that it can’t maintain even its
existing ships in top-notch mechanical condition. Yet,
compared with the Army, the Navy is to be envied: the
Polaris submarine program is ahead of schedule. One
would think that the Air Force, the rich cousin whose
income is as much as that of the Army and Navy com-
bined, would be happy, but such is not the case. “The
Air Force,’ General Phillips finds, “faces the missile
gap :.. with a sense of desperation ... [the missile gap |
is becoming a chasm that endangers the world position
of the United States. It may never be ‘bridged, . . .”
There is only one thing more predictable than the
January ululations, and that is the callousness with
which the Administration responds to them, or rather
fails to respond. The answer is always: $41 billion, take
it or leave it, and naturally they take it. The Com-
mander-in-Chief has spoken, and after all, he is a gen-
eral himself. He calls attention to this undeniable fact
and maintains that he knows more about military needs
than anyone else. It takes a general to stand up to
hungry generals. If they ever rejoiced that a general
was President, they do so no longer. When General
Phillips says they are waiting cut the year in quiet
desperation (it’s not so quiet, actually) he explains
that he means they are waiting for a new Administra-
tion which will not be so merciless. Most problems of
the next President are hidden behind the veil of the
future, but here is one that can be predicted a whole
year before he takes office.
Verdict of the Viewers
The allegation that the private citizen can make no
dent on his culture is often no more than buck-passing.
When, last month, word spread through the New York
area that WNTA-TV considered dropping its sponsor-
poor “Play of the Week,” 27,000 persons sent letters
and postcards of protest to the station. Impressed by
this fervent, though by no means overwhelming, ex-
pression of enthusiasm for the program, the Standard
Oil Company (New Jersey), one of the nation’s largest
corporations, has now assumed complete sponsorship
of the show.
We congratulate Standard Oil for having thus re-
sponded to public demand and we congratulate WNTA
on being vindicated in its belief that television can
produce first-class theatre under dignified auspices.
Most of all, we congratulate the 27,000 citizens who
understood that their opinion does matter.
THE PICTURE IN FOCUS:
CASTRO'S CUBA . by Robert Taber
As a CBS newsman, Robert Taber was an eyewitness to the Cuban Rev-
olution during four critical periods: in April, 1957, he spent three weeks with
Castro in the Sierra Maestra, and was the first newsman to do a radio-TV
interview with the revolutionary leader; he was again in Oriente Province
during the “total war” phase of the fighting in the spring of 1958; in the
summer of that year, he spent two months with Fidel’s brother, Rail, watch-
ing the guerrilla fighting in northern Oriente; and a year ago he witnessed
Fidel’s triumphant entry into Havana. He has since returned to Cuba several
times doing research for a forthcoming book, M-26: Biography of a Revolu-
tion. The following article is based on material from the book.—Editors.
was reduced, in desperation, to draw-
ing plans of a gigantic “secret weap-
on,” which he said was being in-
stalled on the mysterious platform
in the mountains. His model and
source of inspiration: a streamlined
vacuum-cleaner attachment among
his wares. _
Greene presented this, of course,
as gentle satire, spoofing the puerile
but deadly serious and occasionally
IN Our Man in Havana, novelist
Graham Greene wrote a farce about
a debt-ridden British vacwum-clean-
er dealer in Havana, who was re-
-cruited as an intelligence agent for
Sey: Lacking information of
see by | his Saavleyers:
the dealer began to invent it. In
due course, he filed a report about
a mysterious concrete platform being
constructed, he asserted, in the re-
mote, rehel-cantrollag mountains of
eastern Cuba. Then, when pressed
by his’ saueaiors for mo a > details, he
frightening preoccupation of the
great powers with the cloak-and-
dagger fantasies of their “cold war.”
What the novelist did not consider,
perhaps, was that such fantasies can.
be made credible once they a e
put in the frame of reference of
Pan
Se ey be
“~~, 2,
is
;
ee
TOS yt ee
Oy ty eens
fo
propaganda to which people have al-
ready been conditioned.
Thus, David Sentner, in the
Hearst Headline Service newspaper
column “Washington Window,” of
November 12, 1959:
Are Red Russian military techni-
cians helping the anti-American Cas-
tro Cuban government to build a
missile base?
There is a gigantic concrete “em-
placement” in Camaguey Province in
Cuba, nearing completion. It is
marked “Off Limits” by the Cuban
authorities and it is heavily guarded
by Castro soldiery.
This much our intelligence agents
know, but no more.
The Hearst columnist goes on to
say that there is “evidence” that
small arms were smuggled ashore
from Russian submarines during the
struggle against Batista, adding that
there is, however, “no corroboration
to date of the new Cuban regime
having received any missiles,” i.e.,
from the Soviet Union.
The plain inference is that the
Cubans have received Soviet mis-
siles, smuggled ashore from Russian
submarines, and that this will soon
be “corroborated.”
Presumably, no one has yet
plagiarized Our Man in Havana
to the extent of sending drawings
of vacuum-cleaner attachments to
our Central Intelligence Agency in
Washington. However, much of the
reportage on the Cuban scene during
the past year supports the suspicion
that even this might not be too
much to anticipate.
THE FACT is that the “gigantic
concrete emplacement” mystery of
the Hearst newspapers differs only
in degree, certainly not in kind,
from the great bulk of what has
been reported in the press and on
radio and TV in the United States
concerning the Cuban Revolution
since Dictator Fulgencio Batista’s
id precipitate flight from Havana on
New Year’s Day, 1959. We have
_ witnessed a virulent press campaign,
JEST Sey! |
One must concede at once that
the Cuban revolutionaries them-
selves have provided, gratis, a great
deal of the ammunition which has
been hurled against them. Fidel
’ Castro’s off-the-cuff remark that in
the event of United States military
intervention in Cuba “. . . twenty
thousand gringos would die!” was
scarcely calculated to endear him
to the North American press or peo-
ple. He has added a great many
provocations to this initial one since
last January. Oratorical intemper-
ance, a Cuban flair for exaggeration,
and a failure to take account of
other people’s prejudices, have all
contributed to damaging misunder-
standings.
It is barely possible that a more
adroit public-relations effort vis-a-
vis the United States might have
eased some of the strain. But one
must instantly add that no amount
of oil spread on troubled waters
could have ameliorated the under-
lying conflict of interests of which
the surface storm of propaganda is
merely symptomatic. Nor could
clever press relations long have con-
cealed this paramount fact: The
Cuban Revolution was and is, above
all, a Cuban declaration of independ-
ence from the Umted States.
This is what made it certain that
Fidel Castro’s U.S. press notices
would be mostly unfavorable. They
could not have been otherwise.
IN ORDER to understand the na-
ture of the conflict, one must con-
sider briefly the status of the island
before the revolution, and then pro-
ceed to review the developments of
the past year.
From Cuba’s founding as a repub-
lic in 1903 until December 31, 1958,
when the Batista. regime abruptly
collapsed, the country was for every
practical purpose a United States
colony, captive both economically
and politically. Its first constitution
gave the United States the privilege
of intervening in Cuban affairs, both
internal and external — a privilege
invoked more than once under the
detested Platt Amendment, which
was not abrogated until 1934. Cuba’s
trade treaties were written in Wash-
ington and Wall Street. The greater
part of its resources—sugar, pee
, es” yee 4 *)
. ee a
teeny’ | ee
rights,
baa
ran Ps
Me? 2 i
public aality
U.S. capital. In such circumstances,
it can scarcely be doubted that the —
succession of rapacious professional
politicos who ruled Cuba during most
of the half-century or so of its re-
publican existence were necessarily
the caretakers of a vast amount of
American, rather than Cuban, wealth.
And whatever else he may have been,
the dictator who fled to Santo Do-
mingo on the first day of 1959 was
one of these — a discredited, dis-
possessed custodian of the Yankee
dollar.
A SIZABLE part of the Cuban busi-
ness community — the small mer-
chants and the economic nationalists
of finance and industry — had op-
posed Batista and made common
‘cause with Fidel Castro’s bearded
revolutionaries for reasons of their
own. But to the extent that these
Cuban businessmen understood the
radical fidelista program, set forth in
_all its essential details as early as
1953, they were wary of him. At
best, they wished him only a limited _
success — that is, they hoped that
he would serve as a cat’s-paw to de-
stroy the Batista regime, but that
he would subsequently be forced to
accept a “liberal” coalition govern-
ment representing their interests. If
worst came to worst, they felt, it
would probably be possible to “do
business” with Castro, very much as
business had been done with other
nominally popular governments in
the past.
Fortune magazine, discussing the
question of agrarian reform under
the Castro government in its Sep-
tember, 1959, issue, put the matter
very well:
If the rich, powerful and normally
cynical Cubans began to be disquieted
by the realization that giving land to
somebody involved taking it from
somebody else (i.e., themselves), they
didn’t raise the point. Some promi-
nent citizens thought that the new —
hero was merely making appropriate
noble noises, and that when the ex- |
citement subsided, he would give
them the cordial and cooperative gov- |
ernment they liked.
That impression certainly prevail
ed among the rich, powerful and —
porraslly ool Americans with |
. 5
ie J 7 A Natio
concessions, |
cattle lands — were controlled by |
7 wor 7 ij 4
mye)
stake in Cuba, and no doubt was
hared by Washington as well.
These cynics were soon disap-
pointed. Even before Fidel had
reached Havana, the “noble noises”
of the fidelistas were echoed by the
crash of revolutionary rifles as the
first and worst of some 550 war
‘criminals, notorious torturers and
mass murderers of the Batista. re-
-gime died before firing squads.
At the outset, Castro installed a
politically “equidistant” government
jn the Presidential palace in Havana.
Only a few of its members were ac-
tual revolutionaries. However, any
hope that the conservatives of the
new Cabinet would soon restore
“business as usual” was_ speedily
dashed by the realization that the
provisional government was not, in
fact, governing. The administration
of state affairs, like the trial and
execution of the war criminals and
the reorganization of the armed
forces, remained in the hands of
Fidel Castro and his supporters.
- A month after Batista’s overthrow,
Fidel accepted nominal as well as
actual authority by becoming Prime
_ Minister. The Cabinet was reorgan-
ized, and the long-promised social
revolution got under way.
A HORRENDOUS outcry had al-
ready arisen in the United States
press in reaction to the war-crimes
trials, which were seen as a portent
of the intransigent radicalism of the
Castro movement.
_ The island of Cuba, of slight in-
terest to the newspaper-reading
public during seven years of strug-
gle against the Batista dictatorship,
‘was suddenly rediscovered only
“ninety miles off our shores, site of
the American naval base that guards
our southern defenses, anchor of our
"defense of the teen Canal, and
key to the future of Latin Amer-
ica...” An army of American jour-
Bnalists flocked to Havana, and tor-
rents of sensational, adjective-pack-
ed prose — more than had been
written during the two preceding
years of civil war — began to flow
back. Members of Congress took up
the cry. Republican Saaaena ane
hart of Indiana —
WW agae Hays, possibly better in-
formed about the sugar-beet in-
dustry of his own Ohio than about
Cuban affairs, demanded to know
what the State Department intend-
ed to do to “calm Castro down, be-
fore he depopulates Cuba.” Time
magazine informed its readers that
the fidelistas were taking revenge on
a conquered foe, and listed among
“typical victims” the name of Ale-
jandro Garcia Olayon, a naval of-
ficer accused of having roasted six
persons alive, and of having super-
vised the slaughter of some three
hundred persons, after an abortive
uprising in Cienfuegos 1 in 1957.
The campaign abated somewhat
as understanding dawned that the
Bohemia, Havana
Fidel Castro
revolutionary tribunals, although
following a code of Cuban rather
than Anglo-Saxon juridical proce-
dure, were administrating — strict
justice, that there was no slightest
question as to the guilt of those
condemned, and that all sectors of
the Cuban population, as well as the
Catholic clergy itself, stood amazed
at the furore of foreipn criticism.
Perhaps it was perceived, too, that
the revolutionary government did
not seem to be doing anything so rev-
olutionary in its first month in of-
fice that it would seriously jeopar-
dize the $850,000,000 of- private U.S.
investment capital in Cuba.
Fidel’s accession to the Premiership
in February signal an important
consolidation of por by the fidel-
ista movement. To qu Th
York Times of Fe
sonally taking over the office of the
Premier of the Republic of Cuba re-
flects his recognition of the fact that
the people accept him as their su-
preme leader, The truth is that they
regard him as not only Premier in the
Government of Dr. Manuel Urrutia,
whom he proclaimed President, but ie
as the very Government itself.
Precisely so. It does not follow,
however, that opposition to the rev-
olutionary process had ended, as we
shall see.
In mid-April, the Cuban Premier
made a visit to the United States
that seemed, briefly, to promise im-
proved relations with Washington.
But friendly gestures were no sub- tf
stitute for deeds; basic conflicts of
interest, both economic and. political,
proved irreconcilable, and the rap- _
prochement failed to “take.” Cuba
had embarked on a _ revolutionary
course from which there has been,
to date, no turning.
On the political plane, Castro
made it clear that his government
had no intention of following, in
blind submission, Washington’s lead
in the cold war. He said that al-
though his revolutionary movement s
was “not Red, but olive green” (a
reference to the color of the revolu- jag
tionary uniform), it did not intend
to persecute the Cuban Communists
of the Partido Socialista Popular.
With regard to the island’s foreign
policy, he said that Cuba would
choose its own path, both political-
ly and in its commercial relations
with other countries. United States
interference in matters related to
Cuban defense — specifically the
question of some British aircraft
which Cuba sought to buy and the >
State Department persuaded Britain
not to sell —subsequently produced
the statement that if the island could
not satisfy its needs in the West,
it would do so. “elsewhere,” 1.€.. Ie
the Communist countries, if need be.
In the United Nations, where
Batista’s representative, Nujiez Por
tuondo, had been considered the
bellwether of the United Sti
“solid Latin American bloc,”
broke the united front — fe Mik
time Pa ab staining from voting
‘propo postpone, deb D
er y oe on the -questior
hae
the fidelista economic program. is”
sufficient to disclose the reasons for
the attraction that it originally ex-
erted on the economic nationalists
in Cuban business and_ banking
circles. The same facts and figures
reveal as well, however, the basis of
future opposition to the movement
on the part of other, larger and
more powerful, economic interests in
Cuba and in the United States.
The promised diversification of
agriculture meant that Cuba could
hope to stop spending $20 million
annually on Texas and Louisiana
rice, and even greater sums on U.S.
canned food products and _ bottled
beverages, and produce its own. Pro-
tective tariffs and government aid
to fledgling native industries prom-
ised to create both higher employ-
ment and an expansion of domestic
markets, based on the increased pur-
chasing power of a more productive
labor force. Agrarian reform, to turn
half a million squatters and itinerant
agricultural workers into prosperous
small farmers, held out the same
hope of greater general prosperity
and a better distribution of the na-
tion’s wealth.
And all of these measures, as well
as others in prospect, signified some-
thing else of great importance: an
end to the flight of capital, principal-
ly in the form of sugar profits, that
had been flowing from Cuba by the
hundreds of millions of dollars over
the years, never to return.
IF IT seems paradoxical to say that
sugar was the island’s principal
source of income and at the same
time an incubus on the Cuban peo-
ple, it is because a simple fact has
not been considered: fully 40 per
cent of the nation’s sugar produc-
tion, with an annual value of more
than $600 million, was firmly in the
hands of U.S. corporations in 1958.
(In the past, the percentage had
risen as high as 70.) An additional
10 to 20 per cent was controlled by
Canadian, Spanish and other foreign
interests. Thus less than half of a
product accounting for nearly two-
_ thirds of Cuba’s national income, and
fully 80 per cent of her export, was
actually controlled by Cubans, And —
ven the profits accruing to the
uban sugar barons did not remain. “~
in Cuber most of t
banked or invested abroad.
The same conditions applied with
respect to the great cattle ranches,
to the nation’s mineral wealth (90
per cent in American hands), to its
oil (owned entirely by British and
American corporations), to its pub-
lic utilities (80 per cent American-
owned ).
The importance of such facts can-
not be exaggerated. They are the es-
sence of economic colonialism, which
requires neither a Colonial Office
nor a colonial army to maintain it-
self when native politicians gladly
serve as overseers at lower wages.
At bottom, economic colonialism
has its basis in the same circumstance
as feudalism: the monopoly control
of a nation’s wealth, in the one in-
stance by foreidiieaas, in the other
by an oligarchy of one’s own wealthy
and powerful countrymen.
CUBA suffered from the two af-
flictions at once. Until the agrarian
reform, fewer than 8 per cent of the
property holdings in Cuba accounted
for nearly 75 per cent of all cultivat-
ed land. That is to say, three-
quarters of the agricultural resources
of an agricultural country the size
of England, and with a population
half again that of Ireland, was in the
hands of a few dozen wealthy Cuban
families and giant U.S.-owned sugar
and cattle corporations.
The social consequences of such
a maldistribution of wealth are obvi-
ous enough. Cuba’s illiteracy rate was
one of the highest in the hemisphere,
33.5 per cent. A million Cuban wo-
men and children had never worn
shoes. Half a million campesinos had
never tasted milk, or meat. More
than a million had never had even
the most rudimentary medical care.
Thousands of guwajiros in the Sierra
Maestra were as isolated from the
rest of the nation as though they
lived on an island in the Pacific,
without roads, communications, or
any contact with the outside world.
_ Where was the sound economy,
the prosperous nation, of which Ba-
tista’s American _ public-relations
agents used to boast? The sugar
corporations were prosperous. The
great cattle ranchers were prosper-
ous, But who was paying the bill?
Felipe Pazos, oneie the Premitegt
4
neat! i ; P
Pe fos Wee f
he return was
1957; 150,000 were res
a of the ui
|
4 ie i ) ,
Pd : 4 ’ 4 ke tg Pie!
|
ment, has said Har tee on ane
meek alone during seven years of |
the Batista administration came
close to $500 million on a total pub-
lic-works budget of less than $800.
million. Cost estimates were custom-
arily doubled, and the rake-off ap-
portioned among the thieves. Such
practices extended into every aspect
of the nation’s economic life. A re-
port written by Robert Alden in
The New York Times of January 5,
1958, described “the agent of the
government, the man with the out-
stretched palm who is the key figure
in the large-scale corruption in
Cuba”:
The owner of a small food store
says: “I pay $2 to’ the ‘collector’:
every time I pull the shutter of my
shop in the morning. I pay $2 when
T pull it down at night.”
The taxicab driver pays the “col-
lector” $1 for the right to stay at his
taxi stand for three hours, and, de-
pending on their volume of business,
a precise scale of payment is exacted
from each of thousands of street
vendors.
— =. <7 =~
In February, 1958, it was estimat-
ed that nearly 27,000 Cubans lived
on the proceeds of gambling; 11,500
lived by or on prostitution; 5,000
lived by begging (Report of the
Cuban National Council of Econ-
omy, 1958). The “collector” ex-
tracted tribute from them all.
The money lost on the Havana
gaming tables by American tourists
lined Batista’s pockets and those of
American gangsters in Las Vegas,
Cleveland and New York. Corpora-
tion taxes were low, for the benefit
of foreign investors, and the Cuban
latifundistas paid more in_ bribes
than in taxes. The tax on an annual
income of $1,000,000 never exceeded
10° per cent, and even this was sel-
dom paid. But the middle classes _
groaned under taxation, and the
working classes sweated to pay for
imported rice, beans and canned —
goods; the United States enjoyed a
trade with Cuba which ran to more —
than $10 million a month in its own
favor. %
Of the total Cuban label force of ©
2,204,000, some 361,000 persons were |
wholly unemployed — throughout
ime; 154,000 000
os es wha
td 4
ath
inte
7 Le
m re ~ +h
vay | =) .
Mirerunersted ect —
eg, % as domestic servants, working
for their meals and lodgings. Of
1,539,000 Cubans gainfully em-
ployed, 954,000 earned less than $75
1 month in.a nation where the peso
was on a par with the dollar and
ad even less purchasing power in
‘Havana than in New York.
The nation’s free gold and dollar
reserves, depleted by assaults on the
Treasury and an unfavorable trade
balance with the United States, were
down to $110,000 by the end of De-
-cember, 1958. The incoming govern-
ment was faced with a current def-
icit of more than $50 million and a
‘national indebtedness of close to
$1.5 billion.
The revolutionary Provisional
Government, coming to power in
January, abolished the worst of the
abuses of the Batista regime at a
single stroke:
{Thousands of government sine-
ad
age _
cures were eliminated, along with
the subsidies which had been paid,
for political reasons, to most Cuban
newspapers and to many Cuban
journalists.
{A ministry for the recovery of
stolen property set to work to re-
cover miilions of dollars in cash and
more millions in property illegally
acquired under past regimes. Scores
of contractors who had accepted
“kickbacks” on public-works con-
tracts were forced to disgorge their
illicit gains, and the estates of for-
mer government officials, acquired
dishonestly, were confiscated by the
state.
{Home and apartment rentals
were reduced 30 to 50 per cent,
bringing dwelling rentals to what
were considered more _ reasonable
levels and at the same time inject-
ing a considerable amount of fresh
capital into the economy at the con-
sumer level. The effect was much the
same for Cuban wage earners as
though they had received a sizable
increase in pay, and the _ benefits
were immediately felt, also, by thou-
sands of retail merchants.
{Mortgage rates were reduced in
order to provide relief for the smal-
ler landlords.
{Under a Cabinet decree, owners
of idle property in urban areas
were compelled to build on their
vacant lots, or to put them up for
sale to builders, in an effort to create
employment, to end real estate spec-
ulation and to provide desperately
needed urban space for industrial
development.
§/T'ax laws were revised to reduce
the number of different taxes by
about two-thirds and to provide a
more equitable distribution of the
tax load. Collections were rigorous-
ly enforced, and thousands of tax-
dodgers now found themselves pay-
ing not only current but past taxes,
which they had thought to evade.
(Of 30,000 members of Havana’s
twelve most exclusive clubs, it was
found that only 6,000 had. ever even
filed tax returns.) .
Although there w
ibe ed F
government
sd bus
a!
f i
oe
; f
onl
‘applied primarily to non-essential
earnest. We i
ET Pn teas ee aA
asked for honest government, and
they discovered that they were get-
ting it “for almost the first time,”
said The New York Times corres-
pondent Herbert Matthews, “since aa
Columbus discovered the island.” |
It quickly became evident, how- | “a
ever, that the provisional govern- a |
ment had no intention of stopping
at this point.
The big U.S.-owned utility com-
panies were next to feel the effects
of reform. Government interventors
were installed to oversee the affairs
of the Compafiia Cubana de Elec-
tricidad, a $300,000,000 subsidiary
of the American & Foreign Power
Corporation, supplying 90 per cent
of Cuba’s electrical power. After an
inspection of the books, the com-
pany was ordered to extend its rural i)
service and to reduce its rates by
30 per cent.
The books of the Cuban Telephone i i
Company, a subsidiary of Interna- al
tional Telephone & Telegraph, rep-
resenting a $115,000,000 investment,
were also examined. Rate increases
which had been granted by the Ba-
tista’ government were abolished,
and the company was ordered to
improve its notoriously inadequate
and inefficient service.
The government had _ already
armed itself with authority to im-
pose controls on currency and im-
ports, to halt the flight of Cuban
capital and to restore a lopsided bal-
ance of payments. Within the first
few months of the new administra-
tion, imports were reduced by more
than 30 per cent, the curbs being
eS Se ee = = 2 ==
ss
ke
goods—e.g., bottled alcoholic bever- —
ages and television sets. Since Cuba
had been the world’s sixth greatest
market for U.S. manufactured and |
agricultural products, it is not sur-—
prising that there should have been —
repercussions. The worst fears of
U.S. investors were confirmed in
June, with the promulgation of the
Agrarian Reform Law.
+)
ern=-
THE? distribution. of idle gover
ment land holdings to landless ca
pesinos had already begun. Gua-
jiros in the Sierra Maestra who hac
lived for generations on land n
med 85 ano landlo
also been assured of title to their
plots. The next step—under the
Agrarian Reform Law—was to in-
voke the provisions of the Cuban
Constitution of 1940 which, although
never enforced, had strictly forbid-
den the holding of latifundios, 1.e.,
more than a thousand acres in a
single property.
Exceptions were permitted in the
new law to allow maximum _ hold-
ings of 3,316 acres in rice and cattle
lands—where it could be demon-
strated that such holdings would be
in the interest of more efficient pro-
duction.
Holdings beyond the legal maxi-
mums were subject to expropriation,
the land so acquired by the state
to be distributed among Cuba’s
700,000 landless peasants, with pref-
erence to be given to the sharecrop-
pers or squatters actually living on
the expropriated property. Each fam-
ily was assured of two caballerias
(66% acres) gratis, and the privi-
lege of purchasing three additional
caballerias.
The law forbade the ownership of
sugar-cane holdings by mill owners,
the purpose being to break up the
large monopolies in the interest of
the peasants and small cane-growers.
Ownership of Cuban land by for-
eigners, whether acquired by pur-
chase or inheritance, was forbidden,
and likewise the ownership of land
by stock companies in which for-
eigners might hold shares.
THE owners were shocked by the
compensation offered for the prop-
erty to be expropriated: twenty-
year government bonds bearing 4%
per cent interest. Although they
had for many years enjoyed extreme-
ly low taxation as the result of
minimal assessments, they were now
dismayed to learn that expropria-
tion payments would be based .on
these same evaluations.
The American press was prompt
to denounce the agrarian reform as
_confiscatory. The complaints of the
sugar cartel were translated into the
language most familiar to the Amer-
ican newspaper-reading public: the
-land-reform program was a Kremlin-
inspired plot to destroy free enter-
prise. In Washington, there was
talk of reducing the Cuban sugar
So
quota, an idea particularly appeal-
ing to the sugar Senators of Louisi-
ana and to those legislators with an
interest in Hawaiian and Puerto
Rican cane sugar or U.S. beet sugar.
(The question comes up for action
in the current session of Congress.)
Altogether, nearly two million
acres of cane-land owned or control-
led by United States interests was
marked for expropriation, final ac-
tion being deferred until after the
1959-1960 zafra, or winter harvest,
so as not to interfere with sugar
production. The first of the big
American-owned cattle ranches to
be expropriated, the 33,500-acre
King ranch in Camaguey, was for-
mally seized by the Agrarian Reform
Institute on November 15. The
total extent of other American-
owned ranches and other holdings
marked for expropriation is thought
to be about a million acres.
In Havana, the government
launched what was viewed as another
“shaft” aimed at U.S. business in-
terests: a 5 per cent tax on the value
of minerals extracted by mining
companies, and a 25 per cent tax
on the value of minerals or ores
exported from Cuba. A subsequent
measure brought the oil deposits
of the island under the control of
the industrial division of the Agra-
rian Reform Institute.
When, in November, the: Havana
government suddenly and without
explanation replaced Dr. Felipe Pa-
zos as president of the Cuban Na-
tional Bank with one of the most
radical of the Cuban revolutionary
leaders, Dr. Ernesto “Che” Guevara,
it was felt that the worst had in-
deed come to the worst.
IT IS easily possible to trace a
rough correspondence between the
policy decisions and actions of the
revolutionary government and the
rise and fall. of the decible level of
the anti-Castro propaganda cam-
paign in the United States and else-
where. ‘
The journalistic image of Fidel
Castro varied, even during the
struggle against Batista, in ratio
to the assessment made of his inten-
tions and capabilities in financial
and diplomatic quarters. One saw,
‘in. succession, the romantic bour-
f . 4
Ff P > 7%
‘
3 *
- +
provided more fuel for the
\ oe, a F .
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vy Fi
geois hero (supported by the “best
elements” of Cuban society), the
potentially dangerous fanatic (“Burn
the cane! After Batista we will have
a zafra of liberty!”), the bearded
leader of what Senator Ellender cal-
led “a bunch of bandits, burning
sugar plantations.”
By the end of the first month of
fidelista control, the international
wire services and their clients in the
United States were in full cry against
the new government, and it was dif-
ficult to distinguish the “liberal”
journals—which had hitherto viewed
Castro with cautious sympathy —
from the most reactionary. The bur-
den of the wave of criticism was
humanitarian concern for the “vic-
tims” of the revolutionary tribunals, ©
but the underlying preoccupation
was apparent in speculation as to the
probable economic orientation of the
new regime.
As early as January — Fidel’s first
month in power — U.S. News and
World Report, among other con-
servative journals, was inquiring as
to the possibility of a dictatorship
taking shape in Cuba, and it may
be significant that, during the same
period, Associated Press analyst Wil-
liam Ryan, for one, perceived the
clear possibility of U.S. intervention
to save Cuba from “chaos.”
IN MAY, with the beginning of
the “Communist beach head” scare,
initiated on television and echoed
by the Hearst press, there was re-
newed talk of intervention, this time
to save Cuba not from chaos but
from communism. United Press In-
ternational’s vice president, Lyle C.
Wilson, speculated that Communists
probably would “take over” the Cu-
ban government, and predicted that
in such a circumstance “the United
States would promptly apply force
to prevent the Reds from getting a
foothold in the island Republic,”
adding: “The United States wouldn’t
tolerate communism in our back
yard.”
The attempts of the Havana gov-
ernment to cope with the imereasing-
ly disruptive conspiracies of counter-
revolutionary elements both inside
and outside of Cuba during the-
summer and fall of 1959 simply
i
1 od Of Ce See N T
4 f wei NATI
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:
: - a ‘
anti-
‘
Vids
es
tro “press campaign.. The techni-
que Dciployed to discredit the rev-
olutionary leadership is illustrated
in the following excerpt from News-
week magazine’s edition of Novem-
ber 9:
The revolutionary tribunals are
coming back, and so are the firing
squads. The mob has shouted its ap-
proval of Premier Fidel Castro’s plan
to arm the peasants and the workers.
. They are not a bloodthirsty peo-
ple, these Habaneros who keep cry-
ing “To the firing squad!” The trouble
is that they’ve been so brainwashed
that whatever Castro says they auto-
matically believe.
Who is trying to brainwash whom
— and with what object? To be
evaluated properly, the above quota-
tion should be compared with an-
other, published about the same
time, from Hearst columnist David
Sentner:
Washington: The United States
must immediately lead a movement
by the Organization of American
States and the U.N. for the replace-
ment of the Communist-dominated
Castro regime in Cuba. Otherwise
within six to eight months, many
other Latin American nations will
follow the Castro pattern and con-
__ fiscate all American property.
So predicts Dr. Emilio Nufez Por-
tuondo, former U.N. Security Coun-
cil President and distinguished Cuban
diplomat. ...
Sentner does not trouble to iden-—
tify the “distinguished Cuban dip-
lomat” as Batista’s former United
Nations representative or as the so-
called “intellectual leader” of the
_anti-Castro batistianos-in-exile with
headquarters in Ciudad Trujillo.
_ However, he does say that the Cas-
‘tro regime has placed “a big death-
price” on Nufiez Portuondo’s head,
and goes on to quote him at length
concerning an alleged plot, instigated
by Moscow and Peking, to “com-
_munize” Cuba.
It is not too difficult to see the
telationship between the Newsweek
article and the Hearst columnist’s
interview with Nunez Portuondo.
The one, painting a lurid picture of
-an evil, tyrannical, menacing regime,
prepares U.S. public opinion for
ack on t that same
Piha
nee 8,
ih at the other bluntly proposes: an
“military
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sel f-defense, or something equally
moral.
Thus it would seem that Fidel
Castro’s apprehensions with regard
to the possibility of foreign inter-
vention, dismissed in the American
press as mere ranting or evidence of
paranoia, could have some _ basis.
And hence the preoccupation in Ha-
vana_ with counter-revolutionary
conspiracies, both at home and
abroad. The possibility of a suc-
cessful counter-revolution in Cuba
at the present time is so remote as
to be non-existent. On the other
hand, the existence of a counter-rev-
olutionary force, small but well fi-
nanced, with a firm base in Santo
Domingo, powerful backing in the
United States and a manpower pool
of former Batista soldiers, policemen
and displaced petty officials in Cuba
itself, does pose a serious threat to.
the revolution.
It was, after all, the fidelistas
themselves who demonstrated how
much confusion could be sown, and
how much damage done to an econ-
omy, by a handful of fanatics.
But this is to discuss the lesser
evil. The real danger lies in the use
to which the appearance of a coun-
ter-revolution could be put — if the
United States were inclined to in-
tervene in Cuba. A widespread, last-
ing campaign of terrorism, endan-
gering American lives and property,
would most certainly produce a
ringing appeal for outside aid, in
which Cuban conservatives would
join. And although Washington—
recalling the world-wide political re-
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percussions of its thinly disguised
intervention in Guatemala in 1954—
would not be anxious to follow the
same course again, it is easy to see
how Nufiez Portuondo’s plan might
be adopted, i.e., United States mili-
tary intervention under the aegis of ig
the Organization of American States. I a |
HOW MUCH of the sound and fury ay,
of the U.S. press campaign, with its
incessant theme of Communist “in-
filtration” in the Caribbean, has pat
been justified by the actual devel- aga
opments of the first year of revolu- ‘
tionary government in Cuba?
From the point of view of the
great Cuban landowners, the import-
export bankers, the sugar cartel, the i
immediate dollar interests threaten-
ed, no doubt all of it is justified,
From a more liberal, not to say more 2
humane, position, very little indeed.
The picture of a Cuba domi- ae
nated by Moscow or Peking is not
supported by a nose-count of Com- Lye
munists in its government or in the
armed forces. Their number is neg- a
ligible, their influence minimal. Nor a
do the results of last year’s union ald
elections vindicate the notion of sig-
nificant Communist influence in the
ranks of organized labor. In the i
Sugar Workers
Federation, to cite an_ instance,
Communist candidates were elected
in only eight of 243 locals. Not a
single Communist was elected to the
executive board of the Confedera-
tion of Cuban Workers.
The revival of the revolutionary
tribunals in October was the Castro
government’s answer to a series of
counter-revolutionary threats dating
back to August, when an invasion
from Santo Domingo was aborted
with the capture of a planeload of
arms sent by Dominican dictator
Rafael Trujillo. The civil courts, |
rubber stamps for the Batista re-
gime, had not yet been sufficiently
reorganized to cope with any large
number of trials or to dispense the
speedy justice which would serve as.
a deterrent to further insurrection. —
Further conflicts of ideology and
interest are inevitable. It would be
remarkable if a far-reaching a
and | economic revolution could be
achieved | in, any erat without
such conflicts.
eel jungy by ne means + abe ove
7
SOCIé
ry
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criticism. He. has leaned far too
heavily on his own political gifts,
his personal influence, his oratorical
skill, to solve the pressing problems
with which he has been confronted.
The result has been an appearance
of demagogy which has alienated
many of his erstwhile supporters
and awakened deep concern even in
the most liberal quarters.
The question remains whether it
would have been possible to imple-
ment the program which has given
the Cuban masses their first glimpse
of hope, and the island the first
honest government in its history,
by less arbitrary, more conventional
methods. One concludes, however
reluctantly: no.
THE history of half a century of
parliamentary procedure and ballot-
box representation provides almost
overwhelming evidence of the simple
fact that political democracy 1s
meaningless without a generous
measure of economic democracy.
The introduction of the ballot box
in Cuba heralded nothing more than
an exchange of absentee landlords,
Spanish for American, and the rise
of a class of scavenging professional
politicians whose hire was the loot
of a rampant spoils system and
whose ultimate effect was to pave
the way for the ultimate disaster:
Batista. It is certainly not surpris-
ing that Fidel Castro considers a
public-opinion poll or a show of
hands in the park in front of the
Presidential palace a relatively sat-
isfactory substitute for national
elections. Nor is it surprising that
the great mass of the people in Cuba
today show little interest in the
subject.
The Cuban conservatives who are
presently calling for elections are
precisely those individuals who have
had the most experience at manipu-
lating the electoral process for their
own private ends. It is most im-
probable that any candidate opposed
to the fidelista program, or not en-
dorsed by the revolutionary move-
ment, could win an election in Cuba
at this time. But there is no doubt,
either, that an election campaign
would serve as a sounding board for
the spokesmen of powerful reaction-
ary interests, would sow confusion
and help to revive a counter-revo-
70
4 : _—e
lutionary effort not yet fully under
control. It would profoundly dis-
hearten the Cuban man in the street
who has learned through half a cen-
tury to equate the ballot box with
the pistol, the dishonest peso, and
the privileged few who have been
the exponents, practitioners and prin-
cipal beneficiaries of Cuban elec-
tions.
CERTAINLY a great deal is at stake
for the Cuban people. The organi-
zation of some 500 agricultural co-
operatives, the construction of hun-
dreds of schools, hospitals and low-
cost housing units, early evidence of
a new economic independence sig-
naled by increasing production of
rice and other staples, all indicate
how great the stake really is.
For the United States, too, the
stake is high, regardless of how such
questions as the matter of compen-
sation for expropriated U.S. prop-
erties are worked out. Cuba is the
focal point of a manifestation that
seems certain to spread farther in
the hemisphere, and the United
States can hardly afford to be in-
different. To cite a relevant passage
by Herbert Matthews in The New
York Times:
About one-quarter of all our ex-
ports go to Latin America and one-
third of our imports come from the
area. United States private invest-
ments in Latin America now reach
the amazing total of about $9.5 bil-
lion. . . . At every point it has to
be said: “If we did not have Latin
America on our side, our situation
would be desperate. To be denied the
products and markets of Latin Amer-
ica would reduce the United States
to being a second-rate nation and
cause a devastating reduction in our
standard of living. . . . Latin Amer-
ican raw materials are essential to
our existence as a world power. A
friendly Latin America is necessary
to our military security.”
Apparently this, and not the mere
dollar investment in Cuba, big as it
may be, is the heart of the matter.
The question remaining is—what to
do about it?
It was the end of World War II
that marked the close of the colonial
period and the beginning of a wave
of profound political, social and eco-
nomic change throughout the world.
In every instance, the essential
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drives are the same: for independ-
ence, self-determination, economic
emancipation, social justice.
In the underdeveloped agricultu-
ral nations—and that defines most, if
not all, of the American republics—
the essential first step toward free-
dom is: agrarian reform. To with-
hold that is to withhold everything.
To attempt to defend a dying feud-
alism is to face not the risk, but the
certainty, sooner or later, of losing
—everything.
“Whether history will record Cu-
ba’s Fidel Castro as an earnest pa-
triot or a fellow-traveling adven-
turer,” writes our former ambassador
to India, Chester Bowles, “is any-
body’s guess. But one fact is alrea-
dy clear. His land-reform program
. is indubitably in line with Latin
American sentiment.”
It is perhaps natural that the
powerful interests threatened by so-
cial and economic change in Cuba
and elsewhere should try to stem
the tide. But it is not well-advised,
and it would be a pity if their in-
fluence were to prevail in Washing-
ton.
Talk of punishing Cuba by cutting
the sugar quota is nonsense. Cuba
is not merely the world’s major sugar
producer, but virtually the only
sugar-producing country that does
not consume the bulk of what it
produces. Cuban sugar supplies the
need of the entire eastern third of
the United States, and it is a vital
supply, price-supported not merely
because it is in large measure U.S.-
owned, but because it is indis-
pensable, as has been demonstrated
in two world wars. ‘To threaten
economic sanctions against the Cu-
ban government is to invite retalia-
tion; e.g., Cuba could easily double
its sugar production and dump a
vast and ruimous surplus on the
world market in defiance of all ex-
isting marketing agreements.
FIDEL CASTRO remains as much
the symbol of revolution—and of
hope—in Latin America at large as
he was for Cuba during the long
struggle in the mountains of Oriente.
The same forces that produced the
Cuban revolution are at play
throughout the hemisphere; the
same aspirations that kindled the —
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Sierra Maestra and the bank clerks
of Havana in 1957 is stirring in the
hearts of the cane cutters of San*o
Domingo and the bank clerks of
Lima in 1960. There is no doubt
that the Cuban revolution has ac-
celerated the revolutionary process
greatly, and perhaps has given it a
shape that it never had before. It was
no coincidence, but a warning, that
Panamanian rioters storming into
the Panama Canal Zone in Decem-
ber should have adopted “Viva Fi-
‘del Castro!” as their battle cry.
f
~~: ms > i tn
oats foot
Former. Ambassador Bowles, urg-
ing a realistic compromise with the
inevitable, advises:
We can adjust ourselves in ad-
vance to the certainty that reason
will not always prevail, that injustices
will almost surely occur, and that
the short-term price paid for long-
term stability will often appear ex-
orbitant.
Above all, 1ét us not lose sight of
the essential issue. The real choice
in Latin America, as in Asia and
Africa, is citizenship or serfdom, hope
or despair, orderly political growth or
bloody upheaval. Our failure to un-
derstand this choice, or to support
the vital new elements which are
striving to assert leadership, would
be catastrophic.
What Bowles has to say is worth
considering. The Congress, preparing
to set the new sugar quota, might
well think it over, and so might the
State Department, before proceeding
to implement the “firmer policy” to-
ward Cuba that was announced only
last week.
REGISTRARS: Key to Negro Voting ee by Kenneth N. Vines
THE CIVIL-RIGHTS debate in
this session of Congress is likely to
be dominated by a single issue:
whether or not federal registrars
should supplant state registrars
where it can be shown that Negroes
are systematically barred from vot-
ing.
To all practical purposes, of course,
the issue is strictly a Southern one.
Voting registrars were originally cre-
ated in the nineteenth century as a
-means of keeping down election
frauds; today, every state in the
union except Arkansas and Texas —
the “poll tax” states — maintains
a registration system. Southern use
of the registrar to bar Negro voters
became widespread only after World
War II; before that time, few South-
ern Negroes ever attempted to ex-
ercise the franchise.
Sin ‘all states; registration is ad-
_ ministered either by a registrar, or a
_ board of registrars, appointed by the
"governor or by a special state regis-
tration board. Appointments are usu-
ally made upon the advice of the
local political “machine” from the
ranks of the political “eligibles” of
the county (or, as in the case of
Louisiana, the parish ). As a purely
“local” representative, then, the reg-
KENNETH N. VINES teaches
“political science at Tulane Univer-
sity (New Orleans), and is con-
ultant for the Southern Regional
Council's studies on Negro registra-
and voting in the South.
istrar is regarded — and regards
himself — as a delegate of local in-
terests rather than an impartial ad-
ministrator of state or federal law.
To put the matter plainly, most
registrars perform precisely the way
the local courthouse “gang” — the
county officials, including the sheriff,
the court clerk and the assessor —
wants them to act. In some instances,
the “gang” finds the Negro vote to
be politically useful, and has actu-
ally stood guard at the registrar’s
office to make certain that no poten-
tially valuable voter was turned
away. In multi-cultural areas such
as Atlanta, New Orleans and Miami,
and in other Southern areas where
there are few Negroes, the main
hindrance to Negro registration has
not been the registrar, but the Ne-
gro’s own apathy. But in many coun-
ties of the deep South with large
Negro populations, the registrar co-
operates with other members of the
“oang” to keep the voting registers
“lily white.” When paternalistic
pressure does not work, outright
violence or the overt threat of vio-
lence does — as shown by recent
complaints to the federal Civil
Rights Commission from Georgia’s
Terrell County. Today there are
thirty counties in the deep South
with not a single Negro registered.
SOMETIMES a registrar is caught
between opposing pressures. Last
year, the White Citizens Coun-
ails of Louisiana ba a systematic
campaign of “education” and coer-
cion of parish registrars to get them
to purge Negroes from the voting
lists. Council members appeared at
registrars’ offices in teams, prepared
to challenge Negro registration en
masse; State Senator Rainach, pres-
ident of the Citizens Councils, and
at the time a candidate for governor,
traveled about the state advising
registrars on methods for turning
away Negro applicants. In most
northern Louisiana parishes, the
campaign was eminently successful;
in other parishes, it failed. In Winn
Parish — home parish of the Longs,
where Negro voters traditionally sup-
ported the Long dynasty — the
woman registrar refused to permit
mass challenges. And in Saint Lan-
dry Parish, where the Citizens Coun-
cils were comparatively weak and
the sheriff depended partly upon
the Negro vote, the campaign also
came a cropper. [In Washington
Parish, where the Citizens Council
campaign had succeeded, a federal
court last week ordered 1,377 Ne-
groes reinstated on the voting lists.
— Eb.]
The registrar who resists the dom- —
inant community pressure — wheth-
er it comes from the “gang,” the
Citizens Councils or other source —
and remains in office is rare indeed.
The story of Mrs. Winnie Clement,
registrar of Webster Parish, Louisi-
ana, in 1956, is a case in point. Faced
with demands that she require Ne. —
h ‘ CME rr ge
on
tion in a short manner, she Aecided
that any standard set fox Negro ap-
plicants should also apply to whites.
After she had refused to register
twenty-four white applicants who
had failed the test on the constitu-
tion, the Citizens Councils bombard-
ed Governor Kennon with protests
and the local police jury asked that
she be removed from office. She de-
cided to resign; one day before the
resignation became effective, she was
dismissed by the state Board of
Voter Registration.
Where local conditions permit,
many registrars perform their duties
conscientiously. Best estimates are
that fewer than one-third of the
registrars co-operated with the Citi-
zens Councils in Louisiana, and
about one-third exclude Negroes in
Georgia and Alabama. In Mississip-
pi, the proportion is much _ higher.
But of course it is precisely in those
areas where the Negro cannot vote
that he needs the vote most, since it
is in those areas where his social
and economic status is lowest.
AS THE interpreters of state qual-
ifications for voters, registrars ex-
ercize both legislative and judicial
powers; they are authorized both to
lay down regulations for registration,
-and to determine whether these
regulations have been adhered to.
The registrar of Caddo Parish in
Louisiana, for instance, demanded
elaborate identification procedures
of Negro applicants, requiring them
to prove “they were who they said
they were.” The power of the South-
ern registrar over the democratic
franchise is thus a formidable one.
_ “THE ATHENS of America!” What
fa boast! What a cultural climax!
“many more years, we may expect a
national brawl for the title. In the
It is he who decides whether or not
an interpretation of the constitution,
in Mississippi, is “reasonable”; there
are no objective standards set up to
determine “reasonableness.” It is he
who decides whether a voter has
passed the examination required of
Alabama registrants; there is no of-
ficial set of correct answers. It is he
who, in Louisiana, decides whether
or not to challenge a Negro appli-
cant for a mistake in spelling on his
registration form.
DESPITE the crucial nature of their
job in the context of the American
democratic system, registrars are
neither recruited nor treated in of-
fice in a manner to encourage pro-
fessional standards of administration.
Only in metropolitan areas is the
job a full-time one, and even when
it is, the salary rarely exceeds $5,000
a year. In Alabama, registrars serve
only fifty or sixty days a year and
draw $10 a day. Some rural Louisi-
ana parishes pay the registrar from
$1,000-$1,500 annually, although the
job is a year-round one. Minimum
educational standards for the office
rarely exist; most registrars are wo-
men (especially widows), and re-
tired businessmen and farmers ac-
tive in politics.
As yet, the courts have not held
that arbitrary discrimination by reg-
istrars to prevent Negro voting con-
stitutes a violation of the Fifteenth
Amendment. And it is doubtful
whether such a ruling, even by the
Supreme Court, would alter the situ-
ation in the thirty Southern coun-
ties whether Negroes have yet to
register, or in the thirty-odd addi-
IN SEARCH of ATHENS, U.S. A.
past, various “Athenses” of this and
that have included Cordoba, Copen-
hagen, Edinburgh, Cork, Belfast and
finally Boston, Mass., in tribute to
its Harvard graduates. A number of
college towns — in Georgia, Alaba-
ma, Tennessee, West Virginia and
southern Ohio oy have the
—Jegal name of Athe
Any American “/
America and may have some sur
hens?” has got I
tonal ‘counties vaetiere Scorn
Negro registration is limited to min-
uscule groups. As long as voting
qualifications are defined locally, ad-
ministered locally and subject to lo-
cal prejudices, the potential for de-
nial of the suffrage remains. ;
The Civil Rights Commission has
recommended that federal registrars
be appointed in trouble spots. One
of several bills designed to carry out
this recommendation is HR 7597, in-
troduced by Congressman Powell. It
provides for the establishment of a
Federal Voter Registration Com-
mission. This proposal places
voter registration on the same level
as communications and interstate
commerce as an area of the public
interest worthy of special protection |
by an independent regulatory type
commission, whose members would
be bipartisan and protected from
political removal. Armed with quasi-
legislative and quasi-judicial powers,
the commission would be empowered
to “provide for the registration of
all persons” found to be disfran-
chised, but the rights of involved
persons would be protected by due.
process of law and judicial review,
and commission actions could be
terminated by local referendum after
five years.
Ample evidence is now in that the
use of peripheral federal power avails
little against local determination to
deny the franchise. The independent
regulatory commission is a_ proper
choice for the protection of this vital
right now that local registrars have
proven so tragically unable to cope
with the problem.
e ce by David Cort.
have a university, so that our
scouting for material must center on |
the 2,000-odd universities and col-
leges, senior and junior, in_ the
United States. And these beautiful
college campuses are certainly, among |
the least ephemeral institutions in
_vivors even 500 years hes
} owever, the “Athens”
uf dit + a el ion ry
|
a Civil Rights Commission listing
.
ing f
F tect
raf
BEE
vel
ft
that
Am
its |
and
If,
We
I
tit
the
ent
wi
ne
OPT yee
ing ¥en: is not one of autible Schis
tecture or ripened ivy, but of dy-
namic, sophisticated people.
BEFORE we inspect the whole uni-
versity picture, notice must be taken
of the claim of Princeton University
that it is already “The Athens of
America.” The boast was invented by
its former president, Harold Dodds,
and was repeated as recently as Nov.
14, 1958, in the Princeton Alumni
Weekly.
Princeton’s principal claim to the
title is based on an institution —
the Institute for Advanced Study,
endowed by the Bambergers in 1930
— which is not officially connected
with the university, though it is
nearby.
Princeton was not yet a university
in 1896, when it changed its name
from the College of New Jersey.
Several things began happening to
the institution just before and during
World War II that took it off the
ground. The most important was
the arrival at the Institute for Ad-
vanced Study (thus, “at Princeton’’)
of Albert Einstein, fleeing Hitler’s
Europe. And presently the _plain-
clothes generals from the Pentagon
began arriving incognito, and Prince-
ton was involved in the nuclear-re-
search team at Brookhaven, New
York.
The second was the installation in
and around Princeton of miscellane-
ous research, industrial and founda-
tion outfits, for mixed reasons. The
pioneer was evidently George Gal-
lup’s Institute of Public Opinion
(polls and Madison Avenue market
research). Princeton, connected with
the Pentagon, the nucleus © and
Madison Avenue, began looking in
the mirror more often. By now
there are over seventy research es-
tablishments in the town, including
the Sarnoff Research Center employ-
ing over a hundred Ph.D.s, the In-
dustrial Reactor Laboratories, the
Turbo-Motor Division of Curtiss-
Wright, the Electronics Associates’
Computation Center, the Applied
Science Corp., Aeronautical Research
Associates, etc.
The third development fae in-
toxicated Princeton was the settling-
in of a mixed bag of writers, journal-
ists, big-thinkers and exurbanites
z 7 77
: 4
-
generally, for the university is al-
most midway between New York
and Washington. The significant ar-
rival was the novelist John O’Hara,
a non-collegian who had all his life
looked to Yale College as the seat of
power and posh. His switch to
Princeton, since he is known to be
hypersensitive in these distinctions,
is catastrophic for Yale. To O’Hara’s
keen nose, the smell of posh now
blows off Princeton.
It may be said that the arrival of
Einstein scotched the ghost of
Princeton’s own F. Scott Fitzgerald.
It may also be said that Einstein’s
death and O’Hara’s arrival ushered
Fitzgerald’s ghost back again. Prince-
ton has gratefully given O’Hara the
Princeton Tiger watch charm and
the Princeton Right Wing Club tie
pin and attends his annual big foot-
ball party. O’Hara brings out the
worst in Princeton.
Princeton may yet become the
Athens of America, but probably not
so long as air generals walk in and
out and huge corporations hold semi-
nars in the Princeton Inn and mil-
itary Congressmen can pillory Prince-
ton professors and ignorant playboys
can cuckold the associate profes-
sors. Princeton, no more than any
other, cannot render to both God
and Caesar.
The institution’s actual status in
the Athens sweepstakes will fall in-
to place, by no means disgracefully,
if we enlarge our view to take in the
whole splendid and various company
of distinguished American universi-
ties, once we know which they are.
IF NOT to Princeton, to which of
the first twenty or so American uni-
versities ought the title to be
awarded? And this question brings
up the much more useful, preliminary
question: which are the first twenty
or so American universities?
One would think that any such
list would be controversial to the
point of multilateral civil war. Just
as no one wants his mother classi-
fied socially, no alumnus likes his
Alma Mater realistically rated. But
in fact the list is a commonplace
among experienced educators; it is
one of the daily reaffirmed facts of
life to administrators of the fellow-
ship foundations. Many a man would
like to insinuate his own school in-
to the list, but he is prevented on
two counts.
The first count is that it would
be hard to omit any of twenty-one
universities. The second is that the
great mass of American colleges,
senior and junior, are crippled by a
small endowment, dependence on
either church or state, a brief past,
a small library, poorly paid teachers
and a poor ratio of teachers to stu-
dents. Certainly hundreds of schools
boast some fine teachers, fine de-
partments and fine students and
alumni, but their limitations are all
too well known to their own facul-
ties. If the list of twenty-one is po-
litely suppressed, it is out of a sense
of consideration. Yet this gentle con-
spiracy is no help, and may be a
distinct hindrance, to our urgent in-
tellectual advance. It throws the
whole matter of higher education in-
to a generalized, hopeless twilight
where no names are named, no faces
are seen and all the cats are uni-
formly gray.
ONE booby-trap will be avoided
here. The twenty-one will not be
named in order of merit, but merely
in order of the size of the endowment,
excluding the value of the campus
installation. The twenty-one are to
be taken simply as a group. They
are: Harvard (including Radcliff),
Yale, Columbia (including Barnard),
Chicago, M.I.T., California (at Berk-
eley), Stanford, Rice, Cornell, Prince-
ton, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wash-
ington (at St. Louis), Dartmouth,
Caltech, Tulane, Michigan, Virginia,
Wisconsin, North Carolina and Col-
orado.
Anyone whose university is omit-
ted ought now to consider the paral-
lel list of the twenty-one richest
schools in America, for fourteen of
them are on the first list. The big
endowments are (in millions): Texas
$287, Harvard $278, Yale $174, Col-
umbia $147, Chicago $123, M.LT.
$88, California $86, Northwestern
$82, Rochester $79, Stanford $75,
Rice $65, Cornell $65, Johns Hopkins
$63, Princeton $62, Minnesota $59,
Peunsylpania $56, Washington $48,
Dartmouth $48, New York Univer-
sity $45, Vanderbilt and Duke both
$41. Caltech is at $37. A sensitive ©
alumnus of many a university could
put his school into contention very
soon with a gift of $20 million.
Big money, in short, may have
qualified two-thirds of our list but
failed to qualify the richest of all,
Texas, while Rice in Texas, with one-
fourth the endowment, made it.
Well, what is wrong with the other
seven? Texas’ endowment is not solid
capital like Harvard’s, but consists
of the appraised values of oil prop-
erties—the gifts are generally hedged
and restrictive. The board of trus-
tees, dominated by politicians and
the tight Texas community of mil-
lionaires, wins every battle with the
faculty. The contrast with Tulane is
significant.
Northwestern is overshadowed by
the University of Chicago.
Rochester is under suspicion of
domination by Eastman Kodak.
Johns Hopkins is thought of, most
unfairly, by matriculates as exclu-
sively a medical school.
N.Y.U. is overshadowed by Co-
lumbia (see Northwestern).
Vanderbilt and Duke _ remain
Southern schools commemorating the
dead millionaires, though both have
some fine faculty members and Duke
a good library.
WELL THEN, what is so good about
the other seven that made the
twenty-one without big money?
Caltech has an all-male student
body of only a thousand on which
to spend its $37 million. Perhaps no-
where else are brains so pampered.
Tulane ($28 million) has a beau-
tiful campus with the fragrance of
sweet olive, and a cultivated board
of trustees who, in New Orleans’
Latin-European tradition, _ believe
that brains are aristocratic.
Michigan ($25 million) has a
very high even value through all fac-
ulties; a handsome, well-treed cam-
pus, and acceptance by the Ivy
League group as virtually one of
themselves.
Virginia ($18 million), which is
_ practically state-supported like Min-
A nesota, Michigan and some others,
’ 1s iat is meant in much of the
— South by “The University.” The real
i reason is that the late Thomas Jef-
ferson i is still in residence. His name
is used every day and settles all argu-
ments. Virginia has been a true-uni-
versity since Jefferson planted it in
his own native foothills of the Blue
Ridge Mountains.
Wisconsin ($12 million) and North
Carolina ($5 million) once claimed
the most progressive elements in their
sections. The politics of the Mc-
Carthy era cut cruelly into faculty
pride and independence.
Colorado sits high in the Rockies
and gets status from its annual
World Affairs Conference, held with-
out press-agentry. In spite of low
salaries, an able faculty is drawn by
the fine living quarters. Its character
is a tribute to Colorado politicians
who have made no effort to ruin the
faculty.
The top twenty-one are not named
without some criticism.
Chicago has the most rigid faculty
caste system in America, giving it a
distinctly Madison Avenue tone. It
once offered to change its name to
Rockefeller University in view of the
$170 million received. It doesn’t seem
to want to be loved.
Stanford, a rich boy’s school in
red-tiled Spanish Mission, aspires too
frankly, like Princeton, to the Athen-
ian, but the weather is right.
Cornell has another overpowering
board of trustees.
Minnesota, it has been said quite
seriously, would be more Athenian
if it were not quite so far north.
Washington, sitting at the center
of the heartland where within a
radius of a hundred miles a dozen
rivers flow together, is listed with
no qualifications at all. The extra-
ordinary community of St. Louis be-
lieves, like New Orleans, in an elite
of brains and manners. A man can
safely wear a silk hat on a St. Louis
street. Washington has almost as
many Nobel Prize-winners as Cali-
fornia and Columbia. It has its own
TV station, headed by Arthur Holly
Compton.
Dartmouth: see Minnesota.
Most of the first twenty-one are
too committed to conformism and
the search for “acceptability.”
IN CASE the Athens of America
should turn out to be a primarily
undergraduate school, a top list of
these is given, with endowments (in
millions); Wellesley, $33; Vassar,
ma Be x " fs 3
, a = soe
rf $29; Oberlin, 927, Born nanane +
Pembroke, $26; Amherst, $24; Wes-
leyan, $24: Williams, ‘$20; Smith,
$20; Bowdoin, $14; Bryn Mae
$14; Swarthmore, $13; Haverford,
$10; Mt. Holyoke, $10; Carleton,
$8; Davidson, $8; Hamilton, $7; and,
with still smaller endowments, Anti-
och, Kenyon, Lawrence, Reed and
John’s (Annapolis), plus the
three military academies. In this
area, the coincidental appearance on
one campus of half a dozen fine
teachers could be decisive, so that
the list is subject to change.
A physically stupendous new can-
didate is the Air Force Academy at
Colorado Springs. Its site gives the
feeling of looking out across all Amer-
ica. The vast buildings appear to
float on their walls of glass, a ma-
terial which has a deplorable way
of exploding outward in the steady
seventy-mile winds. The place cost
nearly $200,000,000, not counting the
carloads of fresh glass. Greatness
here depends on the future of air
power, currently more debatable than
the lethal power of flying glass. __
Another test is age, which allows
money, ivy and loyalties to grow.
These dates of founding also give a
series of footnotes to real American
history: Harvard 1636, William and
Mary 1693, St. John’s 1696, Yale
1701, Pennsylvania 1740, Moravian
College for Women 1742, Princeton
1746, Washington and Lee 1749,
Columbia 1754, Brown 1764, Rut-
gers 1766, Dartmouth 1769, Salem
(N.C.) 1772, Dickinson 1773, Hamp-
den-Sydney 1776. Only six of these
are on our first list. Two others are
Moravian; Dickinson went in for
Indians.
IN the next fifty years, twenty-four
more schools were founded, but only |
three reach our first list: North Car-
olina 1795, Michigan 1817 and Vir-
ginia 1819, There were bursts of
college-founding before and after the
Civil War and again toward the end
of the century, when nowveaw riche
Texas, Stanford, Caltech, Rice and
Chicago arrived. One can spend fruit-
less hours brooding over the effect
on a college’s ultimate character of
the historical period and place in
which it began; but there is ereinly
an effect.
Rie -
Ine NATION
ee pens owe
¥
ealzbility of he Siete
expressed in the number of library
books and the ratio of faculty to
students. The library totals, in deci-
mals of a million, are: Harvard 5.5,
Yale 4.2, California 3.5, Stanford
~ 3.0, Michigan 2.3, Columbia 2.1, Chi-
cago 1.9, Cornell 1.6, Minnesota 1.6,
Wisconsin 1.3, Pennsylvania 1.3,
Princeton 1.2, North Carolina 1.1,
Colorado .78, Dartmouth .72, Tulane
6, Virginia .6, Washington .52,
M.I.T. .4, Rice, .25, Caltech 09.
The lack of books is sometimes
balanced by an excellent faculty-
student ratio, as at Caltech 1-3,
M.1.T. 1-5, Tulane and Virginia 1-8.
The good undergraduate schools are
surprisingly consistent at a teacher-
student ratio of 1-9 and a library of
around 300,000 volumes (though the
libraries at Brown and Oberlin are
above $00,000, while Antioch, Reed
and Davidson fall far below the av-
erage). In the long run, the library
may be the decisive factor. The
future may be shaped by whether a
university guessed right or wrong
with its books, had good or bad luck.
Was Harvard right or wrong in speci-
alizing in East Asia, Dante, Mon-
taigne, Tennyson and Keats; Yale in
Shakespeare, Boswell, Franklin, Wal-
pole, Meredith and Judaism; Texas
in Texas and English literature;
_ Princeton in Jefferson, Woodrow
Wilson and diplomacy; Columbia in
Joan of Arc, Spinoza, Russia and
East Asia? Who can tell? But once
such a direction has been set, the
university is forever stuck with it.
_ The kind of people who would be in-
_ terested in that field flock in and if
_ they are dull boys, they stupefy the
university. It is amusing to notice
that Princeton’s interest in Thomas
Jefferson is competitive with Vir-
ginia’s proprietary interest: good,
_ sound, in-fighting, since the two com-
pete fo Southern students. This
_ whole matter of university libraries
is worthy of review by a critic of
the first rank, not me.
r
aR,
_ STILL another way of rating colleges
_ was presented by the Scientific Amer-
ican in July, 1951. It determined
which colleges had originally gradu-
Janu sary ( 23, » 1960
_ universities, given,
d the highest percentage of the
Ph.D.s listed in LS Men |
bas ut
ws s
Har ei Re eet .
of Science. The first twenty schools
on a list of fifty were Reed (Ore.),
Caltech, Kalamazoo, Earlham, Ob-
erlin, Massachusetts State, Hope
(Mich.), De Pauw, Nebraska Wesle-
yan, Iowa Wesleyan, Antioch, Mari-
etta (O.), Colorado, Cornell (Ia.),
Central (Mo.), Chicago, Haverford,
Clark (Mass.), Johns Hopkins, Em-
poria (Kan.).
This list shows that the use of ex-
act criteria in this matter turns it
into farce. Not one Ivy League school
is on the entire list; most of those
that are on the list suffer from every
teaching disability that the Amer-
ican college is heir to. This exhibi-
tion of degree-worship, or academ-
omania, could equally be used to
prove that the Ph.D. is worthless.
Still another way of establishing a
ranking was conscientiously explored
by the Chicago 7'ribwne in the spring
of 1957. Its reporters polled educa-
tors all over the country on their
opinions of their own and other in-
stitutions and somehow averaged out
a consensus.
This resulted in Pie of ten top
even my cour-
ageous sources did ‘not dare to do,
in invidious order merit, as fol-
©
>
fi
terest whatever in becoming the
oil a eae E r ne m4 yo h
lows: Harvard, Yale, California
(Berkeley), Chicago, Columbia,
Princeton, Michigan, Cornell, Wis-
consin, Stanford.
All this does is to take our top
ten, virtually in order of endowment
(with a little juggling), drop M.LT.
and Rice, move up Michigan and
Wisconsin. However, the Tribune
quoted the educators’ doubts about
Wisconsin as “lacking momentum...
it is not a dynamic school.” Its bril-
liant past was probably what got it
on the list.
THE cautious list of ten, with its
incautious ranking, gives the peculiar
result of breaking into two groups
with a gulf between.
The Tribune’s sources also gave .
the first ten men’s colleges as Haver- AMR
ford, Amherst, Kenyon, Wesleyan,
Hamilton, Union, Bowdoin, Univer-
sity of the South, Washington and
Lee, and Williams, and the first ten
coeducational colleges: | Oberlin, ‘i
Swarthmore, Carleton, Reed, Po-
mona, Grinnell, Lawrence, Wooster
(Ohio), Kalamazoo and Hope. (I
suspect the sources of having be-
lieved the Scientific American story.)
The omissions from these lists are a
even more astonishing than the in-
clusions, for some argument can be :
raised for every little college in R
America and one would be delighted Bs
to listen to it. I am not speaking
of the women’s colleges, for the T7ri-
bune gave a ten-best list especially
for them, which was impeccably
chivalrous.
Some people would have us look,
for the Athens of America, to the in-
dustrial-research ' centers, such as
Standard Oil’s at Linden, N. J., the
General Motors Technical Center
(“The Versailles of Industry”), the
complex of electronic works around
San Diego, or that incredible —
Shangri La, Los Alamos, approached
between mountains and over gorges
until suddenly there it is in the up- —
per airs, loaded with Ph.D.s whose _
luncheon conversation is unintelligi-
ble. But these are all engaged in ap- |
plied science and dedicated to any- —
thing but disinterested thought.
There still remains the one place |
in America that superbly has no in- iy
Athens of America, that regularly
lp
;
4 a, men)
nk caelmoietie Sae te sa Le
throws away its Athenian assets, that
is loved and hated more sincerely
than any other, the capital of the
arts and professions, of the United
Nations, of business and finance, the
greatest port in the world, the self-
made Acropolis, awesome, preoccu-
pied, dead-pan and irresistible.
And so, of course, in all sensible
probability, this has to be the
Athens of America—New York City.
There is essentially no competition.
On the university level, this would
point us to Columbia. It began in
1754 with ministers of five different
faiths, including the Hebrew, as ex
officio governors, on the shore of the
Hudson River between Murray and
Barclay streets. In 1857 it moved to
the heart of modern Madison Ave-
nue and moved out again, under
President Seth Low, in 1897, just as
the advertising business discovered
itself, to the hill of Morningside
overlooking the Hudson.
a. as | oe
. t*
re Alm ee ak
« i” h
Between these two dates a lot of
Americans had discovered in Euro-
pean universities, chiefly German,
that their own alma maters were
hardly senior high schools. They
came home to turn them, by a hun-
dred different theories, into true uni-
versities. The practical theory of
education had been applied by Ben-
jamin Franklin at Pennsylvania and
by Jefferson at Virginia; it was de-
veloped by Wayland at Brown,
White at Cornell and Van Hise at
Wisconsin.
Harvard and Columbia, having
been true universities for some time,
resisted this influence, though both
introduced business schools. Har-
vard, however, remains in Boston,
an enclave of the exhausted Puritan
tradition in an Irish Catholic city.
Columbia, having shaken off the
dust first of Wall Street and then of
Madison Avenue, had the advantage
of being no one thing.
ae
_ The Chicago, Tribune survey,
which was of course rooted in the
Midwest, was “astonished” by the
high quality of Columbia. This qual-
ity is indeed not ostentatious; it at-
tracts very little attention even from
New York City; the New York news-
papers hardly ever mention Colum-
bia. The great peculiar city hardly
knows that Columbia University is
there, somewhat as modern Greeks
hardly ever raise their eyes to the
Acropolis.
My biased choice of Columbia*
can be opposed by those who remem-
ber that the enduring heart of Athens
was not really the Acropolis, but
Plato’s school, which was held a mile
to the north of the city in the walled
park of Academus. On this analogy,
New York’s Academe would be sited
in Westchester or Staten Island, but
surely not in New Jersey.
*Mr. Cort is Columbia ’24.—Ed.
LOBBY of a MILLION GHOSTS e « by John O’ Kearney
USING A BLOATED title for them-
selves, and working with a budget of
about $70,000 a year, a handful of
zealous men exert a more determin-
ing influence ‘upon United States
policy towards The People’s Repub-
lic of China than all sanity, unorgan-
ized, has thus far been able to
counteract. “If there is a China Lob-
by, we are it,” says Marvin Liebman,
secretary of The Committee of One
Million Against the Admission of
Communist China to the United Na-
tions. The handful of men who con-
trol this lobby base their claim to
express what they call the “grass
roots sentiments of all America” to-
wards the Communists of China on
1,037,000 signatures to a_ petition
which for almost six years has lain
unriffled in the darkness of a New
York warehouse; but though there
are not more than 6,000 persons out
of the 1,037,000 who ever contribute
‘a dime, and not more than 25,000
JOHN O’KEARNEY is a former
Far East correspondent for the New
York Daily News.
76
names on the committee’s mailing
list, the weighty name of it will be
slung about again in this election
year in an effort to silence every
politician who may dare to suggest
that recognition of China, and trade
with her, are essential to peace.
One of the major voices of this
lobby, which has, its headquarters
at 343 Lexington Avenue, New York
City, is Senator Mike Mansfield
(Dem., Mont.). “Americans who
favor the admission of Red China
to the United Nations,” said Mans-
field, “base part of their argument
on the false premise that opposi-
tion to such admission comes from
a minority and lunatic conservative
fringe of American politics.” He then
cited the 1,037,000 signatures, and
asserted that millions more have en-
dorsed this petition through the ac-
tion of national organizations.
But what do they say at commit-
tee headquarters about the possibil-
ity of there being just such a lunatic
fringe? The genial Liebman observes
that in ’53 and 754, with Korea
fresh in the public mind, “anyone
would have signed the petition.”
Since then, he admits, no one knows
in what fashion the collective mind
of 1,037,000 persons may have
changed. “It would cost about 10
cents a head to get in touch with
them all, and the committee simply
cannot afford that.”
Nevertheless, on the authority of
all those names, the committee is
working to get both the Democrat
and Republican national conventions
to adopt a joint plank against any
move for recognition of China or re-
sumption of trade with her. A prop-
aganda kit is in preparation to be
sent out to every person who runs
for federal office. The committee
plans to poll all candidates, Con-
ferences at the universities will be
arranged to give the 1960 anti-Pek-
ing campaign the respectability of
what Liebman calls a “high degree
of literacy.” And since politicians
and literate people who are well
known, and also conservative are
never ignored by newspaper editors,
the issue of China will again appear
to have had a fair verdict among us.
The Nation
> s
Let us now consider who they are
that rig the jury. A few are old
China hands, but among the rest it
is difficult to find any common mo-
tive beyond that of a fervent belief,
as Liebman puts it, that they are
acting as patriots whose only con-
cern is what is best for their coun-
try. This is true, surely, of Liebman
himself, if we may take it that his
motives are as pure as his admitted
ignorance of the evils of the Kuomin-
tang rule over China is absolute.
The honorary chairman of The
Committee of One Million is War-
ren R. Austin, member of the Loyal
Legion of the Sons of the American
Revolution, member of the China
Society of America, and our first
ambassador to the United Nations.
After him come the six more or less
active brains of the Steering Com-
mittee, the executive exploiters of
the authority of a petition long years
in a warehouse. At the head of the
list is Senator Paul H. Douglas of
Illinois, one-time professor of econ-
omics. (Most politically aware peo-
ple ask: What’s he doing there?)
With him are Charles Edison, for-
mer governor of New Jersey; former
Senator H. Alexander Smith of New
Jersey; Congressman Francis E. Wal-
ter of Pennsylvania; Congressman
Walter H. Judd of Minnesota and
Joseph C. Grew, ambassador to Ja-
pan from 731 to 41. Judd was a med-
ical missionary to China from 1925 to
*38, a man who knew Shanghai in the
Kuomintang days when every dawn
revealed more than a hundred human
bodies to be carted off out of the
filth of the gutters.
The treasurer is
Frederick C.
Wickes of the National Casket Co.,
an avocational joiner of causes. He
was chairman and national director
of the Committee for Boycott
Against Japan from 1938 to 39; na-
tional chairman of the Citizens for
Victory, *42-'43; national treasurer
of the League of Nations Associa-
tion, 742-44; and a member of
the Committee to Defend America
by Aiding Anti-Communist China,
49-52. McKee’s assistant is Bettis
Aiston Garside, missionary to China,
22-26, bearer of the Order of the
Auspicious Star (Chiang regime),
executive vice president and secre-
tary of United Services to China,
fi Inc., New York.
The committee got its start in
October, 1953, with a statement
signed by 212 politicians, business-
men, scientists and religious leaders,
intended for the ears of President
Eisenhower. It was a protest against
the growing pressure from Britain
for recognition of China and relax-
ation of the American-enunciated
trade embargo. It was ultimately to
be given to the President on his
way to the Bermuda Conference “to
arm you in speaking to the British”;
but it appears that Time magazine
- was the first to call it to his atten-
tion. “Congressional signers,” said
Liebman, “got mail pro and con, and
before we knew it there was a spon-
taneous movement.” How spontane-
ous it was may be better determined,
perhaps, by Liebman’s admission
that the signatures came in pretty
slowly because most of them were
gathered through channels dug local-
ly out of the membership of the
American Legion and the American
Federation of Labor. The Benevolent
and Protective Order of Elks also
helped, along with the General Fed-
eration of Women’s Clubs and the
Catholic War Veterans.
The Stockholm Peace Appeal had
earlier claimed to have gotten 11,000,-
000 American signatures, so it was
decided that the committee must
get at least a million. On July 9, 754,
the committee sent a telegram to the
President announcing that it had
rounded up its one million. In the
end, the Stockholm petitions were
denounced by the State Department
as Russian-inspired fakery; but
President Eisenhower took the
1,037,000 names presented by the
committee as supporting evidence
that 95 per cent of the American
people wished to keep The People’s
Republic of China beyond the pale.
As a document, the full petition had
less literary interest than an old tele-
phone book, so it was never read.
It was put in a warehouse and the
committee closed up shop.
In the autumn of 754, an Ameri-
can assembly of Protestant religious
leaders was held and “there was
more agitation for recognition of
Red China,” so it was decided to set
up an informal group from within
the membership of The Committee
of One Million and get it going as
a lobby in opposition to the “agi-
; tators.’
> Those who had led the pre-
vious petition movement became the
lobby: The signers of the original
petition were not solicited for sup-
port. “It would,” said Liebman,
“have been too expensive.” However,
in 58, the committee polled 50,000
Protestant clergymen, and of those
who responded, 93 per cent were “on
our side.” The support of these
clergymen was taken as a mandate
for continued exploitation of the
1,037,000 signatures.
TODAY, the authority of the origi-
nal number has become dogma: On
the basis of the original petition, the
committee claims to have among its
charter members one-fourth of the
U.S. Senate, one-fourth of the House
of Representatives and nine gover-
nors. The list is impressive, but it is
a question how many would be there
today if Judd, Smith, Douglas, Grew
and Edison were to turn around to
look. Newspaper editors still accept
the committee at face value, as ready
to believe in the existence of an army
here as those who were deceived by
the ’round and ’round parade of the
troops of Henri Christophe. Never-
theless, the committee’s executives
find it harder and harder to make
news as time goes by. To keep it-
self in the public eye on a_ shoe-
string budget, the committee takes
page advertisements in the interna-
tional edition of The New York
Times and reprints them for mail
distribution, buying the aura of the
newspaper's reputation for $450 an
international page, instead of the
$5,000 it would have to pay for a
page in the domestic edition. The
committee’s friends in Congress pro-
vide further reprint material, flying
the flag of the Congressional Record:
for example, the speech of Senator
Robert C. Byrd (Dem., W. Va.),
“Should the United States Change
Its China Policy?,” Congressional
Record, delivered June 8, 1959, re-
printed (not at government expense)
and distributed as committee propa-
ganda. This Byrd speech could have
been prompted by Chiang Kai-shek.
“Continued support of the National-
ist Republic of China serves to best
advance the interests of the United
States and the free countries in
Asia,” Byrd said.
After the resumption of activity
77
in 1954 by the small informal group
which still calls itself The Commit-
tee of One Million, “we found our-
selves,” said Liebman, “with new re-
sponsibilities we had not figured on.
We were the only responsible organi-
zation dedicated to anti-Communist
activity, and suddenly we were get-
ting letters from all over the world,
particularly from the Far East re-
gions.”
Liebman has since been out there
to meet the committee’s friends.
Chiang, a hard man to see, gave him
two hours of his time and posed for
a smiling, side-by-side photograph.
In Bangkok, two years ago, Liebman
was told by a cabinet-level spokes-
man: “If the United States were to
recognize Red China, within a week
we would have to do so also.” Pre-
sumably Liebman did his fervent
best to reassure his friends in Thai-
land. Telling of his tour around the
area, he said: “We felt it was im-
portant to convince them that the
United States is not changing its
policy.”
Out of their new-found sense of
responsibility the committee’s lead-
ing members set up the American-
Asian Educational Exchange, with
Edison as chairman and Liebman as
executive vice chairman. Judd and
McKee are vice chairmen, along with
Bishop Herbert Welch. This organi-
zation, which Liebman says will try
to “fill the gap” left by the United
States Information Service and other
outfits that try to educate Asians,
began its work with the publication
of Communism at Work in China,
by Stanley K. Hornbeck, who from
1928 to 1937 was Chief of the Di-
vision of Far Eastern Affairs of the
State Department. He was Special
Assistant Secretary of State in 1944,
at the moment when President
Roosevelt was upbraiding Chiang
(United States Relations with China,
The Department of State, pages
66-7-8, 1949) for his persistent re-
fusal to co-operate with General Stil-
well in prosecuting the war against
Japan, and for letting his anti-Com-
munist obsession bring China to the
brink of catastrophe. But Hornbeck
still champions Chiang.
The transcendent arrogance of this
China lobby was bared by Liebman
last November 4 in a press state-
ment attack on Conlon Associates,
Ltd. of San Francisco, for having
urged the admission of China to the
United Nations. The Conlon group
had been hired by the Senate For-
eign Relations Committee to study
the China problem and came out for
recognition and trade. Said Liebman:
“To the best of my knowledge,
Conlon Associates conducted no seri-
ous investigation of either the senti-
ment of the American people or their
leaders. .. . We doubt very seriously
whether Conlon Associates consult-
ed with either the people or the gov-
ernments of Korea, Free China, Hong
Kong. .. .” Et Cetera.
THE DOCTOR SHORTAGE . . by @. Jack Geiger
THERE WAS a wonderful character
in Pogo, some years back, who was
provoked into a week-long frenzy by
a weather report warning that a cold
front was moving in from Canada.
Why, he wanted to know, did we
have to put up with all this foreign
weather? Why couldn’t we get good
old American weather—and if there
‘was a shortage, who was responsible?
There is a certain rough parallel in
the storm that has erupted over the
American public’s sudden and_ be-
lated realization, following a bitter
icident involving an Indian physi-
cian, New York’s Knickerbocker
Hospital and an emergency amputa-
‘tion, that one in every four hospital
‘interns and resident physicians in
the United States is foreign-trained.
The parallel is in the Okefenokee
caliber of the subsequent alarums, as-
signments of blame, assessments of
¥
Zz
!
H. JACK GEIGER, a former news-
‘paper man, is now a physician taking
postgraduate work in preventive
medicine and the social sciences.
fi
B
a doctor shortage, and angry de-
mands that “they” or “we” do some-
thing about it. The difference is that
the doctor situation isn’t funny.
There is nothing humorous in physi-
cians who are inadequately trained,
incompetent, or unable to communi-
cate with their patients. Nor’ is there
anything gay in the plight of foreign
physicians who come here in the ex-
pectation of a good postgraduate
education that will give them first-
rate skills—and are fraudulently led
into a year or more of unenlighten-
ing drudgery as cheap medical labor.
Nor is there anything funny, final-
ly, about the crucial issue — the
lack of consistent and effective na-
tional planning and national policy
on the supply of physicians and
health facilities in the face of an ex-
plosively changing pattern of popu-
lation, disease and health care.
IT IS usually helpful to begin with
the facts. Ten years ago there were
fewer than 2,000 physicians in U. S.
hospitals who had received their
training in foreign medical schools.
Last year there were 7,622; this year
there are more than 8,300. In New
York City, more than half of all
interns and residents are foreign-
trained; in the municipal non-teach-
ing hospitals—those not affiliated
with a medical school—the figure is
285 out of 293.
Why are these foreign-trained
physicians here? For two main rea-
sons. The first is that they want good
medical training—that is, to trade
their time (up to twenty hours a
day) and services as hospital staff
physicians for the opportunity to
work under, study with and learn
from highly qualified senior physi-
cians of every specialist category.
The second is that the hospitals are
desperate for them, There are 12,000
internship positions open on U. S.
hospital staffs each year. The eighty-
two four-year American medical
schools last year graduated exactly
6,861 physicians.
What’s more, the situation is soon
going to get worse. A uniform ex-
aM peal ve. shi a,
we ee eee
he
col
fet
fal
amination-and-screening system. for
foreign-trained physicians already
here, or still abroad and planning to
come here, will shortly go into ef-
fect. Predictions of the failure rate
range from 30 to 50 per cent.
It is worth-while to pause now and
ask the next question: are all for-
eign-trained physicians “bad” doc-
tors? Obviously not. There are su-
perb medical schools in Canada,
Great Britain, the Scandinavian
countries and elsewhere. There are
also many third- and fourth-rate
schools abroad. There are some su-
perb graduates of poor schools. We
will not examine the assumption—
often implicit in “foreign-doctor” dis-
cussions—that any graduate of any
U. S. school is a good doctor, except
to note that this country has no
monopoly on medical progress.
This is not just a “hospital” prob-
lem. In 1949 there were 143 physi-
cians for every 100,000 Americans;
today the figure is close to 132. By
1975, according to one reliable pro-
jection, we will have to graduate
more than 10,000 physicians a year
just to maintain this ratio; if we
don’t, the likeliest answer to “is there
a doctor in the house?” will be No.
What’s happened to the doctors?
That’s the wrong question. The
right one is: what’s happened to us?
Here, I think, is the heart of the
problem, for health—including the
supply of physicians—is not a “medi-
cal” issue but a social issue, and the
new changes and needs are primarily
social, though they have profound
medical implications.
ONE REASON for the relative
undersupply of physicians is simple
population growth. But more im-
portant is the fact that (1) most
of us are demanding, and _ using,
much more medical and hospital care
per person and (2) more and more
medical care is given in the hospital
setting, both because of the increas-
ing complexity of diagnosis and
therapy and because of the relative
inability of urban families to handle
illness at home. In one Hartford,
Connecticut, hospital, for example
there were 3,000 emergen
visits in 1944 aa more | ‘than 20,000
in 1956—although Hartford es t
i _ grown 700 per cent in the interim.
hospitals than we
Almost all of us are using physi-
cians more (the average number of
visits by adults is now five per year)
and using more physicians per per-
son. A pregnancy today may involve
a general practitioner, an obstetri-
cian, an anesthesiologist, a pediatri-
cian and assorted others. We have
much more health insurance, and
owners of such insurance consistently
make more use of medical and hos-
pital facilities than do the uninsured.
What really tightens the screws,
however, is the nature of our popu-
lation shift. We are becoming in-
creasingly urban—and city-dwellers
use far more medical care than rural
residents, We are having a baby
boom—and children in our society
get the most intense and frequent
medical care.
At the other end of the age scale,
the lowered mortality rate means an
explosive increase in the percentage
of elderly persons, who have the
chronic diseases that require the most
medical care. They are also the peo-
ple most isolated from family, the
ones with no place to go—except
hospital or nursing home.
By 1980, predicts Professor Philip
Hauser of the University of Chicago,
the country’s population will be
somewhere between 230 and 270 mil-
lion. Most Americans will live in
“standard metropolitan areas,” a
kind of huge suburbia. If the present
trends in birth and death rates con-
tinue, Mr. Hauser estimates, we'll
need twice as many paateiciens,
twice as many geriatricians, 50 per
cent more obstetricians, many more
won nara (Con-
9 oiled
sidering the chilling implications of
the phrase “standard metropolitan
area,’ we'll probably need a lot more
psychiatrists, too. )
WELL, it’s said cheerfully, let’s
expand our present medical schools.
And then let’s build some new medi-
cal schools. The tone of most recent
editorial discussions is that “we’ll
just have to.” There was general
agreement in Okefenokee on an All-
American Weather Factory, too. But
there are a few problems. Among
them:
Who’ll Pay? Expansion isn’t cheap.
The Association of American Medical
Colleges estimates that seventy-eight
medical schools need a total of $757
million for new facilities right now.
With a considerably bigger expendi-
ture, our present schools might be
able to graduate enough physicians
to hold the line until 1967. But one
four-year school will have to be
ready then, and thereafter we’ll need
two complete new schools each year
until 1976, when we’ll need three. One
projection calls for thirty-two com-
plete new schools by 1976. It costs a
lot of money to build, staff and run
a medical school.
Who'll teach? If medical-school
deans weren’t frantically busy raising
money, they might have time to weep
over the bland assumption that
money is the whole answer. The
schools need biochemists, anatomists,
physiologists, all sorts of teachers. We
aren’t making many. In 1935, 22 per
cent of our Ph.D. graduates were in
the biological sciences; in 1958 the
percentage was 12. And in 1958
there were 619 budgeted but un-
filled positions on medical-school.
faculties. In addition to these va-
cancies, a mere 20 schools last year
reported “an average need — for
present classes—of 50 more faculty
members.
Who'll go? In 1950, there were 22,-
000 applicants to dieHical schools.
In 1958, although there were more
Soleee graduates, only 15,000 ane
that the drop had been prevent
among the brightest students. No
one can say with certainty that this
reflects another social change—a
change in the high relative status of
medicine as a profession—but a few
yy ‘ / a Go
i” Me aE Ee 2 Al el al Be Lib
hard financial facts may be in the
minds of students debating medicine
vs. nuclear physics, engineering or
business administration.
Medicine means seven to ten years
—alter college—of school and post-
graduate hospital training, at low
wages and monastic hours, if the
student is to wind up above the un-
specialized bottom of the income and
status totem pole. Even for the 40
per cent of our current medical grad-
uates who come from families with
incomes over $10,000, it usually
means being supported by one’s wife
and isolated from one’s children. (It
is no accident that 63 per cent of
medical students are married by the
time they graduate.) And it means
going into debt; of the 1959 gradu-
ates, 52 per cent were in debt and
6 per cent owed more than $10,000.
ALL OF this is known to the deans,
. the faculties, the Association of
p American Medical Colleges, the De-
" partment of Health, Education and
f Welfare, at least some Senators and
‘ Congressmen, and the American
. Medical Association and its allied or-
F ganizations. Most of them agree (in
R private, at least) that there is only
t f one agency with resources big enough
q to meet the problem intelligently:
: the federal government. Some of
them even agree that public health,
including something so intimately
associated with it as the supply of
physicians, is an appropriate area of
social (meaning governmental) con-
cern. But not the A.M.A.
Several times in recent years, for
example, there have been proposals
in Congress for direct federal aid to
the medical schools to help them
meet their teaching and operating
costs. The medical colleges have
fought for this valiantly—and almost
alone. The A.M.A. has been opposed
on the grounds that this is—you
- guessed it—an “entering wedge for
socialized medicine,” despite inclu-
sions in the bills of elaborate pro-
tection against federal policy dicta-
tion and despite the absence of any
evidence that years of huge federal
grants to the schools for medical-
research projects had “socialized”
anything. The bills failed. The pub-
lic responded with resounding in-
eRe
There have been similar proposals
for federal scholarships or other sub-
sidies for needy medical-school ap-_
plicants. Again, the A.M.A. and its
sister professional organizations have
been opposed, and the measures have
gone down the drain. There have
been plans — many of them repre-
senting hard thinking and ingenious
improvisations — for limited federal
aid in the medical care of the elderly
and other special population groups,
for the redesign of hospitals to make
them more effective in the new pat-
terns of use, for federal intervention
in the shortage of nurses, and so on.
Again, the loudest voice has been
that of organized medicine; the
softest, the public’s; and the talk
has usually been of “entering wedg-
” and “socialization,” together with
generally unsubstantiated assertions
that private philanthropy, industrial
contributions and physicians’ own
efforts can do the job, and that
modern therapy means that physi-
cians can take care of more people
more quickly than in the past any-
way. Whether the eight-minute of-
fice visit and the quick needle-jab
represents “taking care” of people
is usually not discussed.
NO ONE, I think, seriously accuses
organized medicine of wanting to
limit the number of physicans, or of
opposing adequate standards of
medical care, or of being totally in-
different to the nation’s health needs.
If it has, on past performance, had
a remarkable tendency to define the
social good in terms of its own self-
interest (as in its insistence on pri-
vate-practice, fee-for-service, “free
choice” medical care as the only
good care), or to resist innovation
in the face of social need until the
last possible moment (as in its his-
tory on prepaid health insurance),
this alone hardly makes it unique
among professional groups.
But conservatism becomes par-
ticularly vulnerable when it oper-
ates in such a sensitive social area
as health and health needs in a time
of rapid social change. The real is-
sue is not “socialized medicine”; it
is whether a particular pattern of
medical service is needed or not. On
a larger scale, the question is to what
Sanat nadicine and ee
»
eae
neh Belone to thé patie — or to
the professionals. If, as one medical
historian has said, the practice of
medicine is “a treaty with society,”
who sets the terms?
The provision of adequate medi-
cal care — depending as it does on
population growth, changes in popu-
lation distribution, values and at-
titudes toward health, family struc-
ture, costs — is no easy issue. The
danger is that the public will default
now, in favor of stand-pat answers
and easy slogans. There are, of
course, many “publics”; the one I
mean comprises the consumers of
medical care, 1.e., most of us,
Unless the public takes a stand,
and sees to it that the stand is em-
bodied in legislation, there may be
no federal aid and few new medical
schools. In fifteen years or less, if
the projections and estimates are
correct, we'll then discover that
we've been painted into a corner.
For the choice between different pat-
terns of medical care may be hard,
but the choice between a “govern-
ment” doctor — and no doctor at
all — is easy.
Finally, what is happening in this
country cannot compare with the
magnitude, the speed or the inten-
sity of social change in much of the
rest of the world. The increase in our
own medical needs is dwarfed by the
real and potential needs of the re-
developing areas of the Middle East,
Africa, Asia. The United States has
an obligation, I would argue, to ex-
port our medical skills for service
and, more important, for teaching
and training — not, as one American
psychiatrist recently suggested, be-
cause if we don’t the Russians will,
but simply because what hapeial
in these areas now may well de-
termine the shape of the world three
or four decades hence. The obliga-
tion is not to ourselves, in national
self-interest, nor to them in short-
range sympathy, but rather to our
common future. This is the real im-
morality of the “foreign doctor”
controversy: that we are preparing
neither for our own needs nor for—
those of others; that we are, in fact,
draining their thin resources, on
what is all too often the dishonest
promise of professional training, to
mask our own deficiencies "rial BS
Mi
A ; ~ uM a
eis
HUMAN NATURE AND THE HU-
MAN CONDITION. By _ Joseph
Wood Krutch. Random House. 211
pp. $3.95.
Paul B. Sears
IF SOMEONE asked me to describe
Joseph Wood Krutch as briefly as pos-
sible I would call him a guardian of
human self-respect. His standing as a
dramatic critic needs no comment. His
recent book The Grand Canyon shows
that he has become a sound naturalist.
Thus he is a disciplined humanist who
understands and appreciates science
without being dazzled by it. His es-
sential thesis, steadily developing in a
series of books and now focused in the
Jatest of them, is that man need not be
the victim of his own contrivances.
Our danger is reflected in the present
torrent of emphasis on what man can
do and have. Ironically for an enlight-
ened age, it has become unfashionable to
discuss what man can be. Yet this ques-
tion of personal quality, reflected in its
myths, heroes, imperatives and taboos
_ — the whole system of values — has
been the traditional concern of every
sound culture. Whether the emphasis
be on courage, honor, cunning or even
less desirable traits, there it is, explicit
and implicit in the lives and thoughts
of the group. Given no end, means run
wild, and the more powerful the means,
the wilder the run.
Our own culture, in Mr. Krutch’s
view, has confused the issue by as-
suming that, since material advance
has been necessary to survival, it is the
one essential. This has led us into the
belief that prosperity cannot exist with-
out endless acceleration in the produc-
tion of consumers’ goods. Our success
in this operation has made us the vic-
tims of a new kind of exploitation by
which we are induced to desire things
_ far beyond our functional needs. This
__ superabundance, along with our clever
death-control, has resulted in unprece-
dented population increase.
Further, our attempt to apply science
in self-analysis has led to a curious con-
fusion between “norm’ * and normal. The
| PAUL BR, SEARS, author of Digterts on
neurosis or worse, in
a e. ee Life and es ee
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BOOKS andthe ARTS
The Allies of Hope
standard of value has become, not an
objective toward which we aim, but
the calculated average of present pat-
terns of choice and behavior. In other
words, the mediocre becomes the ideal
and whatever is is right.
At this point in his discussion Mr.
Krutch reminds us of the power of
ideas, and how our ability to reflect is
now being dissipated by the relentless
impact of our own inventions and de-
vices. This, combined with a growing
deference for the mediocre — i.e., the
majority — judgment, is creating a
new tyranny, tying the hands of the
minority that can and does think.
Then comes an interesting reminder
that power can corrupt majorities as
well as individuals and is bound to
do so unless exceptional men have the
will and the freedom to ask the kind
of questions which science cannot an-
swer. And finally we are urged to be-
lieve that the human mind is more
than a mere passive instrument, com-
pletely at the mercy of experience. In-
stead, it is the author’s vigorous human-
istic faith that human nature has the
inherent and precious quality of seeking
for light as well as substance.
SUCH is the series of steps by which
hope is brought face to face with ideas
of mechanistic determinism, medio-
crity as the norm and pure relativism
in ethics. Must hope rely on intuition
alone, or can it be reinforced by instru-
ments more in keeping with the present
mood of society? Can we invoke the
aid of science to justify the humanist’s
diagnosis or must he fight singlehanded?
No one should be more embarrassed
by the current hubbub over science
than the devoted scientist himself. He
ought to know, if he is anything be-
yond a nimble tinker, that he is moved
to do what he does by the same kind
of creative impulse that leads any in-
telligent man to follow his bent. And
he ought further, if he feels obligation
to his fellows here and hereafter, to
know that his prime duty is not to confer
advantage, but rather understanding. |
For each of us, the world must hang
together. If it does
Science rests upon the a
the universe does ha
out this act of faith,
ified | oo
sumption that
) — we ide
es ‘Pe
of his fellows. How could it happen,
then, that the fruits of science seem to
threaten the very humanity of man?
The confusion and frustration arise,
it seems to me, not from any scientific i
examination of ourselves and our situa-
tion, but from the fact that we are not a
being really scientific. Let me illustrate
what I mean. During the 1955 New
England flood an industry that manu-
factured precision instruments of high
quality suffered enormous damage. De-
sign of plant and product were technical-
ly sound, but the plant itself was set up
on a flood-plain, as any naturalist could
have pointed out.
*
I USE the term naturalist deliberately re
because it has gone out of favor—a |
change which has contributed to our Wh
present dilemma. So far have we gone Wy
that even naturalists themselves have %)
at times taken cover under titles that
sound more professional. Yet what they
do lies at the very heart and core of es
science, for it is their business to study ’
the pattern and process whereby life so
and the world it lives in form an in-
separable whole. The supreme fact a
about living things, including ourselves,
is organization expressed in form. This
applies not only to the individual or-
ganism, but to the system of living al
things and the physical environment of 4
which it is inevitably a part—conven-
iently called the ecosystem. ‘
The study of the ecosystem, both as
to form and process, is the business of
the naturalist in the sense I have used
that term. This is true no matter what
his special expertness may be. Yet be-
cause of the astounding success of de-
tailed analysis made possible by modern
theory and instrumentation, and its im-
mediate application to industry and
warfare, such analytical study has be-
come synonymous with science in the ‘
public mind. -
Life does not exist apart from en-
vironment. In any environment it is—
eliminated if it does not fit. If it does —
fit it tends, with the passing of time, to”
participate to an ever greater degree i i
modifying its environment. The foll
ways of a particular culture may.
hance the capacity of its environment
to sustain the culture. Too often as
history witnesses, they may lessen or
even destroy that capacity. In any event
there are calculable limits, as Brown.
Bonner and Weir have shown, to t the
sheer physical ‘capacity of the env
ment. Not only: aoe j / ener
ss .
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mineral and water supply, to say noth-
ing of space and other factors such as
location, form and quality of substrate
must be taken into account.
Further, the principles of thermody-
namics, those rules governing process
which we heed so respectfully in en-
gineering practice and laboratory re-
search, apply to the ecosystem. These
principles emphasize that any enduring
process must keep itself in repair. It
must also keep itself in reasonable bal-
ance with the various factors necessary
to it. Let us disrupt, by nearsighted
activities, the landscape on which we
live, and it will revolt against us.
Yet prevailing doctrine favors un-
limited expansion of numbers and mate-
rial goods. To sustain our economy we
must have ever more customers and pro-
duce things faster and faster. This is
the credo of an expanding economy,
‘i resting basically upon the faith that
“science” has the power to bail us out
of any temporary jam we get ourselves
into. And to this faith we have seduced
= not only ourselves, but underprivileged
A nations around the globe.
If we choose to rest our case upon
science, we had better be truly scien-
tific and use all the science we have. On
» a colossal scale we are doing just what
the.makers of precision instruments did
when they ignored what science could
have told them about the hazard of
hy locating their plant on a flood-plain. We
are using technology to disrupt and de-
plete an environment whose rules were
functioning long before we got here.
IF WE are minded to go beyond the
question of mere survival, science has
something to offer as to the basis of the
good life. The documents of our own
culture assume this to involve the free-
dom and dignity of the individual and
his right to the pursuit of happiness.
Pure physics tells us that the degree of
freedom diminishes with pressure, and
that for any physical object pressure in-
creases with numbers of units in any
finite space. It also increases with the
energy of the system and the consequent
power of movement of the individual
unit. Within one lifetime, through the
ravenous use of fossil energy, we have
per tailed the speed and range of move-
agriculture.
of developed without control of a rich
nutrient base. Yet repeatedly the very
growth thus made possible has over-
drawn its account, as Rome did on the
fertile plain about her. Then comes the
necessity to expand. Generals do not
create their opportunities; these come
ready-made for their ambitions. Con-
quest gets under way, to continue until
it encounters the margins of another
center of power with similar ideas or
breaks down of its own weight.
With our present surplus of food we
see little likelihood of being sucked into
such a fate, at least for a long time. But
food need not be the limiting factor that
causes us to cast an anxious, if not
covetous eye beyond our present bor-
ders. Laying aside conflicts of ideology,
our concern is the feeding of our ma-
chines rather than our bodies. The
United States, with less than 10 per cent
of world population and space, is at
present using nearly two-thirds of world
mineral production. From abroad we
must have oil, bauxite and iron ore in
large amounts, to say nothing of many
critical substances required in lesser ton-
nage. Are we justified in ignoring the
record of other human ecosystems whose
problem, based upon food for the body
instead of the machine, was otherwise
in deadly parallel to our own?
As Mr. Krutch points out, some as-
pects of the social sciences, with their’
sophisticated statistical methods, have
been used to enhance our present self-
Paris at Night
(From the French of Tristan Corbiére)
It is not a city, it is a world,
— It is the sea — flat calm — and the spring tide,
With thunderings far out, has departed.
It will be back, the swell, in its own sound rolling.
— Hear that: the crabs of night at their scratching...
—It is the dry bed of the Styx: Diogenes,
That rag-man, lantern in hand, calm as you please,
By the black brook perverted poets
Fish, using their empty skulls for worm-pots,
Passes.
—It is the field: a fhght of hideous harpies,
Wheeling, pounces to glean scabby bandages;
The gutter-rabbit, out after rats, keeps wide
Of Bondy’s boys, who tread their grapes by night.
fe ea ahi
Thereafter none that I know
delusion that all will be well so long as
it continues to get bigger. This again is
the unscientific method of using text
without context. The demographers, for
one, know better. So do the cultural an-
thropologists and, interestingly enough,
many geologists. And even among the
economists, from Mill on down, some
have worked without blinders. Here and
there a bold study shows that, after an
urban community reaches a_ certain
optimum size, further expansion repre-
sents liability, not asset. Actually one
does not have to be too technical on
this point—he need only talk to a few .—
taxpayers in one of the numerous dormi-
tory towns of New England.
IN SHORT, the humanist does not have
to fight single-handed for his belief that
the good life is endangered by our pres-
ent behavior. The goal of a perpetually
expanding economy violates the canons
of physical process as well as those of
ethics, aesthetics and logic. The human-
ist’s faith in the power of ideas is sus-
tained by the rules of experience that
come from anthropology.
We have already demonstrated our
concern for the general welfare of con-
temporary mankind and our skill in
using science as we please. If we extend
our concern to our successors and our
use of science to a thorough understand-
ing of our own ecosystem, we have the
basis for ideas that should go far toward
insuring the future of the human ad-
venture on this planet.
—It is death: The police sleep. — Above, love :
Has her siesta, sucking the meat of a heavy
Arm where the dead kiss raises its red sign...
The single hour, — Listen: not a dream moving,
_ sumption a8 material oe To what ,
end this, and for how long? '
/Finglee we can apply our knowledge
—It is life: Listen: the living spring sings
The everlasting song on the slobbering .
Head of a sea-god stretching his green limbs and oaked.
On a morgue slab, with his e es open wit (eben eae
Pits oh history. No great centers of Ae a ay th ere pats ome he
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IMPATIENT GIANT: RED CHINA
TODAY. By Gerald Clark. David Me-
Kay Co. 212 pp. $4.50.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN CHINA?
By Lord Boyd Orr and Peter Town-
send. Doubleday & Co. 159 pp. $3.75.
THE YELLOW WIND. By William
Stevenson. Houghton Mifflin Co.
424 pp. $6.
Benjamin I. Schwartz
“EVEN a day of personal observation in
Peking,” states Mr. Clark, “yields more
than a year of second-guessing from the
outposts of Hong Kong. It certainly tells
more than an inanimate stack of Chinese
newspapers.” This remark appears in a
plea for opportunities for Americans to
travel in China—a plea which I would
heartily endorse.
It is true that nothing quite substi-
tutes for the shock of immediate obser-
vation, however restricted. It is true
that the second-guessings are often poor
and the newspapers quite opaque. Yet,
having read the three books under re-
view, I remain unconvinced that a day
or even a month of personal observation
in Peking under present circumstances
is any substitute for a careful and sus-
tained reading of “inanimate” Chinese
newspapers and periodicals. Except for
Mr. Stevenson’s book, which tells of
travels in such unknown areas as the
borderlands of Burma, none of these
books contains any surprises for the dili-
gent newspaper reader. In fact, he might
be able to correct some of their errors.
Furthermore, the image of Communist
China which emerges from the reading
of Chinese newspapers is much more
complex, many-dimensional and _proble-
matic than the image which emerges
from these pages. Thus, if one wishes to
see China in terms of the uncritical of-
ficial image, a sustained reading of
Peking Review offers much richer fare
than Lord Boyd Orr’s cursory pontifica-
tions. :
THE reader of newspapers misses the
sense of a vast historic drama; the crush-
ing emotional impact of what is truly
one of the great transformations of his-
tory. Even this, however, may not be an
unmitigated disadvantage. It is not
worse to miss the drama than to lose
one’s sense of equilibrium in the face of
it. The visiting journalist is attuned to
BENJAMIN I. SCHWARTZ, author of
Chinese Communism and the Rise of
Mao, is associate professor of history at
— Harvard University.
wary 23, 1960
os i ee
APR aries ot
EX Little Knowledge of China
cy
drama and finds it in copious abundance.
He finds himself caught up by the his-
toric dynamo. He may react with horror,
awe, rapture or a mixture of all three.
The spectacle would arouse strong emo-
tions in anyone. But what the situation
demands, it seems to me, is both the
ability to sense the drama and a violent
effort to stand aside from it—it should
not evoke a hypnotic fixation.
Among six hundred million Chinese
there are undoubtedly some millions
whose whole beings are completely iden-
tified with the historic drama (although
in varying intensities). I suspect that
there are many, many more millions
who are not so much interested in play-
ing historic dramas as in carrying on
their personal existences as best they
can. In the newspapers and periodicals
we can discern the struggles of the re-
gime to cope with these undramatic mil-
lions. In the books we get mainly the
dramatic image which the regime has
impressed over the whole face of Chi-
nese life.
It is not that the image is in any
sense unreal. To the extent that there
are those who still doubt the awesome
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY MOSS HART
America’s #1 non-fiction bestseller. $5.00
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power of the regime, its ability to harness
physical and mental power, its ability
to make China a formidable military ‘
power, the books by Mr. Clark and by
Mr.
message. It is only when the image ts |
assumed to represent the whole reality
that a high degree of skepticism is war- |
ranted. When Mr. Clark, ordinarily a
man of good judgment, asks to meet a
peasant in what is obviously a visitors’
commune; when a peasant is produced
who recites a set piece, and when Mr.
Clark proceeds to generalize about the
inner thoughts of the whole Chinese
peasantry on the basis of this perform-
ance, we have reason to pause.
Stevenson have a most relevant
LORD BOYD ORR, having seen less,
knows more. He tells us that the Chi- a
nese peasant, never having heard of
civil liberties, “will be content” with a ,
totalitarianism which assures a “rapid
rise in the standard of living.” How does
he know they are content? The lack of
eight hours’ sleep a night may con-
ceivably be unpleasant even to a peasant
who has never heard of habeas corpus.
One need not assume that the masses
are seething with revolt in order to re-
gard with at least suspended judgment
the proposition that the surface image
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corresponds to the full human reality.
The above should not be construed
as a blanket attack on the three books
under review. Mr. Stevenson’s book,
while disorganized, contains many valu-
able vignettes on some unfamiliar facets
of the regime. Mr. Clark writes a good
resumé of the 1958 situation, although
it seems to me that he oversells his mes-
sage. But Mr. Boyd Orr, living off his
reputation as food expert and official
ney
humanitarian, has composed a. slight,
uncritical tract that might well have
been written in London with the help
of the Peking Review. In all three works,
one finds a complete failure to draw a
distinction between what is observed
and what is surmised, valuable as these
surmises may be. Not one of the authors
acknowledges the vast areas of the un-
known through which they all pursued
their carefully guided travels.
Man’s Most Dangerous Path
RADIATION, GENES, AND MAN,
By Bruce Wallace and Th. Dobzhan-
sky. Henry Holt & Co. 205 pp. $4.75.
Phiiip Siekevitz
MAN has entered upon the most dan-
gerous path that ever he has trod. In
the past, either from folly, ignorance,
or mere cussedness, he has laid waste
: his country, decimated his kin and de-
pleted the natural bounties of his land.
But he has survived little changed.
Sometimes recovery took centuries,
either because his vitality was decreased
i by disease, or because his virility was
directly affected. Nevertheless, he has
come back, and it would appear none
the worse biologically, and culturally
perhaps even improved. But today, and
for the past generation in fact, we have
been living in a world where it is pos-
sible not only to damage individual man,
but to impair the recuperative powers
of the race as a whole. For we are pro-
ducing, artificially and in ever greater
; amounts, the means by which to change
the genetic capabilities and evolutionary
m capacities of mankind. And since we know
a far too little about the means to con-
trol them, the changes can only be for
the worse. I speak not only of the
radiation effects of nuclear-powered
bomb tests, but also of X-irradiation
and the like, and the by-products of the
materials to be used for nuclear fuels.
I hardly dare even contemplate the ef-
fects of a nuclear war.
Thus, it is of the utmost necessity
that in a democratic society the people
know of these dangers, and knowing,
come to a decision as to the future
_ courses tobe taken with regard’ not
only to bomb-testing and nuclear-wea-
on stockpiling, but also to the medical
uses of radiation and to the industrial
application of atomic energy. Wallace
‘and Dobzhansky have undertaken to
supply the relevant information: they
at the Rockefeller Institute, New York.
PHILIP SIEKEVITZ is a biochemist
explain what radiation is, what the sci-
ence of genetics is about, and what
connection there is between the two.
Both are well qualified for the task;
indeed Dobzhansky is one of the world’s
great geneticists.
FOR the past five years, we have been
bombarded by claims and _ counter-
claims, by figures and counter-figures,
about the pathological and genetic ef-
fects of past and future nuclear-bomb
tests. If you have been confused, as I
have, I recommend reading this book.
It explains that most of the figures
cited in the genetics controversy have
been based on guesses; some are fairly
good guesses, others are exceedingly
rough. Genetics deals in large figures—
whether of generations or of individuals.
Hence data which have been obtained
with thousands of plant seeds, or thou-
sands of fruit flies, or millions of bac-
teria, over spans of many generations,
must be translated into human equiva-
lents. The authors show how this can
be done, and how large the error is
likely to be. And the book is burdened
with but little scientific jargon, and
with only the briefest use of that math-
ematics which is one of the basic genetic
tools. It is not written for a scientist,
but for a diligent layman, an introduc-
tion into knowledge about the future.
The influence of radiation on muta-
tion is not only qualitatively but also
somewhat quantitatively known; that
so much radiation will produce so much
genetic change; that exposure to radia-
tion is additive; that many very small
doses have the same genetic effect as
one large dose. Because of the invari-
able sexual intermingling of human
populations, genetic damage to a few in-
dividuals will gradually spread through-
out the world; none of our children are
immune, for a deleterious mutation to
one individual—a mutation not dele-
terious enough to cause somatic or sex-
ual death — will find: its way to count-
_ less other individu ils. The sins of the
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fathers are transmitted not only to their
own sons, but to yours and to mine,
for most mutations will be as bad for
us as artificially-produced mutations
have been for fruit flies.
THIS brings up an interesting para-
dox. For it is believed that “the muta-
tion process is the fountainhead of evo-
lution,” and the “adaptation of any
species to the environment depends
upon the occurrence of mutations.”
But most mutations which have been
studied have proved to be deleterious,
resulting in degenerative changes, in
hereditary lesions, or in death. So you
might ask, if we confine the mutation
rate, are we not decreasing our chance
of evolving into a race of supermen at
the expense of the pains of more defec-
tive individuals? This is simply not so;
consider that every one of the three
billion men on earth is genetically dif-
ferent from every other one; there are
more than enough genetic combinations
available to sustain future evolution.
As the authors say, “Much human mis-
The Part
In some special way every person
completes the universe. If he does
not play his part, he injures the
pattern of all existence....
Rabbi Judah Loew
Homer da Vinci
with freckles on your nose
don’t hang there
by the heels.
Sad everyman, I mean
let go, or jerk
upright.
They say gooseflesh
is the body’s shudder when someone
walks over its grave-to-be,
but my hair rises
to see your living life
tamped down.
Blue mysteries
of the veronica florets
entertain
your modest attention:
there, where you live,
live:
start over,
everyman, with
the algae of your dreams.
Man gets his daily bread
in sweat, but no-one said
in daily death, Don’t eat
those nice green dollars your wile |
gives you for breakfast. .
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‘ery is the result of mutations that have
arisen in the past; more mutations will
mean more human misery.” In any
case, we are not talking of an end to
all mutation—a situation quite beyond
our power—but of refraining from in-
creasing the mutation rate by our own
deliberate acts.
Now what about atom-bomb tests?
That is for the reader—the citizen—to
decide. The authors provide the rele-
vant estimates of radiation dosages
which have been showered down upon
us in the last few years, the estimated
genetic changes caused by these radia-
tions, the estimated number of indi-
viduals being harmed and the worth of
these estimates. Thus far the probable
figure for individuals damaged is not
large, perhaps a few hundred each year
out of a total world population of three
billions. Small? But still too many? If
What's Right
Sag Sor,
not too many, then how many would be
too many? That is what we can all be
asked to decide. For that is why these
scientists wrote this book; to make us
think about our own present and specu-
late upon the future of our children.
And they end by pointing to a vision:
“the eventual need to control and direct
the evolution of our own species. All
biological species have evolved, but
only man knows that he has evolved.
The evolution of all life in the past has
been controlled by natural selection. It
now seems that man neither can nor
need rely on natural selection alone; the
genetic effects of radiation are in part
responsible for this change. For natural
selection, man must substitute a con-
scious direction based on knowledge.
The requisite knowledge will soon be
forthcoming; let us hope that wisdom
lags not too far behind.”
with Poetry?
Walker Gibson
IN A savage article on a recent front
page of The New York Times Book
Review, subtitled “What’s Wrong with
Poetry?,” Karl Shapiro has called mod-
ern verse “ailing,” “sick,” “a diseased
art.” He charges it with “a tangle of
subtleties and grotesques and the ob-
scurantism for which it is famous,” and
blames an academic-critical “offcial-
dom” with its “adoration of what is
past.” There is, he says, some hope
from new poets who “are turning away
from criticism and the dictatorship of
the criticism journals”; “they are seeking
to regain’ spontaneity and the use of the
human voice,” though they are admit-
tedly also “brutal, illiterate and“ hys-
terical.”
No doubt there is something in all
this. But the violence and publicity of
Mr. Shapiro’s attack can do poetry no
good: people who have never been
moved by a poem more recent than
“The Lake Isle of Innisfree” can now
clam Shapiro, the eminent poet, as
their ally. Since a number of such peo-
ple may be coming forward to tell. us
once again why they hate modern poe-
try, someone ought to try saying why
he loves it.
In a modern poem, then, we hear the
voice of one who has known, as you
and I have known, the chaos, discom-
fort, wonder, joy and inexpressibility of
_ everyday raw experience. In a good
_ modern poem we see, often with amuse-
_ ment, sometimes with sympathetic hor-
_ ror, the wild and weird paradoxes that
confront us in our own fast, fierce,
E 22 1040 ES Ted
everyday lives. But we see them or-
dered and artful; we hear them ex-
pressed. “O wonderful nonsense of lo-
tions of Lucky Tiger,” as Shapiro him-
self begins a well-known poem. The
repeated patterns of the poet’s music re-
mind us that he is also a singer, an en-
tertainer, one listening to the noises of
his own words, with all the modesty as
to their omniscience that this implies.
Modern poetry is therefore practical, I
should think, in the strictest sense, for
when we turn from the poem and back
to our own messy lives, it is to find there
a million sensations potentially meaning-
ful, susceptible to order, if we could
only manage it. Quite literally, we must
make of life more than we made before.
I UTTER these elementary remarks
not to argue with anybody — for how
could you disagree? — but only to re-
mind myself of a place to stand in
confronting the first six volumes in
Macmillan’s excellent new series of
paperbound books of verse.* I have
been reading them with Mr. Shapiro’s
criticism in mind, and it has become
harder and harder to understand, at
*Graffiti by Ramon Guthrie, 72 pp.,
$1; Scrimshaw by Winfield Townley
Scott, 72 pp., $1.25; The Self-Made Man
by Reed Whittemore, 79 pp., $1.25; The
Crow and the Heart by Hayden Car-
ruth, 93 pp., $1.50; Walls and Distances
by David Galler, 64 pp., $1; Out in the
Open by Katherine H
$1.25. All published 1
\ ) oe
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THOUGHTLESS, SCIENTIFIC SEN-
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least from this evidence, what Mr.
Shapiro thinks he is talking about.
Take, for instance, Ramon Guthrie.
Mr. Guthrie, who, in his sixties, is the
oldest poet among the six, teaches
French at Dartmouth and does not
hesitate to refer to Balzac, Rimbaud, the
Visigoths, the Etruscans, baroque archi-
tecture and other such learned matters.
He has plenty of “subtleties and gro-
tesques” and sometimes he is even ob-
scure, so that he seems—till you read him
— to be the very academic poet that Mr.
Shapiro so despises. But what a “human
voice”! He must be one of those new
“spontaneous” poets after all, for the
poems in Graffiti are filled with excite-
ment, swearing, sex and plain fun. The
fact is that, for Mr. Guthrie, learning
and liveliness are so rigorously mingled
that Rough Tough Life keeps barreling
into the library in a way that is char-
acteristic of much good modern verse.
If this is academic, make the most of it.
Dramatizing himself repeatedly as a
clown, Mr. Guthrie takes off against the
world with a marvelous madness that
only half conceals a serious sensibility.
“Were you~ theré,’ he asks, “for
Christ’s entry into Brussels?”
I was! Oh, the banners,
Oh, the bunting,
Oh, the bands! Oh, I
tiered in bustle, top-hat, feather boa
and freshly furbished fleer!
The voice of the Lord spoke out of a
whirlwind:
I answered Him out of a cyclone
cellar.
Of these six poets, the name of Win-
field Townley Scott carries the widest
reputation, and Scrimshaw certainly re-
inforces it. If his poems lack some of the
charm of Mr. Guthrie’s, they also avoid
Mr. Guthrie’s excesses, and they do
what they do with great skill and a deep
sense of personal commitment. Mr. Scott
too is no ignorer of life’s vulgarity and
toughness, as his recent narrative poem
The Dark Sister amply demonstrated.
But his special gift as a lyricist is to
concentrate on a single modest experi-
ence of everyday life and make it richly
significant for us, After the green leaves
fell from the tree, he tells us, the tree
became “a moment blue,” occupied by
jays.
Green the tree had been; then gold—
Por days gold; now a moment blue.
The poet responds with a simplicity of
vocabulary and a depth of feeling that
are very moving:
If I grow old—I came to know this—
The world I die from can never be
The world most mine,
oi Se lay) ner eet yy = ee Pe
cet EPR PS | 1 Ee a
Finally:
The tree flies green to somebody’s
other dream.
Mr. Scott is neither an academician nor
a wild new voice. We had better call him
simply a good poet.
The poems of Reed Whittemore again
suggest the difficulties of Mr. Shapiro’s
handsome categories, for here is a poet
who is also (like Shapiro) an editor,
critic and college teacher, seemingly a
member of the hated academy. But Mr.
Whittemore’s well-known voice conveys
precisely an anti-stuffy “spontaneity”
that makes talk of a critical officialdom
look silly. For one thing he is a great
poet of domestic life.
The noses are running at our house.
Like faucets. Wild horses.
Otherwise it is quiet here;
There is nothing afoot except
Lassie...
He is autobiographical and_ personal;
sometimes he is learned; aboye all he is
funny. But even when his words are
most ironic, we can hear, as in most
good light verse, something that tells us
he means deeply what he says.
Here is a beautiful world full of ©
beautiful, beautiful
Unwritten poems (in every ephemer-
al flower),
Which, as I understand it, are mine
to transcribe
Into beautiful written poems for all
time to admire.
Like any poet who is being funny a good
deal of the time, Mr. Whittemore inev-
itably slips sometimes. When he does,
his difficulty is not that he is too aca-
demic or intellectual, but that he is not
quite academic erough, and has let him-
self get away with an effect that his
critical self might have saved him from.
The remaining three poets must be
briefly, dealt with. Hayden Carruth is
a particularly skillful craftsman, some
of whose lines sound like young Tenny-
son. (“He eyes November when the hills
of umber / In utter autumn sleep, sod-
den and somber.”) Many of his poems
are concerned directly with insanity,
life in the asylum, and perhaps this is
evidence that modern poetry is “sick,”
but I doubt it. Mr. Carruth sueceeds
when he controls his subject with con-
sistent literary discipline, as when he
forces meanings of “asylum” until “ulti-
mately asylum is the soul / Where rea-
son curls like a nut in wrinkled sleep.”
David Galler is a talented young poet
whose gift of language is unquestioned,
This early in his career he seems to me
to suffer from unrelieved solemnity, some
over-complicated grammar, and a tend-
,
ency to be more interested in the
psychological meanings of his scenes
than in the scenes themselves. But Mr.
Galler’s is a rebellious voice and no jok-
ing about it: “My snout cannot stand
the stench of milk and honey / That
flows dark brown from the big desk of
money.” Katherine Hoskins’ Out in the
Open contains much religious poetry; an
archaic vocabulary and_ old-fashioned
word order are part of her method. She
desires “to arrive / Mayhap at its es-
sence” — and I am frankly not always
sure where that is, but there is nothing
conventional about it. Immediately
other vocabulary intrudes: “Cry the
Psyche. doctors, / Eroticism; / Decry
they should not viator / So far come.”
This is complex and pessimistic verse,
composed with considerable passion, and
though Miss Hoskins is, I understand,
no academic, her poems may be as close
to Mr. Shapiro’s “academy” as any in
this series.
But the point is that none of these
easy to classify under Mr.
Shapiro’s terms, and if we are ready to
accept the evidence of “The Macmillan
Poets,’ modern poetry isn’t “sick” at
all. It is varied, it is deeply felt, it is
lively and funny, solemn and passionate.
It looks pretty healthy to me.
poets is
WALKER GIBSON, director of Fresh-
English at New York University,
poet work has appeared in
two collected volumes — The Reckless
Spenders and Come As You Are.
man
| whose
THEATRE
Harold Clurman
SAUL LEVITT’S The Andersonville
Trial (Henry Miller) provides an ab-
sorbing evening in the theatre. It is
an account of the case brought in 1865
by the government’ of the United States
against Henry Wirz, a Confederate of-
ficer in charge of the prison camp at
Andersonville, Georgia, where some
14,000 Union soldiers died because of
the hellish treatment to which they
were subjected.
Wirz’s defense is that he was under
strict orders from his superior to en-
force inhuman discipline. Lieut. Col.
Chipman, the Judge Advocate, or prose-
cuting counsel, maintains—to the dis-
comfiture of the military men who con-
duct the trial—that Wirz was morally
bound to disobey his commanding of-
ficer. Wirz is found guilty and is sen-
tenced to death.
In its stage presentation the case is
tried with unusual intensity, intelligence
and human interest. What is at stake
is the still contemporary issue—as the
Nuremberg trials showed—of respon-
sibility in the punishment of men whose
brutal acts are governed by state au-
thority.
The audience and certainly a critic
ought to hold some firm view in con-
sidering such a problem, even when it
is raised in the theatre. I am opposed
to capital punishment under any cir-
cumstances, though I should confess
that it has not been easy for me to
come to this conclusion. I would not
have permitted myself to vote for the
death sentence even for Hitler—though
I believe he is the only man I have
ever in my life truly hated.
ae
For this reason. I was inclined to
feel, or hope, that what The Anderson-
ville Trial: was saying represented an
echo of my own conviction that the
execution of Wirz or any such person
in a similar situation is wrong. But the
play suffers from ambiguities both in
its writing and in its interpretation.
The audience at the end of the play
also seemed dissatished though not, I
believe, for the reasons’ that troubled
me. I suspect that the audience was
disturbed by the condemnation of Wirz
because it felt that he was an ordinary
“Joe,” very much like the rest of’ us,
and should not be punished for failing
to act as a hero. He was pitied because
he appeared doomed no matter what
course he took.
THE play is not sufficiently clear on
the main point: we do not know
whether the court pronounced its death
sentence on the moral issue —as. the
Judge Advocate demanded — or simply
because it had to respond to public in-
dignation and a desire for vengeance
against an unfortunate symbol of the
enemy’s war “crimes.” In other words,
the play begs the question it has raiséd, ’
leaves it in fact distressingly up in the
air.
Another factor contributing to con-
fusion is the intention’ of’ George C.
Scott’s performance — otherwise excel-
lent —as the Judge Advocate. Though
the author makes it plain that Chip-
man’s loathing of Wirz arises chiefly
from the advocate’s abhorrence of the
institution of slavery as part of the
Confederate cause, Seott plays the part
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is
with a fanaticism that suggests per-
sonal sadism rather than the inspira-
tion of a zealot. It would appear that
Chipman hit upon the moral issue, not
because he possessed a truly Christian
conscience, but because he thought he
could devise no surer way of getting
Wirz hanged.
The production — aptly designed by
Will Armstrong, carefully and incisively
¥ directed by Jose Ferrer —is well cast
throughout and very convincingly acted
| by Herbert Berghof, Albert Dekker, Ian
Keith and Russell Hardie. It may be
\ objected that several of the actors —
| Berghof and Scott particularly — force
their souls (or strain their muscles)
; overmuch. One does not usually enjoy
A seeing actors perspire with effort or
, bruise their knuckles as they pound
i the stage properties. But if this is a
‘. fault it is one I am prepared to forgive
fe in this instance, not only on grounds
of naturalism — people don’t always be-
have nicely in court — but also because
our theatre tends more often to err
toward a mildness which is unfeeling,
ie as well as undramatic, rather than
toward an excess which is at least the-
atrically expressive. I prefer ham to
mush.
; ART
Fairfield Porter
THE difference between non-objectivity
and realism is not so simple as it seems.
This shows in the current exhibitions of
Elmer Bischoff at the Staempfli Gallery
and of Robert Goodnough at the Tibor
de Nagy Gallery.
Bischoff’s exhibition of painting is his
first in New York. His art is entirely in
its performance. He is the most magnif-
icent performer of all the Californians
seen in this city who have given up ab-
straction in favor of realism. Painting
as performance is something that he
shares with Kline (who gave up realism
for non-objectivity), and it relates to
Sargent. The paintings are large,
"many more than six feet square,
very broad, as if he used no brush less
than two inches wide, and he has a
color sense that makes no mistakes.
Each area from bright to gray is a thick,
wet mixture without a single muddy
spot. His subjects are landscapes and
ntings especially, form is paint de-
mined by courageous control of ei
teriors with women. In the earlier
verful flow. Houses and Hills, which — _ conventional, like th
ps rocking, is like the successful car- | H
rying out of a wager that he will navi- | nt
ole
i * ae ee Let
a)
gate ihe painting into} port th wouea the
Pasha seas.
My wife remarked that the paintings
have an Edwardian dash, as of a glove
thrown down upon a table. The challenge
that he throws down is this, that he
knows exactly where everything is, es-
pecially where one thing ends and an-
other begins; in short that he knows
where the connections are. However, in
the later work the paint does not always
lie on the form, and there are sharp dry
places of conflict between paint and
subject, as though a failure of energy
made him slip into unconscious illustra-
tion. The conscious feeling may be a wish
not to spoil what is already achieved.
The strange thing about his realism
is that the “things” in his latest pic-
tures tend to lose their reality — just
because they have lost a firmness of
form — with the exception of his
beautiful skies of liquid light. The
figures are less real in so far as they
are more actual, and so is the ground.
Something trivial has taken over, as
in the gestures in Figures in Vermilion
Light, which are so incidental that
the women themselves do not matter
any more. Figure by the Sea, quite.
opposite to an Impressionistic paint-
ing, looks more like a sketch at a
distance than it does close by, and this
renders its size meaningless.
IN MY opinion, Goodnough’s new show
is his best. He is completely “non-ob-
jective” (representing no recognizable
object), but instead of a continuum
where forms flow into each other until
their separateness is lost, his paintings
are full of concreteness. Spherical tri-
angles swirl in a paper storm, or long,
curved vertical strokes detached from
each other are set against gray, as in
Odysseus. Though his paintings are the
same size as Bischoff’s large ones, they
do not look especially large, nor do they
look smaller from a distance. Their ap-
parent size and weight do not vary, be-
cause their objective (in the sense of
external) reality is too fixed. When they
are called after classical names the com-
position is derived from an analysis of a
classical sculpture; or else the flow of
red, white, blue and gray paper scraps
in curve and counter-curve describes the
principle of Venetian composition, in a
way comparable to the way music de-
scribes visual sensations. The paintings
called Summer have the motion of leaves
rowing and falling, plus all the stir of
weather (as in a movie about plant
growth) to make a ballet out of what
"summer means. ae ugh’s colors are
e colors of a parade.
f what the
Ay, he al J
kes a generality out o
g may refer tO,
ceed
i
Bischoff mes a eae 2 ROent ea
finger on the nose, a temporary hesita-
tion and peneralized it; and his generali-
zations have the weakened even the un-
pleasantness, of those plaster casts of
human and animal bodies made from
the holes in the Java of Herculaneum.
The gestures of Bischoff’s figures are.
the gestures of people overtaken. His
emphasis on the incidental emphasizes its
meaninglessness. Goodnough particular-
izes the idea. Which painter better
makes you feel the reality of the par-
ticular? Goodnough, unlike most non-
objective painters today, derives from
Cubism rather than from Impressionistic
performance. He is old-fashioned. Out of
concepts he makes equivalents of con-
creteness. Bischoff’s background in
non-objective painting could be a back-
ground of disbelief in academic human-
ism. Goodnough describes his belief in
the culture of the past with spherical
triangles, or Cézanne’s or Mondrian’s
thin strokes, while Bischoff determines
the limits of the expressiveness of pig-
ments suspended in linseed oil.
GOODNOUGH is not so sure as Bischoff
as to where connections are, and so he
makes more sure. Because he is not a
virtuoso, he must be clear. If his deci-
sions are ambiguous, it is between defin-
ite choices, like, this is before, or it is
behind. It is the ambiguity of eighteenth-
century verse. Bischoff’s ambiguities are
those of vagueness: it does not matter
to him whether something is before or
behind so long as two adjacent colors
connect. Bischoff is a romantic in the
sense that what is real is himself even
more than any canvas. He is a person-
ality, celebrating his own good health.
Goodnough is full of respect for tradi-
tion which he uses freely for new for-
mal ends.
Our Lucy
Small as a fox and like
a little fox but black,
our Lucy’s white teeth grin
among the rushes green.
The feathers of her plume
flutter in the warm
winds that fitfully blow
from the Gulf of Mexico,
and like a machine-gun
her barking through the pine
echoes where people have
set foot in our grove:
“Quiet, Lucy. They ,
may bring us news today,
or if thieves they may — ;
drop something. on the way.” a
f GoopMAN |
i i fir he ‘Pau Repmsaae
Crossword Puzzle No. 851
By FRANK W. LEWIS
ACROSS:
1 Mail from Upper Slobovia’s seat of
government, but not in case of the
lower! (7,7).
9 Talk about shaking one’s fist! It’s
one way to give you what you ask
for! (7)
10 One might not be so frequent as a
roller along about now. (7)
11 Our years split apart without prop-
er guidance. (6)
12 The sort of things one doesn’t want
on one’s 5? (8)
14 Does his activity take a religious
turn? (7)
15 and 17 Teams confuse a
style! (10)
19 Where one might find a broken rib
to be‘ like Sputnik? (2,5)
21 This; makes quite an impression,
but “isn’t the only thing affecting
the value of collection. (8)
23 A game follower, particularly in
tight places. (6)
25: ae Langerhans, rather illiberal?
lady’s
) ;
27, and 6 down Evidently nothing
26,
in the game is very colorful. (4, 2, -
1, 4,-10, 5)
as +o DOWN:
1 A scar’s curved around and
spread good news. (9) -. yo
2 Affectionately stroke a species of
_ deer, when exhausted. (7) ;
3 It’s a job for the Church of Eng-.
doesn’t
land, or part of the navy! (4,5)
4 They might involve old air deposits.
(
5 Once he cuts it, it should have 12.
(10)
6 See 26
7 Playwright as a poor alternative to
what Custer had at last. (7)
8 See 22
13 Might be going on back to the har-
vest, when applied to the side of
the mount. (6, 4)
15 Skate, perhaps, and what it did in
3 when used for the purpose. (9)
16 Suggests a misdeal for the words
of the dictator. (9)
18 In the trade ads, each should be
taken with a lot of salt! (4,3)
20 Irish or Scotch, for example. (7)
21 Common fcr prison activity. (4)
22 and 8 A bird with a little money is
likely to consider the bright side!
(2) 3 uae
24 Hamlet’s home, in or out! (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 850
ACROSS: 1 Subsistence; 10 Beast; 11
Port; 12 Shunted; 13 Citrate; 15 Two
by two; 16 Squash; 18 Scheme; 21 Rain-
bows; 24 Slip-ups; 26 Isolate; 28 Emus;
29 Round; 30 Noah; 31 Star boarder.
DOWN: 2 Untenable; 3 Subject; 4 and
14 Starboard; 5 Entries; 6 Caper; 7
Nephew; 8. Gratis; 17 Unbalance; 19
and 9 Column left; 20 Emperor; 22 In-
sider; 23 Withal; 25 Posit; 27 Hugo.
—S
Fo
RESORT
RELAX in a friendly atmos-
phere. Golf at a magnificent
Country Club. Dancing. En-
tertainment. Superb cuisine
Fireproof Bldg. Elevator serv-
: ice. Group facilities. In New
ay York City call at local rate.
FAirbanks 5-7227
MAhopac 8-3449
REST howe.
Gummy) LAKE MAHOPAC, N. Y. aaa
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University of Wisconsin
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LETTERS
The Shiny Enemies
Dear Sirs: I read Gore Vidal’s review
Advertisements for Myself |The Na-
tion, Jan. 2] with attention. While I
would and do disagree with parts of
his piece, I must say Vidal did some
good writing.
But in two places, I thought he was
out of line. To quote him:
writers who are unduly eager
for fame and acceptance will write
novels which they hope might inter-
est religious-minded critics. The re-
sults range from the sub-literary bleat-
ing of the Beats to Mailer’s porten-
tous: “I am the way and the life ever
after, crucify me, you hackers, for
mine is a ritual death! Oh, Scott, oh,
Herman, oh, ancestral voices murmur-
ing, take my flesh and my blood,
partake of me and know mysteries!”
The quotation marks are unhappy. I
never wrote such a sentence and I never
spoke such a sentence. May this be put
on the record before the sentence is
quoted by others as the stricken heart
of my credo.
Point Two is sly. I quote again from
Vidal: “I noted with some amusement
that, despite the air of candor, he makes
no new enemies in this book. He scores
off those who are lost to him anyway,
thus proving that essentially the work
is politic.” Only a fool brags of making
new enemies, but I was bruised to the
bone by this quick assertion, and when
Vidal called a few days later to discover
my reactions to his piece, I gave docu-
ments to the man, page and paragraph,
about the new enemies I had made, and
by God yes I think even Gore V. would
admit this day he was hasty.
My compliments to Ira Wolfert for
“Monster in the Mine” [The Nation,
Jan. 2], one of the few good short
stories ve read over the years.
Norman Mater
New York City
Orgies with Chalk
Dear Sirs: Let’s not boil them in oil,
quite. I mean the local kooks who are
having an orgy with chalk, paint and the
like, inscribing their crooked crosses and
crooked messages on the walls of syna-
gogues and churches under the winter
moon’s glare, like a band of hell’s own
poltergeists risen from the latrine.
These shadowy mock assassins have
—in part at least—a deep need for pro-
jecting their own inner chaos, It can
be surmised that another part of their
inspiration comes from an easing—at
long last—of the worst of the cold-war
jitters, that the kooks see political lines
of explosion receding and are in a panic
to do something about it.
As for the West German branch of
the kooks’ international—well, weve
been feeding that monster with such
arrant indulgence of late, we really
shouldn’t be surprised.
Sip BerNarD
New York City
Cross of Blue
Dear Sirs: As a subscriber to Blue Cross,
I want to congratulate The Nation for
its honest and searching report, “Blue
Cross: Retreat from Idealism,” in your
January 9 issue. But what can one do?
Perhaps the labor unions, by means of
their numbers, could accomplish some
reforms.
A. J. Kovar
Brooklyn, N.Y.
‘Diploma Mills’
Dear Sirs: In his article “Diplomas for
Sale” [The Nation, December 26],
Myron Lieberman overlooked the exist-
ence and accomplishments of the Na-
tional Home Study Council of Washing-
ton, D.C., an organization of accredited
correspondence schools formed in 1926
to eliminate “diploma mills” and raise
the educational and business standards
of private home-study schools.
Since its formation, the NHSC has
cooperated with the Federal Trade Com-
mission, Better Business Bureaus and
every state and local agency interested
in ridding the correspondence-school field
of unethical operators. The council’s Ac-
crediting Commission, which includes a
former U.S. Commissioner of Education
and a Harvard professor, is now recog-
nized by the U.S. Office of Education
and so ranks on a level with those bodies
_accrediting high schools and colleges.
It is true that “schools” still sell “di-
plomas” through the mail. But, because
of the vigorous efforts of the NHSC, an
increasing number of students are avoid-
ing these shady enterprises and enroll
in reputable correspondence schools.
While Mr. Lieberman charges only
correspondence schools with being “di-
ploma mills,” he forgets that such “mills”
exist among residence schools. What else
would you call a state university which
grants academic credit for a course in
“fly-tying” and those specializing in
“sun- bathing and basket - weaving”
courses?
aah
; >
Constant and sincere self-policing and
the imposition and maintenance of high
academic standards are the solution to
the problem he outlines.
Naturally public and private agencies
should have a role in taking diplomas
off the shelves, but the basic responsi-
bility belongs to the institutions of
learning themselves.
Vento WoLrsoHN
Bethesda, Md.
In’ This Issue
EDITORIALS
89 @
ARTICLES
91 @ Surprise Attack: Fear Could
Pull the Trigger
by J. DAVID SINGER
Civil War Centennial: Bull Run
with Popcorn
by DAN WAKEFIELD
Tomorrow’s Air Crash
by KARL M. RUPPENTHAL
95 @
97 @
99 @ A Spaniard Returns
by ANTONIO SANCHBZ-
BARBUDO
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
102 @ Gray and Agassiz: A Good
Quarrel
by ODELL SHEPARD
103 @ The Latin Dictators
by CARLETON BEALS
104 @ Architecture
by WALTPR McQUADE
106 @ Theatre
by HAROLD CLURMAN
106 @ Art
by MAURICE GROSSER
107 @ Two Views of a Cadaver Room
(poem)
by SYLVIA PLATH
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 108)
by PRANK W. LYWIS
AION
= George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, HWditor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Wditor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. ‘Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Music
Alexander Werth, Buropean
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
=
EE
=
The Nation, Jan, 30, 1960, Vol, 190, No, 5
The Nation published weekly (except for omis-
sion of four summer issues) by The Nation
Company and copyright 1960, in the U.S.A. by
the Nation Associates, Inc., 333 Sixth Avenue,
New York 14, N. Y¥. Second class postage paid
at New York, N, Y.
Subscription Price Domestic—One year $8, Two
years $14, Three Years $20, Additional postage
per year, Foreign and Canadian $1.
Change of Address: Three weeks’ notice is re-
quired for change of address, which cannot be
made without the old addvess as well as the new,
Information to Libraries; The Nation Is indexed
in Readers Guide to Periodical Literature, Book
Review Digest, Index to Labor Articles, Publio
Affairs, Information Service, Dramatic Index,
RUT
és
dy
~NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 5
Proxy Fight or Campaign?
Senator John F. Kennedy’s earnest contention —
promptly seconded by Vice President Nixon — that the
central issue of the 1960 election is the nature of the
Presidency itself, is a disheartening indication that the
major issues will go begging in this year’s campaign. A
_ brilliant staff of Ivy League advisers provided Senator
Kennedy with some admirable quotes, a series of apt
historical references and some first-rate political quips
for his “first serious speech of the formal campaign”
_ before the National Press Club, in which he promised
“strong” Presidency if elected. But for all its sparkle
/ and polish, the speech was as empty of content as a
high school valedictory. Given the glaring divisions
within the Democratic Party — between Dixiecrats and
other Democrats, between the Congressional and the
national leadership, between eggheads and city bosses,
between militant cold warriors and the more pacific
- Democrats — Senator Kennedy was under an obliga-
tion to tell us just how his leadership, as President,
could be both “strong” and effective. Only the day be-
fore, he had voted with the “regulars” — the vote was
51 to 12 — to sustain Senator Lyndon Johnson’s iron-
fisted control of the Democrats in the Senate.
Senator Humphrey, joining in the campaign’s first
major round of debate, also favors a “strong” Presi-
‘dency, but like Senator Kennedy he does not tell us
how any Democratic nominee could reasonably be ex-
pected to exert effective leadership without first achiev-
ing either major structural reforms within the Demo-
cratic Party, or a realignment of the country’s political
forces. As to Mr. Nixon, every poll and forecast indi-
cates that, if elected, he will have to deal with heavy
“Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. No
more than Senator Kennedy or Senator Humphrey
could he exert effective leadership without making
cross- -party bargains and alliances.
“Major issues await discussion in this campaign which,
if debated in no-holds-barred fashion, might really make
possible a “strong” and effective leadership in the
White House. But if this initial exchange i in the “formal
” is a sample of what is to come between now
Nov ember, then we f e not
ra ‘ ge * > “f
oa
i
EDITORIALS
tively safe downwind (east) side. The other seven anny
debate. on issues,
— MAY 15
THE
NATION
but something more in the nature of a “proxy” fight
for the Presidency, in which a number of active, articu-
late, bright junior executives, all of about the same age,
will compete on the tacit assumption that the sole is-
sue is which of them is best qualified to succeed to the
Presidency of U.S.A., Inc.,.a blue-chip corporation with
a strong growth potential, huge reserves and a’ con-
tented army of stockholders, now that the elderly,
revered incumbent is about to retire. As in other proxy
fights, the stockholders will have a choice of personali-
ties and management skills, but not of basic policies.
Pro Patria Mori
In his discussion of nuclear offense and defense in this
issue (see page 91), Dr. J. David Singer makes the
point that the inauguration of a serious civil-defense a
program by either side might persuade the other that \
: fs ‘ . 4
the enemy contemplated a first strike and was planning aa
to protect its military and industrial forces against the 6
inevitable retaliatory blow. In his sense, unprotected
populations are hostages to peace. The Air Force seems
committed to a course of action which will multiply
the number of hostages and so convince the Soviet
rulers of our peaceful intent — if, that is, our generals
and defense officials will refrain from making threaten-
ing statements and so spoiling everything. Dr. James
E. McDonald, a meteorologist attached to the Univer-
sity of Arizona, has made a careful study of the effects
of nuclear attacks on cities, and especially the hazards
of fallout on urban populations. He finds that prevail-
ing west-to-east winds may spread radioactive death
200 miles from the point of impact of an intercontinen-
tal missile. He also finds that the Air Force is locating
its missile bases, which will be high-priority targets in,
a nuclear war, with little or no consideration of fallout.
At Spokane, for instance, out of nine separate Adda
launching sites, only two are located on the compara-
upwind (west) from the city, and if Soviet missiles land |
‘near them the fallout will engulf Spokane. Simi-
larly at Topeka, all nine Atla sites: lie within less than
100 miles ‘upwind of the mill r more via ate of
1 Kansas City area, “Either the A Air Fatee agen 2.
: a 5 ae
+
,
responsible for ICBM site location have not heard of
the horrors of radioactive fallout,” Dr. McDonald com-
must think the wind blows from
east to west over the United States.”
We may hope that the Soviet rulers will take this
as an earnest of our peaceful intentions, but of course
merely conclude that the U.S. Air Force
isn’t very clever.
ments, “or else they
they may
The Reformer
M Fairfax Cone, chairman of the executive committee
of Foote, Cone & Belding, the eminent advertising
agency, has recently emerged as a critic of the press.
This role, unusual for an advertising executive, springs
from the Federal Trade Commission’s complaints against
| alleged visual deception in TV advertising. The com-
; mission asserts, for example, that when sandpaper,
lathered with Palmolive shaving cream, is shaved with
a razor before the amazed TV audience, it isn’t sand-
paper at all, but a “mock-up” of sand applied to glass.
Another demonstration which leaves the commission
unconvinced involves Lever Brothers’ Pepsodent, one
of America’s great dentifrices. On TV, a “cigarette-
smoking machine” deposits yellow smoke stain on a
surface which, according to the announcer, is function-
ally similar to tooth enamel. Pepsodent is applied to
, the ersatz enamel and the stain vanishes before the
eyes of the TV viewer, who lights another cigarette and
rushes out to buy the economy-size tube. “This demon-
stration,” the Federal Trade Commission says with
; bureaucratic stuffiness, “does not actually prove, as
. purported, that Pepsodent .. . is effective in removing
3 tobacco-smoke stain from the teeth of all smokers. . . .”
" It so happens that Foote, Cone & Belding is the
advertising agency for Pepsodent. But Mr. Cone’s
} grievance is not against the FTC; it is against the news-
papers. At a luncheon of the Newspaper Advertising
Executives Association, Mr. Cone complained that the
newspapers had prejudged the case against Pepsodent
and convicted Lever Brothers, Pepsodent, and Foote,
Cone & Belding of “grave crimes against the public.”
The truth is, he said, that complaints against photo
techniques used in TV demonstrations are the work of
“headline chasers.” The newspapers, he went on to
say, should be the last to criticize, “for many of these
things that sound so awful were borrowed from the
photographic studios where black and white and even
‘color pictures are made for magazines and newspapers
. . . almost all black-and-white photographs for news-
_ paper and magazine reproduction are products of the
retoucher’s art.” He called on newspapers to lead the
way to more truthful advertising. In another connec-
tion, he remarked, “As an advertising agent whose com-
pany placed some $40,000,000 in television last year,
_ I didn’t know that the quiz shows were rigged.”
E
90 v » Hl St oJ
Th, : ot aa
merely for their knowledge of transistors or air-frames.
$6,000 or less. Among major generals and rear admirals,
iy | 6 jp ilglia laa he tileaiaaal
Fi i? Pye ey:
Hh SE Ate es ae pd Gets
Mr. Cone seems to be a remarkably trusting and
hopeful individual, but it is said that a little child shall
lead them, and we wish him luck in his crusade. With
the FTC uplifting Foote, Cone & Belding, and Foote,
Cone & Belding uplifting the press, the moral tone of
the communication arts should be immeasurably im-
proved before 1960 passes into history. /
The “‘Has-Beens’’
Representative F. Edward Hébert’s Armed Services
subcommittee, after completing a first-class investigat-
ing job, recommends that former military officers and
civilian-defense officials should be barred from solicit-
ing business for defense contractors for two years after
they leave government service. The Congress should,
and probably will, pass the necessary legislation. Some
of the officers who testified complained that as soon as
they retired, their influence in the Pentagon vanished;
they were “has-beens.” No harm will have been done,
therefore, if what they say is true; the Congress will
merely be legalizing a situation that already exists.
Some of the data uncovered by the Hébert committee
does not, however, quite jibe with this low view of the
salesmanship of retired brass hats. The mere volume of
hiring raises a suspicion that they are not retained
No less than 1,453 retired officers are on the staffs of
contractors holding 80 per cent of the nation’s defense
orders. The companies seem to have been intent on
snatching engineers just out of college and generals and
admirals just out of the services. Jack Steele of the
New York World-Telegram has done some counting
and presents the following totals of retired officers on
the payrolls of defense contractors: General Dynamics,
186; Lockheed, 171; North American Aviation, 92; Gen-
eral Tire & Rubber, 66; Martin, 63; Boeing, 61; Ryan
Aeronautical, 54. Where such numbers were involved,
it is hardly likely that no thought of salesmanship ever
entered the heads of the hirers and the hired.
Another fact that may have a bearing is that while
the general, or admiral, may be worthy of his hire, in
the estimation of his employers he frequently isn’t
worthy of very much. The Westinghouse Company is
listed as paying a full admiral $6,000 a year. Among
lieutenant generals and vice admirals, four receive
near-destitution is the rule rather than the exception.
Out of nineteen officers of this rank employed by Gen-
eral Dynamics, one received $4,000, two $5,000, six
$6,000, two $7,000, and one $8,000. In all the nineteen,
there was only one relatively impressive wage: $33,000.
Either General Dynamics i is an unmerciful employer and
these workers should unite and throw off their chains,
or they do "t work much and, in that case, what are
they hired fo lh! iv )
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FEAR COULD PULL THE TRIGGER
SURPRISE ATTACK ee by J. David Singer
DURING THE current wave of eu-
phoria which seems to have gripped
the world in the wake of the Khru-
shchey and Eisenhower “journeys
to peace,” it may be in poor taste to
speak publicly of surprise nuclear
attack, but it may also be that it is
just such a period as this which most
requires a rather brutal analysis of
Soviet-American relations. Even be-
fore the journeys — symbolic ex-
pressions of the peace-urge — were
made, many were contending that
military technology had in a sense
made itself obsolete, and that the
destructive power of the nuclear mis-
sile was so great as almost to guaran-
tee that it would never be used.
Man’s faith in this “balance of ter-
ror” is touching, but is also indic-
ative of the basic human tendency
to deny the existence of dangers
too great to be comprehended and
too complex to be analyzed. One is
reminded of superstitious villagers
living on the slopes of a volcano or
in the possible path of an avalanche.
On the basis of a current study of
Soviet and Western military strategy,
this writer believes that the danger of
surprise nuclear attack — in either
direction — is as great, if not great-
er, now and for the next several
years than it has been at any time
_ since the cold war began. Let me
try to summarize the evidence.
FIRST of all, the two military coali-
tions are still very much in a state
of mutual hostility, and while there
is increasing evidence that each de-
sires to restrict the resultant con-
flict and competition to the non-
military realm, little has happened
to hasten the elimination of violence.
More precisely, as long as each side
retains its capacity for military at-
tack, the other must assume that
such capacity might be utilized. As
J. DAVID SINGER is teaching po-
litical science at thé Umiversity of
_ Michigan and is engaged in an analy-
sts of post-World War II disarma-
ment negotiations, financed by the
I suggested in an earlier article
(“New Hope for Disarmament,” The
Nation, Oct. 10, 1959), “each elite
will inevitably equate the other’s
military capability with his military
mtentions.” Since most Americans
find it almost impossible to believe
that the Soviet could honestly fear
an attack initiated by ourselves, let
us first examine the situation as it
looks to the Kremlin.
At the outset, there is the or-
thodox Communist ideology which
has consistently postulated that the
“capitalist camp” is inexorably com-
pelled to seek the destruction of the
“Socialist camp.” Sometimes it is
argued that the attack will come
when the “imperialists” are power-
ful enough to carry it out successful-
ly and with little fear of retaliation.
Other times the argument is that it
will come when the West sees that
“Socialist victory” is almost inevi-
table, and strikes out in a last, des-
perate effort to stave off defeat.
From the Soviet viewpoint, this
classic Leninist-Stalinist doctrine is
supported by some significant his-
torical experiences. The expedition-
ary forces — with American contin-
gents — which were landed in Russia
following the Fitst World War have
been continually interpreted—right-
ly or wrongly—by Soviet leaders as
abortive attempts to overthrow the
Bolshevik regime by violent inter-
«
vention. Similarly, the jockeying of
England, France and the United
States during the late 1930s was in-
terpreted by the Russians, then as
now, as an effort to drive the Nazis
and the Soviets into a war of such
mutual destructiveness that the
Western powers could then step in
at the end and divide up the spoils,
thus obliterating Bolshevism at little
loss to themselves. (That this was not
an altogether unfounded notion may
be established by reference to West-
ern actions and communications of
the period.) Even the delay in open-
ing the second front during World
War II has been viewed by the So-
viet as further evidence of ill will
on the part of their wartime allies.
TURNING to the present, there is
an even stronger basis for the Krem-
lin’s fear of surprise attack. Despite
our protestations, they see the West-
ern air bases on their periphery not
as defensive or even retaliatory sites,
but as springboards for aggression.
For example, the IRBM sites in
England, Italy and Turkey have
been and are being built above
ground, with little attention paid to
their protection. And while our pur-
pose in building them in this fashion
was primarily to achieve speed and
economy, the Soviet strategist inter-
prets the decision differently. If, he
reasons, the West established the
sites only for retaliatory purposes,
they would have been more ade-
quately protected; since they were
not, it must follow that they are
designed for launching a surprise,
strike-first blow, after which what
happens to them becomes unim-
portant. In sum, if the function of
these launching sites is indeed mere-
ly to retaliate, would they have
been left so vulnerable as to en-
danger their retaliatory capability?
Furthermore, the entire military —
posture of NATO is such as to en-
courage the Kremlin in its suspicions
of Western intentions. All of the
normal accouterments of a purely
defensive effort have been under-
supported in Europe and elsewhere;
: De
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-
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Pe hina Moi ii
-
no real effort has been made to match
the Warsaw nations in ground troops
or conventional weapons. Converse-
ly, heaviest emphasis has been upon
strategic air power which, the West
argues, is for purely retaliatory pur-
poses. But since the same capability
can be used for both strike-first and
strike-back missions, the Soviet must
operate from the less naive inter-
pretation.
Thus, the general outlines of the
Western military posture are such
as to engender a high degree of fear
in Soviet ranks, particularly when
coupled with the not infrequent
threats uttered by high-ranking
U.S. political and military officers.
There is a tendency in the West
to discount the fears of attack artic-
ulated by the Kremlin as_ propa-
ganda designed to defame the United
States and its allies. But two recent
scholarly studies of Soviet military
strategy, despite sharp disagreements
on other points, come to the same
conclusion on this one. In War and
the Soviet Union, Herbert Diner-
stein notes that when Tank Marshal
Rotmistrov argues (in Miltary
Thought, February, 1955) that sur-
prise attack plays “an important
part in the strategy of the United
States and Great Britain,” the So-
viet Marshal is reflecting the “offi-
cial Soviet appraisal.” And in Soviet
Strategy in the Nuclear Age, Ray-
mond Garthoff likewise concludes
that “the dominant Soviet image
of American military strategy is a
massive, surprise air blow with weap-
ons of mass destruction.”
All in all, there seem to be several
excellent reasons for Soviet strate-
gists to assume the probability of a
Western-initiated surprise attack.
TURNING the coin over, do we
find the same sort of fear on the
Western side? And if so, is the fear
equally justified? Without belabor-
ing the arguments which are all too
familiar to Americans, the answers
must likewise be in the affirmative.
Soviet behavior in Eastern Europe,
the Middle East and Asia_ since
World War II all lead to an image
of aggressiveness. In addition, there
are the repeated Soviet references
to inevitable “showdown” and _ ulti-
mate “Socialist victory,” coupled
92 \
Te er
\
with similar assertions in the still
unrepudiated writings of Lenin and
Stalin. There is also the increasing
military power and technical prow-
ess exhibited by the USSR in recent
years. The Soviet now has, or soon
will have, enough ICBMs to carry
out a successful massive attack upon
Western Europe and North America.
Their submarine fleet is now esti-
mated to be about 500-600 strong,
with perhaps a hundred of them
able to launch an IRBM from the
relative safety of the ocean’s depths.
Thus, it would seem that there is
at least as much justification for
fear of massive surprise attack on
the part of Western strategists as
among their opposite numbers in the
USSR. And we have not yet dealt
with some of the more subtle forces
that make even greater the legit-
imacy of this reciprocal fear.
ONE SUCH force today is that of
military technology and its dramatic
impact upon the role of time in
strategy. This takes two forms, each
equally ominous. The first has to
do with the speed with which one
side can deliver a stunning blow
upon the other. In the pre-World
War I days, a surprise attack of any
significant magnitude was almost
impossible; reserves had to be mobil-
ized and rail transportation convert-
ed to military purposes. Even in the
pre-World War II era, destructive-
ness could arrive no sooner than the
200 or so miles per hour limit im-
posed by the aircraft of the day,
and — assuming a state of near
alert — there was always the ability
to counter any attack with defensive
craft and AA fire. But in the waning
days of that war, the German V-2
ballistic missile gave us the fore-
warning of things to come. Here a
weapon of considerable magnitude
could be delivered from fifty miles
away in a matter of minutes. More
to the point, it could not be detected
until on its final, downward trajec-
tory, seconds before it landed on its
target; and there was almost no way
of intercepting it. Had the Nazis
been able to produce the V-2. six
months sooner, and to increase its
range earlier, the Axis might well
have come out victorious.
Today, each side Aaa Hani:
and
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Ps 7 ie ’ /
sea-based IRBMs with ranges up to
1,800 miles, capable of delivering
megaton nuclear warheads at speeds
up to Mach 15 (fifteen times the
speed of sound), and the USSR al-
ready is believed to possess a “‘signif-
icant” number of operational ICBMs,
with about a hundred launching
sites, and ranges up to 6,200 miles.
The warning time is even less than
that for the V-2, interception is
currently impossible, and _ destruc-
tive power staggering. Either side
could destroy most of the other’s
industrial and population centers,
as well as its retaliatory military
bases, with less than twenty minutes’
warning time and with little chance
of effective defense. The strategic
impact of such a surprise attack is
so great that it could conceivably
lead to military victory in less than
twenty-four hours.
The mutual awareness of such a
possibility makes the situation more,
rather than less, dangerous. Realiz-
ing the implications of a successful
surprise attack upon itself, each side
assumes that the other must be con-
sidering it. Thus begins the vicious
psychological cycle which leads in
turn to consideration of both pre-
ventive and pre-emptive attacks. If
the planners on one side become con-
vinced that the other is about to
strike first, they have little choice
but to try beating the adversary to
the punch. Suppose that Western
intelligence agencies begin to piece
together enough evidence to per-
suade them (correctly or not) that
the Soviet is planning such a strike
in late October, as soon as the har-
vest is in. The natural response is to
strike first. Suspecting that this is
the Western decision, the Soviets
(even if they had not originally in-
tended a first strike) must now de-
cide, in turn, to forestall this tragedy
by getting in the first strike them-
selves. And so it goes, until one side
or the other precipitates nuclear
World War III through a “preven-
tive” attack,
Even more likely, however, is the
stumbling into war by what is called
a “pre-emptive” strike. Here one
side or the other picks up enough
radar information (via Dewline or
backscatter technique) to convince
them that an attack has just been —
oA wv" "
a
this information
Again,
_ may or may not be accurate, but the
risks of waiting are so great that
launched.
a “counterattack” must be launched
instantaneously. By error or mis-
calculation, this “retaliatory” blow
may turn out to be, instead, a strike-
first rather than a strike-back blow.
This highly unstable situation is
| made even more perilous by the
second form which the impact of
technology upon time may_ take.
Here reference is to the fear of
~ major technological “breakthrough.”
Suppose, for a realistic example,
that Western strategists become
convinced that the Soviet is on the
verge of producing a successful anti-
missile device. With such a break-
through, the Kremlin could be as-
sured of delivering a devastating
blow to the United States or Europe
while suffering far less damage from
a retaliatory blow. This might well
tempt Khrushchev to exploit his
enormously significant, if temporary,
advantage. And even if it did not
have this effect, United States or
NATO strategists might well as-
sume that it did. Thus the West
might decide to strike first.
These are not the ungrounded
fears of the paranoid, but rather
the kind of calculations which do
and should-take place daily in mil-
itary and political circles on both
sides. Not that either side wants nu-
clear war. To the contrary, each
wants desperately to avoid it, but
the exigencies of the situation and
the way in which the strategists have
responded to these exigencies sug-
gest that current and recent Soviet-
|) Western behavior can only make
more likely this nuclear holocaust.
Sp Pe aE
liad
~ AWARE of the dead-end which the
constant and reciprocal increase of
retaliatory fire power may lead to,
those who make and study national
strategies have recently begun to
explore some new alternatives. This
exploration is characterized by a
degree of intellectual sophistication
‘which would jar those who still be-
lieve in the “military mind” stereo-
type. The strategist of today, in the
West or in the Soviet bloc, reads
‘ pres Sa more and wa more
>
ea us
have developed the requisite broad
view of international politics, most
have become far more rigorous and
systematic in their analyses. It may
be small comfort for those of us
outside the decison-making ranks,
but this trend does at least promise
greater accuracy in predicting the
other side’s response.
Having said this, we move on to
some of the less obvious and _ less
traditional techniques which are now
under consideration.
One approach, currently much in
vogue, is to attempt to make one’s
retaliatory capability not only more
powerful, but Jess vulnerable. One
way of doing this is to move missile-
launching sites underground, with
greater protection via reinforced
concrete, etc. Such sites could then
be capable of launching a devastat-
ing counter-blow even after a sur-
prise attack, unless they received
direct hits. But as guidance systems
improve (and they are being im-
proved rapidly) direct hits can be
anticipated with increasing certainty,
and it will merely be a matter of
putting a powerful enough warhead
on the missile to penetrate the pro-
tection given the retaliatory site.
Furthermore, the greater the de-
structiveness of the warhead, the
less need there is for accuracy: a
near miss by a five-megaton warhead
is just as effective as a direct hit
with one megaton. So the under-
ground site may merely encourage
o
f=
<
the building of bigger warheads.
And, of course, installation costs
and building time are much greater
for protected or underground sites.
Another way of decreasing the
vulnerability of one’s retaliatory
power is to shift from fixed to mobile m4
missile sites; trailer trucks, railroad
cars, naval vessels and submarines i
all come under this category (with
the last-named getting most of the
attention). Again, the idea is that
by making retaliatory sites more dif-
ficult to detect, the potential aggres- 4
sor will be deterred by the knowl- a
edge that no matter how sweeping }
and saturating his first strike 1s, a
most of the retaliatory force will
survive to deliver a speedy reprisal.
Here the prospects are somewhat Toe
brighter, but they should not be ex- mT
aggerated. Not only do the same
arguments regarding fixed “hard” a
sites obtain, in that the larger weap-
on can destroy without a direct hit,
but other considerations also enter.
~
Ses
sete
seta
IT IS naive to think that, as some wad
have argued, the submarine is “virtu- 4
ally undetectable.” Underwater de- owe
tection techniques are improving ae
quite rapidly, and it is probably ale "
only a matter of time before the seas et
—
will be just as susceptible to electron-
ic monitoring as are the skies to-
day. And the irony is that the same
NATO people who are convinced
that the USSR cannot hope to oper-
ate effectively underseas against the
Western ASW (anti-submarine war-
fare) system also believe that U.S.
submarines can maneuver and fire
with near impunity.
a A
3
=
Finally, the number of missile-
launching submarines necessary to
present an effective deterrent retali-
atory force is well into the hundreds, —
considerably beyond what either side
has or is willing to build in the next |
few years. And since only a nuclear- —
powered submarine can stay under-
water for any long period of time —
and thus avoid rapid detection —_
both sides would have to multiply
many times over the handful of Po- :
laris or Golem-equipped vessels now
in operation.
Thus, a mobile and evasive retali-
atory force may have some likeli-
hood of deterring a surprise attack,
but it cannot be viewed as even a
x
proaching a solution of the problem.
Still another approach to surprise
attack, and one gaining increasing
prominence, is in the area of passive,
or civil, defense. If, it is contended,
each side can protect most of its
population from destruction by com-
bining an effective early-warning
system with a large number of fall-
out shelters, the other will be able to
do less damage and thus be less
inclined to strike first. Here is’ one
of the more fatuous lines of reason-
ing to emerge from the distorted
world of the cold war. For clearly,
as long as no serious civil-defense
program exists on either side (and
this is certainly the case today),
there is that much less inclination
on each side to believe that the
other is planning a nuclear strike.
Conversely, such a program, once
launched, might well persuade the
other that the motivation is to pro-
tect industrial and military workers
from retaliation after striking the
first blow. In a sense, unprotected
civilians are a highly persuasive in-
dication of peaceful intent, and each
side may well regard the other’s ex-
posed population as a hostage to
peace. Furthermore, almost any
shelter system can be partially com-
pensated for by stepping up the size
and radioactivity of the warheads
employed. There may be a good case
for civil defense, but it has yet to be
made, and as a deterrent to surprise
attack it makes no sense at all.
LET US turn now from the threat-
of-reprisal as a deterrent to surprise
attack to some less known, but per-
haps more promising, techniques. If,
as has been suggested, the real dan-
h ger lies not in a cold-blooded deci-
sion to instigate World War III by
unprovoked surprise nuclear attack,
__ but in its launching by accident and
miscalculation, our efforts should be
in the direction of reducing the
chance of miscalculation. This in
turn requires that each side have
more information about the other’s
intentions and behavior, rather than
less. The primary objective here is
to have each side as certain as pos-
sible that the other is not planning
dence” to the contrary be quickly
*
4
a surprise strike, and that any “evi- |
and credibly rejected. The same
holds true of information tending to
persuade one side that the other has
already launched, or not launched,
an attack.
Now it is clear at the outset that
no amount of verbal protestation by
one side or the other will be suffi-
cient for these purposes. The fear
and suspicion sown by fifteen years
of cold war is too deep. A more re-
liable and authentic assurance is
required, one which can be relied
upon to inform not only when at-
tack or plans for attack are under
way, but when they are not under
way. That is, any reliable monitor-
ing system must be equally able to
supply negative as well as positive
believable information.
In the present transition period
from aircraft to missile delivery, how
can these requirements be met? To
be more precise, how can each side
know that those radar blips are
birds and not planes, commercial
and not military craft, meteors and
not missiles? How can each know
that those SAC flights are for train-
ing and not attack, or that an atom-
ic explosion was a civilian accident
and not a military strike? More-
over, not only must both countries
know the truth, but there must be
assurance that each knows that the
other knows it. Otherwise country
A, fearing that country B will “re-
taliate” in ignorance, may itself be
tempted to strike first, after all. And
what about the so-called “catalytic
strike” launched upon one or both
sides by a third party which calcu-
lates a gain for itself out of a Soviet-
Western war? As long as there is
no agreement on a test ban, and nu-
clear weapons threaten to prolifer-
ate, this problem will become increas-
ingly pressing.
IT WOULD appear that a combina-
tion of techniques is essential if the
necessary information is to be com-
municated rapidly and reliably. First,
there must be some form of aerial
inspection as originally outlined in
the Eisenhower “open skies” pro-
posal. Inspection aircraft must be
flown on a round-the-clock basis,
at a variety of altitudes, over West-
ern, Soviet and in-between territory.
Equipped with closed-loop TY, infra-
red cameras, radar, stabilized bi-
oe! i a i,
ie RS
~ “over-the-horizon”
noculars and long-distance radio-
transmission equipment, these craft
could provide much of the needed
negative information promptly, ac-
curately and continuously. As the
national satellite programs (such as
Project Samos) develop, satellites
could gradually replace the manned
aircraft. In addition, the “back-scat-
ter’ technique revealed by Project
Tepee could be employed. This is a
technique for detecting a flying mis-
sile by observing the ionization of
the air in its wake. There is also un-
der development a promising new
radar system
known as Madres.
Parenthetically, even if no agree-
ment for avoiding surprise attacks
is negotiated in the near future,
the West would be wise — if un-
orthodox to share its missile-
monitoring information with the
Warsaw Pact states. This would be
one more way of giving them a great-
er warning time, hence a longer re-
sponse time, and thus reduce any
temptation for them to launch a
totally unnecessary _ pre-emptive
strike. Likewise, the side which first
perfects a solid-fuel missile propel-
lant ought to make it available to
the other. Since the count-down time
for solid-fueled missiles is less than
for the liquid-fueled, they can be
held back for a longer period, giving
more time to determine whether the
opponent has in fact mounted an at-
tack.
Beyond all this, it would probably
be essential to station observers on
the ground at some fraction of each
side’s launching sites, and in their
aircraft and submarines. And it may
well be that for each side to reveal
to the other the positions of its of-_
fensive-retaliatory weapons (there
is little difference), would actually
increase rather than decrease its se-
curity: its launching sites would
then become hostages to its own
good faith,
Regardless of where the observers
are posted, they must be provided
with an independent and_ reliable
communication network connecting
all observation teams with key
strategic command posts on each
side, It is estimated that at least a
thousand observers would be need-
ed; preferably they should be re- —
ited from U.N. personnel of neu-
tral nationality, plus some from each
of the two blocs involved.
The problems are great and the
considerable innovations, _ political
and technological, necessary for so-
lutions may not be forthcoming. And
even the institution of a reasonably
reliable scheme against surprise at-
Civil War Centennial: Bull Run with Popcorn... Dan Wakefield
Washington
GENERAL Ulysses S. Grant was
gone for the day, but his staff was
hard at work in the office of the
federal Civil War Centennial Com-
mission. Only that morning, a long-
distance phone call had come in from
a reporter on a Chicago daily, ask-
ing for a reserved seat at the re-
enactment of the Battle of Bull Run.
Karl S. Betts, executive director of
the commission and, roughly speak-
ing, aide-de-camp to its chairman,
_ General U.S. Grant III (grandson
of the original), sat at a long con-
ference table, pointing to a large
map of the nation and explaining
to a visitor the coming campaign.
Thirty-eight of the fifty states have
now set up their own commissions to
cooperate in the centennial, which
starts next New Year’s Day with a
prayer by the President of the Unit-
ed States and will run, God willing,
until we reach Appomattox in 1965.
Presumably there will be no attempt
to re-enact the Presidential assassina-
tion that followed the war. Richard
_M. Nixon: is honorary vice chairman
of the federal commission, and may
be unlikely to want to risk putting
ideas in the heads of hostile citizens.
B But except for such scattered
strategic withdrawals, few events
will be missing and much will be
added to the longest, most expensive,
most elaborate celebration of tragedy
in the history of any civilized coun-
try. The federal commission’s office
er a red-brick, three-story build-
a ae
OS ye te
DAN WAKEF IELD, a frequent con-
pee Hor has a cousin in the D.A.R.
| ho assures him that he i is a una
operas based on Ci
tack would not provide the final
answer to the present terrifying ar-
maments race. There is far more to
it than this. But any system which
can break through the current stale-
mate, help. stabilize the balance of
terror, and perhaps set the precedent
for a subsequent attack on weap-
ons-testing, production and deploy-
ing on Jackson Street with the
“Joint Disarmament Study” and, if
there were as much serious planning
going on about disarmament as there
is about the Civil War, we could ex-
pect to have every last weapon from
the Atlas to the switch-blade beaten
to a plowshare by 1965.
THE PLAN to whup us back to the
days of Antietam on a national scale
was endorsed by Congress on Sep-
tember 7, 1957, and $100,000 of fed-
eral money appropriated to get it
under way. The original appropria-
tion figure in the resolution was
$50,000, but none other than Senator
Harry S. Byrd, one of our stanchest
advocates of federal thrift, led the
drive that doubled the sum. The
federal figure is piddling, however,
compared to what the states are
kicking in for their own Civil War
centennial commissions. The Yankee
states have granted what seem mere-
ly “token” sums (e.g., from Min-
nesota’s $2,500 to Massachusetts’
$25,000) compared to the Confeder-
acy, led by Senator Byrd’s own Vir-
ginia, which has voted $1,750,000
to dredge up the days of glorious
defeat. Mississippi is of course near
the top ranks with a $500,000 ap-
propriation, and plans for such
varied spectaculars as a _ re-enact-
ment of the bombardment of the
town of Rodney (the citizens will no
doubt be evacuated with the aid of
Civil Defense and the AEC), a
commemoration of the siege of
Vicksburg, observance of the Con-
federate Convention of Secession at
Jackson, and the “staging of two
There are, of cou
.
ee
- seems inevitable that there will soon
ment, can only be welcomed. And as
important as the atom-testing ban
and political settlement may be, the
prevention of surprise attack is by
far the most urgent issue. It should
be given top priority, both in the
political councils and research labor-
atories of the world. Time is not on
the side of mankind.
sums involved in the strictly com-
mercial ventures planned for the
centennial, and the federal commis-
sion is working to encourage and aid
them whenever possible. General U. _
S. Grant III has bestowed official oe
commendation certificates on the
stars of a new movie called The
Horse Soldiers, dealing with a Un-
ion cavalry raid. Most of the big
studios and television networks are
planning Blue-Gray extravaganzas
to be issued during the centennial
years, Life magazine will be on hand he
with a full-color series, and record a
companies are planning to assault
our eardrums from hi-fi and juke —
box with everything from “Just Be- |
fore The Battle, Mother” to rock’n’-
roll variations on the Rebel yell. It
be a meeting at the summit between
Mitch Miller and Bruce Catton.
If there is profit in the Birth of
Christ, there is of course profit in
the bloodiest war in our nation’s
history; and now, on the eve of its
centennial, everyone seems to have
found his own angle. The other day
Mr. Betts, as head man of the show
for the federal government, told a |
visitor that he had just returned
from lunch with a man from the Na-
tional Association of Travel Bureaus.
“Those people, and the oil com-—
panies, predict the biggest travel
years in American history during the
centennial,” Mr. Betts explained.
Restoration of battlefields and mark-
ing of march — routes is now going
full speed ahead throughout 1
land (Arkansas has given $500,000
to restore the Pea Ridge battle
ground) with | the hope of drawing ©
pilgrims i in convertibles and station
, 5 sie ay Lo ‘ in F
Se
&
ae
wagons toward the shrines of North
and South.
The research of the federal com-
mission has turned up a list of the
forty concerns on the New York
Stock Exchange which were doing
business during the Civil War, and
discovered that there was a Worth-
ington pump on the Monitor when
she was sunk (we are sure the
sinking was no reflection on the qual-
ity of the Worthington pump), and
that Bausch and Lomb lenses were
used in many battles. The possibil-
ities of finding commercial connec-
tions with the Great Conflict seem
endless — for instance, what kind of
Bourbon did Robert E. Lee prefer?
ASIDE from the extra bucks to be
turned from commercializing the
memory of nearly a half-million men
who slaughtered each other, what
are the reasons for a great revival
of the darkest chapter in our na-
tional history? The men on the fed-
eral Civil War Centennial Commis-
sion are not profit-seekers, but sin-
cere citizens who have long been
students and enthusiasts of the Civil
War. They are among the constantly
growing group of Americans who
belong to Civil War book clubs or
read on their own among the 8,000
volumes already published on the
subject (and we can be sure that
hundreds, if not thousands, more
will be added before 1965), or be-
long to the more than 500 Civil
War Round Table groups which
meet to hash over the fine points
of obscure skirmishes and exchange
views on their favorite subject. The
battle of Antietam is to them what
the 1946 Army-Notre Dame game is
to football fans,
Mr. Betts is a silver-haired, en-
thusiastic gentleman out of the
96
Washineton, D.C., Civil War Round
‘Table branch. He grew up in Abi-
lene, “Kansas, where he was a boy-
hood friend of Dwight D. Eisen-
hower, the honorary chairman of the
federal commission. Mr. Betts seems
to have the same kind of genuine
sincerity and well-meaning philos-
ophy as his fellow Abilenian, and
even the visitor who found his views
unsound would find it impossible
not to like him personally.
In his office at commission head-
quarters, Mr. Betts sat across from a
fireplace surmounted by silver sabers
and vintage rifles, and explained
that the purpose of the coming cen-
tennial was not to “romanticize” the
war, but rather to give Americans a
greater understanding and apprecia-
tion of this greatest event in their
history. As to the possibility that the
large-scale rites might reopen old
wounds, Mr. Betts said: “Out of the
thousands of letters we’ve received,
only five people objected to the
centennial. They felt it would be
better to ‘forgive and forget.’ We
wrote and told ’em that the people
of the United States can never for-
get the Civil War. Some people
thought that the South might not
like the idea, but they’re all for it.
That’s where the biggest enthusiasm
is. [The South may have lost the
Civil War, but they’re sure going to
win the centennial.”
Just about the only defection from
Confederate territory has come from
The South Atlantic Quarterly, which
refused to take any part in the
forthcoming rituals on the grounds
that it was “tired of the Civil War”
and averse to a “centennial orgy of
sectionalism.” Mr. Betts feels that
this won’t be the case at all, and that,
in fact, one of the continuing pur-
poses of the centennial is the “heal-
ing of wounds.”.The commission’s
monthly newsletter, 00 Years Later,
has reported in its “Healing of
Wounds” department such evidence
of Blue-Gray brotherhood as the fact
that the auxiliary of the Illinois Sons
of Union Veterans recently gave a
$150 cash award to Richard Fryxell,
a high school senior who is a de-
scendant of several Confederate
veterans. As if this weren’t enough
to convince the blaekest cynic that
at last we no longer are a house
eh ose a) _
divided, there is the létter that Gen-
eral Grant III received from Mrs.
Florence Sillers Ogden of Rosedale,
Miss., saying she would be glad to
take part in the centennial and no
longer feels any bitterness over the
fact that “your grandfather shelled
my grandmother’s plantation as he
steamed down the Mississippi on his
way to Vicksburg. .. .”
It may be a bit more difficult,
however, to find much evidence of
“healing” in the centennial newslet-
ters happy announcement of plans
such as the following:
Arkansas, with Governor Faubus
personally interested and taking an
active part, is working at full speed
on its centennial plans. The big in-
terest at the moment is the possibility
of a Pea Ridge re-enactment and
possibly a small restaging of the
capture of Little Rock. This state
plans to send a detachment of its
National Guard to participate in the
program at First Manassas.
No doubt the Arkansas National
Guard will be in good shape for the
battle of Manassas, having served
with distinction in the battle of
Central High. And surely the U.S.
paratroopers are well trained to par-
ticipate in a “small restaging of the
capture of Little Rock.”
BUT WHERE will the Negroes
(who, it must be admitted, had a
certain stake themselves in_ these
proceedings) be while all this is
going on? In Little Rock, they will
no doubt be at home with their doors
locked. And I doubt that many
Negroes will be on the bandstand
when the gray-clad troops go march-
ing up the streets of Jackson, Miss.
Mr. Betts explained that Negroes
have been cordially invited to take
part in the centennial, just as have
Jews, Irish and Hungarians, all of
whom served with distinction in the
Civil War. “You’d be surprised,”
Mr. Betts said, “at the number of
Se eo
Hungarians who came to this coun-
nd
try to fight. They served mostly in
the Union Army — two became of-
ficers — and they served loyally and
well.”
So now we know the historical
origins of the Freedom Fighters.
Their descendants, along with those
of other minorities (such as the Ne-
groes) will have “their own” celebra-
tions. Mr. Betts called in some rep-
resentatives from the Negro History
Society. “I suggested,” he told his
visitor, “that they get the full story
and present it to their own people.
Negroes of both sexes attained prom-
inence in the Civil War.” When
asked if either the centennial com-
mission or any Negro groups were
planning special observances for
Emancipation Day, Mr. Betts ex-
plained:
“We're not emphasizing Emanci-
pation. You see, there’s a_ bigger
theme — the beginning of a new
America. There was an entire regi-
ment of Negroes about to be formed
to serve in the Confederate Army
just before the war ended. The story
of the devotion and loyalty of South-
ern Negroes is one of the outstand-
ing things of the Civil War. A lot
of fine Negro people loved life as it
was in the old South. There’s a
wonderful story there — a story of
great devotion that is inspiring to
all people, white, black or yellow.”
One would guess that if pressed to
come up with some commemorative
ceremony for Emancipation Day,
the commission might have. the
Clara Ward singers giving out with
“Massa’s in the Cold, Cold Ground,”
TOMORROW’S AIR CRASH ee by Karl M. Ruppenthal
SHOCKED by the high incidence
of airline accidents in 1959—“one of
the highest in recent years” — Sen-
ator A. §. Mike Monroney, chairman
of a Senate subcommittee on avia-
KARL M. RUPPENTHAL, an air-
line pilot since 1942, is a lecturer in
Transportation and Management at
the Graduate School of Business at
s pati ced. =,
ar" 30, 1960
eh cal fi 3
<=
and a devotional recitation by Aunt
Jemima on the glories of “life as it
was in the old South.”
MR. BETTS says that one of the
purposes of the centennial effort is
the “replacing of legend with fact”
about the Civil War. Toward this
worthy end, old diaries are being
dug up in attics and storerooms
across the country to cast new light
on old events, the FBI has been
called in to recover the cast of an
aluminum map of Meade’s break-
through at Fredericksburg that was
stolen from the National Museum
there last June, and the commission
itself is prepared to set the public
straight by shattering such time-
honored myths as the one which
has Farragut saying, “Damn_ the
torpedoes and full speed ahead.”
(Actually, according to Mr. Betts,
there were no torpedoes.) In its
search for new facts on the Grand
Conflict, the commission has also
come up with such _heart-stirring
news as that Harmon Killebrew,
home-run hero of the Washington
Senators, had a grandfather who was
judged “the Union Army’s finest
physical specimen for the state of
Illinois.”
All this is fine to know, but does
it really “replace legend with fact”
and avoid the “romanticism” about
the nation’s greatest tragedy? It is
of course ridiculous to blame Karl
Betts and the members of the fed-
eral Civil War Centennial Commis-
sion for inventing such notions as
those that the loyal old darkies loved
“the South as it was,” that the Gray-
tion, last week opened an inquiry.
The Senator is concerned because,
in the twelyemonth which ended
December 31, 329 persons were killed
on the nation’s scheduled airlines in
a total of 103 accidents — twice
the fatality rate per million pas-
senger-miles as that of the preced-
ing year. A perusal of the accident
reports indicates no oe causal
pattern. 1 Seg
* a
os
ii ir i |
Blue conflict was “the last Gentle-
man’s War” (one catches the scent
of magnolias and the glint of sabers
in the very ~phrase), and that the
death of nearly half a million men
was surrounded by a blue-gray haze
of glory. Those notions have become
a part of our popular heritage, and
if the commission doesn’t tell you
they’re so, Henry Luce and Sam
Goldwyn will.
For example, in the January 11 is-
sue of Life, a spread was devoted to
the death of the last Confederate
soldier, accompanied by a _ Bruce
Catton eulogy entitled “End of the
Gallant Rebs.” Mr. Catton tells us
that the soldiers of the Rebel army
were “lean and sinewy men who
liked to fight” (were there no fat
ones who would rather sit and
smoke?) and that the Confederate
infantry “had a savage, inspired
ferocity which made it almost un-
stoppable when it was making an
attack, but it also had a dogged en-
durance which made it equally dan-
gerous on the defensive.” The last
sentence might easily have been
used for a pre-game story of the Syra-
cuse football team on the eve of the
Cotton Bowl. Indeed, the whole
thing has now become a glorious
game, and the centennial will allow
us to play it again, with real skir-
mishes and uniforms, for another
five years. The federal commission’s
pamphlet, Facts About the Ciwil
War, has a section entitled “The
Starting Lineups.”
The Civil War, if we aren’t care-
ful, may replace night baseball by
1965.
Time was when airline accidents
were dismissed as inevitable. In the
days of the barnstorming pilot, fly-
ing was a hazardous business. Peo-
ple who rode planes were daredevils, —
akin to those who braved Niagara —
Falls in a barrel. In the earliest days
of flying the mail, as many as 25 |
per cent of all air-mail pilots were
killed in a single year. This is no
longer true. Flight safety has im-—
97
proved so much that today you are
far safer flying from New York to
San Francisco than you are driving
in your own automobile. Even in the
accident-ridden year of 1959, only
./3 persons were killed for every
hundred million — passenger-miles
flown. But even this decimal is far
too large.
Too many airline passengers will
be killed in 1960. While some deaths
may result from conditions beyond
control, others will be “encouraged.”
Here are some of the conditions which
may “encourage” this year’s acci-
dents to happen:
I. Inadequate airports for the jet
age. As of today, there is not a
single commercial airport in the
United States that is completely ade-
quate to handle jets under all con-
ditions. Most of the runways are
too short. Others are obstructed by
television towers, apartment houses
and high-tension lines.
When new airplanes are certified,
they are tested under ideal condi-
tions. Take-offs and landings are
made on smooth, dry runways with
no slope. Test flights are flown by
skilled test pilots under ideal con-
ditions to demonstrate the optimum
performance of a new plane. These
men have been known to practice
for days to perfect a technique which
would shorten the landing roll by a
hundred feet. Engines are new and
in perfect condition. Planes are trim,
and their gross weight is calculated
accurately. It is on the basis of these
maneuvers that a new plane is certi-
fied; they determine such things as
the legal gross weight for take-off
and the type of runway required for
landing.
UNHAPPILY, these ideal test
conditions seldom obtain in routine
airline operations. Many airport run-
ways are pitted, pocked or contour-
ed. Some have humps that might
delight a dromedary, but which steal
precious momentum from a heavily
- loaded jet on its take-off roll. Some-
times the runways at a given air-
port appear to be the product of
several rival engineers, each intent
on establishing his own individual
runway elevation.
And, of course, rain and snow are
not unknown. Stopping distance in-
creases tremendously when runways
98
‘<>
are wet and slick. Today’s aircraft
are exceedingly dependent upon re-
liable, effective brakes. But brakes
don’t always work. Stopping dis-
tance may increase a third when
runways are wet. If they are glazed
with ice, the pilot might prefer a
set of skates to his ineffective brakes.
2. Inadequate airport planning.
Although designers have indicated
for at least a generation that planes
would become larger and faster, air-
port builders have too often ignored
the trend. Some airports are con-
veniently close to cities, but grossly
inadequate for the planes they must
serve. Busy airports in Chicago,
Washington and New York are
strained to the bursting point by
hordes of planes they were never
planned to handle.
Many adjacent areas are inade-
quately zoned, if indeed they are
zoned at all. Some airports were
nicely planned in the wide, open
spaces, but the builders failed to
consider the ambitious subdivider,
who frequently plants houses around
the approaches. The results are not
pleasant for home owners, who must
listen to airport noise, nor for the
pilot, who continually concerns him-
self about the houses. Pressures are
exerted to change the take-off pat-
tern so that the airport will be a less
undesirable neighbor. Older airports
like Chicago’s Midway are so boxed
in that they could be enlarged only
at tremendous expense.
3. Inadequate approach lights. As
early as 1940, the Air Line Pilots
Association (ALPA) began studies
to determine the most effective type
of runway and approach lights. When
a pilot completes an instrument ap-
proach at night, radio facilities usual-
ly bring him within half a mile of
the beginning of the runway. From
that moment, he is dependent upon
his eyes. Within a few seconds he
must determine his position visually
and decide whether he is lined up or
whether he must pull up and go
around. Good approach lights can
do much to help him make the right
decision.
After months of cooperative study
by the Air Transport Association,
the CAA and the ALPA, the pilots
recommended a thorough testing of
a “center line” system of approach
lights. This system indicates clearly
the direction of the runway and elim-
inates many visual problems asso-
ciated with seeing a single light in
the dark. The test installation was
made at the Newark Airport, where
it has proved its worth. The ALPA
has since advocated that all airports
standardize on this excellent system.
But in 1960—ten years after the
tests—approach lights are not yet
standardized. At some airports, they
are lined up with the center of the
runway; at others they are to the
right or left; still others have none
at all. Nearly half of 1959’s accidents
occurred within half a mile of an
airport. At least one of the accidents
might have been averted had good
approach lights been installed.
4. Inadequate traffic control. To-
day’s commercial aircraft are heavily
dependent on Airways Traffic Con-
trol (ATC) for separation. Planes
are so built that the pilot’s vision is
restricted to a very small arc. He
cannot see planes behind him, nor
those above or below. At high alti-
tude, where there are usually no
points of reference, strange things
happen to vision, and depth per-
ception may temporarily be lost. And
even if an oncoming jet is spotted
ten miles away, there may be insuf-
ficient time to avoid collision because
of the speed of today’s craft. All this
means that the traffic controllers on
the ground must provide traffic
separation, allocating each plane its
own bit of air space.
BUT THE trouble is that ATC is
sometimes inadequate for the task.
Our manual system of traffic control
was reasonably adequate for the DC-3,
but it is less than adequate for the
jet age. At high altitude, the jets
depend on ground radar installations
to separate them from military traf-
fic. But the radar does not always
work: for reasons which are not well
known, the scopes do not always pick
up a certain type of military jet.
Sometimes a jet is “lost” on the op-
erator’s radar scope. It takes about
twenty seconds for the courser to
make a sweep around the radar
scope. In this interval two jets on a
collision course may cut the distance
separating them by seven miles.
There are occasional conflicts in radio
frequencies, so that when one radar
controller is warning a flight about
ia
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ing traffic, his voice is blotted
out by another installation. At least
two near-collisions have been avert-
ed because ‘the oncoming plane was
seen by the second officer when both
the captain and copilot were occu-
pied with other duties.
5. Inadequate copilot training. For
many years the Civil Air Regulations
have required that airline captains
be well trained. Before flying as pilot
in command, a pilot must earn a
commercial license and an air-trans-
port rating. He must also take the
appropriate Federal Aviation Agen-
cy’s rating test for each aircraft he
will fly in airline service. Captains
must take periodic checks to demon-
strate their continued proficiency.
But these regulations do not ap-
ply to copilots. Until recently, all
that was required of the second in
command was that he have a com-
._
AS:
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-onco
“mercial license and an instrument
rating. These he could earn by flying
200 hours in a cub. No regulation
demanded that he be qualified in the
aircraft he might be asked to fly.
While it is true that on the better
lines copilots have been well quali-
fied, on some lines there is a tendency
to save on training costs. Overly
cost-conscious officials have been
known to take refuge in the fact that
the Civil Air Regulations have not
required that copilots really be train-
ed. Until recently, the government
~ demanded no more than that the co-
pilot make three take-offs and land-
ings every ninety days to be “quali-
fied” in the planes in which he flew.
Some copilots were never trained in
, a7 ors
he pee ae ;
oor
emergency procedures. Others would
have been ill-prepared indeed if they
were ever called upon to fly the
plane.
Concerned about the inadequate
training on some lines, the Federal
Aviation Agency has quite recently
proposed tougher copilot training re-
quirements. While the new regula-
tions do not provide for a copilot
transport license—long advocated by
the Air Line Pilots Association—
they are a definite step in the direc-
tion of safety. Under the new rules
all pilot-training programs must be
approved by the FAA. The effec-
tiveness of this approach will de-
pend upon the training philosophy
adopted by the administrator and
his staff in Washington and also on
the interpretations given the regula-
tions in the field.
6. Inadequate second officer train-
img. Just as the copilot is an essential
man on conventional aircraft, so is
the second officer essential on the
jets. Recognizing this fact, the em-
ployment agreement on every air-
line flying jets requires a three-pilot
operating crew. Yet on some lines
the second officer is not qualified.
On conventional aircraft one of
the most important functions of the
copilot is to relieve the captain in
case of necessity. In an emergency
situation, one man can fly a Con-
stellation or a DC-7. If need be, he
can manage the flight, operate the
radio, and land the plane. But such
an operation would hardly be safe
in a 600-mile-per-hour jet. With to-
day’s traffic congestion, these com-
plicated aircraft require two pilots
continually in their seats. In busy
traffic areas there is simply too much
for one man to do.
It is for this reason that the sec-
ond officer is required. Most of the
airlines want him to be well qualified
so that he can act as copilot should
the need arise. He can supply that
extra margin of safety which can
prevent disaster in a pinch. In the
well-trained crew, the copilot is
qualified to assume the duties of the
captain, and the second officer can
temporarily take his place. Yet on
some airlines second officers have
only the most rudimentary qualifica-
tions. One line gives them only one
hour’s training in the jet before they
are scheduled out on flights! On this
line, the captain is the only man on
board who is qualified tofly the plane.
Should he develop diarrhea, a severe
headache or splitting sinus’ pains
(and all these have happened to
pilots in the air), the copilot would
have a difficult job landing the
plane. The second officer would be
all but unable to help him, for he
has had almost no training on the
plane.
THERE IS, of course, no simple
course of action which will eliminate
accidents in the air. But these are
danger areas where fruitful work
may well be done. It is not enough
to blame the pilot nor to urge him
to be more cautious. What is im-
portant is that conditions which con-
tribute to accidents be speedily
eliminated.
What ben ietntas familiar, I now
_ Saw as a tourist. Twenty years had
“not passed for nothing. In addition,
a certain bitterness came between
-me and what I saw, although there
licating
was no difficulty in c
at they ee and also. he
with the people. I tee Sa
wh: ™ %
| | A SP ANI ARD RETURNS ee by Antonio Sanchez-Barbudo
_ ON RETURNING to Spain I felt
myself to be a stranger in my own
house.
the distance of my vantage point
made things clearer.
The old cathedrals—as I could
verify—are still there. The silence
of many an isolated little square is
the same. And on the barren hills
high above the fields one can still
see the outlines of s in ruins.
Other things also ha
little. There is now
personal dictatorshi iP
dominant role a @
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ergy, the im 1948 anor stu
ear
Foe!
‘military, and the rich, both old and
new. But all this, though now in ex-
aggerated form, is nothing new to_
ANTONIO SANCHEZ-BARBUDO, by
distinguished Spanish writer, left his
homeland in 1939 with the remnants
of the Loyalist Army. Currently, he
teaches modern Spanish literature ¢
the Univers of Wisconsin. He was
awarded a a Guggenheim Fellowship
dies on Unamuno. /
oe
income). at
4 eu ‘
te %
Spain. What is new is the bloody
way in which this situation was ar-
rived at—not only the civil war, but
also what followed. In Spain this is
remembered well; fear persists.
What has changed most, I would
say, is the Spaniard himself. Many
no longer think as they once did,
and among the young a complete
lack of opinion is most common.
There is no point in talking of “po-
litical ideas.” There is rather a gen-
eral change of feeling.
IN THE first place, there is great
discontent, especially among work-
ers, peasants, white-collar employees,
etc., resulting directly from the des-
perate economic situation. This is
not a new thing, although the com-
plaints are now more bitter and
more frequent. Some live better; the
upper middle class, though - still
small, is more numerous; and there
have been certain improvements in
medical care and the like. But the
situation of the majority is wretch-
ed. Workdays are longer and hard-
ships are greater. Prices have risen
more than salaries since the pre-war
era. The discontent is therefore not
without foundation. However, it also
happens—as it has been happening
in so many parts of the world today
—that the Spaniard compares his
situation with that of others and is
becoming less resigned to his poverty.
He aspires to what before was out
of the question.
But what was most disheartening
for me, no matter how foreseeable
and justifiable it may be, was to see
this discontent linked almost always
to a complete passivity, to a lack of
fighting spirit. There is only resent-
ment and disillusion, if not indiffer-
ence, among the people. This, how-
ever, could well change in a moment.
Under certain circumstances — if
bonds become too tight or if fear
suddenly ends—resentment might
well become rage in spite of the
threat, still alive, of a second civil
war.
The pessimism of the individual
toward his own future is linked to a
similar pessimism toward the future
of his country. It is as if the aware-
ness of the catastrophic failure of
Spain, of its great political and eco-
nomic lag, so vivid to the intellec-
tuals for more than two centuries,
100
had now passed to the people. Now
all sense this failure, and few have
any hope of salvation. Nor is there
among the common _ people—con-
trary to the case of the intellectuals
—a longing for the greatness of the
past. There is rather a simple belief
that in Spain everything is worse
than everywhere else. This is not
new either; but I heard it expressed
much more often. It is a purely neg-
ative attitude, the expression of re-
sentment and discontent. Hardly
had I crossed the border when a gas-
station attendant informed me that
“the best gasoline of Spain is worse
than the worst of anywhere else.”
And this with anger and a gesture
of disgust.
THIS type of discontent, too, exist-
ed before. But a certain political and
union activity was common then,
and people shared the same hopes.
Now such activity is no longer
possible, but neither does there seem
to be the desire for it. Each one
simply gets along as best he can,
rather more badly than well, and
with more hatred than resignation.
This seems to me most dangerous
for the future, and more dangerous
the longer it lasts. The memory of
war and repression is still a fearsome
shadow. Terror and disillusion para-
lyze the will for the moment. How-
ever, the profound discontent caused
by the economic situation of Spain
is a latent revolutionary force now
as before, perhaps even more than
before.
On the other hand, among cer-
tain intellectuals, professional groups,
technicians, etc., a quite different
attitude is common. A dislike or even
hate for the regime is frequent; or,
at least, a desire for change. It is,
however, a surprisingly anti-dog-
matic position. There is a certain
‘ i,
tolerance and moderation, a desire
for harmony, which is completely
new to Spain. (At times, of course,
even those associated with the re-
gime, and thus fearful of change,
speak of work, peace and the neces-
sity for ending hate.) I noted that
most of the time, on the Left as
well as on the Right, there is a sin-
cere desire to solve in the best way
possible, peacefully and with a cer-
tain amount of freedom, the prob-
lems of the nation.
There is talk today of Catholic
liberalism, scarcely in existence be-
fore, and even of many young priests
and monks who think along social
lines and who favor a change of re-
gime. I do not know if there are as
many as reported to me, but clearly
there are some. There is today a
greater cordiality in, human relation-
ships than during the years preced-
ing the civil war. “He is a fine per-
son,” is a phrase often heard to ex-
plain friendship—once inconceivable
—between ex-Republicans and ex-
Falangists, Catholics and pseudo-
Communists, Don Juan Monarchists
and ex-prisoners, between freethink-
ers and counts. To the great surprise
of the ex-refugee, these friendships
can be found in the university, the
Academy, the literary magazines
(even those supported by the gov-
ernment), as well as in many homes,
public offices, etc.
THESE two contradictory attitudes
of the majority and the minority—
an important minority because of its
composition—seem to me the most
significant factor in today’s Spain.
And both may be explained in part
as the result of what has happened
in the last twenty years,
The memory of the war is not
only one of slaughter. The war pro-_
duced an enormous crime wave,
Th ' TION:
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é <é = oe
especially at the beginning, and on
both sides, but it also raised a wave
of hopes. What before had seemed
beyond solution suddenly appeared,
on both sides, to be clearly solvable
through the elimination of the other
half of Spain. And by saving the
country, the whole world was to be
saved. This great hope, whose splen-
dor spread through the world, and
for which many lived and died, was
soon destroyed. But in Spain it has
left a great gap which is still felt, a
great disillusionment. “So much
blood, so much suffering, all for
nothing,” is the bitter judgment of
many.
OBVIOUSLY the Spanish Republi-
cans are disheartened. But the sin-
cere Falangists—and I now believe
many were sincere—have for years
been as disenchanted as the Repub-
licans, and very close to them. The
only winners in the conflict were the
military, the clergy and the reaction-
aries. And many of these are today
repentant, insecure and, above all,
afraid of “the second round.” As for
the young, those who have no notion
of the civil war, they do not wish to
know anything about it. It may be
said, then, that after the supreme
cians of Sie civil war, so costly and
so useless, the majority of Spaniards
have given up all attempts at soly-
ing their own and the nation’s prob-
lems, while others —the educated
and the sensitive—are searching for
a path different from the civil war:
tolerance, harmony between the
“two Spains.” All know, however,
that this will not be easy.
The repression which followed the
war had a similar effect. The rejec-
tion of fighting by the great ma-
jority is due not only to the mem-
ories of past terror, but also to
the present terror. Although it is
‘now not as bad as it was then, there
are still arrests, beatings—especially
_ of workers—and years of prison for
anyone who goes from talk to action
in even the smallest way. On the
other hand, the persecution of left-
ists and liberals has brought about
rapprochement between the survi-
vors among them—especially intel-
lectuals—and the rightists who often
protected them and saved their lives,
-and who are now ashamed of the
regime they once supported either
A “ty i Bis .
from conviction or fear. One must
hear the tales of those who were im-
prisoned for years, often for no other
crime than for having found them-
selves in the “nationalist” zone at
the outbreak of the military rebel-
lion; one must read in the faces of
many the anguished desire for for-
giveness of unavoidable human
weakness and surrender, and listen
to stories, often incredible but true,
in order. to understand the great
drama of the repression, with its
silent martyrs, its executioners, its
willing and = unwilling accomplices,
its anonymous heroes. What has re-
mained from all this is an overpow-
ering feeling of horror and a desire,
explainable enough, to forget, to for-
give and to be forgiven.
With these two attitudes in mind,
passivity and resentment on the part
of the majority, tolerance and mod-
eration on the part of a minority
on the other, we come to the un-
avoidable question: what will hap-
pen next? Before attempting to
answer it some other facts must be
considered.
THERE EXIST in Spain some mi-
croscopic groups of organized oppo-
sition to the regime which enjoy the
sympathy, though not the active
support, of the intellectual minority.
Usually these groups comprise a
number of friends around some cen-
tral figure who can act with a cer-
tain impunity. There are several
tendencies—ex-Falangist, Monarch-
ist, Christian Democratic—but all
have one aim: the replacement of
the present regime with one more
liberal. They are hardly active, and
have not the least popular support,
although they claim sympathy
among bankers, Church and military
officials and even, as some optimists
assert, among los Americanos. There
is much talk of uniting these minute
parties—excluding, of course, the
Communists—and of their great fu-
ture. This may be possible, after all,
for, insignificant as they may be,
there is no other organized opposi-
tion apart from the Communists
and, possibly, a certain latent force
of Socialists and Anarcho-Syndical-
ists.
One of the most outstanding ex-
Falangists assured e that if the So-
cialists would give Uy ) their aa
arise, many old loyalties will come—
, 4 & ‘ < »
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for immediate elections and would
guarantee a certain stability for a
new regime, there would then be
military officers ready to effect a
seems most doubtful. The military
bear great responsibility for all that
has happened; the brass enjoys lucra-
tive positions on the boards of di-
rectors of government-favored enter-
prises and elsewhere. Most of the
military have very little to gain from
the fall of Franco. Among them
there may be a few liberals, certainly
there are Monarchists of varying
shades; and undoubtedly Franco has
personal enemies among the gen-
erals. However, in all probability,
none will make a move unless the
regime seems in real danger, in which
case saviors of democracy will ap-
pear on all sides.
A worsening of the economic situa-
tion could well provoke a coup. Al-
ready in 1956 a wave of strikes,
which forced the government to de-
cree a wage increase (soon nullified
by inflation), and a series of student
riots, did bring the regime into peril
for the first time. There was even
talk, apparently well founded, of an
ultimatum from the chief of the
Madrid garrison which stopped loyal
Falangists (a> few still exist) from
executing a number of students along
with the eminent rector of the uni-
versity, Lain Entralgo, a_ liberal
Falangist who has since been dis-
missed.
Later things finally calmed down,
and since then new attempts to in-
stigate strikes and protests have fail-
ed almost completely. But they may
not always fail, especially if unem-
ployment and poverty, the results of
the government’s economic read-
justment program, continue to grow.
An explosion could well come about
by spontaneous combustion. The gov-
ernment, of course, will do every-
thing in its power to prevent this
point being reached. If it is success-
ful, there will be no cowp and every-
thing will go on just the same until
Franco dies.
Then it will be different. Every-
thing is prepared for Prince Juan ©
Carlos to take the throne and main-_—
tain the status quo, but this is far
from likely. Many new pressures will
(Continued on page 108)
, 101
—— ~~
,
BOOKS and the ARTS _
oe rte
Se
“ was ty
o
ame weg 7 ™,
ve oe
7 oy a
Gray and Agassiz: A Good Quarrel
ADVENTUROUS ALLIANCE: The
Story of the Agassiz Family of Boston.
By Louise Hall Tharp. Little, Brown
& Co. 354 pp. $5.
ASA GRAY: 1810-1888. By A. Hunter
Dupree. Harvard University Press.
505 pp. $7.50.
Odell Shepard
THESE SHARPLY contrasting books
come together on the reviewer’s table at
the close of the “Darwin Century” for
the reason, apparently, that the two
men named in their titles were violently
driven apart when that century began.
The reason is good and sufficient. As
seen from our distance, Asa Gray and
Louis Agassiz have the look of ideal op-
ponents. Their conflict, like the syn-
chronous War Between the States, can
now be recognized as an event not only
inevitable but emblematic and_ rever-
berant. Problems that it seemed to solve
once and for all are emerging again, now
that scientists are beginning to philos-
ophize about. their own work, in much
the same form that they assumed for
the thinkers of ancient Athens.
Good quarrels often spring from wide
areas of agreement, and these two men
had much in common. Both reared in
pious homes—Agassiz as the son of a
Swiss pastor and Gray in upper New
York as a completely orthodox Presby-
terian—they kept throughout life an un-
wavering belief in a Creator who made
the world and all therein with a delib-
erate purpose and design. Both entered
the field of biology through the medical
profession, and although we now think
of Gray as exclusively a botanist and of
Agassiz as an authority on glaciers who
paid some attention to fossil fishes, both
of them regarded the natural sciences as
indivisible, no aspect of which they could
afford to ignore. Agassiz’s knowledge of
botany was extensive, and Gray trium-
_ phantly invaded his rival’s field by using
the theory of glaciation to explain why
the flora of Japan resembles that of New
England more closely than it does that
of any intermediate region—a fact which
_ODELL SHEPARD is the editor of
Thoreaw’s Week on the Concord and
Merrimac Rivers and of The Heart of
~Thoreau’s Journals. His life of Bronson
Alcott,
Pedlar’s
Pulitzer Prize.
Progress, won the
Agassiz himself could account for only
by assuming a duplicate creation of all
the plants involved.
CONJECTURES so vast and vague may
seem old-fashioned to those who like to
believe that science is now swinging
free from the trammels of abstract
thought and into a realm of cold ascer-
tainable facts about things that can be
counted, measured and weighed. Now it
is true that in both of these minds there
lingered a good deal of that sheer au-
dacity which emboldened young Francis
Bacon to say that he had taken all
knowledge for his province and made
John Milton think that he could justify
the ways of God toward men. Gray and
Agassiz, who flourished in Cambridge
only a hundred years ago, remind us of
the seventeenth century no less than do
the Transcendentalists of Concord fifteen
miles away. To a degree they felt the
excitement and enthusiasm of early voy-
agers, for in their time the flora and
fauna of the Americas were not well
known. They showed an equal eagerness
in the discovery and taxonomic ar-
rangement of species, although they came
to differ widely about the nature of
species itself.
To these identities and overlappings
we should add that Agassiz and Gray
were phenomenally hard workers, pro-
lific writers and devoted teachers, al-
ways avidly seeking disciples and funds
for the extension, not so much of their
fame, as of their influence. Their suc-
cess in that effort is attested by the
institutions in Cambridge that still bear
their names. To the credit of both these
pioneer minds, furthermore, we should
set it down that they recognized and
fulfilled the obligation to send back clear
reports of their findings on nature’s
frontiers. Agassiz was a highly popular
speaker on the lecture platform, partly
because he was able, as Gray once said,
té discuss zoological topics “in such a
manner that Jadies might attend.” Gray
himself was more adept as a writer, and
some of his anonymous contributions to
popular magazines were attributed, be-
cause of their humor and grace of ex-
pression, to Oliver Wendell Holmes.
For many years Gra and Agassiz
served together on the Harvard faculty
with the outward appeara ee at least,
. To ee |
CT
however, it was more and more difficult
to avoid the twinges of envy as he
watched the really spectacular successes,
in social as well as professional life, of
a man who first saw America when
almost forty years old. It did not help
to recall that when he arrived on these
shores this man was famous throughout
the scholarly world, and that year by
year he had become more so. Agassiz
seemed to belong to every club in Bos-
ton, and he had easy access there to the
homes of wealthy people. It could not
be charged that he had married for
money, but certainly, in the terms of
Tennyson’s northern farmer, he had gone
where money was.
And how he improved his opportuni-
ties! Asa Gray, trying to run his own
department on a shoestring, was aston-
ished by the ease with which this for-
eigner extracted large sums from the
bankers and manufacturers of Boston—
never on his own account, to be sure,
for everyone knew that Agassiz was fan-
tastically ignorant of money, but for his
projects, his excursions and the appa-
ratus of his laboratory. Harder to bear
than his success in “bleeding Boston,”
as Gray called it, was the man’s way
of attracting good students, as though
by fascination. There were natural gifts
and traits of character in Agassiz which
Gray could not hope to emulate and
perhaps did not understand. His good —
nature and bonhomie, the ease of his
manners—he smoked cigars in the lec-
ture room and let his pupils do the same
—his ingratiating and infectious laugh-
ter, made people like him in spite of
themselves. No doubt his magnificent
physique had something to do with the
matter, and Gray himself was physical-
ly unimpressive.
IT IS by no means certain, however,
that Gray’s attack upon his colleague
was actuated by envy. Far more im-
portant to him than any emotional or
selfish consideration was his radical dis-
agreement with the principles and meth-
ods of Agassiz’s work as a_ scientist.
These had not, for some mysterious
reason, prevented the Swiss scholar from
doing a huge amount of precise and
brilliant work, but in Gray’s opinion
they were utterly wrong. German in
origin, deriving from Goethe, Schelling,
Oken and Déllinger, backed up also by
Cuvier and Von Humboldt with whom
Agassiz had come in touch in his early
eared they eet » a whole a
e and Vee cnt cal
Pa Te ;
i
1 ‘
%
. Nation
ort lore, i
th
dh
eK
lt
lea
Ly
Gh
Al
ier
tho
ind
funy
ah
len
bef
lat
li
and
ate
a
Mo,
phie of which Gray, a man of Scottish
ancestry and with little room in_ his
head for ideas that were not clear, could
make no sense. What meaning could be
extracted from Agassiz’s statement that
“a species is an idea in the mind of
God”? For an ignorant man like Emer-
son to mouth that sort of nonsense in
his book called Nature was bad enough,
but for a scientist to say such things,
and to teach them to young men at
Harvard, was intolerable. Gray resolved
to attack that scientist where he would
feel it most.
attack, together with its successful out-
come, makes excellent reading in Mr.
Dupree’s book. In this place one can
only say that it was considerably helped
by the appearance in 1859 of The Origin
of Species, that world-shaking work to
which Gray had contributed much dur-
ing years of correspondence with its
author. Agassiz called it “poor—very
poor!” and, according to Gray, “growled
over it like a well-cudgelled dog.” A
probably apochryphal story is told at
Harvard about an occasion when Gray
accused Agassiz of being “a deductive
thinker” and Agassiz, deeply insulted, re-
Agassiz never accepted the Darwinian
theory, but Gray had thought his way
into it before he knew Darwin. Indeed,
he thought beyond it. Perhaps the most
beneficent thing he ever did was to de-
clare, repeatedly and with strong em-
phasis, that it is quite possible to believe
in evolution as the means employed by
God for working out His divine purpose
and design. Thus he maintained for him-
_ self and many others a religious ortho-
j doxy which had nothing to fear from
__ the winds of scientific doctrine.
No significant comparison can be
drawn between these two books, both
_ excellent in their utterly different ways.
It is worth saying, however, that one
_ learns much more about the thought of
_ Louis Agassiz from the book about Asa
Gray than one does from Adventurous
_ Alliance. Mrs. Tharp, indeed, does not
_ seem to be much interested in anyone’s
thoughts. Her concern is with people,
and here, as in her earlier books of the
same pleasant kind, she shows remark-
able deftness in presenting them as mem-
bers of groups. Five families are brought
before us in the present work, and the
list of “principal characters” totals
fifty-six. They all have their entrances
and exits and most of them are given
_a few spoken lines which one feels sure
are authentic, but the total effect is
somewhat like that expressed by Mi-
randa in her outcry: “Oh, wonder! How
goodly creatures have we here!”
j »
ivy L960
The carefully planned strategy of this”
_ plied that Gray was “no gentleman.”
ee 5% . ; }
mee tabehep .).
i “>
And yet one creature, goodly indeed, is
most carefully and affectionately drawn
in this book. Elizabeth Cabot Cary, who
became Louis Agassiz’s second wife in
1850, emerges from the crowd of ladies
and gentlemen among whom she spent
her eighty-five years as a woman coura-
geous and shy (so sheltered in early life
that she was thirty when she first learn-
ed about prostitution on a trip up the
Amazon), a good wife, a wonderful step-
mother, founder and first President of
Radcliffe College. Mrs. Tharp’s book
should live a long while on account of
this superb portrait alone.
It is strange that we have had to
wait so long for an adequate biography
of Asa Gray, but perhaps it would have
The Latin Dictators
FREEDOM IS MY BEAT. By Jules
Dubois. Bobbs-Merrill Co. 295 pp.
$3.95.
TWILIGHT OF THE TYRANTS. By
Tad Szulec. Henry Holt & Co. 312
pp. $4.50.
Carleton Beals
FREEDOM IS MY BEAT is a revised
version of the Perils of Pauline. Jules
Dubois is the best bullet-dodger in
Latin America; he lands among the
chattering machine guns just as the
gas tank registers zero and the engine
coughs; he is beat up by “Communist
goons” but escapes; he foils the ma-
chinations of police and army bullies
(usually with the help of the American
Ambassador), wades through the hand-
grenades to the cable office ten minutes
before the line is cut off.
Not mere facetiousness. A bullet is
a bullet; a city that has been razed by
an earthquake, with 5,000 dead and food
and health facilities cut off, is not a
pleasant place to be; military bullies are
dangerous creatures when law has brok-
en down; any kind of revolution has its
risky moments.
One must also admire, with reserva-
tions, Dubois’ efforts for eight years as
chairman of the Press Freedom Com-
mittee of the Inter-American Press As-
sociation. He has often been a thorn
in the flesh of dictators, gotten various
press bans temporarily lifted, as in
Batista’s Cuba, and has saved a num-
ber of newspaper men from painful im-
CARLETON BEALS, who has lived
and worked as a correspondent for much
of his life in Latin America, has re-
ported for The Nation on Castro’s Cuba
and other Latin Am rican crises.
re
been impossible at any earlier time to
assemble the materials with which Mr.
Dupree has worked—or, for that mat-
ter, to acquire the kind of scholarship
he brings to bear upon them. The his-
tory of science and, still more evidently,
the philosophy of it, is of recent de-
velopment in America. Here is an im-
portant contribution to both of these
interests. It represents an amount of re-
search which one can only call enormous,
yet the information it conveys is so con-
tinually illumined and enlivened by in-
terpretation that the thought is never
overwhelmed by the facts. This is a book
for people who do care about thoughts,
and who realize, with Napoleon, that
“ideas rule the world.”
prisonment. Dubois’ concept of free-
dom of the press does not include Com-
munist newspapers, whose representa-
tives are now excluded from the Inter-
American organization. This year the
Conference has whitewashed the recipi-
ents of subsidies from the Batista dic-
tatorship while criticizing Castro’s in-
timidation of the press, though thus far
no censorship exists. &
DUBOIS, who wrote a slapdash un-
critical biography of Castro, is now be-
ginning to hedge. He still believes in ”
land reform, but with growing doubts, ee
and asks insistently when Cuba will be
made safe for American business. ‘
This book, too, is slapdash, in the
style of an ex-Hearst man and a corre-
spondent for the Chicago Tribune, which ¥
since the days of Demarest Lloyd,
seventy years ago, has scarcely con-
cerned itself with the noble causes of
human freedom for which Dubois is
such an ardent spokesman. Dubois is
a dramatic window-dresser, often elo-
quent, but his reporting adds up pretty
much to the zigzag official government
policy. He still has some of the adroit-
ness of his period as a chief of military
intelligence on the Canal Zone. During
the McCarthy period, he pretty much
based all his explanations of Latin:
American events on the shindigs of the
Communists, so there is not much re-—
liability in his interpretations, which in
any case are scant. He has hotly foug'
all implications that the United Sta
press is not as free as the air. And
wonders how he could see salvation a
freedom in a pip-squeak like Cast
Armas in Guatemala.
If there is little information abi
Latin America in Dubois, this is ret
cv Gm ; a -
nang.
i, *h 4M, aa eRe S r* gna Ce er
fe y
died to a considerable extent by Tad
Szule. His abilities are an asset to The
New York Times. Though no mention
is made of it in the text or the blurb,
he, too, has had his brushes with diffi-
cult moments. He is the only corre-
spondent who ever had the temerity to
send dispatches from the scene in the
Deminican Republic. He had to be
saved by the Ambassador, and lucky he
was tried, dictator-style, in
absentia, sentenced to jail, fined and
ordered to pay a whopping indemnity
for alleged libel. This futile rage testi-
fies to the accuracy of his reports.
Szule makes few errors, though he
falls into some dubious generalizations
in his chapter on Perén, the only weak
one in his gallery of dictators. Largely
it is a rehash of biased propaganda so
long dished out in the United States.
It is something of a chore, given Perén’s
popinjay character and_ his egregious
mistakes, to place his movement in due
perspective. Szule has done better than
any previous commentator, but he is not
well versed in inner Argentine politics.
To cail the last election of former
Liberal President Hipolito Irigoyen “a
completely untrammeled election” 1s
startling; it was the most coercive and
corrupt election since the days of Rosas.
He claims that Ambassador Spruille
Braden provided the “only post-war”
instance of the United States “taking
a clear unequivocal stand against dic-
was. He
tatorship in Latin America.” Not at
all. Braden meddled atrociously and
improperly in the election, supporting
the platform of the most reactionary
land-holders’ party, in behalf of José
P. Tamborini, an inept stooge of foreign
corporation lawyers, a bumbling, lazy
stock-grower who believed less in de-
mocracy than in Santa Claus. Why
Argentina should owe “an eternal debt
of gratitude” to the sanguinary regime
of General Pedro FE. Aramburu for
turning the country back to its tradi-
tional feudal overlords, Szule does not
explain. To call Frondizi, who took of-
fice in 1958, “the first completely freely
elected president in thirty years,” is
absurd. Is an election in which a gen-
eral decides which parties may par-
ticipate in the election, and in which
the largest party in the country is out-
lawed, a free election?
But Szulc’s story of Vargas is splen-
did; he has real understanding of Brazil.
His other accounts about Odria (Peru),
Rojas Pinilla (Colombia) and Marcos
Pérez (Venezuela) are well done and,
if not profound, give as much as the
average trical reader can absorb.
Though the over-all yardsticks are
mostly those of contemporary United
States political thought, which is twice
as dreary when it attempts to appraise
a foreign culture, Szule has basic ap-
preciation for the economic and political
forces of the various countries,
ARCHITECTURE
Walter McQuade
ON A RECENT Friday evening about
cleven, I was standing in a line of cordi-
al people waiting at the fourth floor
checkroom at the New School for Social
Research on West 12th Street, after a
unique program there titled “What Is
Good Design and Planning in New
York?” It was unique not only because
there were eight intelligent panelists to
be heard, but also because there was
cheese, fruit, pastry, coffee, brandy and
liqueurs to accompany their rationaliz-
I recognized no journeyman city
planners in the audience, which was not
surprising; tickets at $12.50 a head are
not pitched at people in that salary
range, But neither were there any full-
time professional planners among the
eight panelists, which did seem strange.
By 11 P.M. I was missing them. Most
city planners are quiet, penetrating types,
but some I know are given to logical
verbal explosions against the insane com-
: .
7 _ mercial exploitation which takes” ae oF
.
form of very high-priced real estate pro-
motions in the glittering but already
overcrowded central sectors of our large,
depressed cities.
Also by 11 P.M., I was listening still
for a natural voice from the platform,
There may have been such a_ voice
earlier, for | arrived late and didn’t hear
them all, but during my stay something
was soaking up the protest. Finally,
waiting in line to leave, I heard what
it was. In front of me were two stout,
pleasant men of about sixty. (1 could
tell from their haireuts and Sulka neck-
ties that their coats and hats were going
to fit just right.) Tt was a jovial com-
plaint that one made to the other: “So
what was it all about? I came to learn
about city planniiie IT know about
Perhaps money is ha ae New York
ee planning is all rh
her at the New § 100
‘money already.”
-City,”
hat Friday e ning rh aon my
desperate subject of New York’s dedline
as a place to live in, commute to, or do
business in was all focused on a discus-
sion of the scheme for “Grand Central
a $100 million office building to»
be mounted on the broad back of the
space just north of Grand Central Sta-
tion, pushing its steel stems down among
the railroad tracks and commuters. The
structure will add 2.4 million square feet
of space (the Empire State Building
contains 2 million square feet) to that
already compact neighborhood.
On hand to present the rationalization
for this enormous shaft of rentable space
(population is estimated at 25,000 office
workers in the single building) was the
financier of the project, Erwin S, Wolf-
son, with its architect, Richard Roth,
and with Walter Gropius and Pietro
Belluschi, who are design consultants
for the structure. The articulate, ideal-
istic Gropius is famous as the founder
of the Bauhaus in prewar Germany, and
he later was chairman of the department
of architecture at the graduate school of
design at Harvard. Belluschi is dean of
the school of architecture and planning
at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology, and one of the most fluent voices
in American architecture today, a
cogent spokesman for quality and hu-
manism in architecture.
ARCHITECT Roth had first cuta design
fer Grand Central City to the pattern
of the New York City Building Code,
whose system of mandatory setbacks at
certain building heights usually shapes
New York’s jagged commercial struc-
tures. The ziggurat which the capable
Roth drew did not, it is true, bulk up
as tall as the law might allow, but it did
contain 3 million square feet of. floor
space, draped with a commercial curtain
wall. In massing, it resembled a dis-
orderly stack of crates.
Wolfson, perhaps appalled by this
picture of what he would be allowed to
do by law and custom, then engaged
Gropius and Belluschi to improve
things. They persuaded him to cut the
square footage back to 2.4 million in
order to open the street level space —
somewhat, to widen sidewalks and to
permit the reshaping of the building
into a tall, broad, rather good-looking
tower, a flattened-out octagon in plan,
Drawings of the new design go so far
as to make it look pretty, but in the
way—I think—of those towering night-
club showgirls who don’t perform, but —
just stand there and smile. | —
It was clear at the forum, however, —
that even with his oman alirunkeg nil
echoing for praebict rental revenue
the promoter, an tT intellect
aay a i is a ‘ ry : ol
(and a trustee of the New
terests
School), still feels a little guilty. Or per-
haps he merely feels self-conscious. He
is a very successful builder who, in pre-
vious adventures in New York, has
stuck to the commercial last, producing
architecturally undistinguished _ struc-
tures. But now he is cramming what
will be the world’s single largest office
building into the already terribly con-
gested Grand Central area—a_ building
expected to draw 200,000 visitors a day.
Perhaps this is enough to get any man
up on a platform. The professionals he
_ brought with him seemed on the de-
fensive, teo—so much so that when the
time came for the questioning panel to
throw darts at the gargantuan plan, the
_ attack was somewhat anticlimactic.
_ ARCHITECT Victor Gruen, whose firm
_ does interesting planning as well as
buildings, did playfully taunt Gropius
-and Belluschi for their parts in Grand
Central City. He described them as men
“rumored to be aesthetically very con-
scientious,” but, in this case, “victims
of circumstance.” He implied — fairly
_ enough, I thought — that they have
_ operated more or less at the level of the
industrial designer, the packager, in re-
wrapping this merchandise. In the end,
Gruen conceded that the building was
“good under the circumstance” but
asked, “How about those , circum-
stances?” Almost everyone on the plat-
form was to imply the same answer to
this question, to sigh: They shouldn't
let us make this kind of building, this
kind of money. There should be a law
against it. We are strangling our city,
_ victimizing it. But so long as there isn’t
any law....
_ Of the other members of the question-
ing panel, Thomas H. Creighton, editor
of Progressive Architecture, added gent-
ly that the building might have been
blocked by popular protest, even in
_ the absence of law, as was Mr. Moses’
‘proposed depressed roadway through
Washington Square. Peter Blake, as-
“sociate editor of Architectural Forum,
pointed out how difficult, or actually
impossible, it is to build a profitable
office building in New York, except
on the prestige basis, such as Lever
House. Historian Paul Zucker liked the
building’s new design and its siting, but
wondered if anyone would really look at
it in New York City.
_ The critics were depressed, rather
1 opeless, fatalistic. They had a right to
be. As the financial situation of New
‘ork, and its transit situation, and
' ho sing situaticn, and school situation
De . more and more appalling, the
signs of municipal a to seize
10 60 Le
y 30, 1 ¢
je ERT
af a
; os ;
+
Page ce” — a
aS) ie a
~ ; ve” >
‘ . . ; :
upon and celebrate’ are monstrous
schemes like this one, enormous pieces
of finance. They have an unreal glory
when they’re announced, like the clean
white snow when it begins to stick on
New York streets — and the effect ol
all this money is much the same, acousti-
cally, as all that snow — a muffling soft-
ness that stifles outcry and makes it
sound like acquiescent murmers.
AFTER a break for more brandy, ques-
tions came from the floor, some from
challengers more aggressive than the
invited critics. But the evening could
not be pulled back from the gently nega-
tive morass into which it had sunk. The
printed program had outlined the prin-
cipal questions, and all but one had
been answered in the prevailing polite-
ness. Here, condensed, were the answers
I heard:
“Ts New York in danger of overbuild-
ing?” Yes, but that is the only thing
that pays.
“Can aesthetics be balanced with
economics?” Probably not; it all comes
down to a calculation of rents and
mortgages.
“What is the future for large urban
centers?” They can be improved, pos-
sibly, if drastic methods can be brought
to bear — but it may already be too
late.
“At what point should civic conscious-
ness influence building design?” At the
decimal point.
The only new question raised during
the evening was that of outlawing pri-
vate automobiles in the business center.
Everyone, including Wolfson, was for the
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Price: $2.45 232 pp.
Khrushchev’s American speeches constitute an
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They place before the reader Khrushchev the man,
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The full texts of the speeches made by_N. S.
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September 15-27, 1959. These speeches are trans-
lated from the authoritative collection entitled
LIVE IN PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP! published
and widely circulated in the Soviet Union.
importance.
ai,
ban, to cut down congestion. And don’t
build any parking garages, everyone
said, for they only attract people with
cars. The following Monday, Traffic
Commissioner T. T. Wiley proposed to
build fifteen midtown Manhattan park-
ing garages in order to bring the shop-
pers back in from the suburbs and re-
vitalize Manhattan’s waning retail busi-
ness. Perhaps he should have been in-
vited to the forum.
ONE other somewhat scholastic ques-
tion had been printed on the program,
but it had been skirted in talk during
most of the evening, perhaps in order
to minimize professional humiliation:
“How much responsibility should the
architect bear for his product?” At one
point Gropius had taken the brunt, with
characteristic honesty, when asked about
one detail of the Grand Central City
design. He said, wearily, “We cannot
do otherwise.”
But toward the end, when a bold
young lady finally paraphrased this
question of architectural involvement
from the floor, Pietro Belluschi at-
tempted to reply. He was tensely jocular
about it, but did not answer the ques-
tion. He then went on to say: “I'd
like to put in a good word for urban
congestion . . . the nature of the city is
this.... It’s an excitement you can find
only in New York City. .. . You have
decay, yes, congestion, but Times Square
is a wonderful thing... .” He prefers
Times Square to Central Park, it seems;
he pointed out that there were many
muggings and murders in that large
open, uncongested space. Still listening,
I got in line at the checkroom.
THEATRE
Harold Clurman
TO DO justice to Ibsen’s Peer Gynt
on the stage requires the resources of a
great European state theatre — which
also includes a brilliant acting company
— and the imaginative inventiveness of
a Reinhardt, a Guthrie or a Welles.
Without such a rare combination of
advantages, producing Peer Gynt is like
playing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
with a bull fiddle, a trumpet, a harmon-
ica, a kazoo and a high school glee club.
Having said this, I must admit to
having enjoyed the Phoenix Theatre
production of the play. For although I
am uncertain of the quality of any of
the English translations I have heard
(the Phoenix uses Norman Ginsbury’s
1946 Old Vic version), and despite the
apparent unwieldiness of the play’s
construction, I find this youthful Ibsen
work brilliant and beautiful. It has poetic
feeling, humor, satiric verve, vigor, in-
tellectual substance. Written in 1867,
its implications are not only modern
but still entirely pertinent.
Peer is the average sensual man of
the bourgeois society which was reach-
ing its apogee in the middle of the
nineteenth century. He is a vital in-
dividualist of voracious appetite and
energy: calculating and eager to amass
everything — wealth, women, position,
honors. Being the heir of an older so-
ciety in which the old Adam was tem-
pered by religious faith, Peer still re-
tains enough vestiges of morality to
misquote the Bible, of which he ee a
spotty recollection, at every turn, God
too, he is sure, is on his side. Severed
106
from the body of a coherent community,
he believes himself unique. “Free,” his
powers seem to him limitless.
Peer achieves the rewards of his gifts.
He seduces women, begets bastards, is
loved by a pure girl, traffics in the slave
trade, cheats, is cheated only to be fav-
ored by miraculous windfalls, makes
and loses fortunes and sees the world
— a full and adventurous life. He suc-
ceeds in his ambition, which is to be
himself. What he doesn’t realize is that
in his splendidly tempestuous career he
has compromised at every point and
defaulted before every obstacle which
has stood in the way of his presumed
fulfillment. Unfettered, he is unwittingly
an absurd conformist. He is swindled
where he imagines he has triumphed,
and in most instances he has behaved
either as a monkey or a lunatic. He has
served no one, his life has been empty
of any enduring value and he dies with
no saving grace except in the lingering
love of the girl he has deserted. Peer
Gynt is a prophetic legend of con-
temporary society.
Needless to say, the Phoenix is ill
equipped to deal with the overwhelming
challenge of such a play. It would be
wholly unfair therefore to dwell on the
various shortcomings of its production,
I prefer to credit director Stuart
Vaughan and his company for under-
standing the point of every scene so
that the play somehow emerges. Since it
is a masterpiece, it offers more than
many a lesser play which is staged with
far greater skill and assurance.
7 aie the
ART
Maurice Grosser
THE LARGEST and finest exhibition
of Gustave Courbet ever got together
in this country is on view at the Phila-
delphia Museum of Art until February
14, and will then be seen in Boston.
The eighty-six pictures, assembled from
museums and collections here and in
Europe—four from the Louvre—illus-
trate the entire range of the painter’s
work, from the student compositions and
self-portraits of his youth, to the Swiss
landscapes of his last years.
Courbet’s life was long and turbu-
lent. Son of a wealthy farmer from a
village near Besancon, handsome and
talented, he arrived in Paris in 1840, at
the age of twenty-one. One imagines
him as a restless and energetic man,
intensely ambitious, loudly convinced
of his abilities, an intolerant Republi-
can. At first accepted by the Salon, and
then bitterly opposed on account of his
insistent realism, he eventually over-
came all opposition and was acknowl-
edged even by his enemies as a genius.
In 1871, having joined the Commune,
he was pronounced responsible, as its
most prominent and politically active
painter member, for the destruction of
Napoleon’s column in the Place Ven-
déme, and was sentenced to six months
in jail. After his release, his case being
reopened, he fled to Switzerland, where
he died at the age of seventy-eight, his
goods and pictures confiscated. His
place in the history of French painting is
that of being the first of the Realists
and thus precursor of Impressionism.
This celebrated Realism does not ap-
pear in the early self-portraits on view.
These are rather in the high Romantic
tradition: the painter picturing himself
as a beautiful and disdainful young man,
seated on a hillside with pipe, book,
cane and dog, glaring up at the specta-
tor as if annoyed at the interruption of
his meditation; as a guitar player in
beard and Giorgione clothes; and as a
Florentine sculptor, mallet and chisel in
hand, poetically relaxed in the midst
of nature. The Romantic phase was
quickly over. With his stubborn Repub-
licanism and his farm background, he
soon evolved a style of painting which,
in contradistinetion to the liberal Roman-
ticism of Delacroix and to the Tory
Classicism of Ingres, became known as
Realism. That is to say, he abandoned
the Romantic subject matter of the
exotic, the tragic and the marvelous
(such as Delacroix’s Massacre of Chios
or his Death of Sardanapalus), and
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took instead as subjects for his pictures
the commonplaces of life around him
(such as his Burial at Ornans, his native
village, or his famous Bonjour, Mon-
sieur Courbet in which the painter is
saluted on a country road by his richest
collector—a picture also entitled, less
modestly, Fortune Greeting Genius).
Besides giving up Romantic subject
matter, Courbet cut himself free from
all dependence on the Italian Renais-
sance and adopted, in opposition to the
smooth elegance of Ingres, a down-
right and much more brutal way of
painting. His chief technical innovation
was a systematic use of the palette
knife, by which he could obtain, with
one tone pulled over another, the exact
appearance of the textures of nature.
The rocks, bark, foam and foliage of
his landscapes could not be more con-
vincing. The other novelties of his
work, and perhaps the most striking,
were his ability to paint landscape with-
out any poetic overtones, and the hither-
to undescribed style of female beauty
he celebrated.
This style of beauty one finds su-
premely well expressed in his Spanish
Lady with her unbound hair and queru-
lous mouth; and in the Polish Exile
with her aristocratic reserve, her quiet
hands and unquiet eyes—so much like
Eakins in their psychological projection,
but so much better. The two portraits
of the Nodler brothers are even more
powerful and disquieting as psychologi-
cal studies, while the standing figure of
Max Buchon, with hat in hand, cane
and almost ballet-dancer stance, is cer-
tainly the inspiration for the similar
all
portraits by Manet, This is very
fine painting. Many of the open land-
scapes, always empty and curiously
lonely, are as convincing as Corot’s.
The color, however, is seldom as exact.
Courbet’s eye for color tones is not as
nice; and since he almost always em-
ploys the academic formula of cool
lights and warm darks, most of the pic-
tures, even those portraying the out-of-
doors, have the brown shadows of ob-
jects painted under studio conditions,
The most curious aspect of Courbet’s
work, as it is presented here, is its un-
evenness. It seems impossible that the
same painter could have painted both
so well and so badly. Perhaps, painting
as he frequently did, large pictures for
large public exhibitions, he often worked
beyond his fatigue level. The clearest
suggestion of this is in the Demoiselles
du Village, shown here in two versions.
The subject is a green and rocky meadow
in which three town-dressed ladies are
conversing with a peasant girl. The
smaller picture—called a sketch, though
it is in every way complete—could not
be finer. The larger version, blown up
to standard Salon size of about six feet
by ten, is cruder in color, laborious in
drawing, spotty in composition, and the
exquisite scaling of the figures to the
landscape is gone.
Others of the larger pictures with
Salon subjects in Salon sizes are even
Two Views of a Cadaver Room
I
The day she visited the dissecting room
They had four men laid out, black as burnt turkey,
Already half unstrung. A vinegary fume
Of the death vats clung to them;
The white-smocked boys started working.
The head of his cadaver had caved in,
And she could scarcely make out anything
In that rubble of skull plates and old leather.
A sallow piece of string held it together.
In their jars the snail-nosed babies moon and glow.
He hands her the cut-out heart like a cracked heirloom.
Il
s In Breughel’s panorama of smoke and slaughter
Two people only are blind to the carrion army:
He, afloat in the sea of her blue satin
Skirts, sings in the direction
Of her bare shoulder, while she bends,
Fingering a leaflet of music, over him,
Both of them deaf to the fiddle in the hands ds
Of the death’s-head shadowing their song.
These Flemish lovers flourish; not for long.
Yet desolation, stalled in paint, spares the little coun
Foolish, delicate, in the lower right hand corner.
I
araisin inthe sun
starring CLAUDIA McNEIL
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less successful. But size does not al-
ways seem to be the chief difficulty.
Many smaller pictures are just as un-
fortunate. The lesbian Awakening, in
which a brunette nude drops rose petals
on the eyelids of a sleeping blonde is
harsh in color and insensitive in drawing.
A Reclining Nude of 1858 looks like a
particularly poor example of Eilshemius.
And two minor forest pictures of
stags in snow seem like woolly “buck-
eyes” done for the calendar trade.
Whereas the large Deer in Covert, from
the Louvre, and the wonderful Quarry,
from Boston, with huntsmen, horn,
dogs, and Courbet himself as central
figure, are two of the finest forest pic-
tures ever painted.
Several of the weak pictures here
shown are perhaps not wholly Courbet’s
work. In Dressing the Bride, for in-
stance, a large interior with some four-
teen figures, the disparity between the
well-planned composition and the in-
competence of its execution suggest a
beginning by Courbet, carried further
by another hand. Similarly, the Hunt
Picnic with its amateurish painting and
incongruous scale must be either a
pastiche or a remarkably unsuccessful
restoration. And is it possible that the
portrait of Courbet in prison could be
by Courbet himself? It first appeared
publicly in 1903 when presented by
Courbet’s sister, Jacqueline, to the town
of Ornans. It is not signed. Perhaps
the old lady was remembering badly.
It is so uncouth in drawing, color and
composition that it seems more likely
something done by a visitor or student,
a lesson given by the painter to wile
away the tedium of jail.
advertisement
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IN AN adjoining room are some of the
Philadelphia Museum’s latest acquisi-
tions — two Delacroix studies, a figure
piece by Corot, a still life of a hare by
Chardin and a small oil by Daumier.
Comparison with these is not to Cour-
bet’s advantage. The Delacroix are
more sure in their. drawing; the Corot
and Daumier have livelier color; even
the fur in Chardin is better painted.
Not that Courbet lacks skill or talent
or invention. He had more than almost
anybody. But he. seems never to have
matured as a painter, never to have
gained complete control of his talent.
The trouble most probably lay in his
taste for celebrity, and in his addiction
to party politics. With both a profession-
al and a political revolution to occupy his
energies, with so many “great” pictures
to execute and so many eager disciples
to distract him, how could he always
find time for the finer points of his
trade? He remains, for all his genius
and for all his mental activity, the most
uneven workman in the history of French
art.
And yet, despite all this, Courbet is
a precursor and a modern. Daumier,
Delacroix and even Corot, however sym-
pathetic we may find their work, line
up with the Old Masters, whereas Cour-
bet is unmistakably on our side of the
fence. The paletteknife technique of
his forest interiors directed the Impres-
sionists to their theories of broken color
and unified surface tension. And_ his
particular version of Realism led straight
to their doctrine of the innocent eye
and its unprejudiced view of nature,
These are still the basic principles of
our painting today.
advertisement
(Continued from page 101)
to an end, and, his position threat-
ened by many dangers, popular sup-
port for the new king will then be
badly needed. Promises will have to
be made. The Monarchists, includ-
ing. some generals, will not want to
see their king in a suit tailored by
Franco. It will be necessary, there-
fore, to count on what opposition ex-
ists today, on the influential minority
of intellectuals, and to call on them
for leadership and direction. Obvi-
ously this will be met with fear and
resistance. But once the Army’s
monolithic support of the regime is
broken, it will be even more danger-
ous to try to turn the clock back.
The most probable choice will be the
“liberal solution” with the help of
the generals. .
This, unfortunately, will not be
the end, for fresh, difficulties will
then begin. There will be great pres-
sure from below, as there was at the
arrival of the Republic of 1931. In-
stead of passivity, there will be agi-
tation among the people. The anger
now contained will come into the
open. Impossible demands for an
immediate rise in the standard of
living will be made. Once there was
a Socialist Party and labor unions
to channel opinion, but now, at least
at the beginning, there will be none.
And the words “republic,” “mon-
archy,” “liberty” will sound to many
ears less promising than _ before.
There is the-danger that after some
time the Communists will control a
large part of public opinion. The
sad experiences of the past will cer-
tainly serve as a brake, and there
will be talk of moderation. But many
will listen to other voices.
“The main movement will be to-
ward the Left,” my friend the ex-
Falangist, now a sincere democrat,
told me, with a worried expression.
This seems certain to me as well, It
is the law of the pendulum, which
has not failed since the first Consti-
tution of 1812. The question is: how
far to the Left? Can this movement
be channeled along democratic lines?
Many will wish it to be so, but
others will make it difficult and pro-
voke a reaction. The end result will
probably depend, not only on what
happens in Spain, but on what has
happened by then in the rest of the
world, a |
] Vasa Ce Na
Attia ila Lill Ws
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10
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ee
12
14
15
17
3
ACROSS:
2,
Crossword Puzzle No. 852
By FRANK W. LEWIS
See 6 down
How to gather wool on a Hollywood
tour? (8) .
If it is wrong, you'll have a high
time around it. (It may not be a
very good idea!) (6)
What businessmen and conquerors
wn do when they come to terms.
Wandered about with the doctor, if
Hdward appears. (7)
The head of an art form, by the
sound of it. (6)
See 2 down
Not all gclf balls are, according to
the condition of properly kept rec-
ords, (8)
A story about Singapore, for exam-
ple. (6)
See 2 down
and 8 El Greco’s wasn’t an opinion
concerning a fine blade! (1, 4, 2,6)
> This might make beautiful music,
like a boy at a get-together, (6)
Gee and tired? Poe thought so!
This place finally comes to earth.
(Catch her first!) (11)
DOWN:
22 and 15 Obviously fly-by-night.
(4, 5, 3; 4, 8)
See a bit of the town or two? (7)
January 30, 1960
are:
a &
CsA ae
4 Strangely enough, two jacks are
one. (4)
Certainly not calmly thrown. (7)
oO
6 and 1 An impossible way to get
quite honest! (3, 2, 3, 8)
7 See 13
8 See 24
13 and 7 A biow with 8? (Some do not
like such an unsettled condition.)
(5, 6)
16 If you haven’t a clue, this is to
blame! (9)
18 Former candidate to settle on? (6)
19 The bean might sprout in the better
part of 28. (7)
The place where one that made a
famous quote brought up the final
article? (7)
Covered like Feodor? (6)
ol of charm (for the Princess? )
20
21
23
25 Hot-headed, for Henry! (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 851
ACROSS: 1 Capital letters; 9 Satisfy;
10 Caisson; 11 Adrift; 12 Stigmata; 14
Dervish; 15 and 17 Sidesaddle; 19 In
orbit; 21 Stampage; 23 Ferret; 25 In-
sular; 26, 27 and 6 Love is a many-
splendored thing. DOWN: 1 Cassandra;
2 Petered; 3 Task force; 4 Lays; 5
Escutcheon; 7 Rostand; 13 Riding crop;
15 Subserved; 16 Shorthand; 18 Dead
Sea; 20 Terrier; 21 Stir; 22 and 8
Pollyanna; 24 Else.
<> H
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LETTERS
Drug Costs
Dear Sirs: David L. Cowen’s interesting
article on “Ethical Drugs and Medical
Ethics” in your Dec. 26 issue made its
point quite effectively, but it contained
at least one error. The author states
that the cost of a prescription to the
patient can be greatly reduced if the
physician uses the generic name of the
drug rather than the trade name. This
is not correct. If the trade name is
used, the pharmacist is bound to dis-
pense that brand; however, if the gen-
eric name is used, he is at liberty to
dispense any brand he chooses, whether
it be the most expensive or the least.
There is no way to assure that the
least expensive form of the drug be dis-
pensed. In addition, the author makes
the assumption that all brands of the
same drug are exactly equivalent; this
is usually the case, but not always.
E.g., many physicians will specify a
particular brand of thyroid or ACTH to
assure uniformity in these hard-to-
standardize products.
Davin C. Sro.insky, M.D.
San Francisco, Calif.
While Dr. Stolinsky is technically cor-
rect in his argument, most pharmacists
find it good business to use the least
costly way of filing a prescription ac-
curately. The lower price will certainly
please the patient, will likely please the
doctor — and still leaves the pharma-
cist as great, or greater, margin of profit
than the use of an éxpensive “brand”
drug. — Epirors
Dear Sirs: After reading David L.
Cowen’s article, I sent it to my doctor,
with particular reference to the author’s
point that drugs should be prescribed
by their generic names rather than by
brand names. I think you will be in-
terested in his comments:
“Everything in the article is quite
true... . The machinery exists, in the
Food and Drug Administration and in
the Sherman Act, for the control of
many of these abuses, but... the FDA
cannot begin to carry out its responsibil-
ities on the kind of budget it now has.
“Meanwhile, see the poor ‘doctor’s
dilemma.’
his patient. He can in some cases write
for a drug safely by its generic name.
But he has to recognize, in all honesty,
that the quality control maintained by
such companies as Lilly, Lederle, and
His prime responsibility is to
Squibb — out of the most selfish of
competitive motives — is far superior
to that provided by a hamstrung and
discouraged FDA. The A.M.A. for
many years, through its Council on
Drugs, has taken on a responsibility that
the FDA has failed to meet....
“The poor doctor, like all the other
little fellows, will go to the polls in
November and get the kind of govern-
ment he votes for.”
Marcaret FLINT
New Haven, Conn.
Invidious Frame
Dear Sirs: On rare occasions The Na-
tion publishes an article because its con-
cept of freedom of speech seems to com-
pel it to accept material of social protest
even though it may be irrelevantly
pointed. While “The Boat-Show Circus”
(issue of January 16) aptly described
one more facet of our gadget and
tinsel society, as well as the plight of
the little guy in business, the real cry
of the article was that “Progress and
the emergence of a new leisure class”
(“imbeciles”) has pre-empted the days
when the sport of boating was the sole
domain of the wealthy and the gracious.
I may otherwise concur with almost
everything that Mr. Whitehill says, but
the contrast clearly enunciated in his
introduction, and reiterated later with
additional remarks, places the entire
article in that invidious frame of refer-
ence. Many people with a social con-
science (and no interest in boats what-
ever) will resent this approach to a
problem.
Jaime GonzaLez Monroy
North Hollywood, Calif.
Speaks for the Patient
Dear Sirs: We agree with Dr. Pratt, as
quoted by Laurence Barrett in his ar-
ticle, “Blue Cross,” in the January 9
issue, that “the highest quality care at
the lowest cost, is retarded by the at-
titudes of certain segments of the or-
ganized profession.”
The American Patients Association,
dedicated to fully prepaid health care
for all, is urging the necessity for public
regulation of fees for physician, dentist,
pharmacist, optometrist and hospital.
The A.P.A. intends to speak for the
best interests of the American patient,
much as the medical associations speak
for the best interests of some doctors
but not always, unfortunately, for the
best interests of the American public.
Any of your readers who are sick of the
high cost of medicine should get in
touch with us at 4610 West Myrtle,
Visalia, California.
Joseru A. Kine
National President
Third Alternative
Dear Sirs: Readers of The Nation may
be interested to know the results of a
recent Gallup Poll conducted in Nor-
way, a member of the NATO commu-
nity, on the issue of Mr. Khrushchev’s
plan for total disarmament.
While 45 per cent of the representative
sample of 2,000 had not heard of the
plan, a majority of 55 per cent did have
some information about it. Among the
latter, 43 per cent believe that Mr.
(Continued on page 116)
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
109 @
ARTICLES
113 @ De Gaulle Against the Gangsters
by ALEXANDER WERTH
115 @ Apalachin: New Light on a
Novel Case
by FRED J. COOK
119 @ 1960: Failure of Social Imagi-
nation
by JAMES REICHLEY
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
122 @ Canada Is Really There
by MARK GAYN
123 @ Anti-Artist or Prophet?
by MATTHEW JOSHUPHSON
125 @ Quixote Slept Here
by JANE STOLLED
126 @ Art
by FAIRFIELD PORTER
127 @ Music
by LESTER TRIMBLE
128 @ Films
by ROBERT HATCH
128 @ N.Y. Provincial (poem)
by M. RIDDLID
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 128)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
ANNUAL
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, Wditor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Wditor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Music
Alexander Werth, Wuropean
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, Feb, 6, 1960, Vol, 190, No, 6
The Nation published weekly (except for omis-
sion of four summer issues) by The Nation
Company and copyright 1960, In the U.S.A, by
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New York 14, N, Y¥, Second class postage paid
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~~ ee le
ae
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1960
VOLUME. 190, No. 6
EDITORIALS
The Candidates and a Politics of Peace
BENEATH a surface appearance of massive triviality,
momentous issues long in the making may yet give
shape and content to the 1960 election. Over a period of
years, The Nation has insisted that “a politics of peace”
must emerge as cold-war tensions abated. This is now
happening — not because we said it would, but be-
cause peace has become the dominant concern of every
thoughtful American. Yet it remains the great undebated
issue; the candidates resolutely refuse to discuss it unless
it is safely encased in quotation marks. The one hope,
therefore, of keeping this election from being as carefully
rigged as a IV quiz show is to force a discussion of the
one issue that matters.
In an effort to disrupt the bipartisan eagerness to
keep peace from becoming a major issue, The Nation
intends from now through November to judge parties,
platforms and candidates — and ultimately to indicate
its preferences — in terms of this paramount subject.
Everyone, of course, is for peace; the problem is to
sharpen general awareness of what is implicit in a politics
of peace. Keeping the specification as brief as possible,
here is what we think peace connotes as an issue.
Disarmament. All the candidates insist that dis-
armament cannot be pursued as a goal unless we also
manage to keep one step ahead of the Russians in the
arms race. But the arms race has become much too
dangerous to be pursued in the vain twin hopes that
(a) we could ever achieve an overwhelming advantage
or (b) that once having achieved it, the “enemy” would
then obligingly agree to disarm. If war is unthinkable,
as it 1s, then the statement must be taken literally: i.e.,
nuclear war cannot be thought about.
Production for Peace. In the early phases of the cold
_ war, it was possible to combine a guns-and-butter, a
_ welfare-warfare, economy; that time has now passed.
_ The new weapons are not only much too costly; once
“a be closed as long as arms senemneures, with their
they become operational, they are already obsolete and
must be replaced by still more expensive ones. We must
now be concerned not with “the missile gap” but with
the unmet-social-needs-gap which is steadily widening
in a period of unparalleled prosperity. This gap will
THE
NATION
duction in arms expenditures might well be economically
disastrous.
armament must, therefore, be called upon to specify
what he would do to offset its economic consequences.
Cooperation not Coexistence. “Peaceful Coexistence”
is not an issue; it is a fact. The two great powers have
coexisted, at peace, throughout the postwar period.
What is needed is active cooperation between them to
maintain world peace throughout the 1960s; they have
the power, and the objective is in their mutual interest.
World Community. Implicit in a politics of peace is
the clear recognition of the need to evolve a set of in-
stitutions adequate to cope with the problems of the
world community that is rapidly emerging in response
to pressures which are steadily accelerating. This im- }j
plies support for the U.N., which has served the cause r
of peace well throughout the postwar years, and for its oy
specialized agencies. It implies economic aid to under- S
developed areas, intelligent trade policies, cultural ex-
change programs, etc. It implies, too, that American
power, resources and influence should be channeled as :
much as possible through the U.N. and other inter- a
national agencies. of
ad =
Every candidate who says he favors dis- aay ||
THE 1960s will require an exceptional measure of can-
dor, courage, integrity and foresight on the part of
whoever occupies the White House. At hand are certain
“Jitmus” issues, closely related to peace, which might
be used to test candidates for these qualities.
China. The question is not what to do about China;
sooner or later, China will be recognized by Washington
and seated in the U.N. Rather the question is: who |
among the candidates has the courage to say what every
one knows? Only the other day Secretary of State
Herter conceded that China would eventually have to
be made a party to any arms-reduction agreement. Yet _
the candidates of both parties resolutely continue to _
pretend that we will never, but never, recognize Peking.
Civil Rights. If China is a test of candor, civil rights is
a test of honesty. In principle, of course, the case for © b,
il rights is conceded in varying measure by all the —
cn idates; but the fact is that both parties have played doa
hamefu political football with the issue since 1
Polis
ly and pagel: both are equally to blame, The
}
‘ Nation is not pushing any particular civil-rights package;
ty) he we merely insist that the next President, if he is an
honest and determined man, can easily put a stop to
the familiar biennial bipartisan posturing about civil
rights which is about as honest, and as endearing, as
professional wrestling.
See
Civil Liberties. All the candidates have avowed, or will
avow, their willingness to die in defense of the Bill of
Rights, but none of them favors abolition of the two
Congressional committees that have placed the guaran-
tees of the First Amendment in jeopardy. Yet if candi-
dates were tested on the score of political courage, this
would be an infallible touchstone. The facts are not in
serious dispute. The record abundantly demonstrates
that the undeclared purpose of the two inquisitorial
committees — the House Un-American Activities Com-
mittee and the Senate Internal Security Committee —
is to inhibit criticism, stifle dissent, curtail debate; in
brief, to establish a kind of “guided democracy” in the
a totalitarian pattern. Debate on the question would give
the national electorate a chance to indicate whether it
i. approves of informal abrogation of First Amendment
A guarantees by Congressional committees. But here, too,
a tacit bipartisan accord has marked the issue off-
bounds, so that the candidates will not have to take
a stand on it. Only the other day a new appropriation
was sneaked through the House for the Un-American
Activities Committee as an “emergency measure.” Such
measures require “unanimous consent” — that is, ap-
proval by the leaders of both parties — yet passage
was secured without debate, without even a roll-call.
Automation: No issue will provide a better test of
foresight, of the capacity to grapple with the tough
social issues of the 1960s, than the set of problems
usually discussed under the heading of automation.
8 See
. ———
=
THE CANDIDATES, of course, will hotly debate their
marginal differences on a host of minor issues. But
campaigns usually turn on a single dominant issue. The
tacticians of both parties know this, and each party
has selected its favorite. For the Republicans, it will
be “peace” and prosperity. For the Democrats, it will be
Richard M. Nixon — or so it now appears. At the recent
$100-a-plate “Presidential Campaign” kick-off dinner in
- Washington, the assembled party leaders were delighted
to discover that the Nixon issue unites every faction
of the party. Dixiecrats and liberals, city bosses and
_ campus eggheads, union leaders and union busters, old
Democrats and new, pounded tables, slapped backs and
yelled in ecstasy as first one hopeful and then another
took pot shots at the Vice President. Politicians always
prefer to substitute targets for issues; it is easier, there
is less risk. Given divisions as deep and numerous as
those within the Democratic Party today, it is only
natural that its leaders should be eager to sublimate
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their differences under some such slogan as “Nix on
Nix-on.”
But the decision may boomerang. At intervals, history
has a way of inundating politicians, of sweeping them
down and under, of making matchwood of their stale
rites and formulas. It happened a century ago; it
could happen this year. The big floods in politics —
when torrents of new forces and ideas sweep aside the
old entrenched positions — usually come when the
people have moved far in advance of the politicians,
when “new politics” are pushing to the surface, when
the parties have become virtually indistinguishable on
basic issues. If we are not yet in such a period, we are
close upon it. It is precisely the fact that a new politics
is struggling to find expression that accounts for the
sterility of the debate thus far. Candidates are trying
desperately to excite voters with yesterday’s issues.
But the voters refuse to respond; they are “apathetic.”
Before most politicians will shift from old politics to
new, the salability of the new must be demonstrated in
a fairly conclusive fashion. In the meantime, the
candidates instinctively seek insurance against the risk
of new issues by tacitly agreeing not to discuss them.
The issue, we repeat, is peace. Vice President Nixon is
not the issue. The Presidency is not the issue. Jimmy
Hoffa is not the issue. Separation of church and state
is not the issue. The candidates’ ages, respective
oratorical styles, how they comb their hair, whether they
are Catholic, Protestant or Quaker, whether their wives
are charming or their children adorable, whether they
are millionaires or paupers, “charming” or “reserved,”
“warm” or “chilly,” Ivy League or Bush League, matters
little to us. The central issue is peace and it is on this
issue that we intend to judge them.
The Vice President intends to “glide” into the Presi-
dency by appearing to be, whether he is or not, the
logical person to carry on President Eisenhower’s initia-
tive in seeking an end to the cold war. To the extent that
the Democrats succeed in making Nixon their one big
issue, they will simply insure his self-asserted title to
the one big issue that counts. They cannot assume that
all those who dislike the Vice President, or distrust him,
will therefore feel compelled to vote against him. The
circumstance that Mr. Nixon turns out to be the Repub-
lican nominee, for example, does not necessarily imply
that liberal Democrats and independent voters will
support anybody the Democrats name to oppose him.
As long as Mr. Nixon’s claim to possession of the one
major issue is not challenged in the only way the
Democrats can challenge it successfully, namely, by
entering a rival claim, he will retain the advantage. If
the Democrats are determined to wage the 1960 cam-
-paign as Cold Warriors United Against Nixon, the
responsibility will be theirs if he should become the next
President of the United States.
ie
aP.
The Nation
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A Gleam of Sanity
According to accepted statistics, there are 17 million
mentally ill persons in the United States; when one ob-
serves the annual hysteria over the nation’s defenses
as the Congress prepares to dole out the billions to the
contending services, one wonders that there are not
more. This year, however, there appears to be a resolute
effort on the part of the Administration to allay the
public’s fears. Of course this is also a bid for the pub-
lic’s votes, but the results so far have been favorable,
not only for the Republicans, but for the nation.
The new Secretary of Defense, Thomas S. Gates, Jr.,
who has had considerably more experience in the de-
partment than his predecessors, is partly responsible for
a new approach which makes more sense than the old
one. That was to equate the other side’s intentions
with its capabilities, despite all evidence that the two
did not coincide. In addition, it was the practice to
equate the other side’s capabilities with our own, even
when our own had been demonstrated and theirs were
only hypothetical. Thus when Stuart Symington, the
greatest exponent of air power since Billy Mitchell, was
Secretary of the Air Force, he sent American bombers
halfway around the world and almost to the borders of
the Soviet Union. He then called attention to these
flights as signifying the peril, not of the Soviet Union,
but of the United States. The Soviets kept their bomb-
ers at home, but this in no way weakened the force
of the Secretary’s argument in the minds of true
patriots. -
The new look in defense is based in part on estimates
of enemy intentions — an evaluation of what they ap-
pear to be trying to do — as well as on estimates of their
_ capabilities. This is what every sane person does all
the time. If, in our daily lives, we always looked for the
worst, we should be as incapable of survival as are those
who always look for the best. Life calls for a kind of re-
laxed vigilance. One does not walk in the park at
night, but one does not shrink from every pedestrian
as a potential mugger. It may be objected that this is
too cavalier an attitude in such a grave matter as the
national defense. But any other attitude is paranoid,
_ whether in the individual or the nation. The Soviets
have not attempted to take advantage of their present
superiority in rockets. Can it be that their intentions
are no more aggressive than ours? The thought is al-
most treasonable: we have been taught so long that
only we are the pure in heart and our opponents are
_ murderers by original nature. Yet it is a sensible hypoth-
esis and if the Administration is inclined to test it,
: the risks are probably less than if we continue to cry
havoc every year at appropriation time. “The only way
we can deal with this fellow,” said General Nathan F.
ec before the House Defense Appropriations Com-
Ke “Ss not to tell him how deficient we are today;
”
.
we are prone to do this at times, because it gets us more
money. It is the democratic system and I am not buck-
ing it, but I think it is very dangerous.” He felt it nec-
essary to apologize for talking sense, yet somehow the
words came out.
The Rogers Smoke Screen
Attorney General Rogers’ belated attempt to get his
dear friend Vice President Nixon off the spot on civil-
rights legislation just won’t work; as Mark Twain might
have said, it is a bit too palpable. Ostensibly Mr.
Rogers’ proposal for court-appointed referees would go
beyond the Civil Rights Commission’s federal registrar
proposal in that it would apply to state as well as fed-
eral elections. But courts are much less likely instru-
mentalities for enforcing the right to vote than the
type of commission which would be established under
the registrar proposal. Mr. Rogers’ referees would —
please note — be appointed and supervised by Southern
federal judges. The registrar plan, restricted to federal
elections, is constitutionally unassailable; the referee
proposal invites litigation.
But it is the timing of Mr. Rogers’ scheme that is
the real giveaway. Here is the President’s Attorney
General, at the last minute, attempting to set aside by
substitution a proposal submitted to the President as
long ago as September 8 by his own Civil Rights Com-
mission. New hearings would be required on the Rogers
plan (which means more delay); and, eventually, the
proposal would land in the Rules Committee — where
other civil-rights legislation now reposes.
The political motivation of Mr. Rogers’ action is
crystal clear. Recently the Montgomery (Ala.) Ad-
vertiser boasted of the fact that the Dixiecrat-Republi-
can coalition had gone into action on forty roll-calls in
the Senate in the first session of the 86th Congress and
had won twenty-six of them; of eleven in the House,
it had won ten. The over-all percentage of victory was
71. Naturally the Republicans must now pay off to the
Dixiecrats on the one issue that matters to them: civil
rights.
It is idle to blame the President for this; he has never
been a partisan of civil-rights legislation. Nor is Mr. —
Halleck a worthy target; he is just a party hack. The
man responsible is the leader of the Republican Party
— Vice President Nixon. A petition to discharge pend-
ing civil-rights legislation now bottled up in the Rules
Committee would require 219 signatures; 188, including _
only thirty-two Republican names, have been secured |
to date. By snapping his fingers Mr. Nixon could get —
the additional needed signatures. The same result could |
be secured if the Republicans on the Rules Committee
would cooperate with the Northern Democrats in forc- —
ing the chairman to call a meeting,
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i
~ Any way you look at it, the Republicans are squarely
responsible and Mr. Rogers’ smoke screen will not help
them. Send your wires and letters, therefore, to Vice
President Nixon.
The Well-Sited Platforms
Waldo Drake of the Los Angeles Times European
Bureau has come up with a piece of cold-war strategy
which is by no means new, but is expressed with re-
freshing bluntness. Mr. Drake sets out with the de-
pressing observation that in 1959 the American people
spent $46,318,000,000 “in defense of their freedom”
and in all probability will continue to spend that much,
or more, year after year. And about all they are getting
for it, he points out, is the ICBM strategic deterrent,
“which is useless except for the nuclear holocaust.” But
there is a less doleful solution. “Standing in readiness
along the Iron Curtain, from the Alps to the Baltic, the
Bundeswehr might provide a more effective deterrent
than American bombers and ICBMs, 5,000 miles from
their targets.” And on the Soviet Union’s other flank,
Japan offers a similar “well-sited platform to support
America’s defenses in the Atlantic and the Pacific.”
Japan, of course, is far from ready for another Hiro-
shima or Nagasaki, and a nation-wide poll conducted
by the Asahi Shimbun resulted in a vote of 35 per cent
for outright neutralism, while 24 per cent wished to
rely on the United Nations for security and only 14 per
cent expressed a desire for American protection.
But if Japanese sentiment remains relatively pacific,
another platform is available in this vicinity: the island
of Okinawa, occupied by the United States and with
American military facilities worth about a billion dol-
lars. Mr. Drake does not mention Okinawa, but it is
a stout platform just the same, within comfortable
IRBM range of a good chunk of Siberia and eastern
China and, equipped with ICBM launching facilities,
capable of reaching any desired target in the enemy
heartland. No IRBMs or ICBMs are emplaced there
now, but it doesn’t take too long to build them and —
perhaps a significant omission — Okinawa is not men-
tioned in the recently concluded treaty between Japan
and the United States.
History, it is said, repeats itself for those incapable of
learning its lessons. It may be assumed that the Rus-
sians, having lost at least twenty million of their citizens
in World War II, did learn something. In that war the
Axis had a plan strikingly similar to the one proposed
by Mr. Drake, and probably under study in much
higher circles. It too involved the East-West pincers;
all it lacked were the rockets with nuclear warheads.
From a Soviet standpoint, the rockets are scarcely an
improvement. The Russians could not be charged with
undue sensitivity if they suspected that preparations are
being made to repeat history, again at their expense.
When they are told that the “safety of the West de-
412
pends upon preservation of two nuclear-deterrent plat-
forms, in Germany and Japan, on either flank of the
Russo-Chinese Marxist bloc,” they may wonder what
their safety depends on, and what assurance they have
that the platforms will be used only to repel aggres-
sion. A Russian, precisely like an American, feels un-
comfortable looking down the barrel of a gun; some
nasty ideas may enter his head.
The Atomic Sewer
The waste materials from atomic plants present dif-
ficulties which seem to baffle the Atomic Energy Com-
mission and lesser brains. One of the most baffled is
“Old Bob” Boswell, a respectable junkman of Long
Beach, California. In strict accordance with the tenets
of the free enterprise system, Mr. Boswell contracted
with the commission to dispose of 2,800 barrels of
radioactive waste by loading the barrels on barges,
towing the barges 185 miles out to sea, and dumping
them. The barrels began arriving at Mr. Boswell’s junk
emporium and when almost 1,000 were on hand, he
applied to the Long Beach City Council for a permit
to convey them to the harbor for loading. The Council-
men were horrified and ordered Mr. Boswell to get out
of the business of disposing of atomic wastes in their
peaceful and salubrious metropolis, and to get rid of
the wastes already on hand. Mr. Boswell tried to com-
ply with the orders of the civic fathers, but found his
warehouse ringed with patrolmen, The police main-
tained that Mr. Boswell was operating a junk business
without a license and in preventing him from moving
the barrels they were merely doing their duty.
Mr. Boswell complained that he was losing $2,600 a
day. The Atomic Energy Commission flew down ex-
perts from San Francisco with Geiger counters. The ex-
perts certified that the barrels agitated the counters
hardly more than a wrist watch with a radium dial.
The wheels of bureaucracy ground slowly, while the
free-enterpriser junkman staved off rapidly approaching
bankruptcy. Finally he received permission from the
Long Beach City Council and the Atomic Energy
Commission to load the barrels onto barges waiting in
Los Angeles Harbor. But his troubles were not at an
end. After about 1,000 barrels had been loaded, the
port warden of Los Angeles, Admiral Frank Higbee,
called out the Coast Guard and stopped the loading.
It appeared that the Admiral had not been consulted,
he was no minion of either the Long Beach City Coun-
cil or the Atomic Energy Commission, and he had no
assurance that the barges were seaworthy. As The
Nation went to press, this is where the matter stood.
_A possible solution might be to send Mr. Boswell to the
Soviet Union as an exchange student. They have atomic
wastes, too, and Mr. Boswell is probably in a mood to
study their disposal methods,
use
Paris, January 28
IN MAY, 1958, the ultras of Algiers,
with the full support of the Army,
"overthrew the Fourth Republic and
installed General de Gaulle as head
of the Government. Twenty months
later—on Sunday, January 24, 1960
—the same ultras rebelled against
de Gaulle. The President of the Fifth
Republic expected the Army to crush
the rebellion, and the Army refused
to do anything. Today a part of
central Algiers is occupied by the
“insurgents”; this part of Algiers is
“encircled” by the Army, and rela-
tions remain courteous and cordial
between the men on the two sides of
the barricades erected that Sunday.
Food, drink and munitions are being
supplied to the “insurgents” from
outside, without the Army interfer-
ing. The fact that, on Jan. 24, the
“Insurgents” opened fire on a num-
ber of gendarmes who were trying
to control a “spontaneous” street
demonstration demanding that de
Gaulle be hanged, and killed eleven,
of them (in the shooting that fol-
lowed some twenty-five people were
killed and 150 wounded), has now
been conveniently forgotten by both
sides. The fraternization between the
Army and the insurgents and the
exchange of cigarettes and glasses of
red wine across the barricades are
positively idyllic.
On May 13, 1958, things were dif-
ferently organized; the guards pro-
tecting the Government-General
building were not fired at by the
rioters and, on mysterious orders
from somewhere, they discreetly
withdrew, and the building was
promptly occupied by the “insur-
gents”; General Massu’s paratroop-
ers then took over, drove the “in-
surgents” out of the building, and
General Massu proclaimed himself
the president of a newly formed
Committee of Public Safety, whose
members—let us recall—included
two gentlemen called Lagaillarde
(who had organized the storming of
the building) and a certain Orthiz,
re ALEXANDER WERTH, The Na-
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De Gaulle Against the Gangsters . . by Alexander Werth
a café proprietor who had been mixed
up in the famous “bazooka affair”—
the purpose of which was to assas-
sinate the “unduly soft” Commander-
in-Chief General Salan—and who
spent a good deal of his time at the
Villa des Sources, where Algerian and
other suspects were being tortured.
To make things easier for themselves
—and to gain a great deal of support
in metropolitan France — Massu,
Orthiz, Lagaillarde and the rest of
them hastened to proclaim that they
were good French patriots, and that
they wanted a Government of Pub-
lic Safety set up in France—under
the chairmanship of that great man,
General Charles de Gaulle. If not,
paratroopers would land in Paris,
and a military dictatorship would be
set up. Scared of civil war, France
hastened to agree to the de Gaulle
solution as a lesser evil.
It was as simple as that. No soon-
er had de Gaulle been invested with
practically unlimited powers by the
National Assembly in June, 1958,
than he went to Algiers and there,
in the midst of cries of victory from
the Algiers populace, he began a
historical speech with the words “Je
vous at compris’ (“I have under-
stood you”).
THE EXPERIENCE of the last
twenty months, culminating in the
second Algiers putsch, shows that de
Gaulle made a terrifying mistake
when he thought he had “under-
stood” Algiers: he had not under-
stood it. Perhaps he had understood
the ultras; he seemed to know from
the start that they were a bunch of
thugs and maniacs while many, like
Lagaillarde and Orthiz, belonged to
the Algiers criminal fringe. During
his numerous visits to Algeria, he
treated them with unvarying con-
tempt and disdain, usually refusing
to see them and, once or twice, tell-
ing them just what he thought of Ah
them: he was clearly against the dy
Committees of Public Safety, which
he regarded as self-appointed bodies
claiming to enjoy some kind of au- eel
thority independent of the central vit
Government in Paris. In fact, he did
not bother about the Committees of
Public Safety—they were beneath =
contempt. But he did nothing about
them. What he was interested in was
the Army. i We
AND THE tragedy is that he had
‘not understood the Army either. He
imagined that, by and large, it had
gone “Gaullist.” He often went to Ru ae
Algeria; he dined with generals,
colonels and captains. There were ‘Ge
certain elements in the Army whom
he disliked and distrusted—the “psy-
chological action” men, for instance,
like Colonels Goussault and Lache-
roy, who had come back from Indo-
China with all kinds of phony ideas
about “totalitarianizing” not only
Algeria, but ultimately also France.
So he purged these men, and some
others who had been much too close-
ly associated with the May 13, 1958,
putsch. He is said to have removed
some 1,400 such officers from Al- |
geria. Salan, who had played a curi-
ous double game of his own, frat-
ernizing half the time with the Com- _
mittee of Public Safety thugs and —
half the time assuring de Gaulle of —
his undying loyalty, was also finally
kicked upstairs in December, 1958.
In short, de Gaulle mistakenly imag-
ined that he now had the Army in
hand.
After a long lull that lasted near-
ly nine months, de Gaulle—whose
prestige was still very great in-
France—decided that the time had_
come (and for this there were inter-
national, financial and plain com-—
mon-sense reasons) to make another —
S————
es ==
==
a
oe
ely
decisive step towards a scttlement
of the Algerian problem. And so, on
September 16, came his famous
“self-determination” proposal. No
doubt, it was full of ambiguities; it
provided for very long delays; it de-
clared in effect that, whatever the
vote was, and even if it meant the
partition of Algeria, France would
still keep the oil-producing areas and
the access to them. But despite its
ambiguities and obscurities, French
opinion as a whole welcomed the plan
as a step in the right direction. It
was known that it had been discuss-
ed with President Eisenhower, and
had met with his full approval.
This in itself was enough to make
the whole thing highly suspect in
the eyes of “Algiers” which, it will
be remembered, had rebelled in May,
1958, very largely as a result of the
screaming that had gone on for
weeks over Mr. Eisenhower’s Mur-
phy mission, and the warning given
by Lacoste—then “Socialist” Minis-
ter of Algeria—that, with the aid of
the United States, a “diplomatic
Dien Bienphu” was being prepared.
De Gaulle’s “self-determination”
plan started a new smoldering proc-
ess in Algeria, and particularly in
Algiers. The professional soldiers got
nervous. They have a vested inter-
est in their war; whole it lasts, these
officers are important; they receive
high pay, and they can act as the
mightiest of all pressure groups in
Paris. As les Echos wrote the other
day: “There is only one powerful
political party in France, and that
is the Army.”
THE ARMY was dissatisfied with
de Gaulle’s plan. The ultras were
furious. Ostensibly to fight Algerian
terrorism, they proceeded to form
armed paramilitary units called “pa-
triotic militia”; in October, the no-
torious Orthiz started a new organi-
zation (in addition to a variety of
other Fascist and semi-Fascist or-
ganizations) called F.N.F. (Front
National Frangais), closely associ-
ated with a phony Fascist organiza-
tion in France called Jewne Nation,
distinguished chiefly for noisy, anti-
Semitic and anti-de Gaulle propa-
ganda, usually taking the form of
thousands of wall scribblings such as
“De Gaulle-Mendés-France.” The
scribbles were acompanied by the
114
AN! Ae - Se
Jeune Nation symbol, the Celtic
cross—a cross with a circle round it,
something very like Hitler’s swastika.
Now, it has been known in Paris
for some time that something was
brewing in Algiers. M. Pinay, the
Minister of Finance, quarreled with
de Gaulle, ostensibly for personal
and financial reasons; he did not
resign from the Cabinet, he was
fired by de Gaulle. In a rather de-
fiant farewell speech to the press,
the retiring Minister declared that
he wasn’t saying adieu, merely au
revoir. Was Pinay, the Little Man,
the hero of a part of Big Business,
of the Bourse and of the shopkeep-
ers of France, the man of stable
prices and of the New Franc, who
had already, in 1952, busted up de
Gaulle’s R.P.F. (Rally of the French
People), now challenging the au-
thority of the Great Man? There
was another card he was playing: he
now posed as the man of the Amer-
ican Alliance, of NATO, of Europe.
It was said that he was acting with
the encouragement of Mr. Dillon of
the State Department and of Gen-
eral Noris Norstad of NATO, both
of whom were sick and tired of de
Gaulle’s “independence” and gran-
deur francaise game, and worried
about his coming téte-d-téte with
Khrushchev.
What tricky game was de Gaulle
playing in the international field?
Not Pinay himself, but the official
organ of the conservative “Independ-
ents” was now violently attacking
de Gaulle for being not only a bad
ally of America’s, but also for being
a “bad republican.” The Great Man
was charged with being a “mon-
archist,” a “Louis XIV” who be-
lieved in the principle of L’/tat,
c’est Moi. Coming from an Algiers
diehard like Duchet and a bunch of
other old Vichyites, the whole thing
was rather comic and yet—. There
was something behind all this. Pinay
was not an Algerian diehard; on the
contrary, as Minister of Finance, he
was in favor of saving money on Al-
geria. But now that he was no longer
responsible for the Treasury, he made
peace with Duchet.
And then, a few days after the
Pinay bombshell, came the Massu
bombshell. The firing of Pinay had
already weakened de Gaulle; the
shopkeepers were sorry to see Pinay
4 ;
ee 2S,
go; there was even talk of de Gaulle
now starting a quasi-Socialist, éta-
tiste economic policy.
Despite ambiguous—very ambigu-
ous—denials, nobody doubted for a
second that what Herr Kempski of
the Siiddeutsche Zeitung published
in his paper was exactly what Massu
had said at Algiers: namely, that he
wholly disagreed with the de Gaulle
Algerian policy and that under no
circumstances would the’ French
Army quit Algeria. De Gaulle be-
lieved the denials no more than any-
body else; and that was why, with-
out further ado, he fired Massu.
What was even more serious than
the publication of the Massu state-
ment was Kempskv’s postscript, writ-
ten from Tunis, which made it clear
that General Challe, the French
Commander-in-Chief in Algeria, had
arranged the interview with Massu;
that Challe had encouraged Massu
to say what he did say; and that
Challe himself had become an ultra
under the influence of the Algiers
“climate.”
AND then on Sunday, January 24,
three days after the firing of Massu,
came the Algiers riots. These were
no longer conducted “under the
banner of de Gaulle”; they were di-
rected against de Gaulle. For months,
Algiers had been flooded with anti-
de Gaulle leaflets.
After a day of consultation, de
Gaulle’s reaction on Monday night
was the most obvious one: the Army
must immediately mop up this “cen-
ter of resistance.” To quote Paris-
Presse:
Last night General de Gaulle im-
pressed upon the Council of Minis-
ters his determination to go the
whole hog.
He felt both humiliated at having
been double-crossed and disappointed
at having to play the role of “di-
vider,” rather than “assembler.” But
he decided that the “Algiers redoubt”
must be wiped out. Yet, though firm,
he was also deeply pessimistic. “If
the French,” he said, “want a dic-
tatorship, they can have it. But the
only way of preventing this is to nip
the Algiers rebellion in the bud, To
negotiate with the insurgents is mere-
ly to ask for more trouble a fortnight
hence. It will also ruin every chance
of a French solution to the Algerian
problem.” |
j
a
7 og
The paper also reported that de
Gaulle considered the possibility of
Algeria’s seceding from France alto-
gether. The Government was sharp-
ly divided; Malraux advocated the
strong stand; others (M. Soustelle
among them) were against any at-
tempt to apply armed force to the
Algiers “redoubt.” They argued that,
according to Challe, the commanders
of the various army units had said
that while their troops would not
allow the insurgents to extend their
area, they were very unlikely to obey
if ordered to fire at them.
THAT WAS why de Gaulle ordered
Premier Debré to go on a lightning
visit to Algiers on Monday night to
appraise the situation. He arrived
there in the middle of the night,
making sure that he would not be
seen by the Algiers crowds who
probably would have lynched him;
he conferred with Delouvrier and
Challe, and returned with the con-
clusion that the Army had decided
to remain “neutral” in the conflict.
What can General de Gaulle do
now? French opinion is, in the main,
behind the President. But the fact re-
mains that the Army in Algeria has
clearly rebelled against him. Where
does the Army stationed in France
stand? Where do the police stand?
In May, 1958, both were on the side
of “Algiers.”
France is in no mood for a Fascist
revolution which Orthiz, Lagaillarde
and a large part of the French Army
in Algeria would like to start here.
Life has been comfortable under de
Gaulle. But today de Gaulle is be-
ginning to look more and more like
Coty in May, 1958, and Debré like
the luckless M. Pflimlin.
And one cannot help recalling the
words de Gaulle once uttered, back
in 1953, in a moment of deep dis-
couragement:
Think of how very many failures
have marked my public life! .. . If
these failures had been mine, they
would have been of no importance.
But they were also the failures of
France. ..
Is what is happening now going
to prove the last and supreme failure
_ APALACHIN: New Light on a Novel Case... Fred J. cook
Many important facts hitherto not generally known about the Apalachin
case are disclosed in the following account of what was undoubtedly the top
‘precedent.—Epirors.
ON DEC. 18, 1959, twenty gangland
figures were Sonvicied of participat-
ing in a Mafia conspiracy at the
town of Apalachin in upper | New
York State. The Mafia is the secret
“sista society of Sicilian or
that has become a vital
crime story of 1959. The genesis of the article is itself of interest.
editorial in our January 2 issue, we stated our belief that the case could
set a disturbing precedent from the point of view of civil liberties.
prompted Milton R. Wessel, chief prosecutor at the trial, to offer us certain
background material which he hoped would clarify the complex issues in-
che = a was recel
og in the
to con- |
In an
This
volved. The result is this article, written by a top-notch reporter whose
qualifications are well known to Nation readers.
Among other things, there is revealed here the actions of a truly con-
_ | Scientious prosecutor seeking a conviction on the facts, and not on appeals
| to prejudice or emotion. But however much credit Mr. Wessel is entitled
to on this account, we find nothing in the new material to warrant a change
in our editorial opinion. We still think the Apalachin case sets a dangerous
always been considered an extraordi-
nary triumph of | the Jaw; to bag
twenty at one sitting is an accom-
pete Bt
plishment for whic
there is no preceden
- Yet the verdict dre
of de Gaulle? He is a man who easily
gives way to discouragement. But
one hopes he will remember that, not
so long ago, 80 per cent of the peo-
ple of France voted for him; that
perhaps as many—or more—would
vote for him again if they believed ‘Oa Tl
in his autheaoy But what if de ‘ad
Gaulle has lost faith in his own au--
thority? Or what if, as is whispered, .
he is already thinking of a successor?
At this writing, on the eve of an Ail
expected public statement by de i
Gaulle, everything seems inextricably
tangled. Algiers, which overthrew the +
Fourth Republic, is threatening to wal
overthrow the Fifth. Will de Gaulle ra)
be able to assert his authority, or
will he surrender to the gangsters? Us
For Orthiz and Lagaillarde are both =
gangsters, and the terrifying thing is
that Algiers and a large part of the
Army should be in sympathy with
them.
And if de Gaulle surrenders to the
gangsters, what kind of figure will he
cut at his meeting with Khrushchey,
or at the Summit Conference in
May?
tarians it met with criticism on the
ground that it might establish a dan-
gerous precedent leading to a further
invasion and weakening of individual
rights. More important—and_ gen-
erally unrecognized—was one ironical
fact: the conviction of the Apalachin
twenty, a novel achievement that
could have charted a new pattern in
law enforcement, is not likely to be
repeated, as things stand, because —
the federal government, even before.
the victory, had scuttled the means —
by which it was achieved. “
The Apalachin conspiracy trial wa s-
the crowning achievement of a
unique task force created on Ap
10, 1958, by U.S. Attorney General I
William P. Rogers to concentrate on
the problem of top-level crime. The
task force lived as a unit for barel ly
one year. In April, 1959—before the
Apalachin trial began—it was order-
ed broken up and its personnel folie
back into a various “sprawling | bu-
reaus and local offices of the Depart-
ment of Justice. Only the boss of
the special unit, Milton R. Wessel,
and his immediate staff stayed on
the job to prosecute the conspiracy
case; and with their victory just a
week before Christmas, the last ves-
tige of the special unit simply curled
up and died. Mr. Wessel himself re-
signed about a fortnight ago. (De-
tails of the dissolution of the special
task force were described by Ronald
May in The Nation, June 27, 1959,
in an article entitled “Organized
Crime and Disorganized Cops.’’)
THE EXTINCTION of the Wessel
squad, especially in the afterglow of
Apalachin, is an issue of public mo-
ment that might well inspire at least
a look by Congressional committees.
Such a Congressional probe almost
certainly would reveal that Apalachin
was only a first-act victory, and that
other equally vital prosecutions—
some of them actually started by
Wessel and his aides—remain to be
fought to conclusion. For example:
§]New York City residents, already
intrigued by the charges of Repre-
sentative Adam Clayton Powell
(Dem., N.Y.) that police have har-
assed small-time Negro policy opera-
tors in Harlem and ignored the white
big shots of the racket, might be in-
terested in the picture of the big
city’s policy racket developed by
some of Wessel’s former investigat-
ing crew in a six-month probe. The
picture showed a well-organized syn-
dicate operation involving bets esti-
mated at some $500 million in just
100 working days—a possible over-all
total, if projected on an annual basis,
of some $1.5 billion. So dominated
from the top is the racket that policy
operators work on a commission
basis. When they run afoul of the
law, lawyers and bondsmen—men
often personally unknown to them—
automatically pop up in court and
put up the bond or pay the fine.
The key links in the chain appear
to be the legal mouthpieces, who
alone have contact with both the
underlings and the higher-ups. The
real masterminds, the probe showed,
control the racket from safe retreats
in Florida and Nevada. Prosecution
of this colossal ring, with its power
to bribe and to corrupt, was nearly
ready to get under way last summer
116
when a decision of the U.S. Supreme
Court, reinforcing one a year earlier,
threw up a roadblock. The court de-
creed that to convict even a policy
runner, physical contact must be
proved, a stipulation which makes
it doubly difficult to get at the real
brains who operate at a distance, in-
sulated by a screen of lawyer go-
betweens. Still, investigators familiar
with the case believe the evidence is
so good that the legal attack could
successfully be recast along different
lines.
{Just as vital and even more
sweeping was a probe undertaken by
the Southern regional office of Wes-
sel’s unit into a nation-wide book-
making operation. Thousands of
telephone call slips were examined
and tolls were tracked down, a la-
borious process that ultimately pin-
pointed lay-off centers for the multi-
billion-dollar bookmaking racket
across the nation. The telephone net-
work was found to link eight major
cities, including Miami, Chicago and
Los Angeles; and it was the hope of
Wessel’s special unit before it was
disbanded that a conspiracy case
might be developed that would jail
the masterminds of this truly mam-
moth operation.
The significance of this unfinished
business — and the overriding im-
portance of the issue that it poses—
become apparent when one realizes
that the axing of the Wessel task
force destroyed the agency with the
best potential for prosecuting syndi-
cated crime on a national basis. The
Justice Department contends that
the job can be done by its original
crime and racketeering section; but
if that is so, why was it necessary to
set up the special Wessel squad in
the first place? We have come, it
would seem, full circle; and we are
left with just what we had before—
separate local, state and federal ju-
risdictions limited to specialties such
as income-tax evasion, narcotics vio-
lations and the transporting of stolen
cars across state*lines. This is what
Wessel calls “splintered” law enforce-
ment, helpless to weave together the
complex strands of national criminal
conspiracies that know no boundaries.
THE APALACHIN case is a per-
fect illustration of the problem. On
Nov. 14, 1957, a New York State
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trooper, Sergeant Edgar L. Croswell,
spotted an unusual number of high-
powered cars around the hilltop man-
sion of the late Joseph Barbara, Sr.,
in the rural community of Apalachin.
Croswell set up a roadblock, and as
soon as this was discovered, cars
began to roar down the road and
darting figures could be seen taking
to the fields and brambles in frantic
flight. The final roundup showed
that sixty-three men had met at the
Barbara manse. Most had long po-
lice records; a great number had been
identified by authorities previously
as Mafia members; several had at-
tended similar crime conclaves in
the past.
The reverberations of Apalachin
were tremendous. Grand juries, state
crime commissions, federal agencies
broadcast subpoenas like snowflakes
in a blizzard. Like a cancer cell, every
participant at Apalachin was placed
under the high-powered scrutiny of
multiple microscopes. But the result
at first was complete frustration. The
Apalachin delegates either claimed
the Fifth Amendment and refused
to talk; or they talked and told, with
various degrees of plausibility, essen-
tially the same story—they’d heard
that their old friend Joe Barbara
was ill with heart trouble and they’d
just dropped in to see him and were
surprised to find that a lot of other
men had had the same idea at pre-
cisely the same time.
In the white heat of the furor
aroused, Attorney General Rogers
LETTERS
(Continued from inside cover)
Khrushchev’s disarmament plan is real-
istic and can be carried out, while 34
per cent are skeptical and the remaining
23 per cent undecided. On the independ-
ent issue of whether the plan ought to
be tried, 61 per cent of those who have
heard about it answer in the affirma-
tive, only 13 per cent in the negative,
and 26 per cent are undecided,
Though the American press seems far
more inclined, compared to the press of
other democratic NATO countries, to
discourage intelligent criticism of basic
cold-war premises, one wonders how a
similar inquiry would come out in this
country,
CuristiAN Bay
Assistant Professor of Speech
University of California
Berkeley, Calif.
The N
7
announced the formation of a new
group within the Justice-Department.
It was called the Attorney General’s
Special Group on Organized Crime.
It was headed by Wessel, a short,
stocky, energetic lawyer of thirty-
five who gathered about him a young
and enthusiastic staff, eager to go
out and slay the dragon.
Dragon-slaying was, indeed, their
proclaimed, official purpose. Ameri-
can crime, which went big-league on
Prohibition millions, had roared un-
checked for thirty years, bankrolled
by literally billions of dollars from
illicit liquor, policy, bookmaking,
casino gambling, narcotics, and labor
and industrial rackets of every kind.
It had become a monster, bribing
and corrupting until it undermined
the official fabric of many cities and
even of entire states; a secret of its
strength was that it knew no bound-
aries and no restraints, and so could
sneer at local jurisdictions. At Apa-
lachin, delegates came from the East,
the Midwest, California, Cuba and
even, so it was reported, from Italy,
where a couple of the boys had had
recent contact with foreign syndicate
leaders. To meet a challenge so
sweeping, Wessel’s group was to op-
erate against syndicated crime on a
broad national scale, correlating and
putting to use every scrap of infor-
mation that could be gathered from
agencies everywhere.
This was the dream. It endured
for some eleven months.
ON FEBRUARY 4, 1959, Wessel
urged before a Congressional com-
mittee the establishment of a per-
manent Office on Syndicated Crime.
He stressed the splintered nature of
law enforcement; emphasized that
nowhere in government does there
exist any permanent body capable
of unifying, and acting upon, the dis-
coveries of thousands of local, state,
federal and special law-enforcement
agencies; and he detailed the struc-
ture and nature of the modern crime
syndicate. He pointed out that crime
is a well-organized big business; its
management is often far removed
from actual operations; it is insulated
and protected by an organizational
structure that operates on separate
levels, with the links between the
levels well hidden. Key figures in
the hiding process are expert ac-
bruary 6, 1960
,
Vin*
countants and lawyers, who help to
keep the men at the top from any
easily traceable contact with the
work of their underlings.
The only way to combat such well-
organized criminal syndicates, Wes-
sel felt, was to establish a permanent
unit to serve as “a true catalytic
agent ... a nerve center or clearing
house” for law-enforcement agencies
across the country. The reaction of
the Department of Justice to this
idea came quickly. A month after his
presentation, Wessel was informed
that his special task force was to be
broken up; and in April, in a move
sugar-coated with praise for Wessel’s
work, the formal orders were issued.
All that was left of the dragon-slay-
ers of the previous year were Wessel
and his own immediate staff, They
continued on the job to attempt a
prosecution of the Apalachin case
along experimental lines that seemed
to many older and wiser heads in the
department to have little chance of
success,
THE BASIS of the prosecution was
the contention that the Apalachin
delegates had joined in a conspiracy
to thwart and obstruct justice. While
no investigative agency had been
able to get a definite account of the
agenda at Apalachin, Wessel and his
aides were convinced that conspiracy
could be proved by exposing the
stories told by the mobsters as con-
cocted in common to conceal the
truth. What the prosecution was do-
ing, in effect, was to attack a con-
spiracy hatched to hide the purposes
of the Apalachin meeting, which may
itself have constituted a conspiracy.
The trial that resulted has been
attacked by many who are sensitive
to possible new threats to civil liber-
ties. The criticism falls into two main
categories. The first deals with the
legal problems arising from Sergeant
Croswell’s impromptu — roadblock.
After all, no arrests were made at
the time; Croswell preferred no
charges against the defendants. Is it
just, then, that information obtained
from them without arrest, without
the lodging of any formal charge,
should be turned against them? The
issue was thoroughly argued before
the trial, and Judge Irving R. Kauf-
man issued a two-part ruling. He
held that the prosecution could not
make use of any documentary evi-
dence (some of it quite significant)
that had been found on the de-
fendants. On the other hand, he took
the position that police officers had
a right to testify orally about what
they had learned during the course
of an investigation, even though no
immediate charge had been filed.
Otherwise, indeed, how could legal
action ever result from lengthy, com-
plicated investigations?
The second major issue in the
civil-liberties area has been raised
since the trial, but was never, sig-
nificantly enough, argued by the de-
fense itself at the time. This problem
can best be expressed by a question:
How can men be tried for conspir-
ing when the government does not
know the details of the conspiracy?
What proof is there that there was
a conspiracy? The patter about visit-
ing a sick friend certainly sounds
preposterous, but not even a gang-
ster should be convicted on the re-
sumption that he has told a prepos-
terous story—only on proof that he
has.
The answer to this objection is
117
that the prosecution, in dealing with
one after another of the twenty de-
fendants, showed that they had lied
and that each had agreed to back up
the lies of the others in order to hide
what really went on at Apalachin.
This proof of oft-repeated perjuries
was the essence of the government’s
case that here was a colossal con-
spiracy to obstruct justice.
A FEW examples may help to ex-
plain the whole.
John Montana, a businessman who
once was designated Buffalo’s “Man
of the Year,” had claimed his car
broke down near Apalachin and he
just “happened” to go to Barbara’s
home looking for help. But a maid
in the Barbara household testified
that she had heard Montana apolo-
gize to Barbara for being late.
Russell A. Bufalino, a power in the
Pittston-Scranton area of Pennsyl-
vania, said that, quite by accident,
he had met another of the defend-
ants, Frank A. DeSimone, in New
York on Nov. 13, 1957. Bufalino said
he had suggested to DeSimone that
they take a ride out into the country
the next day, and the ride just hap-
pened, by chance, to land them at
Apalachin. It was not a plausible
story, but it was a hard one to dis-
prove until the government produced
the register of a Scranton hotel
which showed that Bufalino had been
in Scranton, not New York, on Nov.
13. He had appeared personally at
the hotel, as testified by a hotel
clerk, and had made reservations for
three Apalachin-bound cronies.
Another revealing sequence dealt
with Dominic J. Alaimo, a power in
the Pittston-Scranton labor field,
named in the trial not as a defendant
but as a co-conspirator. Alaimo,
according to police, was in the first
car to speed from the Barbara man-
sion after the roadblock was discov-
ered. Sergeant Croswell, not yet de-
cided on a course of action, let the
car go but radioed its license num-
ber to a prowl car on the highway.
There Alaimo was stopped. Later, in
the roundup and questioning of
others leaving the mansion, James
Osticco told authorities that he had
driven to Apalachin with Alaimo and
Angelo J. Sciandra. At the time, this
didn’t seem like an important ad-
mission; it only became so when
118
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Alaimo, evidently figuring that he
was in the clear because he hadn’t
been stopped at the roadblock, calm-
ly denied that he had ever been at
Apalachin. But after Alaimo and
others involved came together at a
New York hotel to await testifying
in one of the Apalachin probes, the
discrepancy in stories was eliminated.
All now vowed that Alaimo had
never been at Apalachin. The gov-
ernment contended that this sud-
den and uniform switch in testimony
ey
—a switch that conflicted, more-
over, with the detailed accounts of
responsible police officers—obvious-
ly had been concocted as part of a
conspiracy to thumb noses at the
operations of justice.
So it went in case after case. The
6,000-page trial record seems to
show clearly that this was a convic-
tion based on hard-won evidence,
not on any loose presumption of
guilt drawn from the fact that men
with unsavory backgrounds happen-
ed to be discovered consorting to-
gether. Indeed, there is abundant
evidence that Wessel, in prosecuting
the case, leaned over backwards to
avoid any guilt-by-association or
guilt-by-past-record taint.
BEFORE the trial, Wessel wrote all
New York newspaper publishers
asking that they avoid any sensa-
tional articles, any feature stories
dealing with the defendants’ pasts
and records, and that they confine
their coverage solely to the develop-
ments in the courtroom. A similar
request was made of television and
radio stations, and as a result some
projected television programs, one
scheduled over a nation-wide net-
work, were postponed.
Equally revealing are the tactics
followed by Wessel in the pre-trial
maneuvering. He made available to
the defense some 4,500 pages of pro-
posed prosecution testimony. In one
pre-trial document sealed by the
court until after the legal battle was
over, the prosecutor voluntarily lim-
ited the government’s case in several
important areas and even suggested
to defense counsel what topics they
should avoid in cross-examination to
keep the criminal pasts of their cli-
ents from being brought to the at-
tention of the jury. One of his stipu-
lations dealt with the term “Mafia.”
The defendants had indicated they
might contend that no such organi-
zation exists. Wessel told them
bluntly: “Defendants are hereby ad-
vised that the investigation charged
did establish the existence of an or-
ganized criminal conspiracy, the
name of which is unimportant but
is generally’ known as the ‘Mafia,’
and that the present indictment is
an indictment of some persons be-
longing to that organization for their
criminal conspiracy to obstruct and
defeat law enforcement.” However,
he said, use of this evidence was not
vital to the government’s case, and
he hoped to avoid all reference to
the Mafia and all references to inves-
tigations, like narcotics investiga-
tions, in which some of his official
witnesses had been involved when
they uncovered some of the evidence
to be used at the trial.
During the trial itself, government
witnesses were cautioned not to be
drawn, even during cross-examina-
tion, into any reference to the crim-
inal pasts of the defendants; they
were warned to refrain from men-
tioning sensational investigations,
like the Albert Anastasia murder
probe, during which some of the evi-
dence that they were testifying to
had been uncovered. The result was
that, as far as the jury knew of-
ficially, most of the defendants
might have been men with spotless
backgrounds, absolute paragons of
virtue,
All of this made for a trial much
duller than it otherwise might have
been, Sensation was lacking because
“sensation was so deliberately avoid-
ed, and this explains in part the rela-
tively scanty treatment the trial was
given in the press. And in the end,
the incompleteness of the news cov-
erage was undoubtedly responsible
for the controversy that has since
arisen over the civil-rights aspects
of the case.
One widespread and erroneous im-
pression is that the government is
completely in the dark about the
organization and purposes of the
Apalachin parley. Actually, quite a
bit is known about it. Apalachin was
in reality a two-day convention, so
planned that the major big shots
would be at Barbara’s mansion for
only the briefest of periods on the
second day. On Nov. 13, there was
a large rally at Barbara’s home, and
on the same day there were pe-
ripheral gatherings of other mob-
sters, like Russell Bufalino’s meeting
with his three cohorts in Scranton.
The groundwork for final decisions
was apparently laid in these confer-
ences, and the decisions themselves
were to be made by the real czars
of crime between the hours of noon
and 1 P.M. on Nov. 14—the day
the parley was broken up by the po-
lice. The tight time table is estab-
lished by such hard evidence as air-
_ line arrival times and scheduled de-
__ partures for that day; some of the
top powers landed at noon and were
due to leave by plane by 2 P.M.
Piecing together such data, investi-
gators concluded that the crime
So ae
|
|
THE REMARKABLE ideological
similarity among all of the serious
candidates for the Presidency in
1960 has been noted in several learn-
ed quarters during recent months.
Messrs. Nixon, Johnson and Ken-
nedy, it has become clear, are jostling
for the honor of being identified as
the administrator best qualified to
_ maintain the security of the existing
Establishment. The latter two
gentlemen do not say so in so many
_ words, but their bids for the White
| House, like that of the te Presi-
bosses who were to come, decide
and leave quickly, included: Vito
Genovese, often called the king-
maker of gangdom; Gerardo Cateno,
who since Apalachin has fallen heir
to the departed Longie Zwillman’s
New Jersey empire; Joseph Profaci,
of Brooklyn, often described as “the
olive oil king’; and Michele Mi-
randa, a Long Island food long
known as a_ powerful Genovese
henchman.
While all of the matters up for
final decision at Apalachin are not
known, government investigators feel
positive that one of the most im-
portant decisions was to take this
particular Mafia mob out of nar-
cotics smuggling. Drastic new fed-
eral laws, the startling success of
agents of the Federal Bureau of Nar-
cotics in cracking narcotics rings,
and public revulsion against the
racket were all factors believed to
have been involved. (Incidentally,
this was a decision of the top com-
mand that did not meet with uni-
versal favor; younger elements of
the mob rebelled against it, and at
least one murder has been carried
out since Apalachin by the old order
seeking to enforce its ban on nar-
cotics trafficking. )
THIS, then, is the background of
the Apalachin trial and the story of
the greatest triumph of the short-
lived Wessel unit. Most of the evi-
dence that Wessel used in the eight-
week trial was not new stuff dug up
1960: Failure of Social Imagination . . by James Reichiey
dent, are based on the expectation
that, if installed there, they will do
like Ike, though possibly with slight-
ly more dash:
Senator Humphrey has sought to
present himself as a “candidate of
issues,” but whatever distinctions
may exist between his program and
those of his rivals have been thor-
oughly obscured beneath a mass of
indecipherable verbiage. Senator
Symington actually has developed
two points of sharp disagreement
with the status quo: he has placed
by his investigators; on the contrary, Mh i
it had been available all the time, Mh
but so scattered from one end of the th At
nation to the other as to be valueless _ Whig
until brought together. In a two-day H
sequence that established links be- \
tween several of the defendants, ih}
Wessel called to the witness stand the
police chief of Dallas,a police sergeant
from Los Angeles, a detective from
Cleveland and another police wit- j
ness from Highland Park, N.J. With- f
out a focusing agency like the Wes- .
sel group, many of these links might |
never have been forged.
When they were forged, the re- i
sult was an ironclad case—how iron- Ot Oe
clad may be gathered from the fact Ke
that not one of the twenty defend-
ants took the stand in his own de-
fense and only two called any wit-
nesses at all. Joe Profaci put one of
his own attorneys on the stand to
establish a technical point; and Mon-
tana, the Buffalo businessman, called
a string of character witnesses. The =
effect was that the government’s case tk
stood uncontroverted; it is perhaps ri m
the only instance on record in which an
an entire squad of Mafia leaders
were struck absolutely speechless = = = 3 3
when their turn came to proclaim s
their innocence. That fact in itself
should argue powerfully for the vir-
tues of Wessel’s ardently advocated, i
but rejected, plan to create a per- oa
manent lawyer-investigator unit in .
the Justice Department to deal with
the ever-growing intricacies of big-
time, syndicated crime.
himself on record in favor of a mas-
sive expansion of the war machine, —
and has contributed a plainly worded |
statement in favor of the distribu-
tion of birth-control instructions to —
the inhabitants of overpopulated ©
foreign lands. The daring of these —
two expressions of dissent has failed, —
JAMES REICHLEY, a novelist as —
well as a writer on politics, ts the
author of a Fund for the Republic —
study of Philadelphia politics, The
Art of Government. he
however, to shake the widespread
conviction, among conservatives as
well as liberals, that the concealed
portion of the Symington iceberg is
shaped in rocklike similarity to the
dogmas of the Establishment.
This leaves Adlai Stevenson
and, until a short while ago, Gov-
ernor Rockefeller. Both have shown
some disposition to take issue with
the Eisenhower Administration at a
number of doubtful salients, but
the former has not yet become, as
the latter has ceased to be, an actual
candidate. The truth is, too, that
both Stevenson and Rockefeller have
brought cultivated criticism rather
than fundamental dissent to bear
on the assumptions of the President
and his advisers.
THE IMMEDIATE reason for this
singular lack of dissonance is, of
course, not hard to find. Politicians
are understandably reluctant to dis-
agree with success, of which the
Republican Administration just now
is giving at least an unrivaled ap-
pearance. It is all very well to groan
about inadequate national growth
and to warn that the United States
is slipping dangerously far behind
the Soviet Union in the arms race:
the facts are that, for the moment,
the economy is booming and _ the
tensions of the cold war are easing.
Under the circumstances, it is not
surprising that the Democrats are
following the lead of the Vice Pres-
ident in implying that they will do
no more than jazz up slightly the
formulas now in operation. It is not
surprising, that is, unless one re-
flects that support for the Republi-
can program is unlikely to result in
Democratic victory at the polls. The
Democratic candidates evidently
count on the overwhelming majority
of registered voters that their party
now commands to offset this disad-
vantage. The fate of Governor Rock-
efeller, in any case, has no doubt
been accepted as evidence of the
reaction to be expected to any at-
tempt to develop a line even mildly
critical of prevailing policies.
The developing tendency toward
unanimity in opinion among leading
politicians in both parties during the
— last decade, however, has roots that
go deeper than the current good
120
fortune of the Administration, It is
in part traceable to the cold war it-
self, which by its immense danger
has made dissent seem a luxury per-
haps no longer to be safely enjoyed
in a nation even so strong and pros-
perous as the United States. “Don’t
rock the boat” has gained respect-
ability as a slogan in the measure
that the boat actually appears to
be in some danger of sinking.
BEYOND this there seems to be a
sort of drying up — perhaps only
temporarily — of social . imagina-
tion in America. The cranky academ-
ic plans for quick salvation, the
radical blueprints for comprehensive
reform, the evangelical solutions to
all economic and social dilemmas are
no longer very common. Most of
the recent social theories produced
in American academies have been
designed to show that there has
never been much genuine clash
among ideologies in the United
States, a conclusion which is prob-
ably as true for the postwar era as it
is false for many earlier periods in
our history.
Partly this drying up of the re-
form spirit, this contemporary lack
of imaginative new solutions, is due
to the fact that many of the needed
reforms have already been made:
certainly the New Deal eliminated
some of the grosser evils of industri-
alism in this country. Partly, too, it
is due to discouragement with the
apparent inability of reform to make
much permanent impact on some of
the problems of our society. The bad
err te
“Mind if I use the same tewt?”
4 .
ay a ng
i ; > he Mh ow
effects of machine politics on state
and municipal levels, for instance,
have resisted the assaults of genera-
tions of reformers, and it seems sim-
pler now to maintain that “the old-
time machines are dead” than to at-
tempt to displace their flourishing
and thoroughly corrupt offspring.
Behind all of these explanations
for the lack of current dissent lies an
odd series of accommodations that
have been worked out in American
politics during the last thirty years.
(At this point, it is necessary to
define the special sense in which
certain common terms are hereafter
used. Thus, the term: democrat is
meant to apply broadly to persons
seeking to achieve equality in the
distribution of wealth; the term pro-
gressives includes all persons whose
primary goal is the improvement of
the quality of life available to citi-
zens — 1.e., civil rights and liberties,
education, health, cultural standards,
etc.; the term conservative denotes
persons whose first consideration is
the maintenance of the security of
the Establishment. )
THE FIRST of the accommodations,
made during the New Deal, was be-
tween democratic politicians and
progressive technicians and_publi-
cists. During the thirties, the two
groups had much in common. The
progressives were willing to agree
that quantitative prosperity for the
masses must take precedence over
qualitative problems like _ health,
education, genuine suffrage, moral
and cultural environment, interna-
tional order, and even individual
freedom. The products of the alliance
were therefore gained chiefly in
quantitative terms: wages, subsidies,
progressive taxation, public works,
protection for labor unions. The
combination of votes supplied by the
democrats and the brains supplied
by the progressive technicians and
publicists, was able for the first time
in many years to overthrow the
dominance of the conservative busi-
ness community in the United States.
The conservatives, temporarily
paralyzed by the depression, were
not slow in reforming their lines and
setting out to regain their lost emi-
nence. Though in the past conser-
vatives and progressives had often
worked in harness (the Constitu-
tion, the Civil War victory, and
the reforms of the progressive era
were all achievements of such align-
f ments), the events of the twenties
and the thirties had led to deep
estrangement between the two. In
the late thirties, therefore, conserva-
tives began to form new combina-
’ tions with susceptible democrats in
order to win their way back into
power. From about 1938 onward, an
alliance between conservatives and
democrats held practical control over
the legislative branch of the federal
government, absolute command of
most of the state and municipal
governments, and gradually growing
influence in the federal Executive.
- LS Oe
a
= =
Since that time; democrats have
continued to extend their political
dominance, and conservatives have
settled ever more securely into their
privileged positions in the social and
‘economic hierarchies. Much as they
did in the latter part of the nine-
teenth century, conservatives have
used political patronage to buy off
the democratic leadership; to a great
extent, they have abdicated responsi-
bility, while democrats, in turn, have
consented to the status quo. It has
been pointed out that in England
since World War II conservatives
have paid the price of the welfare
state in return for their continua-
tion as directors of the political
system. In the United States, con-
servatives have preserved the eco-
nomic system at the expense of allow-
ing political control to fall into the
hands of the democrats.
er
eT
re ny TES i,
ar ae.
THE progressives, meanwhile, have
clung blindly to the alliance with
the democrats which won them such
gratifying results during the New
Deal. The fact that from the pro-
gressive point of view the results
|
ey
.
have slowed to a trickle during the
last twenty years has seemed not
to matter. Progressives in politics
have grown “practical,” “mature,”
“moderate.” Those among them who
were elected to Congress in the
huge Democratic sweep of 1958
seemed willing enough to accept “Go
along to get along” for their motto.
“My first job is to get re-elected,”
_ said a Democratic freshman who
was then being hailed as one of the
February 6, 1960
pd
ae BEA +b
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(
f aly 7
+
ee eee es
LaFollettes, Borahs, El
_ Hiram Johnsons, Gifford Pinchots do
most promising of the young liberals.
The result has been a Congress
rather more conservative than the
Republican 80th that was elected in
1946.
Only two groups have seriously
challenged the conservative-democrat
coalition since the end of the war.
One was the faction of conservatives
that followed the leadership of Sen-
ator Taft, and later, in its more dis-
reputable moments, accepted Sen-
ator McCarthy as a symbol. These
intransigents, who scorned to bar-
gain with the democrats, were with-
out responsible leadership after the
death of Taft in 1953, and were
virtually exterminated at the polls
in 1958.
The second group of dissidents
has been a band of progressives who
emerged from a number of municipal
reform movements in the years im-
mediately following World War II.
Their most notable representatives
on the national scene today are
Senators Hubert Humphrey of Min-
nesota and Joseph S. Clark of Penn-
sylvania. Stressing the problems of
urban expansion, this group of
progressives has called attention to
the indifference with which the con-
servative-democrat alliance has re-
acted to the revolutionary growth
of the nation’s metropolitan areas.
But the group has been handicap-
ped by the fact that Humphrey, its
natural leader, has devoted much of
his energy since becoming Senator
to the task of building bridges be-
tween himself and other factions in
the Democratic Party. Clark has
proved less willing to compromise,
but has not as yet made much dent
in the power of the “go-along”
Democratic leadership.
Under these circumstances, it
would seem that conditions are ideal
for the development of a progressive
movement within the Republican
Party, such as occurred at the begin-
ning of the present century. The
personnel for such a movement, how-
ever, appears to be lacking. The
young Teddy Roosevelts, Lodges,
Elihu Roots,
not seem to be present today within
the GOP. Governor Rockefeller
might do as a leader, but the re-
sult of his recent drive on the
Pi, } . mats :
Presidency does not indicate much
current enthusiasm among Republi-
cans for the progressive cause. This
is due partly to the fact that few
progressives are willing to work with
the conservatives in the GOP. The
overwhelming majority of liberals,
particularly young liberals, remain
convinced that only a strengthening ai
of the existing alliance with the |
democrats can restore the nation to nt}
the path of social progress. Hu
Since the democrats, meanwhile, iH
have yielded the power of veto to the ih
business community, progressives
are in effect submitting to conser-
vative dictation, as well as to demo- .
cratic tastes and prejudices, while i
getting very little in return. The “at
progressives’ imagination, as a re-
sult, is subjected to bewildering
frustration, in which friends behave
strangely like foes and foes are found
to be disconcertingly good-humored.
Baffled, progressives have usually
passed up evangelism in favor of
the “first job” of getting re-elected.
THE PRODUCT of all this has been
a new Era of Good Feeling among
politicians, expansively liberal in
rhetoric and unflinchingly conser-
vative in practice. The candidates
for the Presidency have come to
sound so much alike that the elector-
ate seems called upon to choose
among them in much the same way.
that the owners of a modern corpora-
tion select a new chairman of the
board—on the basis of character, ex-
perience, ability. It is only hypocrisy
to suggest that a choice be made on
the basis of “issues.”
This unanimity is not likely to
endure for very long. If the cold war
continues to relax, it will begin to
lose its power to maintain a coerced _
unity; if it should take a turn for —
the. worse, it will force a divisive ex- —
ploration for new strategies. More-—
over, progressives surely will not
suffer forever beneath the yoke of —
democratic politicians. This does not —
mean that progressives will, or
should, become undemocratic. It
does mean that within the foresee-
able future, brains will begin to pro--
test their role as tail to the kite
of the party of numbers which long —
since has attached itself to the uid :
ing hand of special privilege. > ee
121
CONTEMPORARY
Miriam Chapin.
Press. 332 pp. $7.
Mark Gayn
FOR MOST Americans, Canada remains
terra incognita. Among the few Colum-
buses to discover this domain are the
United States oil, steel and lumber
barons, from Murchison to Cyrus Eaton,
the NORAD generals in Colorado, and
a few politicians in Washington. But
even the last of these can be pretty
obtuse. Lionel Chevrier, one of the
fathers of the St. Lawrence Seaway, re-
calls a visit he paid to President Eisen-
hower some years ago. After a look at
the globe, the President turned to his
guest and said: “You know, it seems
ridiculous. We both speak the same
language. We think alike. We behave
the same. Don’t you think you would
be better off as the 49th state?” Chevrier
finally decided it was a joke. But — as
subsequent press reaction in Canada
demonstrated — the joke was as of-
fensive as it was puny.
There are many reasons for the gen-
ie eral ignorance in the United States.
oa Some of the fault probably lies with
the press, which finds Canadian news
dull. Some can be traced to the shortage
of useful books. Thomas Costain’s jazzed-
up history, Mason Wade’s studies of
French Canada, Bruce Hutchison’s
chatty works are all satisfactory in their
diverse ways. None of them, though,
supplies what is needed the most — a
careful and broad record of facts coupled
with solid analysis.
The great void, it seems to me, has
now been filled by Miriam Chapin’s
volume. For here one finds a rich col-
lection of facts, supporting a body of
_ interpretation and enlivened by wit and
an inner warmth. The reason for the
warmth is that Miss Chapin, a Ver-
_ monter by birth and loyalty, has been
romancing with Canada ever since 1932,
" when she first settled in Montreal. Sine
then, she has covered Quebec’s doings
for the Christian Sbience Monitor, writ-
ten two useful little regional books, and
contributed to The Nation and other
magazines. Contemporary Canada is her
major work — a survey, a distillation
CANADA. By
Oxford University
| MARK GAYN is an editorial writer
and columnist for the Toronto Star,
ML Canada’s ce daily.
BOOKS and the ARTS
Canada Is Really There
of everything she has thought, and, de-
cidedly, a labor of love.
THE FACTS are all in this book — the
lay of the land and the history, the
people and the crops, the government,
the unions, the free-wheeling U.S. in-
vestor, the parties (which combine the
U.S. and U.K. political patterns, and
sometimes infuse them with Biblical
tones), the bosses and the war of the
sexes. (For a typical Chapinesque touch
consider this about the busy, ugly and
Slav-manned nickel city of Sudbury:
“This barren-looking place is said to be
the best market for pianos in Canada.
The mark of the new-world citizen is
the pigtailed little daughter practicing
her scales in the parlor. Czerny comes
into his own where the Slavic peoples
bring their heritage of music.”’)
But once the detail is set down, Miss
Chapin turns to a thoughtful look at
the trends, portents and moods at play.
The two prime issues before Canada, she
feels, are the division of the nation into
its French- and English-speaking parts,
and the steadily growing erosion of its
independence.
One-third of Canada speaks French,
two-thirds speak English. Between the
two there is a chasm, not of language
alone, but of culture, religion and of
suspicion carefully nurtured by the pol-
iticians of Quebec. In Montreal, a pro-
fessor will talk bitterly of “The Con-
quest,” and if the habitant of the
Quebec. small town cannot put it as
articulately, he is just as vehement in
speaking of les Anglais. No American
state battles federal encroachment one-
tenth as fiercely as does French and
clerical Quebec. As a result, its universi-
ties go ragged rather than accept federal
grants; the province is the only hold-out
in the national hospitalization scheme;
and the involved haggling over the divi-
sion of the tax dollar takes on aspects
of medieval ferocity,
Yet, Miss Chapin argues, no matter
what the Quebec nationalists say, the
province is part of Canada, economical-
ly, if not yet politically and culturally.
And that, too, must come, with the
powerful pulls exerted by TV, the flight
of youngsters to the cities, the growth
of the unions, the spread of literacy.
The other vital prob ara is that of
ith her ¢
Yr : a ve *
slow the fabulous Canadian growth.
at neig sh _
| wellegaitinaiand, d hook,
bor. The attitude here is “compounded
of admiration and distrust, jealousy of
success and doubt of its permanence,
uneasiness about being dragged into war
or economic disaster by some uncon-
sidered move, and unwillingness to be
swallowed up in a wave of industrial
expansion. . . . By arousing resentment,
the United States tends to unite Can-
adian feeling... .”
THE undercurrent of anti-American
feeling is always there, and it is con-
stantly refueled by such episodes as
the attacks on Lester Pearson and Am-
bassador E. Herbert Norman (who
killed himself), by trade restrictions,
by U.S. ignorance of things Canadian
and, perhaps, by a sense of inferiority.
There are good reasons for the last.
Canada sells 60 per cent of her exports
to the United States, and buys 75 per
cent of her imports there. This produces
a dangerous dependence upon the U.S.
trade winds. Moreover, U.S. capital con-
trols a huge area of Canadian economy
— from more than half of the pulp and
paper industry to almost 100 per cent
of the auto-making. Royal commissions -
issue regretful reports, the press writes
angry editorials, a banker here and there
urges the nation to use less American
money — and the American hold tight-
ens. What makes this especially un-
palatable for the Canadians is that the
Americans concentrate on the primary.
industries — iron, lumber, oil — thus
dooming Canada to the permanent role
of a hewer of wood. There are, of course,
no easy solutions to these problems, for
to halt the flow of U.S. billions is to
Miss Chapin, however, does champion
a view that has many adherents in
Canada. She urges a thaw in the cold
war: “So long as Canada fears the
USSR, so long as, being a small nation,
it must depend on the U.S. for defense
.., Just so long must it submit its air
force to American command, must re-
ceive American military, air and naval
bases on its soil, and must bow to Amer-
ican direction — it cannot be free. If the
terror were lifted, then the ties between
the two nations could be loosened to let
Canada stand as independently as any
nation can in our day. No one in his
senses wants them to be cut. But Can-
ada should be able to make its own
decisions. . . .”
All in all, an inhenni re a a
hee J,
» rhe |
<=
SI ATTN =
MARCEL DUCHAMP. By _ Robert
Lebel. Grove Press. 192 pp., illustrat-
ed. $15.
Matthew Josephson
AS LONG ago as the early twenties,
when we were desperate young (aesthet-
ic) nihilists in Paris and New York,
Marcel Duchamp was already becom-
ing enwreathed in legends. In our ad-
vanced circle he was regarded as the
man who had put the modern into
modern art; he was one of our favorite
artistes maudits. The normal precondi-
tion for such mythopoesis is that the
hero-figure should have the good taste
to die young, like Rimbaud, Seurat, or
Alfred Jarry; or that he should vanish
into some exotic land. Duchamp did
neither — he persisted in living on in
a style that is both original and elegant.
That he had been one of the most
highly endowed painters of the prewar
period was generally understood. But,
at the very season of his international
triumphs, in 1912-1913, when his “cubo-
futurist” canvases were being exhibited
to a huge public, he had stopped produc-
ing pictorial works, so far as anyone
knew. Thereafter, when one saw him
occasionally in what used to be called
the high-Bohemian society of Paris or
New York, he would be reticent about
his activities to the point of mystifica-
tion. Was he working on some Unknown
Masterpiece needing decades of labor?
Or was he doing nothing, eccentrically,
in the way of a Baudelairean “dandy”?
All that we heard was that he occasion-
ally offered for public exhibition certain
artifacts, objects of common use such
as one could order through the Sears,
Roebuck catalogue, objects which he
- solemnly signed and declared to be
beautiful and “modern.” These actions,
like the shock-tactics of the Dadas, out-
raged respectable art lovers. Never-
theless Duchamp’s influence continued
to permeate advanced groups, by whom
his least sayings, puns, “readymade”
artifacts and hoaxes were carefully pre-
served. Periodically, André Breton, the
redoubtable chief of the Surrealists,
would proclaim that Duchamp was “the
most intelligent” and “the most disturb-
ing man” of his era. More conservative
MATTHEW JOSEPHSON, biographer
and social historian, was editor of
Broom and American editor of Transi-
tion. He has written biographies of Zola,
Rousseau, Hugo and Stendhal. His lat-
est book is Edison (McGraw-Hill; see
_ The Nation, November 7, 1959).
Anti-Artist or Prophet?
commentators singled him out as the
great anti-artist who renounced and
ridiculed the basic media of art.
The alleged anti-artist chose to live
most of his later life in America, per-
haps as a more favoring environment
for his nefarious purposes of overturn-
ing everyone’s preconceived notions
about the fine arts. Thus his iconoclastic
ideas have exerted a subversive influence
for many years on both sides of the
Atlantic. In this country, the rejuven-
- ated movement of non-figurative artists
looks on him as one of the pathfinders
leading the way to “action” painting.
There is, indeed, a striking resemblance
between many of Duchamp’s ideas, as
originated in 1912, and the statements
recently made by Pollock, Motherwell,
Gottlieb, et al., about their program for
liberating art from the model, the ob-
ject, the paintbrush, and even the poor
old public.
THE literature about Duchamp has
been rather sparse and unilluminating,
save for some spirited essays by Breton.
Now, with Robert Lebel’s comprehensive
and finely illustrated volume, having
129 plates in monochrome and _ color
and a wealth of biographical detail, this
enigmatic and disturbing man comes
more clearly into view. Lebel’s study
seeks, in the spirit of the master, to be
at once informative and entertaining.
It is plain that the biographer-critic is
somewhat overawed by the famous
charm and wit of his subject. He might,
as he hints, have presented ._Duchamp
as a successful neurotic who, suffering
from a sense of “separation from the
world,” broke with traditional forms of
art in order to destroy them. Instead,
Lebel has been reverent and has pre-
served the legends that make Duchamp
a sort of Magian figure of modern times.
He was born near Rouen seventy-two
years ago; his was a cultivated bourgeois
family, four of its six children becoming
artists, and two of Marcel’s brothers —
Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Jacques
Villon winning renown in_ their
own right. In such a clan of sharp-
witted Normans one had to be either
very clever or very outrageous to gain
attention; Marcel could be both. At
twenty-one he had completed his educa-
tion at the lycée, finished with art
school in Paris, and begun to paint ac-
ceptably in Post-Impressionist style.
Then, toward 1910, came his momentous
encounter with the newly arisen Cubists, |
headed by the young Picasso.
That prewar decade of fifty years
UNIVERSITY OF
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0
PRESS “Sie?
Now that everyone
else has been
heard from—
“Tet’s give the schools
back to the teachers’’
While millions stand agreed that
something is wrong with our
schools, their united front of out-
rage shatters on two vital points:
exactly what ails our schools, and
how we can cure them. Nearly
everyone with an audience—from
James B. Conant and Hyman Rick-
over to the P.T.A. President of
P.S. 13—has a corrective theory
or philosophy to offer.
Now a professional educator
offers a radically different and
uncommonly lucid program for
clearing up the muddled issue of
educational “reform.” The prime
change he advocates is the estab-
lishment of one coherent decision-
making structure in public edu-
cation—a structure in the hands
of teachers, empowered to estab-
lish uniform standards for the
teaching profession, to correct the
primitive employer-employee. re-
lationships between school boards
and teachers, and to curb excesses
of near-sacred “local control” that
merely foster incompetence.
Why this system is necessary,
how it will function to improve
our schools, and the ways in which
it contradicts the theories of
Conant, Rickover, Woodring, and
others are fully detailed in
THE FUTURE
OF PUBLIC
EDUCATION
by Myron Lieberman
$5.00 at all bookstores
Through your bookseller
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
5750 Ellis Avenue, Chicago 37, Illinois
IN CANADA: The University of
Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Ontario
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ago, like our mid-century period, was
filled with the excitement of sweeping
change in the knowledge of science and
technology. Even the artists were becom-
ing “scientific”; the Cubists felt them-
selves daring explorers of the unknown,
engaged in aesthetic experiments never
tried before. The question of volume
and the geometric analysis of objects
concerned them most of all, and they un-
dertook to dissect and decompose every-
thing into planes, cylinders and cubes.
Duchamp, very much the amateur of
science, threw over the pictorial formulae
used by his contemporaries, and centered
his attention on the problem of dynam-
ics, of depicting energy and movement.
Within a year or so he had executed
several canvases that went beyond any-
thing achieved by the Cubists. Although
he used multiple perspectives and other
Cubist devices, he managed to give an
abstract representation of the move-
ment of the subject within the picture,
rather than that of the painter around
the subject. In one of his typical can-
vases of that period, Sad Young Man
in a Train — whose title seems auto-
biographical—the several static postures
of that abstract young man_ suggest
the jolting movement of the train itself,
furnishing an imaginary creation of its
movement. Moreover, by juggling with
light effects and displacing volumes
within the contours of bodies, Duchamp
gave the objects in his canvas the illu-
sion of interpenetrating one another in
an ambiguous kind of space. Duchamp,
it was confidently asserted, had “intro-
duced the Fourth Dimension” into art.
At twenty-five Duchamp was _ con-
historical
Announcing a major
KHRUSHCHEV
IN AMERICA
The full texts of the speeches made by N. S.
Khrushchey, Chairman of the Council of Minis-
ters of the USSR, on his tour of the United States,
September 15-27, 1959. These speeches are trans-
lated from the authoritative collection entitled
LIVE IN PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP! published
and widely circulated in the Soviet Union.
Khrushchev’s American speeches constitute an
document of first-rate
They place before the reader Khrushchev the man,
the political leader, the master of repartee and wit. They reflect the
position of his government on a wide range of issues. But most important
of all, these speeches are the principal record of a trip that has already
exercised a profound influence on the course of world affairs.
Price: $2.45 232 pp. (please prepay single copy orders)
CROSSCURRENTS PRESS, INC., 33 W. 42 St., New York 36, N.Y.
ey ye ee Cue sald
sidered so disturbing — was he not
leading art to some point of no return?
— that even his fellow-artists urged that
his pictures be withdrawn from official
showings of the Cubist group. They were
shown independently, however; and
soon appeared with the works of the
other French Cubists and Fauves at
the first great exhibition of modern art
held in America, the Armory Show of
1913 in New York. Duchamp’s Nude
Descending a Staircase aroused more
curiosity, bewilderment and anger than
anything else there shown. About 100,-
000 Americans came to behold his in-
visible nude, and the show became an
international scandal.
Guillaume Apollinaire, the fervid or-
acle of the artistic modernists, ventured
in 1913 the strange prophecy that, be-
cause of his anti-aesthetic spirit and his
concern with dynamics, Duchamp might
be destined one day “to reconcile Art
and the People.” Nothing seemed less
likely for so esoteric a man. On the
other hand, his ideas were to win over
crowds of young artists by the 1940s.
IN FRANCE, though an artist may
have blasphemed the bourgeois, it is
his usual lot, after some years, to gain
their acceptance and end up in the na-
tional Pantheon. Soon the once daring
Cubists were painting tasteful still lifes
and guitars, were becoming tame lions,
and aesthetic at that. It was to escape
this dire fate that Duchamp is sup-
posed to have sought “solitude” in New
York, where he devoted himself mainly
to chess, mathematics, word-games and
the invention of non-operational ma-
publishing event!
importance.
chines and “readymades.” At the time
he described himself simply as “an un-
frocked artist.”
From 1915 to 1923 he also worked
intermittently at a large “glass picture,”
executed in oil and lead wire, and en-
titled The Bride Stripped Bare by Her
Bachelors, Even.” It resembles an old-
fashioned restaurant window, but has,
in place of the usual advertisements of
food, an organization of mechanistic and
erotic imageries — the “bride-machine”
and the “bachelor-machines” are caught
in a momentous interaction — whose
composition and color were determined
by “the laws of chance.” They were
communicated to the artist by the set-
tling of dust, or by his shooting match-
sticks at the glass with a toy cannon,
as he reveals in a series of fragmentary,
mystifying notes written while meditat-
ing this work (and published in facsimile
in 1934). Various attempts at analysis
have suggested that this hermetic work,
Duchamp’s Unfinished Symphony, is an
amalgam of modern myths and chimeras.
One is forcibly reminded of Henry
Adams’s hallucinations about the Virgin
and the Dynamo.
THE typical products of Duchamp’s
later years, however, are his “ready-
mades,” chosen from the disjecta mem-
bra of our mechanical culture. Old gun-
nysacks, coat-hangers, bottle-racks and
weathervanes. were good enough for his
purposes, and were kept hanging from
the ceiling of his studio in New York.
On being invited in 1917 to exhibit at
the Independent Artists’ show, he select-
ed a cast-off urinal, inverted it, signed
it “J. Mutt,” and submitted it as a
piece of sculpture entitled “The Foun-
tain.” Earlier there was his bicycle
wheel mounted on a kitchen stool, and
presented as mobile sculpture, the
pleasures of which spectators could par-
ticipate in by giving the wheel a turn.
Attaching a pair of mustaches and a
beard to a cheap lithograph of the
Mona Lisa, he signed it and offered it
for exhibition as an art object. Like
the writings of the Dadas, Duchamp’s
“readymades” communicated the humor
of the absurd. At the same time, they
constituted an impassioned _ protest
against old aesthetic fashions and tradi-
tional practices which tended to glorify
only the hand of the artist.
The “Dada conspiracy” is now viewed
as a reaction to the horror and de-
spair evoked in men during the years
of World War I. It proposed by de-
structive action to wipe the slate of old
social conventions and cultural tradi-
tions. The Dadas employed shock meth-
ods, or sought to arouse feelings of dis-
bis i » sah non
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gust, and invented a kind af dismal jest-
ing or “black humor” in which Du-
champ excelled.
The generation that arose from World
War II has known a similar passion to
destroy old forms and push on toward
unknown frontiers: To the American
“action” painters of today, Duchamp
is no enemy of art, but a far-sighted
precursor. Fifty years ago he kept say-
ing that the art of the Schools and the
fashionable Salons had got too far away
from the actual dynamic life around us.
His spirit of corrosive irony has led Sir
Herbert Read and Albert Camus to rank
him with the destroyers of civilization.
However, Duchamp and the Dadas, in
their own estimation, were not anti-art;
they were attacking what was only
supposed to be art.
The ideas of Duchamp, and others
who were of his mold, took root slowly.
The whole domain of art has been
widened immeasurably. The new breed
of non-figurative or “action” painters
uses an immense variety of material for
its art, and uses it with unparalleled
freedom. Even the metallic automobile
graveyards are not safe from them. The
new freedoms will undoubtedly raise up
new dangers and more clichés — but
that is a challenge best left to the artists
and historians of the future.
Quixote Slept Here
THROUGH SPAIN WITH DON
QUIXOTE. By Rupert Croft-Cooke.
Alfred A. Knopf. 279 pp. $5.
Jane Stolle
THE LINE between fiction and non-
fiction is so blurred in the case of Don
Quixote that young readers, encounter-
ing the Knight of the Rueful Figure for
the first time, must be hard put to de-
cide whether they are dealing with fact
or fancy. Almost 300 years after Don
Quixote’s “death,” the ninth edition of
Richard Ford’s classic and delightful
Handbook for Travellers in Spain (pub-
lished 1898) contains this authoritative
passage: “ARGAMASILLA DE ALBA. The
village was the birthplace of Don
Quixote. The prison in which the earlier
chapters of his life were written stands
in the Calle Cervantes, and is shown to
strangers. The church contains several
portraits of the Don, his family, and
the Licentiate.”
Rupert Croft-Cooke, in his Through
JANE STOLLE, who is The Nation’s
ie. N. correspondent, lived and worked
in ates jem 1951 to 1956.
with “war crimes”
Spain with Don Quixote, does nothing
to dispel the illusion. As he follows the
trail of Don Quixote on his three sallies
from Argamasilla through the barren,
rock-strewn plains of La Mancha and
the rugged Sierra Morena to gay Bar-
celona and back to Argamasilla where,
forced by a well-meaning friend to face
facts, the Knight died—‘“unable to
bear the melancholy burden of sanity,”
as the Spanish scholar Salvador de
Madariaga writes — Croft-Cooke talks
with the flesh-and-blood “descendants”
of the Knight and his Squire. He is di-
rected by a gnarled farmer to the site
of the inn where Don Quixote stayed
the first night — now a farmhouse but
still called the Venta de Quesada. The
second inn, where Sancho was tossed in
a blanket and Don Quixote beheaded
the giant by cutting a wine-skin in two,
is now rubble. The author gets into
heated discussions with local Cervantes
savants as to the location of Don
Quixote’s windmill. He camps near a
farm called Granja de Dulcinea. He
traverses, at midnight, the cobble-stoned
road by which Don Quixote entered El
Toboso, and, as in the sixteenth cen-
tury, “A profound Silence reign’d over
all the Town, and all the Inhabitants
were fast asleep, and stretch’d out at
their Ease.”
ONE wonders how it is possible, in
sad and dictator-driven Spain, to enjoy
oneself as lightheartedly as Croft-Cooke
does, camping on the trail of the non-
existent knight. Perhaps, with his eyes
fixed on Rosinante’s hoof-marks, he
missed Franco’s giant footprints on the
backward, wooden-plowed countryside.
When he finally does take note — half
way through the book —it is to repeat
the conversation of a farmer who par-
rots the repetitive clichés of the gov-
ernment: The Reds (the Spanish Re-
publicans) were to blame for the Civil
War, for the burning of churches, for
all death and destruction and atrocities.
But the farmer also sounds a warning
for those who think Franco has resolved
the economic and_ political problems
which led to the Civil War, that he has
even attempted to heal the jagged
wound through the heart of a people in-
flicted by a war in which they fought
their brothers. “You think it is peace-
ful, you think all that is forgotten?
Same of Ais will never forget. Yes, yes,
I agree. It should be forgotten now,
whatever it was. But how can it be?”
Croft-Cooke might | have suggested
that Franco could help. dull memory by
putting an end to azo victory pa-
rades, doing away courts-martial
in which former Republi
committed twenty
icans are charged |
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years ago, releasing the remaining polit-
ical prisoners, initiating healing social
reforms.
However, Croft-Cooke was not on a
journalist’s journey, but a sentimental
one and, as such, it is a delightful junket
for author and reader alike. The back
roads of Spain have changed little in
300 years; nor, in essence, have the
people. Tourists who ply the Madrid-
Toledo-Seville-Granada route miss the
soul of Spain which is as earthy, as
gentle, as ribald, as somber — in a word,
as quixotic —as it was in the days of
the Errant Knight.
ART
Fairfield Porter
A SAMPLING of the art of Giacometti
is on view at the World House Galleries.
It expresses artistically the extra-artistic
statement that there can be a view of
the world and man’s place in it. That
is what one would expect of religious
art. But religious artists today are sel-
dom as serious as Giacometti. Religious
art much too frequently illustrates reli-
gion archaistically. Rouault, who is a
Catholic, uses conventions recalling stain-
ed glass windows. Religious sculptors like
to go in for Gothic elongation, as if a
starved look infallibly stood for spiritu-
ality. In such cases the religious artist,
through his sentimentality, patronizes
religion; he makes religion belong to a
romantic view of the past. Or when he
tries too hard to give religion contem-
porary validity by the device of clothing
his saints in overalls, the effect is often
ludicrous, like a minister telling heavy
jokes. It makes excellent anti-clerical,
even atheistic, propaganda. On the
other hand, by using modern art forms,
the artist patronizes art, as though art
were chiefly a matter of fashion.
In addition to religious art, as a way
of placing man in the world, there is art
as sociology. In order to be as objective
as a scientist, the sociologist puts himself
outside the world; if he is an artist, he
treats art as though it were raw material
for a factory that produces a commodity
called understanding.
IT know nothing about Giacometti’s
beliefs; I do not know whether he be-
longs to a church, or if he is agnostic.
But his paintings and sculpture show
an overriding concern with placement.
This is a modern concern, one of the
practical aesthetic concerns of artists
since Cézanne. However, it is usually
relative and ungrounded — the paint-
ing can go any side up. Giacometti’s
concern is to place the relationship of
man and landscape with the ground.
And he further considers man and every-
thing else as having a dual relationship
to the environment as a link between
the earth and infinity. His standing
figures have enormous feet, and they
taper somewhat, thinly upward, to a
very small head that seems ever so far
away. He expresses sculptural volume
in planes vertical to each other: a head
mostly in profile is placed at right angles
to shoulders expressed mostly in breadth.
If the figure is female, the breasts are
again in profile parallel to the head and
vertical to the shoulders. The stance .is
an awkward flow, like a much extended
African idol. And the texture is rough
and complex. The thinness makes the
volume of the figure secondary to the
volume of infinite space: the figure
places infinity as much as it places itself.
Infinity, in short, has the single limit of
its beginning; it is actual, it exists, and
one can experience it, in the way one
experiences the sea by looking at it
from the beach. The roughness of the
modeling can be thought of as the
beating anything takes in an assertion
of its existence against the vastness of
the universe. It is its dignity, its pay-
ment for existence against the weight
of indifferent adversity. The complica-
tions of the surface are, as it were, the
scars of battles of limited assertion. They
make shape a very serious thing.
AS Giacometti expresses volume by
planes, so in paintings and drawings he
expresses space by linear co-ordinates.
His drawings are full of parallel lines
that reinforce position. The pencil draw-
ing of a woman stooping over in her
chair (perhaps she is sewing) between
two tables and in front of a window
with its repetitive and partly erased
lines makes physical existence and
spiritual existence (where a thing is
and what it is), its displacement and its
position, its relation to the horizontal
and to the vertical — it makes all these
things inseparable, as mind is inseparable
from body. The lines of the window
sill partly continue across her shoulders
and across the chair-back, and are erased
in the gap between her back and the
chair, where in nature one could see
them. This says that the reality of their
behindness (expressed as if she were
transparent) is greater than the reality
of their appearance to one side. To the_
side, the erasure of these lines between
her back and the chair makes this
space, which is in front of the window,
more real than the window,
Giacometti’s paintings are full of lines
that connect, These, however, are not
decided in advance, but oa are
xO
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rived at. The eaves of the house connect
with the slope of the mountain across
the valley floor. Giacometti expresses
the large by the small; he expresses
volume by planes, and planes by lines.
He expresses the vast in concentrations,
and space by direction. Horizontality
and verticality are not about the plane
of the canvas, but about the horizontal-
ity of the ground, against which exist-
ence is vertical, or defined in co-ordin-
ates. When he paints or draws a head,
he places it below the middle of the
paper or canvas, because he never for-
gets the space around, but chiefly not
the space above.
Of all artists living today, Giacometti
has perhaps the most profound imagina-
tion. As his figures, in their relation to
all of space, place the beginning of end-
lessness, and as his interiors and land-
scapes take their measure and position
from the small things they contain, so
for him art itself is placed in the world,
and by graphic compression does itself
place the world.
MUSIC
Lester Trimble
THE THIRD and final concert in the
series by Columbia Records, featuring
the person and music of Igor Stravinsky,
proved to be an entirely happy affair,
despite the fact that it ended with an-
other of those mortuary references which
had been sprinkled through the open-
ing program. As it happened, the J. S.
Bach Funeral-Ode, Lass Fiirstin, Lass
Noch cinen Strahl, contains some of the
happiest, most Italianate music I have
ever heard from the workshop of that
composer. I can’t imagine what stimu-
lated him to provide this kind of music
for a memorial service, but it is lovely
and anything but dispiriting. Robert
Craft gave it a good performance.
The important item on this last Town
Hall concert was the world premiére of
Stravinsky’s Movements for Piano and
Orchestra (1958-1959), conducted by the
composer and with Margrit Weber as
pianist. In the program notes for the
work, Stravinsky made both a number
of fascinating biographical assertions and
a few almost impenetrable technical
comments. Among them, I found the
: following especially stimulating, particu-
larly i in view of the type of music the
— Movements turned out to be:
This new work is the most ad-
vanced, from the point of view of
. pearection, of anything I have ever
composed. . . . Perhaps the most sig-
nificant aspect of my new work is its
“anti-tonality.” I am amazed at this
myself, in view of the fact that in
Threni, triadic references occur in
every bar. . . . Every aspect of the
composition of the Movements was
guided by the forms of the series—
the sixes, the quadrilaterals, the tri-
angles, etc... . The Movements have
made me see that I am becoming not
less but more of a serial composer.
Those young composers who already
claim to have gone beyond, to have
exhausted, serialism are, I think,
making a great mistake.
And finally, in a remark almost, but
not quite, incomprehensible, Stravinsky
wrote:
The fifth movement (which I re-
wrote twice) uses a construction of
twelve “verticals”; the listener has to
get down and look up through the
series, so to speak. The gamma and
delta hexachords are more important
here than the A and B. And, five
orders are rotated instead of four,
with six alternates for each of the
five, while at the same time, I see the
six in all directions, as though through
a crystal.
So be it! I include this sample of mu-
sical numerology, not because I think
the reader will find it any clearer than
I do, but to illustrate the intellectual
and technical complications which
abound in the serial method of com-
posing, and which are obviously a prime
fascination to Stravinsky’s mind at this
moment. A paradoxical aspect of all this
is that, whereas Stravinsky has through
his entire career firmly led a portion of
the avant-garde by means of the intel-
ligent, non-systematized products of his
genius, in this latest period, despite the
fact that he has adopted some of the
most “advanced” composing methods in
existence, he seems to be falling behind,
to be treading in other people’s foot-
steps. Movements for Piano and Or-
chestra seemed to me, unequivocally, a
good piece; and so it seemed to almost
everybody else. But I missed the Stra-
vinsky of old, whose every composition
broke some kind of new aesthetic ground
and pricked the ears into life. Move-
ments could be judged good, so easily
and universally, only because its basic
idiom and message were already familiar.
Essentially, it said nothing which has
not been said just as well by others. It
was an odd experience to hear the pre-
miére of a Stravinsky work which sound-
ed slightly old hat.
It is possible, of course, that the com-
poser has uncovered new technical pos-
“—
ire
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127
FS
sibilities within the serial method of
composition. If so, the exceedingly vocal
and well-organized contingent of Amer-
) ican dodecaphonists will soon let us
know. Word will come from Princeton.
i But the proof of a pudding is still in its
; flavor, not in chemical analysis. I have
a strong impression that Stravinsky’s
latest oeuvre, though tasty, has been
f on the market for some time under other
trade-marks.
The remainder of the program, con-
ducted by Robert Craft, comprised
Heinrich Schiitz’s Ls ging ein Sdémann
aus xu Sden seinen Samen (1650), for
a quartet of solo voices, chorus and in-
’ struments; three works of Gesualdo and
one by Monteverdi, dating from between
1603 and 1620. All of them were lovely
music. Mr. Craft is not a very interest-
ing conductor, but he did a workman-
like job on both the Schiitz work and
the Bach Cantata, mentioned above.
With the a cappella vocal works, he ran
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128
into difficulties which I would blame on
the singers were it not that vocalists of
such quality do not, under other con-
ductors, make the major mistakes in
intonation and rhythm which marred
this occasion. There were moments when
the proceedings seemed headed for ab-
solute disaster. And that can be blamed
only on a conductor. He is the man in
charge, both before and during the
concert.
FILMS
Robert Hatch
A YEAR or so ago, a successful Frank-
furt trollop added financial espionage
to her regular work and, underestimat-
ing the passions of big money, got killed
for her enterprise.. This affair, soiling
some important names in the overfed,
rehabilitated Reich, was a lip-smacking
scandal: It provided the theme for an
opportunistic little novel which was sub-
sequently made into a movie, and that
movie 1s now on view here.
Rosemary, thus, is two removes from
reality, and looks it. The action moves
stiffly on entirely visible strings and
the performers signal their satiric intent
with flat-footed earnestness and a dolor-
ous absence of wit. A Teutonic respect for
thoroughness dictates that every telling
jest- be repeated at least three times,
and the sour-jaunty background music
drives home the point that there is no
one like Kurt Weill.
Yet, for all the solemn lack of talent,
it is heartening that the Germans have
been queuing up to see this a
What it says; in its lumbering way, 1
that the Germany of George Grosz is
back in the saddle again. This is Amer-
ica’s cold war Germany, and the really
biting joke is that a German film should
rub our noses in the mess.
Status note: the seven or eight nou-
veau-financiers who comprise Rose-
mary’s most lucrative customers wear
identical black homburgs, carry identi-
cal brief-cases and drive identical Mer-
cedes sedans. Americans who have seized
on this car as a genteel device for in-
forming the neighbors that business is
good, may thus learn that it is an object
of mockery in its home country.
THE FULL-LENGTH Swan Lake, per-
formed by the Bolshoi Ballet, is less a
sereen version of Tschaikowsky’s great
work than it is a film about how much
the Russians love this reliable classic.
It was filmed in the Bolshoi ‘Theatre
3 re per res yxy
bail tae Mince.) Ve ots
‘ . v . i
‘
during what purports to be a_ public
performance. Cameras were placed at
vantage points in the auditorium and
backstage and were used more to show
off the sumptuous occasion than to
record the performance. So much is this
so that midway in any corps de ballet
passage the viewer’s position is apt to
shift abruptly from a good balcony seat
to a point upstage of the dancers, and
at almost every moment of climax the
cameras desert the action to register
the rapturous faces of the audience.
The effect recalls the frustrations of those
prize fight newsreels which are forced
by law to cut before a blow is landed.
This picture boasts in the way that
Khrushchev boasts—it is an appealingly
naive trait, perhaps, but it is also tire-
some.
I am not competent to discuss the
quality of the Bolshoi company in any
technical detail (even supposing that I
had been able to see it without the dis-
tractions of cultural propaganda).
looks to me enormously competent,
lavishly endowed with talent and money
and at least a generation behind the
times in the evolution of stage taste.
This is a “gorgeous” Swan Lake; it calls
for toasts in pink champagne.
Maya Plisetskaya, the ballerina of
the occasion, makes jt clear that the
rigors of this very. demanding choreog-
raphy are child’s play to her brilliantly
trained body. She could, I would, sup-
pose, race the high hurdles with similar
contempt for the obstacles in her path.
She is superb, but IT.am not sure that
she is good. The whole company made
me feel that it was ready and eager to
take on any other ballet group in the
world in a Swan Lake contest.
N. Y. Provincial
i
Tucson, Arizona
desert.
It’s a desert.
It’s a desert.
It’s’ a
And it’s in a desert.
a
Hammond, Indiana
Horrible Hammond, Indiana,
More horrible than Passaic, New Jersey,
I pity you your hateful landseape,
I pity you your hideous houses,
I] pity you your hamstrung inhabitants,
Dreadful Hammond, Indiana.
3: ;
New York, New York
James Durante said it:
It's da heartada woild!
Pi ty : te Sl oe lee i — N
® ‘ ‘ion eS 5 ; i
as si aa, . ies)
.
Crossword Puzzle No. 853
By FRANK W. LEWIS |
11
12
1
oo
A
15
16
18
21
26
28
29
30
31
2
8
4
February 6, 1960
Pf dete |
Gait f & &
wae eo
eee eed P|
ACROSS:
You put your name down, if I-am
unabie to be important. (11)
and 10 Show approval for meals on
the side? (9)
See 7 down
Little sally port out of which the
troop is assembled. (7)
A little heroine is no great shakes
at ducking. (7)
The first of 23, in the past. (8)
In Germany, I could be surrounded
by things of wealth. (6)
The health of one who is paid to
pose? (6)
Does one break the rule concern-
the guard? (8)
See 7 down
Supposedly human to cook a mix-
ture of the last of the animal in it.
See 20 down
A die usage unwise with the last
word, perhaps. (5)
The only thing she didn’t lose was
her voice. (4)
Witness the fact one of these has
made his mark in the world! (11)
DOWN:
I am, through what I owe, rather
like Nero! (9)
Like Laplace’s hypothesis. (7)
The way one might sanction a lit-
tle mode of travel? (4)
5 It takes a heel to prove a body this
way! (7)
6 The habits of such posers are not
evident. (5)
7, 11, 23 and 24 Should be an unneces-
sary warning to the offspring of
Carnivora. (6, 4, 3,3, 7)
8 Certainly not the first number, but
the half-size type at heart! (6)
14 Suggests a temporary expedient to
on out your. store of old wine!
(2,3
17 A sort of a sort of diary mop, more
than several feet long. (9)
19 Right thinking concerning a branch
of the family tree. (6)
20 and 28 He’s supposed to come along
in the operetta. (3, 3,1, 4)
22 H20 as an example. (7)
23 See 7 down
25 Relieve a worker of what might be
cast? (5)
27 Not heavy punishment. (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 852
ACROSS: 9 Stargaze; 10 Notion; 11
Dictate; 12 Drifted; 14 Leader; 17
Playable; 20 Report; 24 and 8 A View
of Toledo; 26 Sonata; 27 Pondered; 28
Netherlands. DOWN: 2, 22 and 15 Here
today and gone tomorrow; 8 Quarter;
4 Eyed; 5 Tantrum; 6 and 1 Out of the
question; 13 and 7 Steel strike; 6 Rep-
rehend; 18 Landon; 19 Beneath; 20
Ravenna; 21 Roofed; 23 Grace; 25 Spur.
<p 0
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When Is Truth?
“Ex-Officers in Defense Jobs Listed by House
! Group,” reads a headline in The New York Times
; of January 18. And beneath there is an Associated
; Press listing of sundry admirals and generals who
H have discarded the brass of the military for the
: gold of private defense industry.
This is old stuff for readers of The Nation. For
| on January 21, 1956 — four years ago almost to
ti the day —- we ran precisely such a list under the
title ““Generals Don’t Fade Away.”’ And if the list
f distributed by the Associated Press was some-
what longer than ours, it simply goes to prove that
the trend we pointed out four years ago is still
operating in high gear.
For The Nation reader, truth almost always
comes a little earlier.
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FEBRUARY 13, 1960 . . 25¢
>? _ aw
ae
Pie in the Sky _
cramble for the Space Dollar
Carl Dreher
eoeenees
a eee
Seri
ne ae
GAR AND SYMPATHY
Congress, Castro and Quotas
ss | Boris Ki | Swerling
\° ates » ; i
LETTERS
New Look at Castro
Dear Sirs: Congratulations on the fine
job on “Castro’s Cuba,” by Robert
Taber, in your issue of January 23. It is
the greatest article of your many recent
greats,
Press Brown
Long Beach, Calif.
Dear Sirs: Mr. Taber’s article on Cuba
was splendid! It does, it does indeed,
put the whole story in focus, and with
remarkable skill and control—although
more perhaps could have been said
about the extraordinary character of
Castro and his associates.
Watpvo FRANK
New York City
Mr. Vidal’s Achievement
Dear Sirs: Book reviewing is about as
much of an art these days as advertis-
ing. But Gore Vidal’s review in the Jan-
uary 2 issue of The Nation was an hon-
orable—indeed a memorable—exception.
Besides attracting the reader with his
own evident literary ability, Mr. Vidal
engaged the reader’s interest in the book
under review, the author of the book,
and the reviewer himself. I do not mean
to imply that book reviewing should be-
come a vehicle for autobiography, but,
on the other hand, there is no reason
why a review should leave the reader
with the impression that it has been un-
touched by human hand—or heart.
Other reviewers—Nation reviewers not
excepted—would do well to study Mr.
Vidal’s achievement.
R. D. Lakin
Kansas State College
Pittsburg, Kan.
Seminar on Latin America
Dear Sirs: Readers who have followed
with appreciation your frequent percep-
tive articles on Latin America will be
interested in an important conference on
“A New Look at Latin America” to be
held in Cambridge, Mass., February 19
and 20. Among those participating will
be Carleton Beals, long-time authority
in this field and a contributor to The
Nation; Lincoln Gordon, professor of In-
ternational Economic Relations at Har-
vard and a member of the Ford Founda-
tion Mission to Latin America in 1959;
Charles Griffin, of Vassar College, au-
thority on the social and cultural history
of Latin America; Congressman Charles
O. Porter of Oregon, and Ambassador
Vicente Sanchez Gavito, representative
from Mexico to the Organization of
American States.
We would be happy to send a detailed
program of the conference to anyone
writing us at P.O. Box 247, Cambridge
38, Mass. Registration for adults is $3.00;
for students, $1.50.
RussELL JOHNSON
Peace Education Secretary
American Friends Service Committee
Moment of Truth
Dear Sirs: J. David Singer’s article,
“Surprise Attack: Fear Could Pull the
Trigger,” in your issue of January 30,
struck me as so true and important that
I would like very much to obtain reprints
to distribute among my friends.
Watton H. Craic
Jamaica, N.Y.
Extra copies of the isswe containing
Mr. Singer’s article are available at mod-
erate cost. Requests should be addressed
to The Nation.—Ep.
The Cause Is Just
Dear Sirs: The New York Committee
to Abolish Capital Punishment will be
in the midst of the fight to get bills
against capital punishment passed by
the New York State Legislature this
year. We are hampered by lack of funds,
among other things. New members and/
or contributions are always welcome.
Since we do not have tax-exempt status,
we must rely on relatively small contri-
butions from as many people as we can
reach.
Information can be obtained at and
contributions mailed to: New York
Committee to Abolish Capital Punish-
ment, 2 West 64th Street, New York 23,
N.Y.
James B. Oscoop, Secretary
Wrong Question
Dear Sirs: David Cort, in his “In Search
of Athens, U.S.A.” (Jan. 23 issue) lists
the twenty colleges and _ universities
most successful in preparing students
to get advance degrees in science.
Mr. Cort belittles this criterion of
their candidacy for the academic Acrop-
olis because “not one Ivy League
school is on the entire list.” I happen
to teach mathematics at one of the
colleges so unceremoniously ditched. My
conviction is that the logical question
suggested by the facts is “Are the Ivy
League schools doing their share in pro-
ducing scientists?” and not “Is this a
fair criterion?”
The author seems to place great
stock in the number of books in Ivy
libraries. I suggest that in addition Mr.
Cort should find out how many are
actually read and digested by Ivy
League students.
I would suggest that perhaps a dis-
proportionate number of Ivy League
undergraduates have drifted into the
fields of stock manipulation and Madi-
son Avenue sloganeering—but all too
few into the fields of basic science, en-
gineering and moral philosophy.
C. E. Denny
Central College
Fayette, Mo.
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
129 @
ARTICLES
131 '@ Pie in the Sky: Scramble for
the Space Dollar
by CARL DREHER
138 @ Squaw Valley Snow Job
by RICHARD MEISTER
140 'e Maryland’s Jolly Jackpot
by DAVID HUME
142 @ Sugar and Sympathy
by BORIS C. SWERLING
145 @ Notes on Khrushchev’s Russia
by ALEXANDER WERTH
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
148 @ “The Plains of Madness”
by GEORGE DANGERFIELD
149 ‘@ Always Swinging Away
by PRED J. COOK
Enraptured by Maritain
by KENNETH REXROTH
The Ski Ball
by STRPHEN MAHONEY
Debate with the Rabbi (poem)
by HOWARD NYMEROV
Theatre
by HAROLD CLURMAN
The Banging Boards (poem)
by PREDERICK BOCK
—
oO
co
ee%eeseee8e @
154 Art
by FAIRFIELD PORTER
155 Music
by LESTER TRIMBLE
156 Films
by ROBERT WATCH
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 156)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
INL
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, [Wditor
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Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Warold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M, L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Music
Alexander Werth, Huropean
Correspondent
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The Nation, Peb, 18, 1960, Vol, 190, No. 7
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MW YORK - SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 13, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 7
a ae :
S : oy * 7 a
od "tk
THE
NATION
EDITORIALS
Eisenhower and Other Generals
General Eisenhower is the ninth general to occupy the
Presidential office, and probably the first to encounter
recurrent difficulties with his military brethren. Dur-
ing his predecessors’ terms, the country’s defense was
not a major or continuing problem. In other countries
the military have constituted a more dangerous force:
aside from Latin America, in France General de Gauile
has had his difficulties with the Army, and the end is
not yet. It may well be that President Eisenhower’s
successors will also be under the necessity of carrying
on a running controversy with disaffected officers.
_ The President has not gone out of his way to court
trouble; on the contrary, he tried hard to avoid it. Mr.
‘Truman’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, headed by General
Omar N. Bradley, had become obnoxious to certain
leading Republicans, in particular Senator Robert A.
Taft. Senator Taft did not precisely appoint the new
Joint Chiefs, but the list was submitted to him and
he approved the appointees. In this manner President
Eisenhower showed his awareness of the mischief in-
herent in an enormous military budget, the classic
nsatiability of admirals and generals,
that are inevitably formed between dissatisfied com-
manders and Congressional partisans.
Admiral Arthur W. Radford became head of the new
Joint Chiefs, and General Matthew B. Ridgway rep-
resented the Army. Within two years, General Ridgway
was beating his breast before Congressional committees
and crying that General Eisenhower’s manpower cuts
jeopardized national security. When the President per-
sisted in his course (which, by special divine dispensa-
tion, has not brought about the predicted disaster),
General Ridgway resigned and wrote Soldier. He made
a charge which has since become familiar through
reiteration — that not military considerations, but
economic and political ones, dominate Executive policy
in regard to the country’s security. Less than three
years later, Lt. Gen. James M. Gavin, the Army’s
chief of research, likewise resigned in protest against
Administration policy and likewise vented his patriotic
fears in print: his book was”
and the alliances .
led War and Peace in
sibly in the hope that a scholarly general might be less
precipitate in his reactions. The hope, if such it was,
General Taylor’s book, The Uncertain
is even now vying with works on the woes
proved vain;
Trumpet,
of the suburbs and the proper feeding of dogs. Still
more topically, Maj. Gen. John M. Medaris, com-
mander of the Army Ordnance Missile Command, has
just. resigned, the former German
and everybody
takes it for granted that in due course of time he will
blast General Eisenhower with yet another book. Nor
amid the tears of
rocket scientists who served under him,
are future candidates for auctorial laurels lacking. Gen-
erals Thomas D. White, Thomas S. Power and Bernard
A. Schriever, all of the Air Force, are standing in line.
that our Army, Navy
and Air Force will ever be as much of a pain in the body
politic as the Army alone has been in France. At any
rate, General Eisenhower has done his best to avert
such an affliction. He has met all comers, defeated each
in turn, and perhaps not even read their books with
the care they deserve. It is a good augury for the future
of democracy.
It does not seem, however,
The Mysterious M. de Gaulle
; Paris
The Fascist insurrection at Algiers petered out almost
as suddenly as it had started, with several of the insur-
gent leaders brought to Paris and interned in Santé
prison. How did it all happen so quickly? Some reasons
are clear; others less so. The clear reasons: the insur-
rection had aroused French metropolitan opinion much _
more effectively than it had done in May, 1958, when ~~
the issue had been complicated by de Gaulle himself. —
Secondly—and most important—the Moslem popula- —
tion of Algeria absolutely refused to have anything to
do with the revolt, and the conscript part of the French —
Algerian forces was, in the main, hostile to it. "ata
But why did the professional soldiers, who had frat-—
er ized with the i sneUraRees pozline Salle to de Gaulle”: Ie
tick he aa two ie to the Army:
cee: that there would be no political dis-
1s of the Algerian rebels, and |
1 Paiketon Algerian -self-determination would be
d at Amy. - » these promises mean that
PURE AS easy ®
com Te,
raat Wt Aa a ad pS a
Wite Mi tilaad ith o
» aire
Pa J
the projected Algerian referendum will prove to be a
farce like the Algerian elections in the fall of 1958?
Such questions trouble forward-looking French opin-
ion. And de Gaulle’s assumption of plenary powers adds
to the vexing nature of developments. It has been sug-
gested, in behalf of de Gaulie, that he needs the powers
because a really big Fascist plot was originally planned
for April, and that the Algerian uprising was a prema-
ture manifestation; thus, it 1s said, the President’s ob-
jective is to purge the Army and his administration of
all involved in the projected April insurrection. But if
de Gaulle has asked for what amounts to dictatorial
powers to clean up the Right, why, during the weck of
the insurrection, did his government seize not only sev-
eral Fascist journals, but also a number of left-wing
newspapers which had opposed the ultras?
In general, the Left supported de Gaulle as the de-
fender of France against the open Fascist revolt of the
Algerian ultras. As a defender of true democracy in
metropolitan France, and of the policy of genuine self-
determination in Algeria, French liberals remain sus-
picious of him.—ALEXANDER WERTH.
Certain Allies, Such As...
Last summer The Nation [issues of July 4 and July
18, 1959] demurred editorially against the proposed
agreements to furnish nuclear information and materials
to West Germany and other NATO countries. Seven
Representatives likewise demurred, with their votes,
and some forty others abstained from voting. The bill
passed, of course; anything that is touted as contribut-
ing to national security is a sure thing in Congress. Thus
another link was added to the long chain of hypocrisy
and subterfuge with which this Administration and its
predecessors have handled the problem of furnishing
nuclear weapons to our allies. At the outset, in the face
of all technological experience, Congress in its col-
lective wisdom held that nuclear know-how must re-
main forever American: not a word was to be breathed
to even our closest ally, Britain.
But incredibly, the Russians came up with atomic
weapons on their own and even beat us in the race for
a transportable thermonuclear weapon. Once more the
Congress drew on its statesmanlike resources and agreed
to share certain “secrets” with countries that already
had nuclear capability, i.ec., Great Britain. Next the
circle of the elect was enlarged to all of NATO, but only
as far as information was concerned. Congress decreed
that the weapons themselves, though based on foreign
soil, were not to leave American hands. |
The military absurdity of a law which ostensibly kept
the warheads, which might be needed in fifteen minutes,
in a kind of safe deposit vault, at length became evi-
dent. Now the Administration proposes that we give to
“certain allies” such nuclear weapons as are already
130
possessed by the Soviet Union. Thus the military
pressures have prevailed, but the hypocrisy remains.
Britain of course would receive the nuclear arsenal —
de facto she already has it. The newspapers also point
out that the proposed change in the law would enable
the United States to supply France with nuclear infor-
mation and weapons, thus placating General de Gaulle.
They even mention the likelihood that nuclear missiles
will be placed in the custody of Turkey and Italy,
which have shown such warm hospitality toward our
IRBM installations. But, from newspaper comment, no
one would ever suspect that West Germany is in line
not only for American nuclear assistance, but in the
not distant future for a nuclear industry of its own.
It is a German proverb that he who says A, must say
B. The godly West Germans, the “dike against Bolshe-
vism” as Mr. Adenauer calls them, will be among the
“certain allies” to whom we will give our nuclear all.
Speak Out, Men!
A score of independent-minded Americans appeared
briefly last month on a British commercial television
program called “We Dissent.” The views of these Amer-
icans—the group included Norman Mailer, Robert
Hutchins, Alger Hiss, J. Kenneth Galbraith, Dalton
Trumbo, Jules Feiffer, Norman Thomas, Mort Sahl, C.
Wright Mills—were taped by Kenneth Tynan on a
recent cross-country trip.
The stunt was clever journalism, and excited the
English, who have been taught that dissent has all but
disappeared from the United States. Unfortunately, the
statements made by these self-styled mavericks will do
little to change that view. Almost without exception,
they employed the time given them not to dissent, but _
to complain that the opportunity and courage for dis-
sent have vanished from the American scene,
Here at home, this is not news. There perhaps has
never been a time in this country when more men and
women have arisen in public to protest against the
absence of protest in the society around them. Far
from there being no voice of dissent, it sometimes
sounds as though that voice were outerying all the
others. But for the most part it is just crying.
Men of the stamp of those whom Tynan interviewed
do not lack courage, and there is little substance to the
complaint that there is no platform for their views, ‘This
magazine will accommodate them, for example, and
there are a dozen others that will do the same. There
are radio stations that will air their voices and news-
papers that will quote their statements, But these out-
lets, they will complain, are not the channels of mass
communication, they do not command the believing
millions held in thrall by the Luce complex and the
television networks. Of course not, Dissent is not a
mass phenomenon—there is no such thing as a nation
of dissenters—and our protesting prophets have them-
selves been caught in the fallacy that the only success
is a high Hooper rating. In fact, our minority today is
as noisy as any, and brilliantly successful at spreading
the news that the truth is going unspoken. Now that we
are listening, what is it that cries to be said?
Show of the Week
The show of the week — in politics, that 1s — was
unquestionably a high comedy entitled “Watch on the
Hudson,” starring Mayor Robert F. Wagner of New
York, supported by sundry bit players, script by aides
unknown. With scandals bursting to the right of him,
and to the left of him, in fact all about him, the intrepid
Mayor — characterized by Fortune in its current spe-
cial issue on New York as “an amiable, well-informed,
and hard-working (if somewhat disorganized) execu-
tive” — has at long last proviaed New Yorkers with a
mittee on corruption gravely assures Mr. Wagner, is
attributable to “the age-old and ever-present possibility
of corrupt alliances between members of the public and
city are mentioned).
The Mayor’s committee that if
New York’s eight million citizens would cease to offer
bribes to municipal employees, “corruption could be
stamped out in short order.” It is as hard to quarrel
with this so-gravely-put proposition as it was to dissent
“When large numbers of
(no intermediaries
is “firmly convinced”
employees”
from Mr. Coolidge’s dictum:
men are out of work, unemploynient results.”
But the Mayor must realize that the rationale of-
fered by his committee can only strike the average citi-
zen as being extremely droll. For if Mr. Wagner wanted
to guard against the recurrent scandals which are mak-
ing a shambles of his second administration, he should
first of all liberate himself from the python grip of a
wildly corrupt Democratic political machine known to
the average citizen, if not to him, as Tammany Hall.
rationale for the city’s “shame.”
a
¥
With this article Carl Dreher, an
wngineer by profession before he
turned to writing, continues his sur-
vey for The Nation of the political
and social implications of the tech-
nological-arms race (see The Na-
tion for Nov. 16, 1957; Feb. 1, 1958;
Sept. 6, 1958; Dec. 13, 1958; May
9, 1959; June 20, 1959). — Ed.
SPST
THE Aerospace Industries Associa-
tion represents, in its own words,
“the designers, developers and manu-
facturers of aircraft, spacecraft, their
propulsion, navigational and guid-
ance systems and their components.”
This takes in practically everything
needed to get around the galaxy,
whereas only a year ago they mod-
estly called themselves the Aircraft
Industries Association and, even
more modestly, “tin knockers.” The
primary reason for the transforma-
tion is that in 1959 the government
spent about $11 billion for aircraft,
missiles and spacecraft; in 1960 it
SER EF ES Le a
And it must be ad-
mitted that the Mayor and his aides have come up with
a nifty. The “shame” of New York, a special city com-
pel spend about ne same, but air-
I be a ce iy and — “cried hie notion that space explora-
CRAMBLE FOR THE SPACE DOLLAR
PIE IN THE SKY ee by Carl Dreher
missiles and spacecraft about a bil-
lion more.
A billion, though only 2.2 per cent
of the defense budget, is still a bit of
money and, shifted this way or that,
can spell prosperity for one com-
pany, distress for another, with cor-
responding gyrations in careers and
livelihoods. In space, however, the
opportunities are magnificent and
easily outweigh any temporary in-
convenience or hardship, especially
when endured by others. The oppor-
tunities will not be overlooked and
if the Eisenhower Administration ex-
pects to hold the line on that $41
billion (really $45 billion) defense
budget, it had better be prepared for
a stepped-up barrage from the aero-
space industry and its coadjutors in
the services (especially the Air
Force) and, of course, from the Dem-
ocrats.
A few preliminary shots have al-
ready been fired. Sethe zh
cal scout, de-
ma 75
It would not, of course, be an easy task, but he could
make a start by simply demanding the resignation of
Carmine De Sapio as Democratic leader.
tion was a matter of national pres-
tige rather than military urgency.
In a dissertation decorated with the
handsome features of the Air Force’s
most photographed officer, Lieut.
Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, Witkin
described Project Midas, for which
the Air Force holds out high hopes.
Midas is an infra-red or heat-ray de-
tector carried into a 1,600-mile orbit
by a Discoverer rocket. Once aloft
and “rotating anxiously in space,”
the detector, it is hoped, will pick up
the exhaust of a Soviet rocket a
minute or so after it leaves the pad.
By means of an array of other in-
struments, it will transmit this in-—
formation to a ground station, and
also give a rough idea of where the
missile is headed, so that our newest _
and most powerful radars ($400. mil-
lion apiece when they are operational
in 1962) will be able to find and
track it. The President of the United
States will then have “precious t
to study the situation and decide
ae to do” —twenty-nine minutes,
tween Midas’ pick-up and getting the
President’s attention in Washington,
Augusta, Paris or Moscow, or wher-
ever he may be. Still, twenty-nine
minutes is better than the fifteen
minutes’ warning of the unassisted
long-range radar, and should be
worth a few hundred extra millions.
Two weeks later (January 5,
1960), the same reporter made the
front page of the Times with Project
Samos, a happy combination of
provocation and profit. Instead of
waiting for the Soviets to launch
missiles at us, Samos carries the re-
> connaissance war to the Soviets. Ro-
tating in a polar orbit, camera-
carrying satellites will crisscross the
Soviet Union, taking pictures which
will be ejected from orbit in capsules
and perhaps be recovered. Thus, with
a certain amount of luck, the United
States will have photographs of all
Soviet rocket installations (at least
of those they haven’t buried or cam-
ouflaged). Witkin relays the com-
plaint of “alarmed high-level plan-
ners” that the program is being re-
tarded by what seems to retard all
space programs—lack of funds. Only
$300 million will have been spent on
Samos when the 1960 fiscal year ends
on June 30.
Both Midas and Samos are Lock-
heed projects. Convair has not been
favored with such breaks from the
Times but, under government con-
tract, is planning an as yet un-
christened system which, if any-
thing can stagger the modern imag-
ination, will surely stagger it. Where
Midas and Samos contemplate a
dozen or so satellites to do their
modest little job, Convair is think-
ing in terms of 500, and not just
“recon” satellites either. Some or all
will be prepared to deal summarily
_ with Soviet missiles, instead of keep-
ing the President on five-minute
alert. The alternative functions for
_ these self-assertive satellites will be
“confusion capability” (also known
—as “spoofing”) and “destruction ca-
pability.” A satellite (or missile) en-
_dowed with “confusion capability”
emits signals calculated to deceive
the hostile missile’s guidance system
and deflect it from its target. (Of
: / . . . . .
course, the hostile missile is like-
eres agg U2
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capability” involves arming the satel-
lite with a missile of its own with
ME OOD Tt oe
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ye VEN mr stil
which to bring down the Soviet mis-.
sile, presumably by infra-red homing
on the rocket exhaust. The satellite
itself might be hydrogen war-headed
to. make a Kamikaze-like attack on
the enemy missile. This type of de-
fense is under a $600,000 “detailed
study” contract by the Radio Cor-
poration of America. It may be that
by 1965, the hopeful target date for
these marvels, the Russians will have
ICBMs that will fly a zigzag course,
or veer from the ballistic path pre-
dicted by radar. But sufficient unto
the day is the evil thereof.
Moonstruck Missiles
ALL THESE are earthbound
schemes and rather too conservative
for the more advanced conquistadors
of space. For some years the Air
Force has been planning to establish
a manned missile base on the moon.
Recently its director of advanced
technology, Brig. Gen. Homer A.
Boushey, declared that the United
States must own the moon because,
being “high ground,” it dominates
the earth. He pointed out that from
the moon missiles could be launched
(once you were up there with the
necessary equipment) with only 20
per cent of the thrust required on
the earth. The moon garrison would
then track and guide the missile to
its earthly target. Possible compli-
cations can be envisioned, but these
don’t faze the aerospace imdustry,
which tends to like an idea in direct
proportion to its potential complexi-
ties.
Not all the experts are as sanguine
about the military potentialities of
space as Generals Schriever and
Boushey and the well-publicized sci-
entists and engineers of the aero-
space corporations. There is a certain
amount of silent skepticism, even in
the Air Force and among Air Force
suppliers. It seems unlikely that the
Russian recipients of Boushey’s
moon-to-earth projectiles (or we,
should the Russians get there first—
which is unfortunately conceivable
on the basis of cislunar and trans-
lunar navigation to date) will wait
patiently for the monster to descend
on them. The warning time will be
much greater than Midas’ twenty-
nine minutes, and Mr. Khrushchev,
or his successor, or Mr, Eisenhower's
successor, will be ak
ie
confer a
his technical advisers in rather lei-
surely fashion. As the projectile
leaves the vicinity of the moon and
approaches the earth, it will become
ever more difficult for the moon-
based garrison to give it effective
guidance; conversely, it will become
easier for their earth-based oppo-
nents to take countermeasures. The
latter might even be able to deflect
the missile from its original target
and plump it down on the country
which had sent its scientists and as-
tronauts all the way to the moon to
launch it. Such a diversion might
convey a valuable moral lesson to
all concerned.
Directly contrary to an impression
which appears to be gaining cur-
rency, time and space have not been
annihilated. If one wishes to strike
a spot on the earth and another spot
on the earth is available for firing,
why, at great expense, effort and
risk, go out into space? Suppose we
reverse the sequenc
the earth has been bombed hereto-
fore only from space ships or the
moon, and means were devised for
using the earth itself as a_ base.
Would it not~be hailed as a great
improvement, as superior as nuclear
explosives over TNT? If General
Boushey did it, his place in military
annals might be more secure than it
appears to be on the basis of his
present contributions.
Vice Admiral John T. Hayward,
the chief of naval research and de-
velopment, exemplifies this anti-
space attitude. “Who’s kidding
whom?” he asks. “Space is a place,
not a program! What is the military
interest in great rockets and huge
boosters? What do you do after you
get there? What is the need for such
a ‘way-out’ military space program
if we can do better close to earth?
Before there can be any real mili-
tary mission in space, it must be
proved the job can be done better
than in the atmosphere.”
Spaceman’s Troubles
MEN ARE going into space, but it
does seem that the first ones to get
there will have their hands full to
keep themselves alive and observe
what is observable, with instruments
and their unaided senses. They will
not control space, launch bombs, or .
engage in any of the aphid feotruces
* Pi Le ie
tie ” :
tive activities dear to the military
soul. Combat in space is conceivable;
in human affairs no folly is ruled
out. But the odds against this par-
ticular folly are long, at least in the
calculable future. Combat, like love,
requires a certain margin of safety
before it can be essayed. First the
environment must be mastered, and
this particular environment is only
in the study stage.
Clumsy Vehicles
AMONG civilian skeptics on the
utility of space vehicles for bombing
are the eighteen members of the
President’s. Science Advisory Com-
mittee, headed by Dr. James R. Kil-
lian, who discussed the subject in an
Introduction to Outer Space, issued
on March 26, 1958. The committee
granted that unforeseeable military
applications might be developed, but
concluded that satellite and moon-
based bombers were “clumsy and
ineffective ways” of doing the job.
It is impossible to “drop” a bomb
from a satellite; since the satellite is
itself falling (orbiting is a form of
falling), the bomb will simply travel
with it and, if detonated, will blow
up the satellite. One must propel the
bomb away from the satellite into
a path which will lead it to the tar-
get. But this requires a large amount
_of propellent, which means a bigger
_ booster to get the satellite and bomb
into orbit, and far higher accuracy
_ of aim than the most sophisticated
controls now available can provide.
For similar inconvenient physical
~ reasons, embodied in Newton’s laws
of motion, a satellite, tearing along
at five miles per second, is one of
the least maneuverable vehicles con-
ceivable. Prof. S. F. Singer (“The
Use and Uselessness of Outer Space,”
The Reporter, June 11, 1959) has
calculated that five orbital changes
of only 10 degrees each would use
_ up about as much energy as it took
_ to send the satellite into orbit.
But while it is hard to do any-
thing from a satellite and thus to
“control” space from such vehicles,
it is not as hard to prevent someone
else from exercising control, since the
satellite itself is quite vulnerable. It
moves in a predictable course and is
more susceptible to radiation dam-
age than a ground target, because of
the absence of an atmosphere. A two-
megaton bomb in the vacuum of
space, or on the moon, will produce
lethal radiation dosage over a sphere
of as much as a hundred-mile radius.
This alone should give pause to the
D’Artagnans of space. A manned
satellite, or an enclosure on the
moon, must be airtight and the least
puncture will disable it. Singer is
similarly bearish on the use of satel-
lites for reconnaissance. He points out
that camouflage and decoys would
be effective against a spy satellite,
As for putting men in orbit, the Rus-
sians are likely to do it before we
can but, whoever does it, the mili-
tary significance will probably prove
to be so slight that it would not be
worth while to shoot them down.
“Probably,” Singer concludes, “man’s
real function in space is simply to
explore the universe he lives in.”
Dr. John R. Pierce is director of
communications-principles research
for Bell Telephone ‘Laboratories. In
this department, he deals with radio,
electronics, acoustics, vision, mathe-
matics and group behavior. In “The
Dream World of Space” (Stimulus,
Scientific Research Publishing Com-
pany, Chicago, 1960), he complains
that “when corny and long-disproven
fallacies of space travel appear and
reappear in seemingly respectable
newspapers and journals, no one so
much as lifts an eyebrow. Indeed,
the way to fame appears to be the
propagation of the big error, and a
fantastic story suffers only from the
competition of one still more fan-
tastic.” He then takes apart space
travel at the speed of light, which
is discussed in some of the trade
papers as if it were just around the
corner, and a few other pop-eyed
projects. He doesn’t think much of
manned space vehicles either. Even
modern manned aircraft travel so
fast that a pilot can’t detect, much
less shoot down, an enemy aircraft
without the most elaborate elec-
tronic aids. But these vehicles are
slow compared with spacecraft. In
space, ultra-advanced guidance, be-
yond anything we now have, will be
necessary just to get from one place
to another. “All we need to louse
things up completely,” Pierce sug-
gests, “is a skilled space pilot with
his hands itching for the controls.”
The real need, in Pierce’s estima-
tion, is improvement in the reliabil-
ity of conventional intercontinental
missiles. Even if they are as accurate
as President Eisenhower says the
Atlas is, their failure rate is terrible
and that is what the engineers should
be working on. “From a_ military
point of view,” Pierce asks, “who
wouldn’t give away all the rest of
space if only he could have twice as
many reliable intercontinental mis-
siles as any potential enemy?”
At the American Rocket Society’s
convention in November, 1959, G.
P, Sutton, chief scientist of the Ad-
vanced Research Products Agency,
suggested that the Soviet military
space effort might be only a very
minor one. He noted that the Rus-
sians had not launched any satel-
lites since May 1958, that they had
little need for spy, reconnaissance
or communications satellites, and
that they would probably concen-
trate on “scientific exploration and
the psychological-political effects
that accompany new space achieve-
ments.” For our part, therefore,
“military space vehicles should not
be as urgent as intercontinental bal-
listic missiles, Polaris submarines or
new anti-tank weapons.”
The Aerospace ‘Personality’
YET THE warnings of national ruin
if we don’t beat the Russians into
space grow louder and louder. Con-
gress is in session and the public,
being told over and over again that
it has reason to be agitated, may
finally supply the popular demand
for all-out spending which the aero-
space industry yearns for. We have
seen that scientific opinion is di-
vided, to say the least, on the mili-
tary value of space exploration, but
nothing critical ever filters down to
the public. It is time, then, to ask
some questions. What were the space
salesmen of today saying and doing
five, ten years ago? If their presci-
ence is so great, why are we behind
in space? Why is there a “missile
gap,” not only the publicized one
in ICBMs, but at all ranges? Ac-
cording to the noted military com-
mentator, Brig. Gen. Thomas R.
Phillips, U.S.A. (Retired), General
Lauris Norstad lies sleepless at night
because the Russians “have hun-
dreds of [400-1,100 mile] missiles
zeroed in on NATO’s bases, troop
concentrations and __ infrastructure
133
facilities,” while Norstad has nothing
to fire back with. Why? Where did
the money go—over $38 billion on
missile projects since World War II?
How much credence should we give
to the fantasies, prophecies and ex-
trapolations of Air Force and aero-
space spokesmen, when these condi-
tions must be at least partly the
fault of organizations that are still
charged with responsibility for the
expenditure of enormous sums and
the incurring of grandiose risks?
These are not rhetorical questions,
nor are they unanswerable. When
one studies the record, one begins to
see that the aerospace personality,
so to speak, has marked schizoid
tendencies, with part of it taking off
into the science-fiction realm and
another part clinging to the tech-
niques of the past. They profit both
ways. Their earnings would be less
if they confined themselves to the
possible and phased out faster on
the obsolescent. Admittedly, the
choices are not always easy, and to
stay in the middle ground, in which
you are not left behind by the com-
petition on the one hand or in-
dulging in fantasy on the other, re-
quires constant and often painful
readjustment. But for this there is
no help, nor should this particular
field be exempted from the long-
accepted standards of scientific tech-
nology merely because it is relatively
new. A certain level of insight, fore-
sight and probity is required of the
professional. Lacking it, he has no
title to the name, the honors, dis-
tinctions and rewards, and the power
to dispose of the lives and fortunes
of his countrymen.
One cause of our difficulties is that
in the early stages of aerospace de-
velopment the Air Force and its sup-
pliers bet on the wrong vehicle, the
Russians on the right one. The error,
per se, may be condoned. Anyone
with experience in industry is slow
to criticize the technical mistakes of
engineers and administrators. He can
remember a few of his own, unless—
the greatest mistake of all—he never
took a chance. All that can be ex-
pected of a healthy technology is
that it should not persist in its
errors,
Yet this is precisely what the aero-
space industry has done and, as far
as possible, is still doing. At the out-
134
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set, the principal weight of deter-
rence was thrown on the manned
bomber, partly as a result of an over-
estimate of Soviet strength in this
type of weapon. Nevertheless there
were—there are even now—argu-
ments in favor of manned bombers.
But then, in the missile field, the
Air Force invested heavily in_air-
borne, air-breathing types, such as
Navaho and Snark, aptly called
“semi-missiles.” These had all the
faults of the airplane—low speed and
vulnerability to interception and
anti-aircraft fire—except that, lack-
ing a crew, they were expendable.
But here also engineers and adminis-
trators have a defense which is at
least half-valid. If the air-breathing
missile has the demerits of the air-
plane, it also has its merits: in par-
ticular, ability to carry a heavy load.
When nuclear bombs were very
heavy, the pilotless airplane seemed
to be the only answer to the delivery
problem. The inexcusable mistake,
and the culpability, lay in continu-
ing the development and manufac-
ture of these weapons after it was
clear that the bombs could be light-
ened to such an extent that the bal-
listic missile would inevitably win
out. It had the necessary carrying
capacity and a tremendous advan-
tage in speed.
But the aerospace industry, which
was then mainly the airplane indus-
try, clung te its aerodynamic tech-
niques and its sure profits (while
constantly complaining the profits
were too small) and the Air Force
played it safe and indulged the in-
dustry in its technological lag. Bil-
lions of dollars were wasted, and
time too, for, as Dr. Pierce says,
“Every dollar foolishly spent ties
up the time of someone who might
be making a contribution to national
defense.”
Brothers Under the Skin
REMARKING on our tendency to
procrastination, General John B.
Medaris declares, “We seem to lack
faith in the resiliency of our eco-
nomic system.” The underlying truth
is more doleful. The manufacture of
armaments under the free-enterprise
system is a dual-purpose activity,
the avowed aim of which is national
defense while the unavowed aim is
to sustain the free-enterprise econ-
‘ ’ eG
*, 2
omy. Silence cloaks unanimity.
Every Senator from an_airplane-
missile-producing state, every Rep-
resentative from a district in which
a single electronics factory is lo-
cated, acts as a watchdog for the
interests of his constituent corpora-
tions and their employees. It makes
no difference whether he is liberal
or conservative, Republican or Dem-
ocrat: a contract cancellation is like
opening one of his arteries. Likewise,
labor and management may fight on
other issues, but when it comes
to government business they are
brothers under the skin. Whether the
equipment is useful or useless is not
their concern. A plant might be turn-
ing out an item which is already be-
ing sold as surplus; no matter, it
makes work and profits.
A partial explanation of this phe-
nomenon is that everyone assumes
that the weapons thus ambivalently
produced are intended for use only
in the war of test and demonstration
which, it is hoped, will by tacit
agreement of the contestants be kept
from flaring into the war of combat.
Thus, when a weapon development
fails, it has still been a partial suc-
cess. As long as its inefficacy remain-
ed unproved, it served its turn in
the war of test and demonstration,
it generated employment and profits,
and in almost all cases it reproduced
itself in more complex and expensive
form before dying. There is no call
for the generals, businessmen, legis-
lators and labor-union officials who
stayed with it to the end to feel any
pangs of remorse, and they don’t.
Ride of the Valkyrie
THE CURRENT example of trying
to be the last to set the old aside is
the B-70, a proposed 2,000 mile-per-
hour (Mach 3) bomber which the
Air Force had selected to replace its
present generation of manned bomb-
ers. Like the defunct Navaho, the
B-70 was a development of North
American Aviation. Never did a non-
existent aircraft enjoy a better press.
In 1958, an editor of the Saturday
Evening Post, after extended brief-
ing by the Strategic Air Command,
wrote an article entitled, “Who Says
Pilots Are Obsolete?” He asked a
subsidiary question, “Does the in-
tercontinental ballistic missile have
a future?” and concluded that it did, q
mn 7 v
@¢ NATION
he NATH
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but so did the manned bomber, and
in particular the B-70, “the plane
that has all SAC men clucking. .. .
Here is a bomber so fantastic in con-
cept that mere words cannot do it
justice.” The words were neverthe-
less poured out. North American’s
public-relations department sponsor-
ed a contest among SAC officers and
airmen at bases all over the world to
name the upcoming aircraft, which
were to cost, when in production,
$50 million apiece. Among 20,235
entries, Valkyrie was finally chosen.
Valkyrie continued to get good pub-
licity until she was ungallantly cut
back and stretched out by the De-
partment of Defense on December
1, 1959, after $550 million had been
appropriated for her (all of which
has been, or will be, spent, together
with $75 million in fiscal 1961 and
probable further funding in later
years).
In Pentagon parlance, to “stretch
out” a program means that, not dar-
ing to cancel it, you keep on spend-
ing at a reduced rate. To “cut back”
is to reduce the amount of the order
which you should have canceled a
year or two ago. In Valkyrie’s case,
the cut-back meant that North
American would build two proto-
types instead of the thirteen which
had been planned. It also meant that
North American itself would do
much work that had been subcon-
tracted,
What Will We See When We Reach-the Moon?
meee oe ee
Come ee! 8S. ee
ia +
~ Cancellations of something like
$100 million followed, with more
to come. In Seattle, where Boeing,
preparing to build Valkyrie wings
under a $200 million subcontract,
faced cancellation, Senator Henry
M. Jackson issued his usual state-
ment: “This is another example of
reducing our security for purely
budgetary reasons.” California’s Sen-
ator Clair Engle likewise foresaw
“grave consequences for national se-
curity.” There were repercussions all
over the country among major sub-
contractors and innumerable sub-
subcontractors.
But it did not seem that North
American, although it immediately
released 2,000 employees at its main
plant in Hawthorne, California,
would suffer too grievously. Its sales
in the current fiscal year are ex-
pected to top $1 billion, its last-
year profit after taxes was almost
$31 million, its backlog was over
$660 million. Nor did it take the De-
partment of Defense’s action very
seriously. On Christmas Eve, it ran
half-page newspaper advertisements
extolling SAC and “SAC’s B-70
Valkyrie multipurpose bomber, a
2,000-mph manned weapon system
with global striking power.” The Air
Force and the rest of the industry
were likewise skeptical or recalci-
trant. General Thomas D. White,
Air Force chief of staff, announced
his intention of testifying “honestly
and according to my convictions” in
his forthcoming appearances before
Congressional committees. Valkyrie
may have life in her yet.
If this aircraft could be operational
this year or next, there might be
some argument in favor of produc-
tion, but by 1967, when it might be
combat-ready in significant numbers,
ballistic missiles will have eclipsed
bombers entirely. There is, to be
sure, another point on the side of
continuing research and, if possible,
salvaging the more than half-billion
already committed. With some modi-
fication, the B-70 will make a Mach
3 airliner capable of carrying eighty
passengers from New York to Lon-
don in about an hour and a half.
Very well: if we really have a free-
enterprise system, let the airliner be
developed by the airline and_air-
plane industries. Of course, we
haven’t a free-enterprise system: we
have a government-subsidized pri-
vate-profit system, and the aero-
space industry has neither the
money nor the inclination to em-
bark on an enterprise of this magni-
tude. Since the transport should be
built (the Russians will build one
and probably before we do), the
necessary funds should be included
in the federal budget—and identified
for what they are, not camouflaged
under military necessity. The ac-
cepted practice has been for the air-
craft manufacturers to profit by de-
PT eee.
a
Bose: France Observateur
Nothing?
veloping military aircraft at gov-
ernment expense, then to profit again
by building them (largely with gov-
ernment financing, tools and mate-
rials), then to share in the opera-
tional experience gained by these
aircraft in military service, then to
profit a third time by selling the
civilian versions of the same aircraft
to the airlines, and to continue to
profit by selling spare parts for the
entire life cycle of both civil and
military versions. This arrangement
may no longer be feasible in its full
beauty and perfection.
The Lure of Space
NONE THE LESS, the days ahead
can be pleasant for the aerospace
boys, both in and out of military
service, Space projects are a perfect
solution for an economy suffering
from a deficiency of mass purchasing
power and seeking new outlets for
capital investment—conditioned, of
course, on government sharing with-
out government ownership. Where
once military necessity was confined
to defense against physical assault,
now it takes in technological pres-
tige, of which the present focal point
is the space race. The magnitude of
space spending is limited, in theory,
only by the national resources and
the proportion of them the taxpay-
ers refuse to divert from gracious
living. If they were patriotic enough,
the entire national economy could
be reduced to a subsistence level and
the balance shot off into space. Un-
like terrestrial projects, space has no
technological limits. All space proj-
ects are difficult and hence expensive.
Many border on the impossible and
can be realized only by pushing out-
wards the boundaries of the existing
art in computation, propellent chem-
istry, telecommunications, metal-
lurgy and numerous other technol-
ogies. Still other projects, presently
in the study stage, may actually be
impossible, but they nevertheless
have a good chance of getting the
green light. Opposition is difficult;
in a time of technological frenzy
even the normally level-headed in-
dividual tends to be frenetic with
the others. Everyone agrees that we
are trying to pursue too many space
projects, but nobody wants to sac-
rifice his own or to give up any funds.
In sum, every space system is a
136
+
*
~
package in which national security,
which may be illusory, and profits
and careers, which are real, lodge
snugly together. To make a dent in
a setup of this sort is like trying to
cut down a sequoia with a hatchet.
The ordinary rules of business, in
which some sort of relationship exists
between what you pay and what you
get, are irrelevant in the space race.
Take the “exctic” fuels. A gallon of
petroleum-based jet fuel costs the
government about 20 cents. A gallon
of some “zip” fuel may deliver 40
per cent more energy. The cost—in
quantity production—may be $50 a
gallon. The energy yield has been
multiplied by a factor of 1.4, the
cost by a factor of 250. Yet the gov-
ernment and industry—mostly, of
course, the government—have pour-
ed hundreds of millions into research
on exotic fuels and, given the prem-
ises of the arms race—that it is a
race for national survival and of
good against evil—who will cavil at
the expense? Once this belief has
been sufficiently drummed into the
population, the merchants of space
may face the future without fear.
But the country may not fare as
well. I am not one of those who are
convinced that we must win the
space race to survive. If I were, I
would be exceedingly pessimistic, for
it seems to me that the administra-
tive confusion and general ineffi-
ciency which have marked the aero-
space program are inherent in the
free-enterprise system (as construed
by those presently running it) and
hence are incurable without a dras-
tic and unlikely overhaul.
The Russians’ Troubles
THIS IS not to say that the Rus-
sians are invincible and will win
every round. They have their trou-
bles, too: never doubt it. But it may
well be that for the purpose in hand
the defects of their system are less
retardative than the defects of ours,
and that their virtues are more pro-
pulsive than our virtues. Exhorta-
tion has very slight effect in such
circumstances. The circumstances
themselves are not brought sharply
into focus, because of the idiotic as-
sumption that the way to preserve
the system is never to question its
principles or criticize its practices.
A single factor, such as the inter-
action between profit-motivated sup-
pliers and the military, scientific and
administrative government bureauc-
racy, may in itself constitute a severe
handicap. It is no less debilitating
when some petty functionary exacts
the last ounce of flesh and blood
from some small contractor as when
the contractor, big or small, succeeds
in cutting a corner. When it involves
suspicion, ignorance and buck-pass-
ing on the part of high-level bureau-
crats banded together in interlocked
agencies, departments, committees
and councils, it is known in the
present context as the “space maze.”
It is said that sixty-one govern-
mental groups are concerned with
the space and missiles effort. But
there are sound as well as un-
sound reasons for the tiers of de-
cision-makers and decision-avoiders
in the Pentagon. The most able peo-
ple tend to go into business. If one
of them accepts a two-year tour as
Secretary of Defense, everyone feels
he has done his duty. At lower but
still important levels, if a man is
third-rate, or merely lacking in spe-
cialized knowledge, he necessarily
takes more time and needs more cor-
roboration. Nor are the delays en-
tirely unconnected with the fact that
the Pentagon is beset, within and
without, by the snake-oil salesmen
of space, and that a sizable propor-
tion of contractors are prepared to
swindle the government at every op-
portunity and—as the reports of the
General Accounting Office attest—
often succeed. A cheek-by-jowl rela-
tionship between the suppliers and
the military men who depend on
them for holidays in the Bahamas,
sports cars with blonde chauffeurs in
Las Vegas, and other perquisites of
rank, is even less conducive to ef-
ficiency than the obstructive caution
and negativism of some government
agencies.
Some improvement in the over-all
efficiency of aerospace development
might be effected by curbing the ex-
pansionism of the military, the Air
Force in particular. The Air Force
was opposed to sharing space with
the National Aeronautics and Space
Agency and tried to keep so many
projects that a spokesman for the
National Advisory Council for Aero-
nautics, NASA’s predecessor body,
remarked that “the only thing left
' > he. ‘
’
tion of butter oa the nee ” Gen-
eral Schriever said that a civilian
agency should be limited to research
and in particular to projects that
might be classified as “screwball—
long-range non-military projects that
the Defense Department might be
__eriticized for attempting.” Since, in
recent months, NASA has been given
more funds and scope, the Air Force
under White House directives, and
of course it is not without friends in
Congress.
ee ape
Sa
Space and Sanity
TO THE EXTENT that we need to
have a space program, it should be
turned over entirely to NASA, as
advocated by Dr. William H. Pick-
ering, director of the California Insti-
tute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratories. Since there is no valid
reason for a major military space
program, the Air Force should not
be allowed to undertake one on its
own initiative. The Administration
has, on the whole, done a good job in
controlling the military, but con-
_ stant vigilance is called for, particu-
larly where the Air Force is concern-
_ ed. For example, it is reported in the
trade press that the Air Force,
although it is represented in the
inter-service group of astronauts of
the NASA Mercury ‘training pro-
gram, is engaged in training its own
group in a parallel program. For its
part, the Air Force accuses the Navy
of “bleeding out” information on Air
Force space projects, such as the
Dyna-Soar manned space bomber,
with the intention of carrying on a
rival program. Maybe so, but the
truth is they will all bear watching,
and the Air Force not least.
q In general, the military are usurp-
ers in the numerous fields of tech-
nology in which they have succeeded
in establishing themselves. It is as
if the state executioner pressed for
appointment as head of the state
police while continuing to hang or
electrocute miscreants. He might
conceivably be qualified, but one
job is enough. There are many ca-
pable and ambitious men in the mili-
_ tory services, but if they want to do
_ something else, let them do it in the
‘proper way and place.
=> F
is described as increasingly restive
number, Austria 4
‘ing been added to
eae members. remain. T
ng the ee cations — ae preRS de
the space race is a draw. It ould
seem only prudent, therefore, to con-
sider the alternatives. We must not
neglect any opportunity to come to
terms with the Soviet Union in dis-
armament negotiations. The only
crash program that makes sense is
one in the direction of disarmament.
One promising avenue of approach
would be to try to establish a col-
laborative relationship between East
and West in space exploration and
research. The offer of Dr. T. Keith
Glennan, head of NASA, to make
the United States tracking network
available to the Soviet Union for its
manned space-flight program—if and
when it has one—is a sensible step.
The spatial environment is excruciat-
ingly difficult, dangerous and ex-
pensive to get into, and even worse
to get out of. As to living in it, we
have no solid information at all as
yet. The astronauts who make the
first attempts, whatever their na-
tionality, surely deserve the support
of a concerted international effort.
The United Nations General As-
sembly unanimously adopted a reso-
lution on December 12, 1959, creat-
ing a permanent twenty-four-nation
committee to encourage and regu-
late the peaceful uses of outer space.
The resolution also authorized an
international scientific conference for
exchange of “experience,” to be held
in 1960 or 1961. Such a committee
could have been formed a_ year
earlier. The present committee is
composed of twelve “Western” na-
tions which were previously appoint-
ed to a 1958 ad hoc committee, to-
gether with the Soviet Union, Po-
land and Czechoslovakia, and three
neutrals, India, the United Arab Re-
public and Sweden. The Soviet Union
demanded four seats instead of three
for its bloc, and when this was re-
fused, boycotted the committee. The
United Arab Republic and India
thereupon also withdrew. After a
year, a compromise was reached on
the basis of the original three Soviet
bloc members plus” four others—AI-
bania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Ru-
mania. The neutrals are now five in
vebanon hav-
original ap-
-pointees. The
give the astronauts a better chance
Soviet bloc can at best achieve a tie
vote if all the neutrals vote with it.
Because of the United States’ un-
willingness to_give the Soviet bloc
four votes out bat a total of nineteen
in the ad hoc committee, action was
stalled for a year. This is an exam-
ple of how not to behave in the U.N.,
outer space, or anywhere else. We
can no longer rig international com-
mittees as if they were quiz shows.
Outside the U.N. there is a newly
formed body composed of represent-
atives of national scientific groups.
Its purpose is to co-ordinate the ex-
ploration of outer space. Known as
the Committee on Space Research
(COSPAR), it is a successor to the -
International Council of Scientific
Unions, which sponsored the Inter-
national Geophysical Year. It was
first set up in November, 1958, but
the Soviet Union demurred at its
representation of a single seat among
a total of sixteen. A compromise was
finally arranged on the basis of an
executive bureau with six members,
three from the Soviet bloc and three
from the West, giving each side veto
power over decisions. Again there
was unnecessary delay.
The Way Out
THE First International Space Sci- ’
ence Symposium took place in Nice,
France, January 11-15, under the
auspices of COSPAR. A total of more
than 100 papers was presented, and
300 persons from seventeen coun-
tries participated. The countries in-
cluded Argentina, Australia, Bel-
gium, Canada, France, West Ger-
many, Italy, Japan, Netherlands,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, China
(Taiwan), Union of South Africa,
USSR, United Kingdom and _ the
United States. Among individuals
participating were Richard W. Por-
ter, the United States delegate rep-_
resenting our National Academy of —
Sciences, and sixty-three other Amer-
icans, ingitading the Nobel laureates
Joshua Lederberg and Harold (¢
Urey. Daily dispatches from Ni
indicated harmony among the pa
ticipants, despite the presence of the
representative from Taiwan.
If such efforts are continued,
may find more in common with’ €
Russians than either they or we s
us-
pected. A cooperative effort wo ld
7
a ¥ c
Sl
for their lives and have a salutary
effect in both camps. The difficulties
are great, but the stakes are worth
striving for. The Soviets could in-
dustrialize more rapidly if they were
relieved of some of the burdens of
the war of test and demonstration;
to that end they might be amenable
to disarmament controls and depend-
able agreements in other areas where
interests conflict, or seem to con-
flict. For our part, we should have
to switch our surplus productive ca-
pacity from armaments to welfare,
but if we succeeded we would be
Sacramento, Calif.
ANY RESEMBLANCE between
California taxpayers and the “peace
doves” to be sent aloft to open the
Olympic Winter Games February
18 is purely non-coincidental. The
uninitiated might even say it’s down-
right intentional.
The birds, it turns out, are merely
Pageant Director Walt Disney’s sub-
stitute for doves; they’re really
pigeons.
But restrain the sympathy, please;
California brought much of its prob-
lem on itself. The Golden State
wanted Olympic Games financed in
the style to which it has been ac-
customed. That’s just what Cali-
fornia is getting, and it’s too late to
climb out of the $8 million hole it so
avidly began digging six years ago
at Squaw Valley in the High Sierras.
Actually, that $8 million figure is
a rank understatement. Among other
dollars supporting the Games, there’s
$3.5 million tossed in by federal tax-
‘payers, approximately $2.5 million
from private industry (guess who'll
eventually pay that bill?), and
$363,000 coughed up by Nevada,
Although hardly the caliber of
support you might hope for from
a nation providing billions to equip
the playing fields of Cape Canaveral
RICHARD MEISTER, a California
newspaper man, describes himself as
an “after-ski enthusiast specializing
im hot buttered rums.”
By 138
ae a
j 4 wy
better off both morally and econom-
ically. All hands would be tranquil-
ized and find it easier to live to-
gether on the same planet which,
dull as it it may be, does offer air,
food, water and manageable tem-
peratures.
If the pressure to blast off into
space were relieved, it would be no
calamity for the human race, and
even the aerospace people might be
happier in the long run. Realistically,
what does space offer? Adventure,
a new form of sport: exciting, but
warranting only a limited budget.
and White Sands, upwards of $14
million for an eleven-day athletic
contest is going some. As a matter
of fact, it may yet go further. Just
like the spectators at Canaveral,
Californians are holding their breath
—slow ticket sales being just one
of several worries which prompted
Games officials to request a $1 mil-
lion “emergency fund” recently.
And though not certain their $8
million-plus investment will return
them a successful Olympic Games,
Californians are reasonably sure of
this: they'll have to shell out mil-
lions more if they expect to get
much benefit from Squaw Valley
after the Games close on February
28. It would cost the state something
like $3 million to buy out the pri-
vate owners whose property is es-
sential to any comprehensive public-
park development in the beautiful
little valley, a natural amphitheatre
a half-mile wide and two miles long,
surrounded by 9,000-foot peaks. Or,
at the least, California would have
to spend a million or two on addi-
tional facilities for its own land,
should it decide to lease the prop-
erty to the neighboring private op-
erators and let them run the park.
Under optimum conditions, a park
at Squaw Valley would nick the
state for a yearly operational loss of
about $175,000. But, of course,
you don’t judge public recreation
in dollars-and-cents terms. If you
did, however, you might find it curi-
eS
Scientific information: likewise ~ of
great interest, but we don’t have to
get it all by 1970. Possibly new raw
materials on the moon or Mars, but
exploitable only at inordinate ex-
pense: no bank would lend a plugged
nickel on that prospect. The mili-
tary potential, as we have seen, is
small. The private profits are im-
moral and demoralizing, and sooner
or later will bring on another “mer-
chants of death” revulsion. If any
residual capacity for sanity exists
among us, now is the time to draw
on it.
SQUAW VALLEY SNOW JOB e « by Richard Meister
ous that California, faced with a
constantly expanding urban popula-
tion, spends as little as $1 million a
year to develop its grossly under-
developed park lands, yet tosses mil-
lion after million into one ski area.
Ah, but note what they’re getting
for their money. To cite news re-
ports, “Film producer Walt Disney
is planning to turn the Games into
a fitting spectacle, one of the most
elaborate in Games history.” The
Khan of Disneyland, donating his
great creative talents, plans “a choir
of thousands, a daytime fireworks,
20,000 balloons, 2,000 pigeons sym-
bolic of world peace and unity, a
skier racing down a mountain with
a torch,” and more, including thirty-
three $2,000 statues of athletes—pre-
sumably for those spectators who
can’t afford the price of an ice-arena
ticket to see the real thing close up.
There'll be an Olympic Queen, nat-
urally, and Art Linkletter, who’s in
charge of providing nightly enter-
tainment. All this and Richard
Nixon, too, who will open the Games.
LEST we forget what this Olympics
business is all about, there’ll be some
800 athletes and 300 officials from
thirty-three nations somewhere in
this mass of spectacle, competing, as
usual, not to win or lose, but just to
play the game. Also as usual, every-
one will be keeping score, thanks to
600 newspaper correspondents,
Given cooperation from the weath-
The Nation
1"
er, which has been known to appear
in the form of nasty blizzards at
Squaw Valley, California’s bottom-
less appropriation pot should assure
athletes the best of everything. Spec-
tators can get the same thing—
providing they can afford it.
For the minimum ticket price of
$7.50 a day, or $60 for the eleven
days, they can wander around the
valley, but see only a few of the
skating events (most are held in the
8,500-seat arena) and get only a
glimpse of the start and finish of
most outdoor events. For a $15 to
$25 ticket ($200 to $250 for eleven
days) a visitor can get an arena seat.
Then there’s an arena charge of $1
a day per car plus $2 an occupant,
or $5 a day to stand in line behind
athletes, officials and newsmen for
use of a chair lift—should the spec-
tator want to get a good look at
things. There are plenty of accom-
modations around Squaw Valley,
which lies 200 miles from San Fran-
cisco and forty-six miles from Reno.
But even at lodges cooperating with
Olympic officials, prices range from
$10 to $15 a night, and in most you'll
have to stay more than one night.
All of which makes it understand-
able why officials have scaled down
their original estimates of capacity
crowds of 35,000 daily. Their opti-
mism has faded in the face of a situa-
tion in which, as of three weeks be-
fore the Games, not many more than
150,000 tickets had been sold—no
more than 15,000 for any particular
day. And should the weather act up,
many may never make it. A heavy
storm could close both highways
leading from San Francisco. Too,
visitors should have fun driving over
narrow, twisting and steep Donner
Summit, one lane each way and
7,135 feet high on U.S. Highway 40;
and there’s the similar dangerous
Meyers Grade on U.S. 50.
~ A PRUDENT man might ask just
how California got into such a mess.
The lion’s share of credit must go
to Alex Cushing, who left a position
in New York society twelve years
ago to build a plush lodge in the
__ heart of Squaw Valley, install a chair
lift and establish a lucrative retreat
_ for the weary coupon clippers of San
Francisco’s smart set. However re-
luctant Cushing was to admit “two-
ie amelie y «|
960
‘Ye
*
bit skiers” to his lands, in 1954 he
invited the U.S. Olympic Commit-
tee to try getting the 1960 Winter
Games staged in his wild and isolated
valley.
The Games could be put on for
$1 million in public funds, said Cush-
ing. So the Olympic committeemen
picked Squaw Valley, and the Cali-
fornia Legislature followed with an
appropriation of $1 million.
Off went Cushing to Paris, armed
with a state booklet noting that Cali-
fornia had pledged “whatever money
may be required” to stage the
Games. But the lodge-owner empha-
sized to the International Olympic
Committee that California was plan-
ning to “restore the Olympic ideal”
by staging a simple operation stress-
ing athletic competition to the ex-
clusion of commercial sideshows. No
sooner was the committee sold, how-
ever, than the great push began. Out
came the politicians and promoters
with talk of “tremendous advertising
and promotional value,” led by State
Senator Harold T. Johnson (now a
Congressman), whose district en-
compassed Squaw Valley.
California was on the make, and
Goodwin Knight, Governor at the
time, was, as usual, reluctant to op-
pose such pressure. Meanwhile,
Cushing, head of the state’s Olympic
Organizing Committee, was revising
his estimates of just how to “restore
the Olympic ideal.” He lost his job
in 1956, but by then everyone re-
alized it would take something more
than $1 million to stage the Games.
Squaw Valley just didn’t have the
facilities for an international com-
petition, and naturally the pressure
was for the very best development.
Forcing California’s hand, Interna-
tional Olympic Commissioner Avery
Brundage warned the state to put
up or lose the Games. The result:
another $4 million drained from Cali-
fornia’s shrinking beach and_ park
development fund.
Pushed into a face-saving position,
trapped by previous commitments,
and unable or unwilling to stem the
pressure of super-promoters, politi-
cians in California, Nevada and
Washington, D.C., continued with
more appropriations, until $10.2 mil-
lion had been spent on construction
alone (partly because of U.S. Olym-
pic Commission insistence that facili-
ties be made permanent).
Periodically breaking into print
with internal squabbles, Olympic of-
ficials finally developed what they
call “the best-equipped sports area
in the world,” including the usual
accouterments, as well as the first
covered and artificially-iced arena in
Games history, built with federal
funds. Perhaps the greatest expense
went into building a little city for
the athletes, complete with four
dormitories, dining hall, bank, post
office, drug store, theatres, and the
like. (The Lake Tahoe area four
miles away has all this, including
living accommodations for 20,000
persons. ) ;
Yet at most, a total of $3.5 million
—cost of the ice arena alone—will
be returned from the Games them-
selves (including $50,000 paid by
CBS to televise the events—which
might have something to do with
those slow ticket sales).
This doesn’t matter, though. Stag-
ing the Games in California has
brought millions of dollars of pub-
licity to the state, given it $11 mil-
lion in buildings for an $8 million”
139 |
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a? 7 f We
ae ORs kote
investment, and will make Squaw
Valley a skier’s paradise. The factory
worker down in Los Angeles without
a nearby park to call his own can
be happy that the sportsman is be-
ing served. But wait. There’s a devil
in this paradise of the affluent—
Alex Cushing, by name.
THERE are his holdings, cutting off
from the valley center $11 million
worth of buildings and other devel-
opments on state land, and there’s
his control of the chair lifts. Some
winter park, with no chair lifts or
free access to the heart of the good
skiing area!
And buying out Cushing would be
a bit complicated, thanks to state
legislation which authorized another
$3 million for state-park develop-
ment in the valley. Because of pre-
vious court battles, this law—passed
in 1957—prohibited the state from
condemning any more lands there.
The action could be overturned by
the legislature “in the interests of
harmony,” of course, but this isn’t
likely. For the legislature would be
approving, in effect, another expendi-
ture of millions—to buy out Cush-
ing (an estimated $3 million job).
MARYLAND’S JOLLY JACKPOT © ¢ by David Hume
Mt. Eagle, Maryland
IN CHARLES COUNTY, Maryland
—somewhat cxaggeratedly referred
to in the past as the “Sin Capital of
the East Coast”—there are some
2,338 licensed slot macihnes in more
than 200 establishments. Of these,
about 100 are grocery stores, filling
stations, drug stores and the like.
The rest are casinos of varying cate-
-gories which like to advertise them-
selves as little brothers of the more
~ lavish Nevada establishments.
Until the Maryland General As-
sembly first lowered the boom on
the casinos in 1958, one establish-
WWAVID HUME; former. trial natn
Jade, teh, Welt eae
Although he “ on’t sell at any
price,’ Cushing has an offer just in
case: $4 million for his $1.5 million
operation. Wayne Poulson, the pio-
neer land developer in the area, is
equaliy tenacious. He’s not interested
in selling his flat land, needed badly
for parking areas.
Instead of buying him out, Cush-
ing suggests the state should lease
the whole thing to him and split the
profits. The state, however, is not
eager to afford him more means for
profit, especially since all other state-
park leases are given a share of gross
revenues, not just of the profits.
Meanwhile, the state plans an-
other $1 million in developments on
its own land, and soon the Games
will be over; people will be visiting
state-developed lands, and drifting
over to Cushing’s diggings next door
to spend their money.
And what does California’s long-
suffering populace think of all this?
The ski enthusiast, it must be pre-
sumed, is quite happy; certainly it’s
been sweetness and light on most
sports pages—except perhaps for one
columnist who warned spectators
against possible thievery. “Sports
fans are always honest,” said he,
ment known as “little Reno” rested
on piers in the Maryland-owned
Potomac River just off the more
puritanical Virginia shore. It had
“cocktail lounge” seating 1,500 per-
sons, featured name dance bands and
had 385 slot machines lined up row
on row to exercise the arms of their
seemingly tireless fans. Little Reno
stayed open twenty-four hours a
day, 365 days a year.
When out of respect to Virginia’s
wishes, the Maryland courts and
legislature ended the river casino
business, some of the operators
moved inland. Today the biggest of
the casinos is Pot of Gold, with 233
machines in one building and forty-
two in another. The newest is the
Wigwam, which features forty ma-
chines and big sla s of rare roast
beef. Unlike their
ry oh 4
ead nae
Deh ee a ee
AGS
Apt some Tok ante people m nay
sneak in during the Games.”
As a matter of fact, there should
be quite a contingent of non-athletes
around, including some _ politicians
given entree through a monumental
stroke of public relations by the
Olympic Organizing Committee.
Right on the heels of its request to
the California Legislature for that
$1 million “snowy day” fund, the
committee sent two $200 tickets to
each of the 120 legislators who were
to vote on the request. At least a
few lawmakers took offense; they
turned back their tickets.
Worse, the sleeping populace was
aroused. Belated explanation that the
tickets were paid for by private in-
dustry didn’t do much good; pro-
tests were raised not only against
the ticket-giving but also against the
Games in_ general. “Monstrosity, ‘1
“fantastic expeneieure” they cried.
The politicians weren’t far behind.
One went as far as to say: “If we
had it to do over again, I don’t
think we’d appropriate the money.”
| or more on the Winter Olympics
phenomenon, see “The Ski Ball” on
page 151 of this issue. — Ed.]
parts, the only gambling offered by
these casinos is the slot machine.
The slot machine, of course, is a
real boon to the tavern. Charles
County has 185 places licensed to
sell whiskey—about one for every
160 men, women and children. The
rest of the state has to get along on
one tap room for every 442 persons.
The other three gambling counties
—St. Mary’s, Calvert and Anne
Arundel, which houses the state Cap-
itol and the U.S. Naval Academy—
have 2,300 machines among them and
a somewhat lesser ratio of saloons
per person.
Maryland has been cited by its
neighbors for what they consider a
rather cavalier approach to life. It
has been said, for example, that a
weakness for beautiful women, fared
horses and rye whiskey paver a
- slot-machine owners.
ne»
cost a politician a vote in the Free
State.
In Charles County, however, the
presence of questionable elements at-
tracted by the legalized gambling
has begun to arouse considerable
vocal opposition—and not only on
moral grounds. Many persons are
coming to the conclusion that the
slots represent an economic luxury
which the state cannot afford. In
reaching this conclusion, they have
had to hurdle some formidable sta-
tistics to the contrary:
1. The fact that the four gambling
counties have tax rates well below
the state average. Charles County’s
rate is $1.35, down from $1.50, while
nearby Montgomery County (no
slot machines) has a rate of $2.48.
The state average is about $2.00.
2. The fact that Charles County
received $399,190 in revenue from
the slots in 1958.
3. The fact that in some instances,
slot income of small waterfront
stores is an important margin of
profit.
4. The fact that without the rev-
enues, the county’s tax rate prob-
ably would have to be hiked to at
least the state average and possibly
higher.
BUT there are countering factors
on the balance sheet. Charles Coun-
ty is a natural suburban area of
Washington, about the same distance
in travel time from the Capitol as
Montgomery County, which boasts
such institutions as the Congres-
sional Country Club, President
Eisenhower’s home golf course, Burn-
ing Tree, and a dozen others, plus
hundreds of well-manicured estates.
Without slot machines, land values
in Montgomery County are among
the highest in the area. With slot
machines, land values in Charles
County, whose physical assets sur-
pass those of Montgomery, are the
lowest in the state. Conservatively
estimating the difference at $100 an
acre, Charles County’s 30,000 resi-
dents could be forfeiting over $32
million in reduced land values in re-
turn for a total of some $390,000 a
year in tax benefits.
In addition, local residents con-
tribute heavily to the take of the
Last year’s
gross slot receipts amounted to more
‘
February 13, 1960
than $4,544,000 in Charles County
alone. The receipts, however, are de-
termined in such a way that no one
really knows the amount accurately.
Once a week, the owner of the tavern
or casino and the machine distribu-
tor open the machine and count the
take, usually splitting it down the
middle. They report the results to
the state and the figures are accept-
ed. How accurate are they?
In 1950, the Special Committee to
Investigate Organized Crime in In-
terstate Commerce, headed by Sena-
tor Kefauver (D., Tenn.), estimated
the average take for a slot machine
at $50 a week. On this basis, Charles
County machines would produce
more than $5.7 million instead of
the reported $4,544,000.
Ironically, slot-machine receipts,
like food and drugs, are exempted
from a 3 per cent sales tax. It may
come as a shock to many Mary-
landers to learn that the state tax
on slot-machine receipts is only one-
half of 1 per cent.
The slot-machine business is taxed
somewhat differently and controlled
differently in each of the counties
in which it operates. In Charles
County, for instance, no establish-
ment can “own” more than three
machines; the rest it gets from one
of nine licensed distributors who
service them, provide the silver
coins needed, and split the take with
the operator.
The biggest Charles County dis-
tributor by far is the Southern Mary-
land Novelty Co., headed by the
widows of two brothers who founded
the firm. In recent years, however,
there has been a growing belief in
the county that outside interests,
particularly from Philadelphia. and
Camden, are muscling in locally.
As a result of wide public concern,
a new Democratic State House dele-
gation last year successfully got a
bill through the legislature to limit
the number of machines to thirty-
five in any one establishment, to re-
quire fuller disclosure of financial
interests in the saloon and_ slot-
machine operations, and to lift the
three-per-business ban on ownership.
But the slot-machine interests are
powerful and they have plenty of
folding money to pass around. After
failing in attempts to have the bill
vetoed, they went to work on a
petition to forestall its effect until
a referendum was held on the meas-
ure. Among those circulating the
petition were three special deputy
sheriffs, all on the payrolls of the
casinos—their uniforms, by the way,
match button for button Charles
County’s regular deputy sheriffs—
as well as two top leaders of the Re-
publican Party, and a member of the
Board of Election Supervisors.
AN Anne Arundel County anti-
slot leader, the Rev. Charles F.
Kirkley, recently put it gently when
he said that gambling interests are
always generous to political candi-
dates. Actually, the slot-machine in-
terests are forced to go into the po-
litical arena, since their business can
be abolished by simple legislative
fiat. The danger of this situation is
obvious in a small state such as
Maryland, where it is generally con-
ceded that a campaign covering
both the primary and general elec-
tions can be run successfully on
$400,000 for the four major state-
wide offices.
Over the years, gambling interests
and their “fronts” have succeeded
in having slot-machine tax and li-
cense revenues in the four counties
committed to such public purposes
as hospitals, fire departments, librar-
ies and the like. In Anne Arundel
County recently, the slot-machine
interests pledged $275,000 toward
construction of a new hospital. Just
a few months ago, it was disclosed
by Maryland newspaper men that the
same interests had been contributing
to two non-public anti-crime groups:
the Maryland Criminal Justice Com-
mission and the Maryland Crime
Investigating Committee. }
What makes people prefer to pay
141
‘i w “oes
tribute to the click-whir-bang ma-
chines rather than provide necessi-
ties, or even luxuries, for their fam-
ilies is a question, one supposes, for
the psychiatrist. Certainly the ma-
jority of players know the odds they
are bucking are roughly equivalent
to finding a $20 gold piece in the
middle of the street in the dark of
night. Occasionally, one may read
of a player breaking the bank at
Monte Carlo or earning a pile at
the gaming tables in Las Vegas, but
no one has ever read of a slot machine
going broke. As a matter of fact, the
ww
at Sinan’
operators, in a ebcing! isplay
of cynicism, say that playing the
slots is really not gambling at all,
since the machine simply can’t be
beaten.
The biggest problem facing the
gambling counties as they begin their
clean-up campaign is to find a way
to compensate for the loss of slot-
machine revenues. In Charles Coun-
ty, the revenues account for nearly
one-fourth of the county’s budget.
One answer, I believe, is the estab-
lishment of committees to study the
fiscal problem and to gear the end-
Ss ae
ing of rhe slot-machine era to a p ‘ac-
tical, economic solution.
ecasriuie, the neon continues to
flash and the suckers continue to
play and new establishments con-
tinue to open. The machines are
“screwed up tight” and the pay-off
is small. One establishment boasts
“the finest in slot-machine enter-
tainment” and _ adds _ enticingly,
“where fortune smiles.”
Charles County residents, totting
up the balance sheet and seeing the
red ink, are beginning to suspect
that it’s not on them that it’s smiling.
q EXTENSION of the Sugar Act will
be an item of Congressional business
once again in 1960. This periodic
ritual, customarily performed in the
spirit of happy bipartisanship, would
; seem hardly to rank with the burn-
| ing issues of the day. Yet matters
if of commodity policy which are of
ho only minor concern to the United
States often affect vital interests of
foreign countries. At the present
moment, relations with Castro’s
Hi Cuba place sugar policy in a particu-
i larly dramatic setting. The situation
is complicated by ultra-nationalistic
| manifestations in that Caribbean is-
land, by gross inequality in the re-
spective bargaining power of the
ti two trading partners, and by col-
i lateral importance for producers of
other Latin American commodities.
Even with the best of intentions on
the mainland, Cuban-American rela-
tions may continue to deteriorate
badly, and Congressional action
could easily intensify current ten-
sions.
Pivotal in the political economy
_ of sugar is the character of American
_ producer interests. Although sugar
crops provide an insignificant frac-
tion of American farm income, a
complex of circumstances provides
BORIS C. SWERLING, economist
on the staff of the Food Research
Institute at Stanford University, is
co-author of The World’s Sugar:
Progress and Policy.
142
W
the commodity with much political
leverage. The list of states in which
sugar beets are grown, albeit as a
minor crop, is long and extends to
such weighty units as California and
Michigan. Beets have played an im-
portant role in carrying the over-
head costs of irrigated agriculture
in the American West, particularly
in regions opened up by federal rec-
lamation projects. Ironically, Con-
gressional representatives from these
regions can be strongly liberal in
their general political leanings, yet
firmly protectionist on commodity
matters; like silver and wool, sugar
beets are among the more accept-
able devices for redistributing in-
come in their constituents’ favor.
Sugar cane, as opposed to beets, is
important in only two mainland
states, but has a pronounced local
impact in a number of parishes in
Louisiana, which can also claim the
chairman of the Senate Committee
on Agriculture and Forestry. The
broad Congressional representation
of sugar-crop producers is reinforced
by metropolitan strength in centers
like Boston, New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore and New Orleans, which
have large seaboard refineries in
their immediate vicinity.
The interests of offshore sugar-
producing regions also have their
domestic defenders, though on a
somewhat more tenuous basis. Cali-
fornia residents have important in-
vestments in Hawaiian sugar, and the
SUGAR AND SYMP ATHY ee by Boris C. Swerling
Islands’ plantations reinforced their
position by locating a jointly owned
refinery near San Francisco. Major
sugar properties in Cuba were de-
veloped by American refinery in-
terests explicitly as an economical
source of supply for their key raw
material. To the extent that the na-
tional interests of Cuba diverge from
those of United States refineries,
Cuba may appeal to the Department
of State. The Department of the
Interior has been involved in sugar
affairs via the reclamation route and
by virtue of historical responsibili-
ties in offshore territories.
Apart from the crudities of pro-
ducers’ political strength, a number
of other factors must be accom-
modated through sugar legislation.
Because Cuba is a major commercial
market for American farm products,
Cuban trade is important to the
Kansas wheat-grower, the cotton
farmer of the Southeast and South-
west, and the corn-belt raisers of
hogs (though effective means for
bringing that reality into political
focus have yet to be devised). The
food-processing industry — with its
substantial numbers of bakers, can-
ners, makers of candy and soft bev-
erages, and the like—seeks adequate
supplies of cheap sugar, and goes to
some effort to make its collective
voice heard. In two world wars,
moreover, it has been to Cuba that
the Western Alliance has turned to
compensate for supplies unavailable
The Nation _
bat
ma ajor expansion in oieotc Hee:
sugar output were possible, consider-
ations of security would set a high
value on Cuban supplies, with their
close proximity to major deficit
centers along the Atlantic seaboard
of the United States.
~ THE OPERATING mechanism of
the Sugar Act is simple to describe.
The Secretary of Agriculture de-
crees the total amount of sugar re-
_ quired by the American market each
year. This aggregate figure is divid-
_ ed among major producing regions
according to various statutory pro-
visions. At present, about one-third
__ is allotted to mainland beet and cane
sugar; one-third to Hawaii, Puerto
Rico and the Philippines; and most
of the remainder to Cuba. When
necessary, marketing allotments are
assigned to individual sugar factories
in the American territories, while
country quotas limit the total per-
missible imports from foreign na-
tions.
The whole purpose of restricting
total supplies is to support artificial-
ly the sugar market, and ordinarily
a “quota premium” prevails; that is
to say, sugar shipped for sale in the
United States will earn Cuba a con-
_ siderably higher return than sugar
sold to other countries at the
_ “world-market” price. Sales by U.S.
_ producers, of course, are at the high
U.S. price, and it is for the most part
by this quota system, rather than
by such customary price-support de-
vices as non-recourse loans or com-
_ modity-purchase programs, that the
“farm” side of the sugar program
} operates.
. While some virtues claimed for the
Sugar Act turn out to be illusions,
_ the program has had some definite
} merits. Foreign sugar recovered a
} considerable share of the market lost
f as a result of the Smoot-Hawley
_ Tariff. The gain, to be sure, was at
the expense of the Philippines and
Puerto Rico, rather than of main-
land producers. But President Roose-
velt, in calling for enactment of the
sugar program, had aid in mind for a
domestic industry of limited size;
anda degree of restraint on domestic
> ew >
Sg Pre ee
=
, ae
expansion has in fact been exercised.
eas spore restrictions on sugar unforeseen continge
6
‘providing a ighly tactile
means of market protection, the
U.S. sugar tariff has become of quite
secondary interest; but successive
reductions in tariff rates have in ef-
fect permitted duty-paying coun-
tries to retain a larger portion of the
favorable U.S. price. The direct
subsidy enjoyed by domestic growers
of sugar cane and beets is applied
so as to discourage the use of child
labor in the fields and is graduated
downward as the scale of farm opera-
tions increases.
Among foreign areas of supply,
Cuba has been the most favored,
and by a considerable margin. An
assured volume of sugar sales to
America has been a mainstay of her
economic life. A quota premium so
high as to exceed the world-market
price briefly in the summer of 1959,
advantageous
is certainly
to her than to the U.S. consumer;
and even the normal price differen-
tial makes it easier for her to make
price concessions on sales to other
export destinations. Sudden increas-
more
es in U.S. requirements, even if
temporary, have brought her im-
portant windfall gains.
In return, Cuba has made a major
contribution to the program’s suc-
cess. Availability of Cuban sugar has
assured the American market of al-
most unlimited supplies at an ex-
tremely stable domestic price. As
consumer takings or inventory re-
quirements have fluctuated, or out-
put has fallen short in other produc- —
ing areas, Cuba has been called upon
to. fill the gap. A strong point is
made of the need aa maintaining
large stocks of such American export
crops as wheat, cott n and corn for)
cies; because of
ey 1 7
Cuba’s large stocks of sugar, our
inventories of this commodity are
held to be relatively low.
THE COSTS to Cuba have been
heavy. In her experience, war is a
condition almost to be welcomed,
for it activates her enormous produc-
tive potential. At other times, the
burden of carrying excess capacity |
for the United States and the world i
has been largely hers. Moreover,
successive peacetime extensions of
the Sugar Act, while benefiting iv
mainland interests, have whittled BA
away her own quota privileges. Tight
restrictions on the volume of sugar mde
that may enter the United States in aay
direct-consumption form deny her a |
degree of processing entirely suited ne
to her natural economic advantages,
and have cut short some earlier ex-
perimentation with improved forms
of ocean shipment. Tariff reciprocity
with the United States compli-
cates her trade dealings with for-
eign countries, to whom she must
sell close to half her crop if she is a ae
not to limp along at an even slower ie
gait. With cane monoculture have ne,
come problems of large land-hold-
ings, heavy seasonal unemployment, sea]
extra-territorial control, economic * 4
imbalance and periodic staenations
Corresponding political burdens
are also heavy. The single most im-
portant decision to the Cuban econ-
omy, the size of its American sugar
quota, is determined by legislative
authorities with whom Cuba has no
official standing. The affront to na-
tional sovereignty inherent in this
satellitic relationship should be par-
ticularly obvious to a people for
whom “no taxation without represen-
tation” was a rallying call. Cuba’s
sense of injustice and the frustra-
tion of any efforts to improve her
position through economic efficiency
and agricultural productivity must
explain some of the economic ir-
rationality she now displays.
The clock on the sugar quotas |
runs out as of December 31, 1960. —
As a commendable act of patience,
Congress delayed extending the leg-
islation last year. Uncertainties which
then existed have yet to be resolved —
and the cooling-off period has not
accomplished its purposes. Since —
then, almost every official action of
i
the Cuban authorities has been like-
ly, if indeed it was not intended, to
arouse Congressional ire. Immense
opportunities for further misunder-
standing and positive mischief | at-
tach to Castro’s land reform, expro-
priation of American property and
regulation of local scales of payment
for Cuban labor or sugar cane. If
Cuban-American sugar interests, as a
natural reaction to present uncertain-
ties, take a cautious approach even
to current maintenance of mill equip-
ment, their conduct may appear in
aban eyes as a form of economic
sabotage, triggering outright na-
tionalization of the mills.
AN impatient Congress, a_ recalci-
trant Castro, give grounds for very
serious concern over the future
course of events. Cuba has avoided
pressing for maximum gains in past
periods when she enjoyed consider-
able bargaining advantage; at this
time, a test of strength involving
limitation of shipments to the United
States would backfire. The United
States could get alternative supplies
from stocks on hand in other export-
ing countries; inflationary pressures
in Cuba would mount; and a penalty
in the form of a reduced quota is
automatically called for even under
the existing Sugar Act. As retaliation
breeds retaliation, and violence fo-
ments violence, the peril of major
economic catastrophe does arise.
Should, nevertheless, irresponsible
conduct bring on the burning of
cane fields, wrecking of cane mills,
and destruction of stored sugar,
it would not be the first time
in history that a major sugar island
had destroyed the basis of its
own prosperity. In the unhappy but
not inconceivable event that the cur-
rent harvesting were disrupted, or if
the 1961 Cuban crop were put in
serious jeopardy by subsequent
events, the United States would be
compelled to bid against other im-
porting countries for scarce sugar
supplies.
Instrumentalities of reconciliation
are hard to find in a tense situation,
but they need assiduously to be
sought out. While open Congressional
debate will inevitably have some in-
flammatory impact within Cuba, ex-
tension of the Sugar Act affords leg-
144
islative opportunities as well as risks.
Yet the auguries are not particularly
hopeful. Never have the mainland
interests had a stronger case to make
on the potential unreliability of for-
eign supplies. The production of sugar
beets, moreover, has undergone con-
siderable mechanization during the
last two decades, and very consid-
erable expansion of output would
be possible if market outlets were as-
sured. Foreign suppliers other than
Cuba, among them Mexico and the
Dominican Republic, are eager claim-
ants to that portion of the American
market that is not met from domes-
tic supplies. Some liquidation of
American sugar investment in Cuba
is in clear prospect, and the funds
might be shifted to alternative areas
of supply. (Hawaiian statehood
might appear to increase the political
leverage of another domestic produc-
ing interest. On the contrary, capital
investment in Hawaiian cane fields
seems clearly to have passed the
point of diminishing ‘returns and
Hawaii has recently failed to fulfill
its assigned share of the American
market.) To date, the administra-
tors of the present legislation have
taken a balanced approach, estab-
lishing a high consumption require-
ment for 1960, while increasing the
permissible beet acreage that will
furnish sugar marketable in 1961.
COOLLY appraised, the range of
statutory alternatives must be con-
sidered to extend merely from the
seriously ill-advised to the only
slightly promising. If Congress were
to reduce the Cuban quota, or to
impound a portion of the quota
premium as contingent compensation
for damages to Cuban-American pro-
prietary interests, a chain reaction of
retaliatory measures could confident-
ly be expected. On general grounds,
there would be genuine merit in
steps to reduce the degree of Ameri-
can insulation from the world sugar
market. This might be done by low-
ering the domestic price target, re-
ducing the volume of subsidized
sugar, and providing a more open
competition for shares of the Ameri-
can market. Moves toward economic
liberalism would increase incentives
for productive efficiency and reduce
the role of sheer political fiat, but
under present circumstances they
he” seg seeu
a r
ES RS On ee ae
might nevertheless be interpreted by
Cuba as punitive. On the other hand,
cheap sugar might make some con-
tribution to a broad “Food for Peace”
program, but dollar aid in this form
at this time suggests blackmail. It
would be entirely consistent with
Congressional behavior in 1959 if
the Sugar Act were merely extended
for a short term without change, an
alternative that has some consider-
able present support.
BUT holding actions are no sub-
stitute for measures that might con-
ceivably afford some positive escape
from the present impasse. Trade re-
lations between Cuba and the United
States have brought significant bene-
fits to both parties; unilateral action
on either side does not serve the
needs of the moment. The State De-
partment has not been quick to pro-
test Cuba’s attempt to reform the
internal basis of its major industry,
but important American interests
are entitled to protection. Unlimited
sales of Cuban sugar to the United
States are not feasible, but the limi-
tations should not be imposed uni-
laterally. The relationship between
two nations, vastly unequal in eco-
nomic status, inevitably brings its
difficulties. A degree of mutual ac-
commodation was provided when
the principle of reciprocity in tariff
matters was introduced in 1902. Cur-
rent relations between the two sov-
ereign states might similarly be dig-
nified by a commercial treaty
covering the quota and_ incidental
sugar matters. A 1960 Sugar Act
might specifically provide enabling
legislation.
Action, as well as inaction, entails
risks. The suggestion of a treaty as-
sumes that Castro genuinely wishes
current difficulties to be resolved
amicably, and is not merely seeking
opportunities for making political
capital at U.S. expense. A Congres-
sional offer to engage in international
negotiations would put the good will
of the United States on record be-
fore the Cuban people. But the nego-
tiations themselves would afford an
enviable forum for displaying the
propaganda arts on an international
scale. No private citizen is com-
petent to judge whether the requisite
degree of good faith can be taken
for granted,
, The Nation
0 ar
eo
ET GS
>
,
r
This is the second and concluding ar-
ticle (see “Russia: from Terror to In-
centive,” The Nation, January 16) by
The Nation’s European correspondent,
who recently visited the USSR for the
first time since 1948. Mr. Werth, who
covered World War II from Moscow, ts
the author of three books on the USSR:
The Year of Stalingrad, Leningrad and
Musical Uproar in Moscow. — Ed.
WHAT WITH sputniks and moon
rockets, the Russians no longer fear,
as they did in 1948, an attack from
outside. Khrushchev’s visit to the
United States was fully exploited to
demonstrate that Russia has been
accepted by America as an equal,
and that the United States has had
to abandon the Dulles policy of
“brinkmanship.” The President and
Secretary Herter were classed among
the reasonable Americans who un-
derstood these simple facts of life;
others, who did not understand them,
would (ene hoped) do so in time.
Sixty thousand copies of For Peace
and Friendship, describing Khrush-
chev’s visit, have been printed, and
thousands of cinemas are showing
the Khrushchev in America film. In
both, the less pleasant aspects of the
trip were toned down or deleted
altogether.
Understanding (if not friendship )
with the United States is the real
cornerstone of Soviet foreign policy.
If any progress is to be made in dis-
armament, it can only be done if
America wants it; and, though skep-
tical, Russians believe that some
hard thinking on the subject is go-
ing on in the United States. In this
connection, speeches by American
business leaders are carefully scru-
tinized. And if, let us suppose, Amer-
ica were to produce a vast plan for
pooling American, Russian and other
resources for helping the underdevel-
oped countries, there seems little
doubt (so Soviet diplomats have
assured me) that the Soviet Union
would play ball.
But, pending such joint action,
the Barco consider that the un-
ishchev
Sun eountrices am ee
Touré’s
similarly, the cere-
mony attending the signing of the
cultural agreement (which I attend-
ed) with the United Arab Republic
was far more cordial than the similar
ceremony with the United States a
of Sekou
fuss was made
visit to Moscow;
few hours before; and one day I
heard the Moroccan Ambassador on
Moscow TV fuming over French
colonialism.
The attitude to Britain is curious-
ly favorable and the Russians were
greatly relieved at the Conservative
victory; Macmillan, in
had started the ball rolling, and had
done much to prepare Khrushchev’s
visit to the United States. Also, as
one Soviet diplomat bluntly put it
to me: “We prefer the honest Con-
servative whores to the ugly old
Labour spinsters with their intoler-
able humbug.” Another example of
Russia’s hatred of the “reformists”
in the West: the most-hated Ameri-
can in Russia remains Walter
Reuther.
CHINA is indeed a sore subject with
the Russians. It 1s clear that Khru-
would like China to enter
more wholeheartedly into the “Camp
David spirit” and he is deeply wor-
ried about “the most regrettable”
Indian-Chinese friction. And yet any
suggestion made by a Westerner in
Moscow that there is a good deal of
disagreement between Russia and
China, and that there may be a
conflict between the two in the
future, 1s deeply resented. “Don’t
kid yourselves,” is the usual reply.
And Russians who have been in
their view,
stayed, there was a bunch of East
China invariably tell you the same
two stories: (a) that birth-control oe
propaganda is in full swing in China .
and (b) that, in any case, there are “i
still boundless untapped resources in
Western China, and that the “dem-
ographic pressure” of China is no nn
menace to the Soviet Union. Any ea
suggestion that the virgin lands of
Siberia and Kazakhstan were recent-
ly settled by Russians in order to |
keep the Chinese out is dismissed
as malevolent moonshine. i
Even so, I find in the ordinary
Russian a slight uneasiness about
the Chinese; they were too con-
scientious. One Russian was telling
me how a bus driver, outside Peking,
stopped the bus until he had killed
a fly; and how Chinese students in
Moscow work eighteen hours a day —
to get through their exams with
top marks — an “unsociable and
pretty fanatical lot.” One bunch of
Chinese students went so far in their
revolutionary conscientiousness as to
declare that they did not want their
300-ruble monthly subsidy, as they
could live on 200. “We Russians
wouldn’t do such a crazy thing.”
But, for the time being, China 1s
no major worry to the Russians,
whose only real and immediate wor-
ry continues to be Western Ger-
many. Russia lost twenty million
people in World War II (the figure
quoted at the last meeting of the
Supreme Soviet, which I attended,
but which was deleted from press
reports), and no Russian family has
forgotten about it. And the young
generation is being constantly re-
minded of the horrors of the Ger-—
man invasion. Films and TV dwell
daily on the bestiality of the Ger-_
man invaders, and books in millions —
of copies are published on the same
subject. The Ministry of Defense,
in particular, has been se
and reprinting countless war nov
in all of which the Germans figu
as fiends. True, there is Eascel
Germany, but even the attitude to oO
East Germans remains generally
reserved. At the hotel where T
oe
Germans. One day, in the resta he nt,
they heoke’i into song; no sooner had
they finished than the Russians at
the next table started singing a
good old anti-Nazi war song. The
Germans. smiled sheepishly and,
when the song was over, applauded.
THE QUESTIONS one inevitably
asks in Moscow these days are:
“What is communism?” and “Ts
there such a thing as ‘Soviet Man’?”
Lately, Soviet theoretical journals
have been describing what it is go-
ing to be like “under communism.”
Monetary-commercial _ transactions
will have disappeared; automation
will have reached such a high degree
of development (unattainable under
capitalism) that people will only
work a short time, and do it with
joy; they will be provided for ac-
cording to their needs, not accord-
ing to their work; the rest of the
time they will be “developing their
personalities” with more and more
culture and education; inequalities
will disappear and, above all, every-
body (except a few hardened crim-
inals) will have developed a wonder-
ful sense of citizenship. Only in this
way will Communist society be able
to steer its course between the
Scylla of bureaucracy and the Cha-
rybdis of anarchism. The state will
not necessarily wither away with the
establishment of full communism in
Russia; it will remain, so long as
there is a danger of an attack from
an outside world not yet converted
to communism.
When you ask a Communist in
Russia these days when the present
transition from socialism to com-
munism will be completed, the reply
is usually vague, though one or two
people have ventured to suggest: “In
twenty-five or thirty years.” But
what they invariably stress is that
the present Socialist society is al-
ready Communist in many respects.
They will point to the very low
rental, free education, free medical
service, the enormous extension of
kindergartens and creches and can-
teens, generous old-age pensions, and
so on. Also, they will say, bread
and urban transport may soon be
completely free. When you then sug-
gest that these “Communist” ele-
ments in Russia today are merely an
advanced form of what in England
is called the “Welfare State,” they
‘146
get rather annoyed and say that
there is also the Communist educa-
tion of the masses, and the creation
of a new type called “Soviet Man.”
They admit, it is true, that not every
Soviet citizen is yet a perfect Soviet
Man; there are still “past survivals”
— lack of conscientiousness, graft,
laziness, drunkenness, sexual immo-
rality, religion, “toadying to the
West,” etc. But they claim that these
“survivals” are rapidly disappearing.
New measures are being taken to
speed up the process, most important
the coeducational
schools which will, by 1965, be edu-
cating 2.5 million children out of a
total of 30 million and will ultimate-
ly educate all children. These schools
being boarding
were recently described as “the
high road to communism” since,
thanks to them, all children will ac-
quire the kind of true “collectivist”
spirit which is difficult to develop
while they continue to live with
their parents—an attitude curiously
incompatible, by the way, with the
present “cult of the family.”
OTHER harbingers of communism,
you are further told, are the various
forms of “public-opinion pressure”
exercised on individuals by the “col-
lectives” — by party and Komsomol
cells, by trade unions or other pro-
fessional groups. The power of the
“collectives” is being extended to
other fields: thus “comrade courts”
will more and more frequently deal
with cases hitherto dealt with by
civil and criminal courts; similarly,
auxiliary police forees, formed by
the “collectives” themselves, are al-
ready largely replacing the regular
police for dealing with drunkenness
and other forms of disorderly be-
havior.
Wer a ee ot Ne ee ee
-
Many Western observers have dis-
missed all this as so much eyewash,
arguing that human nature remains
the same the world over, and that
man is, by nature, selfish and un-
ethical. This seems an over-simple
view and just as in England, for ex-
ample, certain standards of citizen-
ship and ethics have been developed
over the centuries, so the Soviet
system has, by more intensive meth-
ods, been developing amongst its
citizens its own standards. No doubt
in a large city like Moscow, there
are “beatniks” and “hooligans”
and “teddy-boys” and “spivs,”’ but
there is general agreement that their
numbers are diminishing, largely as
a result of intensive campaigns in
which the various “collectives” play
an important part. I should say,
‘from first-hand experience, that the
great majority of young Russians
are extremely hard-working and
earnest people, genuinely interested
in their work, very ambitious to get
on and, in the main, believing in a
reasonably orderly existence. They
are profoundly patriotic, convinced
that they belong to a system which
is in good working order, and one
from which they can derive substan-
tial personal benefits. The working
class, which has greater rights of
“democratic criticism” than it had
under Stalin, is pampered, flattered
and reasonably contented. Food is
plentiful, consumer goods are more
widely available than they were; the
reduction of the work day to seven
hours (and in some trades to six) is
welcomed as a triumph of the sys-
tem; the crowds one sees in Red
Square on November 7 are genuine-
ly happy crowds.
Altogether, living conditions are
much better than they were and
even the housing problem is being
overcome, though not as rapidly as
it should be. Millions of young peo-
ple are passionately interested in
science and engineering, and nearly
all who fail to get into a university
try, while working, to improve their
status with the help of evening
classes or correspondence courses.
There are some young people think-
ing along highly nonconformist and
pro-Western lines, but I think it
would be a great mistake to overrate
their numbers or their importance.
The Nation
’
:
2 oie 4 se: ; . 7
e whole emphasis among young
Russians is on science and_ tech-
nology, and they feel that they be-
long to a very superior, go-ahead
civilization, and they are very con-
formist Soviet patriots.
A question often asked in the West
is what the “private morals” of
young Russians are. I think it may
be said that, except in many vil-
Jages where there are, since the war,
far more women than men and
where, as a result, some very odd
things still go on, Russian life is
marked by an almost Victorian sense
of propriety, not to say prudishness.
A ridiculous little example: twice in
the Moscow subway I was sitting
with my legs crossed, a few inches
of bare leg showing; both times a
man sitting opposite got up and,
with a shocked look, drew my atten-
tion to this indecent display. As for
young people kissing or necking in
public, it’s just never done.
This Victorian attitude is quite
generally shared by the working
class and\by the enormous body of
young technicians (though perhaps
rather less so by the intellectual and
artistic sets—a few of which are even
known to practice homosexuality).
Conventional morality is encouraged
by the genuine spirit of comradeship
existing among young men and
“women (often working together in
the same school, factory or labora-
tory), by the “collective” which
_ keeps an eye on them, as well as by
the better chance that a married
couple has, compared with a single
person, of getting a new apartment.
Divorce, of course, is allowed, and
the present extremely stiff divorce
law is shortly to be relaxed. Never-
theless, the “cult of the family” is
very genuine (even though it seems
- somehow in conflict with the ideals
_ of the boarding schools, as described
above). Along with this goes a re-
-luctance to treat sex as something
highly complicated. Freud is dismiss-
r ed as a fraud, worthy of the decadent
society to which he belonged:
ac-
cording to the standard Soviet text-
book on psychiatry, Freud merely
tried to turn social discontent under
capitalism into an imaginary sexual
Oe ihiey
In short, apart from birth control,
th here 1s little in Communist ethics
ee J ov
to which the Pope himself would not
subscribe.
I met many young Muscovites in
their twenties whom I had known as
mere children before. Now all of
them are very earnest and ambitious
young engineers or technicians, high-
ly patriotic, pleased- with Khrush-
chev, and generally optimistic about
their own future and the future of
their country. Most are married, and
some have moved into standard
new apartments—usually two small
rooms, kitchen and bath, with cen-
tral heating. Others are still living
with their parents in old izbas
or shabby, badly overcrowded old
houses. These young people are pas-
sionately interested in science and
technology, and, in their own way,
they enjoy life to the full: they love
TV and other gadgets; they play
chess; they go on vacations to the
Crimea or the Caucasus; many have
spent six months on the virgin lands.
On the other hand, their interest in
books, films and the theatre is only
“secondary.”
I FIND that this cult of science and
technology among the young (and
with it goes, in most cases, a com-
plete departure from religion) has
had some curious consequences. Stu-
dents of history or literature, as well
as writers and artists I met, all
seemed to suffer from a certain in-
feriority complex. The great hero in
Russia today is the scientist, not the
writer. There have been some feeble
attempts to strike back: in a news-
paper discussion on the subject, one
girl wrote that “even in the Cosmos
we shall still need love and branches
of white lilac’; but she feared that
the young “technological” generation
was likely to be unromantic.
I have the impression that Rus-
sian writers are a little bewildered.
The only ones who still seem to en-
joy life to the full are the authors
of children’s books, who do not have
to worry unduly about new trends,
despite the great boom of science fic-
tion. Small children are still small
children, and, like earlier generations,
they love the fun and nonsense of
Kornei Chukovsky bso seventy-
hak, Barto, Mikha
y
others — though eee has yet —
.
equaled Chukovsky in popularity,
with his curiously “English” non-
sense poems (published in many mil-
lions of copies) about very human
crocodiles, cockroaches, bears, spiders
and hippopotami.
NOVELISTS, I should say, can be
divided into three groups: (1) those
who take a “functional” view of lit-
erature and who stimulate, for ex-
ample, the pioneering spirit among
the young generation by telling them
about all the excitement of exploring
the Arctic and Siberia (Boris Polevot
is perhaps the most important of
this group); (2) those who deal
mainly with the recent past and
touch, in the process, on some tricky,
formerly taboo subjects, such as the
chaos at the front in the early days
of the German invasion (Simonov’s
The Live and the Dead), or the hu-
man problem of people who had
been forced to collaborate with the
Germans, or the misdeeds of the
KNVD (Nilin’s Cruelty ) or the “per-
sonality cult” of Stalin (Nikolaeva’s
Battle on the Road) etc.; and (3)
a smaller group of young writers,
more experimental in their style and
choice of subjects. Both the Dudin-
tsev and Pasternak affairs have
scarcely encouraged any highly crit-
ical, individualist or introspective
writing. Nevertheless, young writers
like Yuri Kazakov, Vladimir Ten-
dryakov, Yuri Nagibin have all writ-
ten short stories of a new type—
contes cruels about Soviet reality,
stories written with a kind of Chek-
hovian shrug and detachment. Their
invocation of Chekhov as. their
model is actually severely condemned
as a distortion of Chekhov who, ac-
cording to Soviet ideology, was a
great revolutionary fighter. Yet this
pléiade of young writers (who some-
times combine “Chekhovianism”
with an almost Proustian subtlety
of observation—this is specially true
of Tendriakov) is the most interest-
ing new development in Soviet lit-
erature, apart from some new items
by hors-ceicolns Sholokhov.
Everyone considers Pasternak a
major poet, and hundreds of Musco-
vites have read Doctor Zhivago; but
people have been conditioned in such —
a way that nearly all have been at
(Continued on page 156)
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‘The Plains of Madness’
1859: ENTERING AN AGE OF
CRISIS. Edited by Philip Appleman,
William A. Madden and Michael
Wolff. Indiana University Press. 320
pp. $6.75.
George Dangerfield
THE YEAR 1859 in English history
was no more an entrance to an age of
crisis than any other year, except in
the special and highly important sense
that Charles Darwin precipitated (it
might be more accurate to say constel-
lated) a critical situation by publishing
his Origin of Species. The present col-
lection of essays, bearing that year as
its title, is only a sampling among the
many available aspects of mid-Victorian
English life. It is (rather surprisingly)
silent on the reaction of traditional
Baconian science to Darwin’s specula-
tions. It says nothing about the begin-
ning or development of social Darwin-
ism. Its most pointed and pregnant ef-
forts devote themselves to the realms
of religion and of literature: but here
they certainly make 1859 a valid year
and the cultural implications of Darwin-
ism a valid theme from which, as from
a tent pole, to stretch their arguments
forwards, backwards and around.
As Noel Annan emphasizes in his
brilliant essay, “Science, Religion and
the Critical Mind,’ Darwinism was one
force among many. The foundations of
orthodox religion had been shaken long
before he appeared upon the scene. The
Higher Criticism of the Bible, for ex-
ample, was more apt to outrage and
bewilder the clergy of England than any
perusal of The Origin of Species could
do. The geologist Lyell had already
spoken his piece. There was the tragic
comparison between Christian morality
and Ricardian economics, which caused
so many men to lose their faith. But
Darwin, by asserting that process was
the ruling principle in any valid con-
spectus of our world, made a deadly
assault, not only on the literalist inter-
pretation of the Bible, but also, and
more so, on dogmatic theology. One can
find a Deity in eighteenth-century Prog-
GEORGE DANGERFIELD, author of
The Era of Good Feelings, is now com-
pleting The Culture of Laurels, a life of
Robert R. Livingston, Chancellor of the
State of New York (1746-1813).
iit le
ress; in mid-nineteenth-century Process,
which depends so much upon _ blind
chance, He is more difficult to discern.
Yet one certainly gets the impression
from Basil Willey’s “Darwin and Clerical
Orthodoxy” that the response of the
churches was not nearly so ferocious as
Darwin himself feared that it would be.
The Catholic Church, which was not
dependent on the Bible and which had
only lately (1822) officially reversed its
position on Galileo, was disinclined to
enter upon another scientific dispute:
it was, one might say, as nearly indif-
ferent to the issue as any church could
be. Nor was it, as yet, an intellectual
force in Protestant England. The Prot-
estant churches, although they emitted
a good deal of sound and fury, came
quite early in the game to the decision
(if I read Basil Willey correctly) that
Science or Religion, or the duel ad ou-
trance, would be less agreeable than
Science and Religion, or truce. That is
the position which they hold today, al-
though whether or not they will always
be able to hold it is questionable. As
for the positivist attack upon theology,
has it not been answered in Paul Til-
lich’s famous: “It is as atheistic to af-
firm the existence of God as it is to deny
it’? Abstract theology has become so
alienated from the world that it can only
be discussed in non-worldly language,
which is impossible. One way to answer
a question is to beg it.
RELIGION and theology, in short, came
out of the ordeal with their facades
unimpaired, no matter what extensive
structural alterations they were forced
to make behind the scenes: the cultural
crisis, which was constellated in 1859,
was of a more sweeping character. “The
most important fact about mid-Victorian
England,” William A. Madden writes
in “The Burden of the Artist” — and his
words constitute the pervading theme of
the religious and literary essays in this
collection “was that at the very
moment when great political, social and
technological changes both furnished
the material basis for and placed a
premium upon greater mutual under-
standing, the necessary cultural basis
for such an exchange was disappearing.”
As Matthew Arnold put it in the late
1870s, “there is not a dogma that does
not threaten to dissolve, not a tradition
ie i
hag i
eae. I
ae
that is not shaken, not a fact which
has its historical character free from
question.” In other words, if mutual un-
derstanding may be defined (the words
are Madden’s) in terms of “shared as-
sumptions which had once provided the
common consciousness (an unconscious-
ness) indispensable to ready understand-
ing,” these shared assumptions no longer
existed.
In the eighteenth century such cultu-
ral “assumptions” had been shared by
a relatively small group of people who
made the country’s laws, wrote and read
its literature, created and contemplated
its works of art. The artist’s life may
have been a hard one then, certainly the
writer’s was, but at least he knew, or
thought that he knew, that he would
be understood. What the nineteenth
century brought, and brought long be-
fore the mid-Victorian intellectual had
grown into manhood, was a new middle
class which was both puritan and Phil-
istine, and a growing “populace” (to
use Matthew Arnold’s later euphemism
for the so-called lower classes) which
threatened to learn to read and would
one day insist upon its right to vote:
in other words (the words are Richard
D. Altick’s in his essay on literature)
an imminent democracy.
Oddly enough, the fact that there was
no longer a fund of shared assumptions |
does not seem to have worried the mid-
Victorian intellectual in any public way.
It is true that there were men like Ar-
thur Hugh Clough to whom loss of re-
ligious faith was an unmitigated tragedy,
but Clough and his kind were distinctly
exceptional. The more usual experience
was that of James Stephen or James
Anthony Froude, who made no public .
fuss about loss of faith, who seemed to
take the collapse of traditional assump-
tions for granted, and whose private
sufferings were in the realm of neurosis,
where the historian cannot follow them.
Neurotic they certainly were. As Ger-
trude Himmellarb pointed out, in an
essay written some eight years ago, Vic-
torian intellectuals dwelled, for the most
part, not upon the heights but “upon
the plains of madness—that deceptively
peaceful countryside. . . .”
It was not only deceptively peaceful,
it was deceptively hopeful. Once Mat-
thew Arnold, in many ways the most
representative of the Victorian intellec-
tuals, had more or less abandoned poetry
for criticism, he became almost an op-
4
t
fi a KN AT ‘ON
iE
_,
timist. He made the noble prediction
ey Pe
and it is one which we still accept—that
society would be delivered from cultural
anarchy through the medium of serious
poetry; just as John Ruskin (in every
other respect as different from Arnold
as a man could well be) preached that
deliverance would be accomplished by
spreading the values of art through
every class of society. Exactly how it was
to be done they were not quite able to
explain, and Ruskin was under the addi-
tional burden (which drove him mad)
of maintaining that the values of art
were moral values: but they hoped that
it could be done.
ARNOLD might have observed — al-
though, as far as I know, he was kind
enough not to observe—that the effort
at deliverance through poetry had al-
ready been made. Tennyson in his worst,
or mid-Victorian, period supposed that
he could deliver the Philistine public
from its prison by rousing it to a sense
of Higher Duty and of Noble Action.
Tennyson had the truest ear of all Vic-
torian poets, and is in general a poet
whom we ridicule at our peril, but he
did sometimes make the ridiculous ef-
fort to get poetry to do the work of the
recruiting sergeant and the town crier.
There was something of the journalist
manqué in him. It is hard to believe that
a serious and important poet could have
produced lines like: “Form! Form! Rifle-
men form!/Ready, be ready, to meet the
storm!/Riflemen, riflemen, — riflemen
form!” (These lines were written for the
Volunteer Rifle Clubs the members of
which, with the blessing of the War Of-
fice, met every Saturday afternoon all
over England and endeavored not to
shoot one another.)
When Tennyson asked poetry to per-
form as poetry, and not as. jargon, and
at the same time requested it to de-
-liver mid-Victorian England from its
crass Philistinism, the result was the
Idylls of the King. This was an intense-
ly serious effort. The fact that he later
dedicated his Arthurian cycle to the
Prince Consort—though nobody was so
brash as to carry the analogy all the way
and assume that there was some rela-
tionship between Queen Guinivere and
- Queen Victoria—shows. how serious he
was. Today, we think this particular set
of poems particularly. distasteful; it
seems to be a mirror in which the mid-
Victorian bourgeois saw himself. reflect-
ed and glorified in all his complacency;
and I feel very grateful to Mr. Madden
for suggesting another solution. The
: Idylls, he says, concealed a quest “for a
self that might function in a universe to
which the traditional spiritual norms —
The Nation’s special
esented by the Grail ~ es seem- a
ed relevant.” But the quest was a tragic
failure, and “the heroes of the /dylls go
one by one down to defeat.” The /dylls
were not salvation, after all: they were
damnation by sous-entendre.
Confronted by an indifferent universe,
the contemplation of which caused him
real agony, Tennyson was trying to sub-
stitute for the loss of religious faith
some magical certainty he was never
able to find. We agree, I should hope,
that the modern poet could deliver us
from our cultural anarchy; but is he in
any better shape than Tennyson? In
many respects, he is in worse shape, since
Tennyson had at least a public which
was prepared to listen to him. The mod-
ern poet is faced with an indifferent
public, and he is expected to deliver it
from its indifference: his burden is truly
appalling. Indeed, if there is a prevail-
ing theme in the essays on literature in
this book, it is the theme of mass cul-
ture and its dubious future. It is not
surprising that such a theme raises more
questions than it can answer. All Mr.
Altick can say in “The Literature of an
Imminent Democracy” is that the most
conspicuous difference between popular
Always Swinging Away
LA GUARDIA, A FIGHTER AGAINST
HIS TIMES, 1882-1933. By Arthur
Mann. J. B. Lippincott Co. 384 pp.
$6.
LA GUARDIA IN CONGRESS. By
Howard Zinn. Cornell University
Press. 288 pp. $5.50.
Fred J. Cook
IN A TIME when history seems to be
repeating itself, when the era of fun-
loving Jimmy Walker is finding its
modern twin in the tribulations of nice
Bob Wagner, it seems especially ap-
propriate that the pint-sized, tempestu-
ous, rowdy fighter who last wielded the
broom of reform in New York’s City
Hall should have inspired two new
books. Reading them, one reflects sadly
that, while the times seem to have
come full circle, Fiorello H. La Guardia
remains unique. There is not on the
horizon, at this moment at least, a man
of the hour even remotely like him.
At one point, Arthur Mann describes
the zany world of the twenties in words
that could be applied -equally well to
—
FRED J. COOK, for m n
York crime reporte
years a New
Ss cociuthar of
, “The Shame
t recent book
Morrow).
of. New York. His
tradictory, always fascinating chat aay
SS
literature in 1859 and 1959 “is less quali-
tative than quantitative: it is the alter-
ed structural proportion of the total
audience.” If this is all, our situation is
dismal indeed.
Matthew Arnold never dared to fore-
see that, in an actual, fully enfranchised,
literate democracy, there would be an
enormous, powerful and vigilant finan-
cial investment in the vulgarization of
culture. Comparisons between popular
taste in one period of history and an-
other are probably unworkable and cer-
tainly invidious; but, if they can be
made at all, the advantage would seem
to be all with the mid-Victorians. It is
a truism to say that never was such
pretentious and fraudulent bad taste de- .
liberately imposed upon a_ consuming |
(and complacent) public as is now im- /
posed through our advertising media:
the worst excesses of the mid-Victorian
era are mild by comparison. All one can i
say is that this state of affairs would ; |
be less distressing to Mill’s Liberty than
to Arnold’s Culture. This is not much a
consolation; but it is all you will get a
from 1859, a valuable and suggestive col- |
lection of essays, but not a hopeful one. |
}
the fifties. He writes: “America was in-
deed run by boobs, bigots, idiots and
hypocrites. The only recourse for a man
who really cared was dissent, exposure .
and ridicule.” La Guardia, a man born wa
to battle, relished his only recourse.
Though they deal essentially with the
same period of La Guardia’s life, the
long years of his rise through the po-
litical ranks and his service in Con-
gress before he became the Fusion
Mayor of New York, it would be hard
to find two books dealing with the
same subject matter that contrast more
in method and focus. Howard Zinn,
professor of history at Spelman College
in Atlanta, is preoccupied with La
Guardia as the Congressional dissenter,
virtually the lone gadfly nettling the
political Babbitts in the House, But
his focus is almost entirely on the rec-
ord of issues and debates, and the result
at times is one-dimensional. Arthur
Mann, associate professor of history at —
Smith College, is concerned as much
with the man as the record. He gives
in full and dramatic detail the first half
of a projected two-volume biograp y: fi
The advantages of his method are obv
ous. In these pages, La Guardia springs”
to life again — a wayward, often con-
Mr. Mann, in one of the most vi
dissections of the complex and baffling
La Guardia personality one will find,
writes that he was “a marginal man
who lived on the edge of many cul-
tures, so that he was able to face in
several directions at the same time.”
Half-Jew, half-Italian, son of an Army
musician and reared on a military post
where he lacked the caste of officers’
sons, La Guardia had the further handi-
cap of being barely five feet tall at
tallest maturity. All of this almost
inevitably made him an underdog, a
resentful bundle of battling complexes.
From his earliest boyhood in Arizona,
he was always fighting the taller and
stronger ones, the secure ones, the well-
placed ones. In one vivid anecdote, Mr.
Mann describes a typical La Guardia
schoolyard battle. His opponent was so
much taller that La Guardia couldn’t
possibly land a punch on his face. “Sob-
bing,” Mr. Mann writes, “Fiorello broke
off, ran into the building, returned with
a chair, got up on it, and began swing-
ing away.”
THE grown man was always climbing
up on chairs and swinging away at
Goliaths. A Republican in a Democratic
stronghold, he got his party’s designa-
tion for Congress the first time simply
because no one else wanted to take a
beating. Used to beatings, La Guardia
battled with all his fierce combativeness,
slashed the normally heavy Democratic
margin, and the next time out he did
the unheard of — he won. It was the
beginning of a political career in which
La Guardia took on all comers, includ-
ing the bosses of his own party.
Such un uphill battler can hardly be
counted upon to abide by the rules in
the political ring. La Guardia, in the heat
of a campaign, slung mud with the mud-
diest and no knee-and-gouge tactic was
beneath him. As he once remarked com-
placently, he could out-demagogue the
best demagogues around. His saving
grace was that he was a demagogue for
the right. He was, always acutely aware
that he belonged to a racial minority.
His boyhood resentment of the better-
placed, the more powerful, was reinforced
by one unforgettable, tragic experience
— his father’s death, resulting from the
by unconscionable contractors in the
Spanish-American War; a death for
which the government later compensated
La Guardia’s mother with a munificent
— pension, a total of $12.80, As Mr. Mann
writes, “injustice less flagrant than this
has made anarchists and traitors out of
_ some men.” But “Fiorello blamed only
the Interests. . . .”
These were the strands that made La
- Guardia the most colorful champion of
eT ren ee ee eee ee le - .
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ae a y
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: he:
eating of rotten beef sold to the Army —
.
the underdog that modern New York
polities has produced. Almost inevitably,
he identified himself “with uprooted
people against idiotic laws and insensi-
tive officials.” He did not have, at the
outset at least, any well-defined theories
of economics or of politics, as did many
of the liberals of his generation; but he
was “guided by an ineradicable suspicion
of powerful men and an _ undeviating
sympathy for poor people. Temperament,
rather than a social blueprint, made him
a watchdog of democracy.”
Temperament led him to commit some
colossal bloopers also. He helped to cheer
on the Red scare after World War I; he
wanted to storm down to Mexico, offer-
ing help in one hand, hand grenades in
the other; he insisted that the consular
service should be staffed entirely by
Americans, that if Americans couldn’t
be found to fill the jobs at the price the
government was willing to pay, the of-
fices should be closed. At times, he be-
came insufferably cocky and opinion-
ated. At one Washington dinner party,
he quarreled with everyone in sight and
finally challenged the opinions of a dis-
tinguished-looking man who was dis-
_ cussing the troubled Balkans. “What do
you know about Croatia and Dalmatia?”
La Guardia demanded truculently. Came
the mild but deadly answer: “I am the
Serbian Ambassador here.”
Only a battler as colorful and coura-
geous as The Little Flower, as Fiorello
came to be called by his loving Italian
constituents, could have survived the
Enraptured
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE
ARTIST. By Jacques’ Maritain.
Charles Scribner’s Sons. 120 pp. $2.95.
Kenneth Rexroth
THIS little book is a reworking, in four
short chapters, of six lectures Maritain
gave at Princeton in 1951. It is also a
reworking of other books — his own
as well as the standard Thomists and
their putative founder, As such it is a
good introduction to Maritain, and to
popular Neo-Thomism, Maritain — is
a master of the gracious tone and the
lucid surface and the appearance of
order, He is a fitting last representative
of an old and clegant French tradition,
the salon abbé. His American analogue
is Fulton Sheen, but since we import
him owtremer he seems to the average
KENNETH REXROTH, poet and crit-
ic, is the author of Bird in the Bush,
recently published by New Directions.
sya F : ed
: ie he: .
J
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’ eae ty
4 ' un
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kind of mistakes that must inevitably _
have tripped up a lesser man. It is a
measure of the greatness of La Guardia
that he could and did survive, that he
always came back from shattering de-
feat to greater victory. Thrown against
his wishes into the race for president of
the old New York Board of Aldermen
because the party needed him as a can-
didate, La Guardia displayed his enor-
mous capacity for work and his mastery
of detail by quickly familiarizing himself
with the city’s infinitely complex mu-
nicipal life. His orientation with the lit-
tle people who always need a champion
stood him in good stead. It was an
orientation that led, inevitably, to his
break with a Republican machine that
did not stand for the little people at
all. It turned The Little Flower, a party
regular until that time, into one of the
fiercest of rebels — a man at last with
a purpose and a program.
This is the story that Mr. Mann tells
in all its full-bodied detail. While Mr.
Zinn’s book is just as carefully and ex-
haustively researched, it lacks the
bounce and the flavor of The Little
Flower, something that Mr. Mann con-
veys so well. In his La Guardia, A Fight-.
er Against His Times, Mr. Mann has pro-
duced a book that has the breadth and
scope of an outstanding biographical
work, and if his second volume lives up
to the promise of the first, he will end
by giving us as full and satisfying a
biography of that incomparable figure
as we are ever likely to read.
by Maritain
American greatly more civilized. He
isn’t, this is just the illusion that for-
eignness gives. We are enraptured by
his airs and graces and we never notice
that Fulton Sheen has his own Ameri-
can-Irish airs and graces too. So we are
misled and if we are not Roman Cath-
olics, but worldly intellectuals, we ac-
cept M. Maritain as a philosopher, and
put down Fulton Sheen as a demagogue.
In this we are hardly just. When Fulton
Sheen is angry about war and corrup-
tion I often find myself agreeing with
him. I doubt if he is an ill-intentioned
man, On the other hand, I find it dif-
ficult to convince persons easily intimi-
dated by the “logical” lingo of Neo-
Thomism that M. Maritain is not a
philosopher, but a religious journalist,
differing only in degree of polish from
the battered Irish newspapermen who
write for the local “holy paper” — the —
diocesan weeklies you can find on sale |
in the church lobby. There isn’t a thing
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‘ L NI, :
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in the world wrong with this, I am all
for civilized religious journalism, but it
is well not to be confused.
This book is concerned with the
thorny problems of the interrelation of
f the responsibilities of vocation and the
_ responsibilities of life, man as man and
man as artist, the work of art as a noble
artifact and the work of art as secial
~ communication. As such it is complete-
ly orthodox. In fact, behind his ingrati-
ating and sophisticated facade, it is the
voice of the conservative party amongst
_ the orthodox. Reading Maritain and his
friends, the unchurched would never
dream that there are plenty of Catholics,
especially in France, who are far from
being Neo-Thomists, and who, outside
of dogmatic matters of faith and morals,
agree with him about very, very little.
LET US quote: “Art by itself tends to
the good of the work, not to the good
of the man... . / A human action is
good, purely and simply good, when it
is formed by reason, or measured ac-
cording to reason. . . . We cannot want
to be bad, we cannot want to do evil
insofar as it is evil. . . . There is a.
_ primary principle in moral matters,
_ which states that it is always bad, and
always forbidden, to act against one’s
own conscience.”
Where are we? What have the last
two thousand years been for? These
sentences are widely separated, but they
do not misrepresent M. Maritain, and
of course they land him straight in the
midst of the Socratic Dilemma. And
of course, it is precisely the dilemma of
all Greek rationalistic ethics that
‘Christianity, especially Pauline Christi-
_ anity, attempts to solve. Men do, alas,
. choose evil in full knowledge of the con-
sequences. Why? M. Maritain appeals
to revelation. He ends “philosophy
proper” with Aristotle’s Prudent Man,
_ “Life proportioned to the intellect is bet-
ter than life proportioned to man.” On
this terrible sentence hang all the politics
_ of horror, the Albigensian Crusade, the
Moscow Trials. Following St. John, M.
Maritain escapes: “Therefore it is in
charity, when there is no longer any
obstacle to its expansion in the soul,
that the perfection of man consists.”
- But why should anyone suppose that
this is supernaturally revealed knowl-
CELA IOO AD
non-Aristotelian tradition, inside the
Church and out, an eminently reason-
able notion, and the sentence from
Aristotle unreasonable (that is, ration-
sort.
im subverts the hol ees of Thom-
an ? i toa a ,
io ne peta > is ¥ 4
edge? It seems to me, and to the whole ©
alistic) nonsense of the most vicious __
_ Again, the sentence about conscience ~
istic ethics, the sentence about art, fol-
lowing Plato and Aristotle, confuses art
and artisanship, and so paves the way
for all art for art’s sake-ism. This 1s
only the appearance of logical rigor. It
is impressive, the first time around, to
listen to a formal dispute in a philosophy
class in a Jesuit seminary. A machine
gun fire of technical Latin: “I accept
your Minor but deny your Major.” Once
you get used to Latin as a spoken
language you realize that this is a de-
lusional scaffolding which will support
the most incoherent illogicalities.
When he gets away from his founda-
tions, especially when he is talking in
evangelical terms — of his “revelation”
— M. Maritain is entertaining and even
illuminating. Sometimes, though, he is
simply hilarious. Here, behind a buzz of
lucidity, he is really talking about
Galileo, the Index and the Legion of
Decency: “As to possible accidents —
I mean the possibility (in those cases
where the infallibility of the Church is
not at play) of having right ideas
mistakenly opposed — such a possibil-
ity has proved for centuries to be, as a
matter of fact, more often than not a
stimulus for research.” We can guess
where M. Maritain read that — in
Toynbee. Stimulus and Response. But
it won’t do.
The Ski Ball
CALIFORNIA WINTER SPORTS
AND THE 1960 VIIIth WINTER
OLYMPICS. By J. E. Carpenter.
Fearon Publishers, San Francisco. $4.
Stephen Mahoney
THE Winter Olympics will be run off,
starting February 18, in the hills just
inside California that overlook Reno and
Lake Tahoe. A trial run held in Novem-
ber at the Coliseum in New York was
a hit. There was a prefabricated ski
lodge, a prefabricated ski run and group
yodeling. Recorded how-to-ski courses
were for sale. (Make “progress right in
your own living-room.”) One of these
was “designed to appeal to the con-
scious mind on side one and to the sub-
conscious mind on side two. Meets the
needs of busy people.”
There is no doubt of it, skiing in the
United States has come of age. This
California Olympics makes it official.
[See “Squaw Valley Snow Job”; page
138 of this issue.]
The other Winter Olympics in the
United States was what first got skiing
STEPHEN MAHONEY is a graduate
of Dartmouth, the original ski campus
of America.
For the Sahara, shall it be death-dealing nuclear
tests or life-supporting reforestation?
For an amazing story, read
SAHARA CHALLENGE
by RICHARD ST. BARBE BAKER
—which tells how the desert was once a region of great forests,
before being denuded, and how
man—if he cared—could reclaim
this vast land and make it green again. SAHARA CHALLENGE
is an exciting travel book too, reporting a trip right across the
desert from Algiers to Kenya where Mr. Baker is reunited with his.
Kikuyu friends who helped him found “The Men of the Trees”
38 years ago.
50 photographs;
152 pages. $3.75
WELLINGTON BOOKS . Belmont, Mass.
Also by R. St. Barbe Baker, Ee
noted forester and conserva- |
tionist: { gl
LAND OF TANE—The Threat |
of Erosion. Especially about |
New Zealand, but principles l
very applicable to U.S.
24 photos; 142 pages. $3.50 |
GREEN GLORY—The Story of |
the World’s Forests. Superb
text, 64 magnificent photos. |
253 pages. $3.50 |
Byes Y ri
ve ‘
—o ore EE EE
WELLINGTON BOOKS
346 Concord Ave., Belmont 78, Mass.
Please send, with return privilege:
REE SAHARA CHALLENGE @ $8.75 wc.
sume LAND OF TANE @ $3.50 Searles
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Bnelosed 18 remittance Of ceevercennmernennene
seeaneeresnontreaaune cuerseunveee + eremnenenees eeneesetsssensuneruenerneet beysaverectisurnersuwenevestrersees
Address oh See ie ei at baad
City
onctiwcemipneretae tetanic SIUC cam erentinentecta
noticed here. This spectacle was held in
1932 at Lake Placid. There were no
tows or lifts in the country. Such skis
as were available were imported from
Norway. The films taken at Lake Placid
then whipped up the enthusiasm for
skiing, ice shows and Sonja Henie, of
which the Olympics in California vil
be a result.
To an Austrian, say, very little ski-
ing in the United States is worth while.
We don’t have the right mountains or
snowfalls for it. That is why the Amer-
ican men racing this month are not up
to the competition. (The American wo-
men will do better against their com-
petition. Only very recently have Eu-
ropean women, influenced by the Ameri-
can example, taken to competitive ski-
ing.) The Austrian who won the gold
medals at the Olympics four years ago
in Italy (Tony Sailer, now of the
movies) has swooped down the course
for the downhill race at this Olympics
and passed judgment: “It’s not long
Historical Sociology
THE SELECTED PAPERS
OF BERNHARD J. STERN
A collection of essays spanning three
decades, by a leading American soci-
ologist, covering: Social Aspects of
Technology, The Family, Heredity and
Environment, Sociology of Medicine.
Dr. Stern’s sociological studies were
concerned with the analysis of histori-
cal processes and the interplay of social
and economic forces involved in the
dynamics of social change, rather than
in the current opinion polling and the
psychological interpretations that have
beset American sociology. He opposed
“social Darwinism,” stressed the cul-
tural lags in the sciences, technology,
and education and pioneered in the
field of medical sociology.
Dr. Bernhard J. Stern taught at Co-
lumbia University and The New School
for Social Research for twenty-five
years until his death in November,
1956. This volume of provocative essays,
not hitherto published in book form,
presents posthumously a valuable sam-
pling of a scholarly and probing thinker
_and teacher.
$5.00
' THE CITADEL PRESS
_ 222 Park Ave. South, New York 3, N.Y.
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enough, not steep enough and it’s too —
straight.”
The Austrians and Russians will take
a good share of the gold at this Olympics,
but the real triumph (for which the
ceremonies in California will be the
trophy) will be that of America over
an unaccommodating nature. With
showmanship, gadgetry, the mass pro-
duction of equipment, and the ex-
pensive mass importing of Austrian in-
structors, we have transformed the
sport into a national industry that (ac-
cording to Printer’s Ink, which keeps
an awed eye on this new market) gross-
es more than a billion dollars annually
— and that (according to Ski) annual-
ly cripples, temporarily, tens of thou-
sands of people.
Four million Americans now ski; in
five years it will be ten million. Eighty-
some new lifts are going up this year.
There are ski centers, each with its
snow-making machines, in Virginia and
North Carolina. There are ski depart-
ments in stores in Texas, there are ski
clubs in Louisiana. The Austrian in-
structors are replaced two-for-one as
fast as they are carried off by yodeling
Texas oil heiresses.
WHAT a story! What a book this might
have been! The site of the Olympics
is a resort called Squaw Valley. (Indians
once pastured their wives in the valley
before going to the hills to hunt.) Twelve
years ago a lawyet from Wall Street
struck into the wilderness west of Reno
with a pack on his back and selected
a place to errect a lift. He went into
business with the native who owned
the land.
Debate with the Rabbi
You’ve lost your religion, the Rabbi said.
It wasn’t much to keep, said I.
You should affirm the spirit, said he,
And the communal solidarity.
I don’t feel so solid, I said.
We are the people of the Book, the Rabbi said.
Not of the phone book, said I.
Ours is a great tradition,
And a wonderful history.
But history’s over, I said.
We Jews are creative people, the Rabbi said.
Make something, then, said I.
In science and in art, said he,
Violinists and physicists have we. .
Viddle and physic indeed, I said.
Stubborn and stiff-necked man! the Rabbi cried.
ive me, said I
; Instead of bowing own, said he,
You We on in your obstinacy.
The pain you
said he,
‘e Jews are that way, I replied.
‘Before ‘the lift was in operation, the
native was outside looking in. The
lawyer’s press agent read an item in
a newspaper and put in a bid for the
1960 Olympic Games. “It was a way of
getting some newspaper space,” the
lawyer explained latter. But politicians
got interested, a publicity machine was
set up, pitchmen were hired and Mount
Olympus came to the lawyer.
California, Nevada and the federal
government have conveniently picked
up the tab for necessary jumps, lifts,
rinks, roads, a stadium, parking facil- }
ities, etc’ When the Olympics are over —
even the native ousted by the Wall
Street feller — he didn’t sell all his
acreage, and what he retained is now
as valuable per inch as Fifth Avenue —
will be a millionaire.
Mr. Carpenter schusses nimbly past
this success story. Too bad. What he-
discusses at length — resorts, tech-
niques —is obsolete, for the most part,
since his information is a couple of
years old. Planned obsolescence plays
as big a part in the ski industry as in
the automobile industry. Each spring,
new revolutionary skiing techniques for
the following winter are hacked out of
the thin mountain air at ski instructors’
summit meetings.
These Olympics may be expected to
arouse new enthusiasm for this strenu-
ous use of leisure. Certainly the condi-
tions making for the growth in popular-
ity of skiing will not change soon. Week-
ends, the organization man who skis is
on his own, soaring. In weightless free-
dom, he skims, he glides. He is in per-
fect understanding with nature. He is
what he imagines is himself.
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SAMUEL BECKETT’s Krapp’s Lact
Tape and Edward Albee’s The Zoo
Story (Provincetown Playhouse) have
thi in common: both are studies in
loneliness. Beckett's play is a sort of
rginal sketch in the body of his more
tious work; Albee’s play is the in-
troduction to what could prove to be an
“important talent on the American stage.
. oa, may consider it ironic that,
yhereas Beckett’s far more accomplished
‘plays — Waiting for Godot and End-
game — were generally received here
with skepticism, indifference or hostil-
ity, this new rather slight piece has
been greeted with considerable sym-
> pathy. One reason for this is that Beck-
ett’s reputation and the respect shown
him by many European and_ several
An tan critics have grown. It is no
o1 easy to shrug him off. A more
‘immediate reason for the cordiality to-
wa d Krapp’s Last Tape is that a
thread of sentimentality runs through
‘its dismal fabric. The play’s “story,”
ee ee
“3
The Banging Boards
— Hoped a blues was playing
“In the rattled weeds of noon;
But the tipple of that old mine,
"Boards, half-boards, graying,
* Creaked and corrected the tune
_ Of the wind’s whine,
, Shattered my doubtlul silence
_ And bade my knees unhinge
With a rapid-beat dangling rave
That bet my boots their eyelets
_ The best jig known begins
In Echo’s grave.
© And, urged by such fandangos,
My heart, too, found a measure
At odds with that dying place—
© Past even the hoarse bonanza
| OF Ruin’s inventive gusher
Quickened its pace
Until, though ragtime led me there
And ragtime was my spurning,
Past al) the torments of my will
The laughter-crowned despair
Those ragtime boards were turning
Regaled me still.
-
Louder, louder, the thistles!
)Bur when those tall up-ended
Slap-sticks rilled their mirth,
)Down trembling six-by-sixes
Enough of death surrendered
To square this earth,
a)
a Faeperick Bock
13, 1960
THEATRE
Harold Clurman
moreover, is simple, realistic. unelusive.
A solitary old man sits in abject
poverty doing nothing bur feed himself
with bananas that are hourded in draw-
ers like precious possessions; periodical-
ly he washes the fruit down with deep
draughts of alcohol. This old man was
once an author. He has among the few
miserable relics of his past some copies
of a book he wrote, a book which sold
eighteen copies at the trade rate. “Get-
ting popular!” he mutters.
In the half light the old man listens
to tapes upon which he once recorded
events now long past. One of these tapes
is a memory of love — set down when
he was thirty-nine apparently
sincere love which for some unexplained
cause never resolved itself into anything
beyond its fugitive existence. The old
man, absorbed and yet impatient with
himself, listens to the tape, curses and
mocks himself — we not certain
why — broods, possibly regrets, sup-
presses a sob and subsides into what is
probably an endless silence.
The atmosphere of the play is gro-
tesque, deeply bitter and yet tender.
Beckett is here with something of his
sardonic mutism, his mastery of con-
centrated dramatic image, the determi-
nation to wring the neck of his passion.
... The play is well acted by a young
newcomer from Canada, Donald Davis.
are
THE ZOO STORY im-
by
is flawed
probabilities and perhaps needless notes
to provoke shock or outrage — comic
and horrifying by turn. Yer the play
gives ample evidence of genuine feeling
and an intimate knowledge of certain
aspects of the contemporary scene, es-
pecially of our metropolitan area. If
there were not some danger of being
taken too superficially, T should say
that in The Zoo Story certain tragic
crucial factors which have con-
tributed to produce the “beat” genera-
tion have been brilhantly dramatized.
The young man in The Zoo Story,
who intrudes on a respectable and mod-
Central Park
bench, is isolated in his poverty, his
self-educated ignorance, his lack of
background or roots, his total estrange-
ment from society. He has no connection
with anybody, but he seeks it — in
vain. When he succeeds in approaching
animal or a person, it is always
through «a barrier of mistrust and in a
tension of disgust, fear, despair. When
he breaks out of the emotional insula-
tion of his life, it is only by a violent
intrusion into the complacent quiet of
the mediocre citizen on the park bench;
and that unoffending bystander is then
forced into effecting the mad young
man’s suicide. To put it another way:
the derelict finally achieves a consum-
mation of connection only through death
at the unwitting and horrified hands of
society’s “average” representative.
This story is conveyed with rude
humor — very New York — a kind of
squalid eloquence and a keen intuition of
the humanity in people who live among
us in unnoticed or shunned wretched-
ness. We come not only to know the
and
est citizen sittiig on a
an
fi
PERE IE Ace. 9 acrecnernqeete
The full
September
lated from
o and widely
historical
They place
master of
the political lea
position of his go
of all, these spe
exercised a prof
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'S PRESS, INC.,
Announcing a major
KHRUSHCHEV
IN AMERICA
Khrushchev, Chairman of the Council of Minis-
ters of the USSR, on his tour of the United States,
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Khrushchev’s American
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are the principal record of a
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texts of the speeches made by N. S.
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eeches constitute an
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ns 153
pathetic and arresting central figure as
well as the astonished stranger he “victim-
izes,’ but through them both we also
meet the unseen but still vivid char-
acters of a lady janitor, a Negro homo-
sexual neighbor, a dog and other deni-
zens in the vicinity of both the West
and East Seventies of Manhattan.
The Zoo Story interested me more
than any other new American play thus
far this season. I hope its author has the
stuff to cope with the various impedi-
ments that usually face our promising
dramatists.
The play is perfectly cast. George
Maharis and William Daniels give ad-
mirable performances. Maharis, as the
play’s interlocutor, is truthful as well as
intense. His acting is both economical
and gripping. He seems possessed by
all the hurts, resentment and compres-
sed hysteria-of the bewildered youth we
hear so much about, but who is rarely
made this real in newspaper reports,
editortals, sermons or fictions.
ed
‘BEST PLAY 2302:
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starring CLAUDIA McNEIL
OSSIE DAVIS * RUBY DEE
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154
ART ‘0h
| Fairfield Porter ;
THE Davis Gallery fosters a conscious
and openly declared belief in realism
and tradition in art. The most expert
painter in its stable of artists, Seymour
Remenick, is now exhibiting cabinet-
sized landscapes, still lifes and interiors,
in hand-carved frames of the best work-
manship, in a setting of antiques on the
ground floor of the Davis’ house; all of
which serves to emphasize this gallery’s
belief in art as an appurtenance of civil-
ized life. Remenick’s landscapes of Phil-
adelphia_ illustrate those aspects —
domes, spires, masonry bridges and
museums — that connect the city to,
say, Rome; the copper kettles, fruits
and roses, the curtains screening golden
or cool light, recall a nineteenth-century
bohemian grace; and the interiors have
a realism of the total visual effect com-
bined with indistinguishable or unidenti-
fiable details whose specific actuality is
that of the artist’s gesture more than of
the natural object, recalling the draw-
ings of Rembrandt.
The paintings do two things: first, it
is as though in Remenick the nineteenth
century achieved a belated success, as
sailing achieved a_ belated success in
the clipper ships, just when steam was
first applied to transport; secondly, his
paintings, with their apparent old-fash-
ioned qualities, compete successfully
with the most avant-garde painting in
the terms of the avant-garde. Though
he may not mean to do this, Remenick
expresses as well as it it expressed today,
the idea that the ends of painting are to
be found in its means. His realism is
partly a realism of reference to the ob-
jective world, but it is just as often the
realism of what he has made, without
reference to what it is supposed to rep-
resent. At least one of his interiors could
be exhibited among non-objective paint-
ings, where it would stand out as one
of the best of them all. In this show it is
only the large paintings (24 x 30 inches)
that lack intensity. Though the details
are usually completely identifiable as
things in nature, they have less “real-
ity” than the details in his smaller
paintings; these latter may not he iden-
tifiable, but they have much more
presence, and much more “color” in
both the metaphorical and ordinary
meaning of the word. In the large works,
it is a matter of inaccurate relative vari-
ation, an unconvincing proportion of
intensity to size, a diffieulty, in short,
about scale. 4 7
As the “line” of the Rivis Gallery is
bi au 2 ee «
\
7
that art is something that must be
conserved, the “line” that dominates the
Rubin Gallery downtown is, vouch
anti-art. Anti-art has often produced art __
— the art of the succeeding generation. —
And one of the artists who shows here,
and has a painting in the current show,
Red Grooms, has a great deal of vital- |
ity, and what he produces is alive. How- ©
ever, the present exhibition is strangely —
conservative, perhaps a little disheart- —
ened. The anti-artistic radicalism is rem-
iniscent of German Expressionism, and
it dates to the twenties. The Rubin
Gallery is in a loft; on the stairs up to
it is a winking red and blue light, and—
the exhibition is dominated by shabbi-—
ness, instead of, as Red Grooms has
done, dominating it. But in spite of the —
present show, the Rubin Gallery is —
worth visiting, partly for Red Grooms, |
and partly because anti-art is a serious
idea.
AROUND the corner on 10th Street is
the Tanager Gallery, whose “line” is
different from either of these. For one
thing this line has not been put into
verbal form. It is apparent, though, in
every Tanager show. This gallery deeply
respects art. The Tanager was the first
gallery, and the artists
founded it believe in them-
selves and in what they do, without
any feeling that it is necessary to ration-
alize.
This becomes apparent in their presen-
tation, which is without qualification the
best that can be seen among the two
hundred-odd galleries of New York. Be-
cause of the way things are arranged
and paintings are hung, so that each
single exhibit shows to the best pos-
sible advantage, every exhibition is a
pleasure as a whole, in the same way
and for the same reason that the Clois-
ters are such a pleasure to so many
New Yorkers, The Tanager Gallery is
a room 14 x 28 feet; one of the 14-foot
walls is all window on the street, This
window and the doors divide the space
into three walls of 28, 22 and 10 feet.
It is a plain white room; nothing is
“pushed.” It has the look of a well- |
scrubbed farm kitchen; the most crowd-_
ed shows never seem crowded; each ex-
hibition is a work of art. The current
exhibition has paintings by Irving Kries-—
berg, who is well known; John Button; —
Leatrice Rose; and two artists rto
Jel ve shes ae Devon M op che?
cooperative
who
|
|
others non-objective; and since I started
this column with the discussion of a
realist, I will write of his work only.
His two paintings are of a factory
building in front of a huge pinkish cum-
ulous cloud, and another of a bather
with the sun behind him, coming up
the beach from the sea. Button is
neither conservative out of the certainty
of his sophistication, like Remenick, nor
is he anti-art out of competitive ambi-
tion, like many of the artists of the
Rubin Gallery. Such problems do not
seem to exist for him, and since he en-
tirely ignores them, they disappear. He
does not make you feel, as does Remenick,
that art should follow precedent, and
that he can do anything that has been
done before; nor does his assertiveness
take the form of a proud rejection. He
is a realist, and you do not feel that
comparisons with past or present tradi-
tions are relevant. Though his ability to
make light shine out of the darkest
shadows is hardly innocent, still, since
originality is not proclaimed, the only
way to regard his painting is as though
here painting begins again. This’ at-
titude is, by the way, much more fruit-
fully anti-art than one of constantly
looking over your shoulder in order to
see what not to do.
MUSIC
Lester Trimble
THE Moscow State Symphony, after
giving a series of all-Tschaikowsky con-
certs at Carnegie Hall, finally, in its
last pair of programs, scheduled two
works of contemporary interest (Shosta-
kovitch’s Eleventh Symphony and Pro-
kofiev’s Seventh Symphony) and broke
an otherwise chauvinistic formula by
programing Beethoven’s Seventh Sym-
phony and the Saint-Saéns Second
Piano Concerto. The variety was not
daring, but it was at least variety. Since
Emil Gilels, who was scheduled to play
the concerto, had impressed me on other
occasions, I decided it was _ perhaps
worth sitting through the Rachmaninoff
Second Symphony in order to hear what
he would do with Saint-Saéns. I was
also curious to know what a Soviet or-
chestra and one of its conductors, Kiril
Kondrashin, would do with the Prokof-
iev Seventh.
As it turned out, the concert was
pretty dull. The Moscow State Sym-
phony, by comparison with the major
orchestras of the world, is not a first-
its oboists, who make some of the
strangest woodwind noises I have ever
heard, all the players seem good. And
no non- -professional orchestra could play
the repertory it does, nor keep up its
pace of performances. Nevertheless, a
peculiar atmosphere lingers about the
group; an aura of the music school. All
through the evening I kept trying to
repress this association, and all through
the evening it kept returning. I have
not encountered this kind of playing
since I left the conservatory.
It is difficult to say just what makes
up an atmosphere of the academy.
Flaws in performance; lagging percus-
sionists; censorable oboe sounds; or an
inability of the ensemble to achieve a
really climactic dynamic level, may con-
tribute. But such lapses occur in the
playing of many orchestras, and one is
not automatically reminded of school
days.
I suspect that the ingredients in this
case are subtle and pervasive, having to
do with a kind of permissiveness and
fraternalism on the part of a conductor,
who takes it for granted that little mis-
takes will happen, and scarcely seems to
notice when they do. One of the funda-
mental differences between a conserv-
atory orchestra and a professional one
is that, from the former, nobody ever
gets fired. Conductor and musicians
simply go on working together, day
after day, as a gemiitliche, protected
little group. Could this be the case
with Soviet orchestras?
Kondrashin’s approach to the Pro-
kofiev Seventh Symphony and, for that
matter, to everything on the program,
was lyric, rather than dramatic. This
was basically proper, since the Seventh
(one of Prokofiev’s weaker symphonies)
inclines quite strongly to lyricism, and
the Rachmaninoff does so almost en-
tirely. But dangers are inherent in sym-
phony performances which too complete-
ly rule out dramatization. Things tend
to blur into a gentle stream of sound
which finally dulls one’s attention. It
may all be very pretty, but since signif-
icant events along the way are not
pointed up, they tend to blend into the
landscape. It was my impression that
the Moscow orchestra does not attempt
to “project” as, in varying degrees, most
other orchestras do. I cannot say wheth-
er this is a national aesthetic preference
or the interpretive manner of Kiril Kon-
drashin. But throughout the evening,
in every movement of the two sym-
phonies, I found it required a major ef-
fort to keep my ears engaged.
In the Saint-Saéns concerto this was
less of a problem, because of the physi-
cal vehemence of Emil Gilels. There was
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oh
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ps
no doubt at all that he wanted his
ideas to get across the foothghts. I
heard «such thunderous
sounds come out of a Steinway. Un-
fortunately, after the introduction to
the first movement, which was an_al-
most hair-raising exhibition of brute
force guided by intelligence, the pianist
neither continued in the personalized
spirit of this beginning, nor did he gain
access to the gracefulness which is the
concerto’s prime, though fragile, asset.
His tone was huge, and in an occasional
passage he began to accumulate the
kind of force which had marked the in-
troduction. But this concerto will not
really support a performer for very
long in a demonstration of personal
power. In its totality, Gilels’ interpreta-
tion came off seeming only rather cold
and Jacking in charm. And this impres-
sion of estrangement is not at all offset
by his openly hostile platform manner.
have seldom
FILMS
Robert Hatch
THE CLOSEST I can come to a defi-
nition of Our Man in Havana is re-
luctant satire. Espionage, which I strong-
ly suspect to be a whole-cloth invention
of the entertainment industry, is very
effectively spoofed by four very knowl-
edgeable spoofers: Ralph Richardson,
Noel Coward, Ernie Kovacs and Alec
Guinness. But Graham Greene, who
wrote the original story, evidently has
some compunction about jumping up and
down on the institution that has sup-
ported him so long and so well. He will
not swing around all the way to the
position that international snoopery is
ludicrous and he makes a lot of unneces-
sary fuss about one of those morbid
physicians (Burl Ives) who brood over
so many of his stories. Three people (and
a nice little dog) get killed in this yarn,
and that is either too many or too few
for burlesque. The plot is frivolously
fantastic, but the bodies are awkwardly
real. This is satire that never quite takes
flight from the reliable earth of melo-
\ drama, and I doubt that Mr. Greene
has any intention of resigning from the
~ Buchan-Ambler club.
Still, topical wit is at a premium right
now and Mr. Greene may be granted the
feat of having his cake and eating it.
He is wonderfully abetted by Carol
Reed, who directs the picture in a flut-
_ tering succession of moods that prevents
the pathos and brutality from settling
— down on the fun,
Notes on Russia
(Continued from page 147)
least slightly shocked by it (for in-
stance, by Zhivago deserting the
partisans: “Soviet people don’t do
such things!”’). Nevertheless, several
writers have told me that it was a
mistake to prohibit the book: “They
should have printed 10,000 copies,
and it wouldn’t have mattered a
damn.” That may happen yet.
There is not much scope for satire.
That most brilliant and witty of all
Muscovites, Sergei Obraztsov, head
of the famous Puppet Theatre, con-
tinues to produce some extremely
funny shows—but all of them poke
fun at Hollywood, Wild West and
gangster films, Paris night life and
the West generally, rather than at
anything Russian. Another very
funny man, Arkadi Raikin, head of
the Leningrad Miniature Theatre,
makes exuberant fun of lower-grade,
red-tape-ridden officials; thus he has
a brilliant sketch in which he shows
what would happen if fire brigades
were to “adopt the methods of some
of our government offices.” It’s great
fun, but doesn’t go very deep.
The present conformism among
writers and artists is not as rigid as
it was in the late forties, but Khru-
shchev is certainly not encouraging
that “excessive” independence some
writers began to show in 1955-56—
an independence now identified with
the venal sin of revisionism, a first
cousin of Titoism. Not that writers
don’t produce some semi-clandestine
prose or poetry (actually not very
much of it), just as some painters
and sculptors go in for abstractions
which are quietly bought up by pri-
vate collectors.
As for official painting, it is not
quite as “ham” as it used to be
under the Stalin-Gerasimov dictator-
ship, and Chinese and other Eastern
influences have had a salutary effect.
Architecture (mostly four- or five-
story apartment blocks) has be-
come sober and functional under
Khrushchev, and the building of
“Stalin-Gothic” skyscrapers has been
discontinued. The building of new
apartments, by the way, is proceed-
ing rapidly, though not as rapidly as
it might; as Mr, Rodin, technical
head of the Glavmosstroi, Moscow’s
7 ’ eT a as ;
; ea
,
f — ihe £ Al i" ; I
40 aa lle De. a 9 Pati: ws hee)
.
-
main building organization, told me,
there was stull a serious lack of co-
ordination between the actual—and
highly mechanized—builders and the
plumbers and electricians, with the
result that a block which could be
completed in four months still takes
eight or nine months to finish.
The most uninhibited of the arts
in Russia today is music. Brooding,
experimental and sometimes plainly
neurotic Dimitri Shostakovich, who
was grossly ill-treated as a “formal-
st” back in 1948, is now loudly pro-
claimed by everybody as Russia’s
No. 1 composer—which, since the
death of Prokofiev in 1953, he un-
doubtedly is. Last year, the Central
Committee went out of its way to
repudiate as “unjust” large parts of
the notorious Zhdanov decree of
February 10, 1948, in which all of
Russia’s best composers were de-
nounced as “formalist.”
PARTLY as a result of this, music is
flourishing. New names are cropping
up all the time—those most talked
about are Paris-born (Prince) An-
drei Volkonsky, Sidelnikov, Ovchin-
nikov, Schedrin and a few others.
Much of this new Russian music is
highly original and “modernist” up
to a point, though it is seldom, if
ever, unmelodious or anti-melodious.
On the most modernist trends
in Western music, Shostakovich
(though no great Socialist-Realist
himself) launched a violent attack
recently in the Soviet Music maga-
zine, warning Russian composers
against having anything to do with
the “sterile Schénberg tradition” and
with twelve-tone music generally—
which could only produce gloomy
pessimistic noises, suitable perhaps
to the capitalists’? mood, but out of
place in Soviet society. All dodeca-
phonic music was “a blind alley,” he
said, and he regretted that some
young Polish composers had fallen
for this technique.
In all the arts something of a war
is going on between the “conserva-
tives” and the “progressives.” In
music the “progressives,” with Shos-
takovich at their head, are obviously
winning (until further notice); in
literature and the other arts, the
“conservatives”’—though no longer
the absolute diehards—appear still —
to be the predominating influence, —
hea % «4 , N Vie
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6) i F
|
|
Crossword Puzzle No. 854
By FRANK W. LEWIS
10
11
13
15
16
19
21
22
24
26
m3 stg |
ACROSS:
The rasher S. S. leaders might make
for better openings this way. (5, 10)
A terrible finish for at least part
of the race, perhaps. (6)
A bad man’s sort of bar
windows, probably). (8)
Does poetry, supposedly? (4)
So much for the French, when put
on a horse or the equivalent! (10)
A snake, according to the way St.
Patrick may have spoken of slander,
(7)
This might be kept even.in a broken
truce. (7)
Her fringes might be cut in rather
new and different style. (10)
Certainly not an urban-sounding
river, (4)
Part of the sincere Brummel type,
but standard equipment for the
Thinking Man. (8)
The way of a very quiet Scotsman?
(6)
At the summit, an old French Mar-
shal might meet another officer in
the cabinet. (8, 7)
(with
DOWN:
Parts of a department store’s man-
ners I’d change. (15)
we employer is bound to be one.
‘ebruary 13, 1960
eae oo
3 Prepares matches, perhaps, but not
against dust. (8)
4 One objected to a snail’s pace, and
used to make silver polish. (7)
5 and 25 All that’s left of the bunch,
perhaps, that might have been re-
sponsible for the slipper. (6, 4)
6 15, ere departed, like something
lately remembered. (4)
7 At least part of it represents the
way to a man’s stomach. (10,5)
12 The way 15, without ultimate di-
rection, comes to the point. (5)
14 Is there nothing on the governors
minds? (5)
17 Strange I shouldn’t be invited to the
Thanksgiving party! (8)
18 Takes the heart out. (7)
20 fae this up, and kid this along.
ieee of rose, according to Cupid.
See 5 down
23
25
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 853
ACROSS: 1 Significant; 9 and 10 Clap-
. board; 12 Patrols; 13 Evasion; 15 De-
voured; 16 Riches; 18 Prosit; 21 Of-
fender; 26 Frailty; 29 Adieu; 30 Echo;
31 Illiterates. DOWN: 2 Imperious; 3
Nebular; 4 Fiat; 5 Cadaver; 6 Nudes;
4° t3; 23 and 24 Please Don’t Eat the
Daisies; 8 Encore; 14 Ad hoe; 17 Cen-
tipede; 19 Reason; 20 and 28 The Man
I Love; 22 Formula; 25 Spell; 27 Fine.
<> o
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2
—_—_—_— FEBRUARY 20, 1960 . . 25¢
FEDERAL
NARCOTICS CZAR
Zeal Without Insight
Stanley Meisler
MADISON AVENUE
SCRAMBLES FOR HONOR
Roy Bongartz
WHO HATES CHESSMAN?
| A Study of the Governor’s Mail —
Richard Meister |
LETTERS
Politics of Peace
Dear Sirs: In your leading editorial of
February 6 [“The Candidates and a
Politics of Peace”], I believe you have
assessed correctly the temper of the
American people. They will judge the
candidates in 1960 in terms of their feel-
ings about each one’s capacity to lead
the nation toward peace. For too many
years our candidates and our campaigns
have been dominated by what we were
against. This time I think the people
will want to know what we are for.
Before we worry ourselves about
Communist intentions, we ought to give
a little more thought to our own inten-
tions. Our intentions are measured not
only by warm-hearted speeches at Christ-
mas-tree ceremonies, but also by cold,
round numbers in budget documents
and appropriation acts. Instead of criti-
cizing the so-called missile gap, we ought
to be criticizing the budget for its
moral gap. We all know deep in our
hearts that we can afford what we want
to afford. If we want to afford an all-
out war against man’s ancient enemies
of disease, hunger, poverty and illiteracy,
we know how to win such a war, and we
can mobilize the resources to do it if we
Have the will.
I think the people want candidates
who show such a will. Our capacity for
working out peaceful solutions to our
disputes is not so well established.
Whether or not The Nation judges the
candidates on the peace issue, the nation
will.
Byron L. JoHnson
Member of Congress
(2nd Dist., Colo).
Washington, D.C.
Dear Sirs: 1 am in general agreement
with the views expressed in your editori-
al, “The Candidates and a Politics of
Peace,” although I think the paragraph
on civil rights is not factually correct
because there has been a strong group
in the Democratic Party (actually, a
majority) which has not played pol-
itics on civil/rights and has consistently
worked for legislation. Further, the edi-
torial does not point out that there is
a coalition of Southern Democrats and
Republicans which has played politics
and has kept us from making solid
progress. This time I hope we have
them beaten.
In the section in which the problem
of Mr. Nixon and peace is discussed, I
think you fail to grasp the importance
:
of the effort to create a false image to
the public an effort which is well
financed, well planned and subtly ex-
ecuted. Therefore, effective efforts must
be made to destroy the image, and to
create a more truthful or more objective
one.
It is easy to say that the issue is peace
—but the attempt is to make Mr. Nixon
and peace synonymous. For The Nation
and any others who really don’t want
Mr. Nixon, I think your other editorial
in the same issue, “The Rogers Smoke
Screen,” should be sound reason for
such a position. It is my feeling there is
a real need now to begin showing the
way as to how the true public image can
be created.
James RoosEvELT
Member of Congress
(26th Dist., Calif.)
Washington, D.C,
Dear Sirs: The Nation is among the
first-class American publications. For
this reason, it is particularly unfortunate
that a fundamental error has appeared
in a number of editorials of recent is-
sues. This error is easily identified from
a quotation from the lead editorial of
your February 6 issue: “The issue, we
repeat, 1s peace. ” Peace is not an issue.
Neither is it a policy nor a program. It
is a goal, but like happiness, it is a
goal which cannot be made the object
of a direct search....
Peace is not an issue since everyone
desires it. Wars are fought only be-
cause people become convinced that the
result of the war is worth the sacrifice.
If Americans valued peace more
highly than they valued anything else,
it has always been theirs for the ask-
ing. In the past, the price for obtaining
it without fighting has been chains and
slavery. At that price it can be had to-
day. Whether they are right or not, it is
quite plain that Americans do not want
peace that desperately, and it will be a
sad day for a proud people if they ever
do.
The real issue is the means to peace.
Peace is not a policy; it is a result of a
policy. It is the result of a_ political
philosophy enforced upon the weaker by
the stronger, or the result of a shared
political philosophy entered into on a
voluntary basis. Until this is under-
stood, we will continue to be besieged
with meaningless slogans like “Pray For
Peace” and “Universal Disarmament,”
which create the psychology of Munich
and which invariably have paved the
way to disaster.
Justin BirackweLper
Washington, D.C. }
1 ES IG Es ae eee 8
ge
/
ALT Ten
ei ten y
Monstrous by Design
Dear Sirs: Perhaps those assembled at
the “architectural” meeting described so
vividly by Walter McQuade (The Na-
tion, Jan. 30) deserved to get more than
brandy and the feeling of impotence in-
duced by the discussion: after all, they
paid $12.50 admission. The business of
excluding the common people from
hearing what Walter Gropius has to say
(Continued on page 169)
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
157 @
ARTICLES
159 @ Federal Narcotics Czar
by STANLEY MEISLER
Madison Avenue Scrambles for
Honor
by ROY BONGARTZ
1960: Failure of Political
Imagination
by GLENN TINDER
Who Hates Chessman? A Study
of the Governor’s Mail
by RICHARD MEISTER
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
170 @ The God We Deserve
by GABRIEL VAHANIAN
Ireland Made Him
by RUSSELL A,
162 'e
164 @
167 '@
‘e
PRASER
Curtain of Ignorance
by FRANCIS B. RAND
Art
by MAURICH
Music
by
173
ALL
174 ©
GROSSER
175
LESTER TRIMBLE
Fail Safe (poem)
by SHELDON P, ZITNER
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 176)
by PRANK W. LEWIS
HINA
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, Wditor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Editor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester ‘l'rimble, Music
Alexander Werth, Wuropean
Correspondent
176 |
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
100. No, 8
The Nation, Veb, 20, 1960, Vol,
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senna
*
a
o>
a Py” 7 o se , }
i
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 8
NATION
EDITORIALS
The News Behind the Headlines
A public preoccupied with the claborate month-long
press coverage of the murder trial of Dr. R. Bernard
Finch and Miss Carole Tregoff, and the story-book
romance of Miss Gamble Benedict, would hardly sus-
pect: (1) that the Administration is sharply divided
on key policies involved in the Geneva test-ban talks;
(2) that the faction which has talked longest and
Joudest about the so-called “big hole” theory, namely
the AEC and the Defense Department, is “openly and
frankly stating” (Washington Post) that nuclear tests
must be resumed; (3) that at the last day’s session at
Geneva in December, the Russian and British delegates
pleaded with the United States delegation to issue a
joint report; (4) that the Soviet delegation, subsequent
to Premier Khrushchev’s visit in September, made
significant concessions (for example, after months of
refusal, the Soviet delegates agreed to hold a scientific
conference with the United States and British scientists
‘on the problem of detecting underground tests); (5)
that in direct contradiction of statements issued by
‘Chairman John A. McCone and Commissioner John F.
Floberg of the AEC, the Soviet scientists — this on the
authority of Dr. James B. Fisk who heads the American
delegation — did in fact make “good contributions”
‘to the discussions; (6) that the American delegates, as
a matter of political policy, and on instruction, feigned
‘an unawareness at the discussions of new methods of
‘detecting low-yield underground tests; (7) that while it
may be possible to reduce the tremors from an under-
ground explosion by a factor of 300 if the hole is large
‘enough — the so-called “big hole” theory — the U.S.
‘Coast and Geodetic eurvey reports that a “well-placed
‘and well-chosen array” of seismic detectors with filters
to reduce the background “noise” would enhance detec-
‘tion capability by a factor of 100 or more.
~ In the meantime, we are proceeding with preparations
to resume tests in Nevada; the weapons have been
which nuclear arms will become conventional arms.
And if the Administration’s proposal to make nuclear
weapons available to our NATO allies is approved, the
eet aeany on nuclear eee will be universal,
‘readied, the tunnels have been dug. Additional tests
will only speed the process, already well advanced, by
Once that point is reached there will be little chance
of securing an agreement to suspend tests.
Under the circumstances, therefore, the press would
be performing a public service if it were to emphasize
the importance of the test-suspension negotiations and
throw some light on the double-dealing and in-fighting
that is going on behind the scenes in Washington in re-
lation to these talks. Headlines on murder trials and
society scandals can wait; there’s never any lack of
either.
Schizophrenic Industrialists
American industry’ continues to spawn new social
types — witness the emergence of the hybrid capitalist-
socialist type in the post-Korean. or accelerated amorti-
zation, era. Currently the commercial airlines are con-
cerned about reports that the Soviet and British gov-
ernments are preparing to subsidize the development of
2,000-mile-an-hour airliners. “If this happens,” warns
James R. Durfee, chairman of the Civil Aeronautics
Board, “the favored position enjoyed by American civil
aircraft manufacturers might be lost for decades.” The
thought that it might happen confirms “the worst
fears” of Senator Warren Magnusson, who with Senator
Jackson represents the Boeing constituency, that
“America’s leadership in commercial and cargo jet
planes is in grave jeopardy.” The commercial airlines
could, of course, go in for supersonic planes without
delay, but they need a little time to amortize heavy
commitments in subsonic jets they are now building.
C. R. Smith, president of American Airlines, Ine.,
and the industry’s most influential spokesman, has a
solution for the problem: let Congress subsidize the
research and development of supersonic commercial air-
liners. “Surely,” he says, “we would not want to read
that some other country has taken the lead in making
supersonic transportation a reality.” Here Mr. Smith
speaks with the bland assurance of the free-enterprise —
industrialist turned socialist. But he is still enough of
the old-style capitalist to couple this plea for subsidies
with the poker-faced warning that federal regulation,
particularly on “the amount of duplicating competition
and the level of earnings allowed, ” poses a serious threat
to the industry. But if the government i is to finance the
development of supersonic airliners for the socialist air-
lines, the capitalist airlines certainly ought not to ob-
ject to a little regulation. After all, they are the same
airlines.
The AEC’s Can of Worms
A handful of alert citizens have given the Atomic
Energy Commission its come-uppance on the matter
of off-shore dumping of atomic wastes. Since 1946, the
AEC has dumped some 45,000 drums of radioactive
wastes into the sea. Now, ten years later, it has sud-
denly suspended further ocean dumping, indefinitely
postponed a public hearing on the safety issue which
had been demanded by a group of citizens in New
Britain, Connecticut, and has requested additional
funds from Congress to finance research into better
storage methods. Why this sudden reversal of position?
When The Nation first disclosed two related aspects
of deep-sea dumping — “Test Case on Atomic Waste”
by Gerald McCourt (August 1, 1959 — the New Brit-
ain story) and “ ‘Hot’ Dumping Off Boston,” by Grace
DesChamps (September 19, 1959) —the big guns of
the AEC’s public-relations staff boomed with self-
righteous indignation and bold contradiction. But ad-
ditional protests were soon voiced, including a sharp
protest from the Mexican Government against dumping
in the Gulf of Mexico. These protests were happily re-
enforced by Professor Auguste Piccard’s statement —
he is the inventor of the deep-diving bathyscaph —
that “radioactive waste buried in the deep sea could
contaminate the entire body of water around the globe.”
Faced with mounting protests, the AEC now frankly
admits that the drums which have been used are not
indefinitely leak-proof under the great ocean pressures
at 6,000 feet. A spokesman told Newsweek: “As things
are today, we are holding a can of worms.” And so they
are — hot radioactive worms. But if it had not been for
alert citizen groups, the dangers implicit in deep-sea
disposal might not have been brought to public atten-
tion even after ten years of reckless dumping. The
Lower Cape Committee on Radioactive Waste Dis-
posal and New Britain’s Committee on Radiation In-
formation are entitled to high commendation for their
resolute refusal to be overawed by the AEC. Now and
then, Davids still manage to slay Goliaths.
Buster’s Bluster
When, last December, Senator Stephen M. Young
addressed Neil M. Wetterman, Americanism chairman
of the Hamilton County (Cincinnati) Council of the
American Legion as “Buster,” we suggested editorially
that the jig might be up for the Legion’s witch hunt.
Events of the last few weeks in Hollywood, where the
voice of the Legion has often been mistaken for the —
nA *t(¥= ae wt "yes ee F "
yt a * Rae ted b:
voice of the people, if not the voice of God, show how —
the jig is going.
This time the man in the blue overseas cap is Martin
B. McKneally, National Commander, and he is shoot-
ing off anathema at a terrifying rate. Stanley Kramer
has hired Nedrick Young, who was once rude to the
House Committee on Un-American Activities, and both
Otto Preminger and Kirk Douglas have hired Dalton
Trumbo, who was jailed by that committee. Paramount
will distribute here Chance Meeting, a murder mystery
made in England by a whole slew of movie people who
were hounded out of their jobs in America. Mr. Mc-
Kneally has protested every one of these deals and the
picture people remain massively unconcerned.
How can this be possible? Granted that the worst of
the Red hunt is over, doesn’t the American Legion rep-
resent the will of millions of veterans, and isn’t the
rebuff of their most exalted leader going to cost Holly-
wood dear? The answer to both questions is no. The
American Legion speaks with the voice of its execu-
tives and represents the will of its executives, and its
mass base is as reliable as a bowl of marbles. Thousands
of veterans don’t even belong to the club; thousands
more belong from inertia; not one in a thousand takes
the publicized utterances of its leadership with the sol-
emnity that the entertainment industry once accorded
the “word.” Of course, when the Legion echoes the
shouts of the lynch mob, it seems to speak for the
lynch mob; but at present the mob is largely dispersed
and the producers of Hollywood are enjoying the re-
markable American privilege of hiring whom they
please without concern for the hollow blusterings of
such as Messrs. Wetterman and McKneally.
Total Apartheid
A sweeping defense of the South African Nationalist
policy of apartheid — enforced “apartness” of the dif-
ferent races — has just been written by Dr. Piet J.
Meyer, chairman of the board of the South African
Broadcasting Company. In his new book, Further
Journey: The Afrikaner in Africa, Dr. Meyer calls for
not only the strictest kind of apartheid in South Africa.
itself, but “extension” of the system throughout the
continent. According to The New York Times, Dr.
Meyer is bitter toward fellow South Africans who may
hold some reservations about apartheid:
He asserts that even without domestic intellectuals to
contend with, South Africa’s Afrikaners have a horde of
enemies. He lists Soviet and Chinese communism, Indian
imperialism, the Moslem world, Western European liberal- _
ism, American capitalist sentimentalism, and inflamed
anti-white African animism.
Congratulations, Dr. Meyer! By your own reckon-
ing you have achieved apartheid from practically
everybody except John Kasper and maybe Orval Faubus,
. *
* Dh i i A’ ; 0 ,
ah all
FEDERAL NARCOTICS CZAR ee by Stunley Meisler
IN THE world of U.S. Commissioner
of Narcotics H. J. Anslinger, the drug
addict is an “immoral, vicious, social
leper,’ who cannot escape respon-
sibility for his actions, who must feel
the force of swift, impartial punish-
ment. This world of Anslinger does
not belong to him alone. Bequeathed
to all of us, it vibrates within the
consciousness of twentieth-century
America. Anslinger, however, has
been its guardian. As America’s first
and only Commissioner of Narcotics,
he has spent much of his lifetime in-
suring that society stamp its retribu-
tion into the soul of the addict.
In his thirty years as Commission-
er (Anslinger is now sixty-seven),
he has listened to a chorus of steady
praise. Admirers have described him
as “the greatest living authority on
the world narcotics traffic”’ a man
who “deserves a medal of honor for
his advanced thought,” “one of the
greatest men that ever lived,” a pub-
lic servant whose work “will insure
his place in history with men such as
Jenner, Pasteur, Semmelweiss, Wal-
ter Reed, Paul Ehrlich, and the host
of other conquerers of scourges that
have plagued the human race.” But
some discordant notes, especially in
recent years, have broken through
this chorus. Critics — mostly social
workers, doctors, lawyers and judges ©
— have cried, often out of their
frustration, that Anslinger is a des-
pot, a terrifier of doctors, a bureau-
crat single-handedly preventing
medicine from ministering to the
sick, aimless addict.
These critical views reflect the
philosophy expressed in The Na-
tion in 1956 and 1957 by Alfred R.
Lindesmith, Professor of Sociology
at Indiana University. “The addict
belongs. in. the hospital, not in the
prison,” Lindesmith wrote. “If we
recognize that punishment cannot
cure disease, if we want to take the
profit out of the illicit traffic, we
need to return the drug user to the
care of the medical profession — the
only profession equipped to deal
with him” (“Traffic in Dope: Medi-
STANLEY MEISLER is a wire
service newsman now stationed in
= Sea:
poh
cal Problem,” April 21, 1956). Linde-
smith said the country’s stringent
narcotic laws stem from “concep-
tions of justice and penology which
can only be adequately described as
medieval and_ sadistic” (“Dope:
Congress Encourages the Traffic,”
March 16, 1957).
Anslinger has replied to such critics
with more scorn than argument.
Confronted with a recent medical
proposal to set up government clinics
where doctors would treat addicts
and, in some cases, allow them to
continue their drug diet, the Com-
missioner announced: “The plan is
so simple that only a simpleton could
think it up.” When this plan began
earning support from influential men
within the American Bar Associa-
tion, the Commissioner answered
their logic by telling a national radio
audience: “Certainly the A.B.A.
should have hired a lawyer to read
the laws and find out what it is all
about.” Warming up to the debate
in an issue of the FBI Law Enforce-
ment Bulletin, he added his clinch-
ing argument: “Following the line
of thinking of the ‘clinic plan’ ad-
vocates to a logical conclusion, there
would be no objection to the state
setting aside a building where on
the first floor there would be a bar
for alcoholics, on the second floor
licensed prostitution, with the third
floor set aside for sexual deviates
and, crowning them all, on the top
floor a drug-dispensing station for
addicts.”
A PENNSYLVANIA Dutchman,
Harry J. Anslinger was born in Al-
toona on May 20, 1892. It was the era
of unlimited traffic in narcotics. Cig-
arette smoking irritated public mor-
als more than did opium eating (to
shush their babies, mothers bought
750,000 bottles of opitiiielased syrup
a year). Drug manufacturers mixed
laudanum, heroin and cocaine into
their tonics and pain-killers. “The
‘more you drink,” one tonic adver-
tised, “the more you want.” The
fashionable bought gold hypodermic
needles, studded with diamonds.
By 1914, when Anslinger was a
student at Pennsylvania State Col-
lege, the New York Sum estimated
that 4.45 per cent of the population
was addicted to narcotics. “Cocaine
and its allied intoxicants ... ,” the
New York World said, “are seeming-
ly cheaper than whiskey, cheaper
than beer... .” Time and again, re-
formers lashed out at doctors for
dispensing drugs too freely, for elim-
inating diagnosis as well as pain in
the single stab of a needle. The
magazines of the period coupled con-
cern for addiction with concern for
alcoholism, and the same forces that
created Prohibition devised the Har-
rison Act of 1914, which clamped
federal controls on narcotics use and
sale for the first time.
DURING these years and the decade
that followed, Anslinger’s activities
hardly touched the narcotics prob-
lem. At the start of World War I,
he joined the Efficiency Board of the
War Department’s Ordnance Divi-
sion and, by the close of the war,
had advanced to the post of attaché
in the American Legation at The
Hague, Netherlands. He continued
in foreign service until 1926, serving
in consular posts at Hamburg, Ger-
many; La Guaira, Venezuela; and
Nassau, Bahamas.
As Consul in Nassau, he negoti-
ated an agreement with Britain to
halt a fleet of rum-running schooners
heading for the high seas. The agree-
ment plugged one hole in the defense
against Prohibition smuggling, and
the federal government soon pro-
moted Anslinger to Washington as
chief of the Division of Foreign Con-
trol in the Prohibition Bureau of the
Treasury Department. Three years
later, in 1929, he rose to Assistant
Commissioner of Prohibition. Three
months later, in early 1930, a scandal
rocked his bureau.
In New York, a federal grand jury
investigating narcotics, which then
came under the jurisdiction of the
Prohibition Bureau, accused nar-
cotics agents of falsifying their re-
ports on orders from superiors in
Washington. The agents had padded
their records by. copying the New
York police files. The padding, which
amounted to 354 extra cases in 1929,
had been done on orders from Wil-
liam C. Blanchard, Assistant Deputy
159
‘ 50:8 tha,
Commissioner of Prohibition — in
Charge of Narcotics, who claimed he
had acted on orders from his superi-
or, Col. L. G. Nutt, the Deputy
Commissioner. The grand jury said
it found strong indications of col-
lusion between federal narcotics of-
ficials and illegal sellers. The pad-
ding obviously had been intended to
hide the bureau’s poor record of
arrests.
The Prohibition Bureau quickly
reorganized itself. Nutt was demoted
to field supervisor. Assistant Com-
missioner Anslinger, unassociated
with narcotics and free of scandal,
assumed Nutt’s duties temporarily.
Congress, however, decided that
more than reorganization was needed
and passed a bill transferring nar-
cotics control from the Prohibition
Bureau to a new Bureau of Nar-
cotics in the Treasury Department.
-President Hoover signed the bill on
June 14, 1930, and appointed An-
‘slinger to the new position of Com-
missioner of Narcotics on August 12.
BY THEN, federal policy in nar-
cotics had been set. The courts had
approved the Constitutionality of
the Harrison Act, and bureaucrats,
fired by Prohibition zeal, had pluck-
ed from the medical profession any
responsibility for treatment of the
addicts who had lost their legal
source of supply. Narcotics had be-
come a police problem, not a medical
one, and Anslinger accepted the
task of making sure it stayed that
way. Working tirelessly under four
Presidents, never wavering from his
early mission, he has succeeded. In
the United States, unlike almost
every other Western nation, nar-
cotics remains a police problem.
Throughout his tenure, Anslinger
has proclaimed that “strong laws,
good enforcement, stiff sentences and
a proper hospitalization program”
are the weapons needed to destroy
narcotics addiction. On its surface,
this program seems intelligent and
compassionate; it implies that sick
men must be treated and that evil
men, who prey on the sick by selling
them drugs, must be punished.
But the Commissioner has a dif-
ferent concept in mind, He is less
concerned with treating the addict
than with removing the “leper” from
oe: Seo a i Pie % ‘ wy Cg me ae ;
society. In a recent article, he wrote:
“Tt is essential . . . to remove the
addict from circulation, either by a
compulsory-treatment law or a law
similar to that now in effect in the
State of New Jersey.” He then de-
scribed the New Jersey law, under
which “any person who uses a nar-
cotic drug for any purpose other
than treatment of sickness or in-
jury ... is an addict and may be
sentenced to a year in jail.” In The
Traffic in Narcotics (1953), a book
he wrote with former U.S. Attorney
William F. Tompkins of New Jersey,
Anslinger cites with approval a rec-
ommendation that any addict com-
mitted to an institution three times
under a compulsory-hospitalization
plan should be incarcerated there for
life. This proposal has received the
Commissioner’s approval despite
psychological evidence that a final
cure for addiction is rarely obtained
without several relapses.
It is also clear that under An-
slinger’s hospitalization program,
treatment centers would be open
only to addicts who had broken no
laws other than those forbidding the
use of drugs. The impoverished ad-
dict, who jimmied open cars and
shops to steal enough to pay the
fantastic prices for illegal’ drugs,
would head for jail and the cruel,
cold-turkey treatment. So would the
miserable, addicted pusher, who sold
capsules to other victims to support
his own habit.
ALTHOUGH many critics deplore
Anslinger’s attitude toward the ad-
dict, few disparage his zealous ef-
forts to wipe out the illegal traffic.
One has described him as an honest,
hard-working cop. In Who Live in
Shadow (1959), a book written with
Sara Harris, Chief Magistrate John
M. Murtagh of New York takes °
time out from his attack on Ansling-
er to salute the Federal Bureau’s
“vigorous fight against smugglers.”
No matter how much they agitate
for a change in government policy,
critics do not want to return to the
days when narcotics could be bought
freely at the corner drugstore.
Yet Anslinger’s police methods
have disturbed some __ observers.
Judge David Bazelon of the U. S.
Court of Appeals for the District of
ie we
oe ” ae
Columbia Circuit, for example, has
attacked the Federal Bureau’s de-
pendence on informers. “It 1s notori-
ous,” he says in last year’s Anderson
Jones decision, “that the narcotics
informer is often himself involved in
the narcotics traffic and is often paid
for his information in cash, narcotics,
immunity from prosecution, or leni-
ent punishment. ... Under such stim-
ulation it is to be expected that
the informer will not infrequently
reach for shadowy leads, or even
seek to incriminate the innocent.”
In New York last March, U.S. Dis-
trict Judge Edward Weinfeld ac-
quitted a defendant who had been
enticed into addiction by an informer
for the Bureau of Narcotics. The
judge said the defendant’s participa-
tion in the crime “was a creation of
the productivity of law-enforcement
officers.”
Although the bureau has been un-
tainted by any significant scandal
in its thirty-year history, Assistant
U.S. Attorney Thomas A. Wadden,
Jr., discovered in 1952 that a janitor
had been stealing cocaine and mari-
juana from the Treasury Depart-
ment’s narcotics stocks and supply-
ing them to peddlers in Washing-
ton. Anslinger reacted, according to
Wadden, by obstructing the investi-
gation. “While we were preparing
our indictments,” Wadden wrote in
a Saturday Evening Post article,
“Commissioner Anslinger made pub-
lic statements which tended to dis-
parage our claims. . . . The bureau
could see no reason for all the fuss.”
Wadden attempted to link the jani-
tor with some of the big traffickers
in the capital, but, according to the
prosecutor, Anslinger, accompanied
by the press, personally led a siren-
screeching raid that netted a host
of small operators and upset Wad-
den’s plans. The former Assistant
U.S. Attorney wrote that he then
dismissed pending — indictments
against three important operators,
and an angry grand jury issued a
report accusing the Bureau of Nar-
cotics of negligence in the case.
Nevertheless, Anslinger’s record
as a law-enforcement officer may be
far from a poor one. He has carried
out the federal narcotics laws as
honestly and effectively as possible,
with no more scandal or disregard
for rights than some of the country’s
ae
"he NATION
eer se ' oe Ss
‘best police forces have shown. But
he has not been content with being
an honest, hard-working cop. He has
assumed the responsibility for influ-
encing laws and policies as well as
enforcing them. And, in this area,
his methods have evoked severe and
sometimes bitter criticism.
TO PROVE that stiff laws hold
down addiction, the Commissioner
has grown fond of displaying charts
and statistics. His most frequently
quoted statistic puts the total num-
ber of addicts in the United States
at 60,000, perhaps 50,000. He bases
this figure on the specific number of
addicts reported to the bureau by
police agencies throughout the coun-
try. As of Dec. 31, 1958, they had
reported 46,266 addicts. He brushes
aside any contention that many ad-
dicts have evaded the police. “With-
in two years,” he said on NBC’s
Momitor radio show last July, “every
addict, rich or poor, comes to our
attention.” Yet in 1954, a Citizen’s
Advisory Committee reported to the
California Attorney General that
there were 20,000 illegal addicts in
California alone. At that time, the
bureau had enumerated 893 addicts
in California; its latest tabulation
for the state stands at 6,214.
Anslinger’s pet statistics involve
the situation in Ohio. In his annu-
al report for 1958, he prepared a
chart entitled, “Results of Effective
Legislation on Drug Addiction in
Ohio.” The chart, noting that the
state had adopted its stiff narcotics
law in September, 1955, employs
graphic bars to show that although
Ohio reported more than 300 new
addicts in both 1954 and 1955, it
reported fewer than one hundred in
each of the three following years.
In 1958, only thirty-eight were re-
ported. “Continued rigid enforce-
ment of the twenty-year minimum
penalty for unlawful sale of nar-
cotics provided in the narcotics law
adopted by the Legislature of Ohio
_ in 1955 has virtually eliminated the
‘illicit narcotics traffic in that state,”
his report notes.
But another factor may have con-
_ tributed to the dramatic drop in re-
ported addiction: heavy penalties
often discourage juries from con-
_ victing defendants. A survey of Mis-
-souri’s experience sheds some light
Febr wary 20, 1960
an 15. ee oe OP a
on the meaning of Ohio’s statistics.
In recent years, Anslinger has
been offering Missouri’s statistics as
further proof that long jail sentences
do the job. In his 1958 report, he
cites the “salutary effects” of heavy
penalties and strict enforcement in
that state. The House Appropriations
Committee received a pictorial chart
from him last year showing a giant
human figure depicting the state’s
new addicts in 1956 and a dwarfish
one depicting new addicts in 1958.
Missouri itself, however, was not
impressed. The legislature changed
the state law a few months after
Anslinger had handed the chart to
the committee. The new law reduced
the penalties for first conviction of
possession of narcotics from a min-
imum two-year term with no proba-
tion to a maximum one-year term
with probation permitted. “We found
that juries simply would not send a
man up for two years on the strength
of a marijuana cigarette found in his
possession,” Circuit Attorney Thom-
as F. Eagleton of St. Louis explained.
“Tt was also felt that a minor nar-
cotics offender, convicted for the
first time, was as much entitled to
ask for probation as a first-time
burglar.”
After this scrambling of his neat
statistics, Anslinger retaliated by
cutting his force in Missouri from
seven to three men. “Apparently
they feel they haven’t got a prob-
lem,” Anslinger’s assistant, Henry
Giordano, said of the legislators.
“We do have problems elsewhere
and need men, so we’re moving
-them.”
THE Missouri incident marked the
rare occasion when an agency of any
government has questioned the au-
thority or wisdom of Anslinger. Con-
gress rarely questions either. While
testifying on Capitol Hill, as he oft-
en does, the Commissioner has a
persuasive manner. A stocky, com-
pletely bald man with a kind and
genial face, he speaks smoothly and
reasonably. In 1956, the reports of the
House Subcommittee on Narcotics
and the Senate Judiciary Committee
leaned heavily on his philosophy. So
did the report of the President’s In-
terdepartmental Committee on Nar-
cotics that year. The results were
new federal laws so stringent that
I pie
(s)
NES
ee
=
Ls)
Harry J. Anslinger
they set a two- to ten-year sentence
for persons convicted of possessing
narcotics for the first time, refused
to allow suspended sentences and
probation in many cases, and _ per-
mitted the death penalty for any
adult, addicted or not, who sold
narcotics to anyone under eighteen.
While guiding Congress to one
point of view, Anslinger also has
helped generate an atmosphere which
inhibits objective thinking on the
subject. In 1958, the Joint Com-
mittee of the American Bar Associ-
ation and the American Medical
Association on Narcotic Drugs, im-
pressed with how little is known
about the addict and how little is
done to cure him, issued a_ report
that called for more research. In its
most controversial section, the re-
port suggested “that the possibil-
ities of trying some such out-patient
facility [where doctors would treat
addicts and, in some cases, admin-
ister drugs to them] on a controlled
experimental basis, should be ex-
plored.” The committee hoped such
a clinic would cut down crime by
providing a legal source of drugs to
addicts under treatment. Anslinger
quickly organized his own Advisory
Committee, which issued a 186-page
report on the ABA-AMA report. |
A remarkable document, cluttered
with capital letters, boldface type,
italics and exclamation marks, the _
Advisory Committee report uses —
every argument conceivable, even —
161-23
when they are contradictory, to be-
little the ABA-AMA report. It is
filled with repetitions, misquotations
and scorn, and resembles a screech
more than an argument. On several
issues, Anslinger’s group makes in-
telligent, critical points, but these
are made so loudly they are hard to
hear. The whole tenor of the docu-
ment indicates Anslinger does not
want to win the discussion as much
as he wants to eliminate it.
This atmosphere apparently has
persuaded the ABA-AMA committee
to mark time and wait for Anslihger’s
retirement before trying to have its
recommendations accepted either by
= , y .™
its’ parent organization or by the
federal government. Other critics
of federal policy also believe that
the retirement of Anslinger will
herald a new era in government at-
titude toward addicts. “There is only
one way to start reform,” Chief
Magistrate Murtagh writes, “ — re-
tire Commissioner Anslinger and re-
place him with a distinguished pub-
lic-health administrator of vision and
perception and, above all, heart.”
Will his retirement mean a new era?
Anslinger has not been a single
force legislating and. enforcing nar-
cotics laws all by himself. He has
reflected an imbedded American dis-
taste toward
grown ill because of a seeming lack
of will, and he has struck a respon-
sive chord within both Congress and
the public. Although persuasive and
hard-working, he could never have
pushed through his policies if they
had not conformed with the public
disposition. When he retires, it may
be that a man of different attitudes
and philosophy will take his place.
But his successor also may be an-
other Anslinger. After thirty years
in office, there -is enough public
reverence for Anslinger to carry his
philosophy, and all it represents, be-
yond his retirement.
Madison Avenue
THE ECONOMY of this world has
been so rigged that while most Amer-
icans (and their dogs and cats) get
plenty to eat and enough room to
live in, other millions of them inhabit
slums and shacks; and elsewhere,
Asians and Africans starve to death
(such poorly-cared-for folk as the
Indo-Chinese have a life expectancy
of just thirty-one years).
The economy of this world is so
rigged that Americans can keep a
mothball fleet of over a hundred
freighters filled with rotting wheat
because no one can think of any-
thing else to do with it.
The economy is so rigged that
great, shining, skyscraper banks and
insurance companies are rising in
every city, shrines to the dollar,
while millions of Americans—many
of them minorities not allowed to
live anywhere else—live in ratty
tenements nearby.
Instead of aiming to help the world
live a little less painfully, the Amer-
ican economy makes as much junk
as it possibly can and then uses it
up, destroys it, as fast as possible.
Nobody ever talks about that “third
of a nation” any more; they’re not
supposed to be still there. Instead of
Edgar Snow’s “Point IV for Amer-
ROY BONGARTZ is a writer and
editor now on the staff of a national
weekly publication.
162
Scrambles for Honor. - by Roy Bongartz
ica” (The Nation, May 12, 1956)
proposal that would send _ food,
medicine, clothing and education to
Americans without them, we have
“»lanned obsolescence” — more un-
needed stuff to replace slightly used
unneeded stuff. Listen to a Washing-
ton adman, one Belmont Ver Stan-
dig, urge his fellows to greater ef-
forts: “Take electric refrigerators,”
he said the other day. “Millions of
them are ten to fifteen years obso-
lete. But their owners don’t know it.
No one has bothered to tell them.”
With our society on such a phony
basis, it is not surprising to find its
main spokesman, the advertising
business, phony too—so phony it
can’t see itself as it is, so phony it is
“honestly” phony. Thus admen
greeted the quiz scandals and payola
news and recent false-advertising ac-
cusations with confusion and dismay.
“But we’ve always been phony,”
they protested. “You have to be, to
sell stuff people don’t need. Why
suddenly make an issue of it? And
it works, doesn’t it? We’re lubricat-
ing the economy, aren’t we?”
It is hopeless to tell an adman that
an economy that spends $117 million
a year on dog food is at least in part
a false and wrong and doomed econ-
omy. No one would be foolish enough
even to try to communicate this fact
to an adman. Nevertheless a num-
ber of people, including Earl W.
Kintner, chairman of the Federal,
Trade Commission, have been at-
tacking the natural product of this
economy: false advertising. To re-
quire honesty in an area of neces-
sity rooted in falseness is to demand
the impossible, and it has brought a
number of schizophrenic ripostes
from admen trying both to fight
back and at the same time to con-
demn their dishonest fellows (and,
rarely, even themselves). Their con-
fusion is perfectly understandable.
They do not know—they cannot
know and still remain admen—that
their function in our rigged world is
as shaky as the claim: “Money cheer-
fully refunded.”
WITH THE hoots and catéalls from
all the earlier scandals and drug
and cigarette advertising complaints
still in their ears, admen last month
saw Kintner lower the boom on a
variety of TV spot commercials:
Palmolive Rapid Shave, Blue Bon-
net margarine, Pepsodent toothpaste,
and Alcoa wrap. The shaving cream
was supposed to be helping a dem-
onstrator shave sandpaper, but he
was really shaving some sand_ off
plexiglass. “Flavor gems” on the
margarine were really glycerine. The
toothpaste was used to wash away
a dark spot made by a smoking ma-
chine; the FTC said it did not
“actually prove that Pepsodent is
The Nation —
>
people who have —
en eee
i double meanings, the sugar coatings,
stains from the teeth of all smokers.”
A fine fresh ham was shown wrapped
.in Alcoa while a competing foil, torn
and tattered, ineffectually covered a
dry, stale one as an announcer said
they were both “wrapped and un-
wrapped the same number of times.”
Not true, said the FTC; they had
never been wrapped at all, the hams
had been picked for their looks, and
Brand X foil had been torn and
stomped upon.
KINTNER was greeted by admen
with pained outrage. The Ted Bates
agency, hit for both the shaving
cream and margarine, asked him in
a full-page ad in the Times:
Is imaginative selling against the
law? We are puzzled. Our clients are
puzzled. Our attorneys are puzzled.
We think businessmen everywhere are
puzzled. . . . We know that people
don’t shave sandpaper, any more than
they write with pens under water,
shave peaches, or strap their wrist
watches on the propellers of trans-
Atlantic liners to find out if they
are waterproof. We used this drama-
tization for a simple reason. Millions
of Americans use a common phrase:
“T have a sandpaper beard.” It means
a tough beard. Our phrasing comes
under the heading of imaginative sell-
ing.
The makers of Blue Bonnet in-
sisted that “the presence of the gems
is an established fact” in spite of the
FTC’s statement that “the presence
of visible moisture in butter and
oleomargarine is undesirable and is
sought to be avoided.” As for Pepso-
dent, Fairfax M. Cone of Foote,
Cone & Belding, cried innocently, “I
don’t understand it! The ad never
said it would remove stains from all
teeth.” Alcoa said it could easily
prove its wrap was the best.
These mild contretemps are only
straws in the wind—a strong, cold
wind of public and governmental
suspicion blowing hard. on admen’s
white-collared and __ blue-collared
necks. Some few of them have be-
come something less than sanguine
about their own total righteousness.
Richard E. Deems, executive vice
president of Hearst Magazines, sug-
gests advertisers avoid “the weasels,
the unnecessary exaggerations, the
Ce meee" al ,' fk
the Tack words... ‘hain the past
we have always felt were defendable
tools of our profession.”
James D. Woolf, a “creative con-
sultant,” says that “not since the
fraudulent, patent-medicine days,
which were largely responsible for
the Pure Food and Drug Act, has ad-
vertising been sitting on such a hot
seat.” Referring to a Gallup poll
showing that two out of three Amer-
icans believe TV, commercials to be
phony, he says, “The public is not
as stupid as we are sometimes led
to believe.”
Truman Green, advertising direc-
tor of the Tampa Tribune and
Tampa Times, says: “Trickery and
the ‘fast buck’ philosophy have re-
placed the old standards of honesty
and truthfulness and fair dealing.
Too many young people i in advertis-
ing today are growing up in an at-
mosphere of flimflam and deception.
Too many are being led to believe
that anything is all right in adver-
tising if they can get away with it.”
Granville Hicks wrote in a recent
Saturday Review:
Probably the most careful students
of the use of the language of mis-
understanding are the writers of ad-
vertising. The purpose of most ad-
vertising is to create a false impres-
sion without telling the kind of down-
right lie that would get the advertis-
er in trouble with the government.
Fortunately, this is so generally rec-
ognized that people discount advertis-
ing claims without having to think
what they are doing, but there is a
kind of residual confusion.
California’ Governor Edmund G.
Brown alienated West Coast admen
recently by saying, “Americans spend
more on advertising, tobacco and
alcohol than they do on education.
We need help to free us from the
hypnotic spell of the hucksters and
the hard sell.” More pernicious to
the obsolescence-mongers are these
words from the Pilot, a paper of the
Boston Roman Catholic diocese:
“Much advertising aims to create
unhealthy demands and to promote
vicious rivalry among people who
might be satisfied with a more sim-
ple way of life.”
Some admen have recently begun
to sound like Russians reciting their
mea culpa before purge: “A guilt
complex and a sense of insecurity
pervades every gathering of admen,”
writes Eugene Whitmore in South-
west Advertising and Marketing.
“The typical ad convention reveals
a vast amount of self-criticism, lacera-
tion and verbal punishment, almost
to masochistic zeal.”
Melvin S. Hattwick, advertising
director of the Continental Oil Com-
pany, adds: “The agonizing self-
appraisal through which all adver-
tising people are now going is in all
likelihood a good thing. It is un-
fortunate that the circumstances
prompting such soul searching are in
full view of the public. In due time,
after admen have worn sackcloth
and ashes as long as they see fit,
many of them will go back to the
business-as-usual routine.”
One renegade goes so far as to
suspect his colleagues of not being
very bright. “We’re loaded with
creative people,” says Anthony C.
Chevins, senior vice president of
Cunningham & Walsh. “Today every-
body in advertising is creative.
Every time a helpless little idea gets
born, this battalion of creative ex-
perts pounces on it like a group of
starving men in a lifeboat going after
a careless sea gull. Never before have
so many created so little. Never be-
fore have so many created so little
that looks so much alike.” Chevins
adds that “the more creative people
you put into a conference room the
fewer good ideas are apt to come
out. Meetings are for meatheads.”
As for brainstorming sessions: “A
tempest in a think-pot.”
THE ADMEN’S ramparts are never-
theless well defended. New York ac-
count executive Paul Slater claims
that “today there is an almost emo-
tional search —verging on reverence
—for truth and dignity. Even the
sophisticated facade of a goodly pro-
portion of those in advertising hides,
more often than not, an inborn re-
spect for virtue. The growing em-
phasis on integrity isn’t something
that just blossomed. It’s been at the
core of things for a long time.”
Fairfax M. Cone: “Almost all of
these things that sound like cheat- — |
ing are nothing more than matters
of photographic techniques.”
Walter Weir, chairman of the ex-
ecutive committee of Donahue & ©
Coe, says, “The FTC has not been 1
a
()
%
attempting to correct abuses so
much as it has been incorrectly abus-
ing its privileges. When cellophane is
rumpled to produce the sound of
flames in a radio commercial for a
fire insurance company, will that
company and its ad agency have to
live in dread of censure from the FTC
because they didn’t burn the studio
down in the interests of truth?”
(One might suggest they take out
some insurance on the studio, just
in case Kintner decides to take him
up on that.) Weir asks also: “If a
wedding is shown, must two people
actually be joined together for all
eternity in order to avoid misrep-
resentation?” (Why not? It might
perk up some of those shows.) Weir
is obviously a hard man to convince,
but once sold, he’ll act. “If there
is inescapable, incontrovertible evi-
dence that what we advocate is
harmful or if we can advocate only
by dissembling, then I feel we must
in all conscience put away our pen.”
However, at last report his grip re-
mained firm.
Joe Stone, copy-group head at J.
Walter Thompson, credits advertis-
ing with enriching our culture. “Ads
are reviewed where good men get
together. ‘Have you read any good
ads lately?’ now stands toe to toe
with book talk.” He may not be
nearly so balmy as he sounds: sta-
tion KTTV in Los Angeles (where
else?) has been running an all-com-
mercial half hour with a second-place
rating in a seven-channel area. Sta-
tion president Richard Moore says
he hopes “the program will provide
a definite answer to those who criti-
cize the commercial content of tele-
vision simply because it is commer-
cial.” In thirteen weeks he got 2,000
letters, many requesting favorite
commercials.
ON THE last day of 1959, Attorney
General William P, Rogers wrote in
a report to the President: “Naked
selfishness, rather than factors of
public service, has all too often been
the principal motivation for much
of the matter that has been broad-
cast. . . . Consideration should be
given to legislation which would ex-
tend the FTC’s authority. . . .”
Kintner told an emergency meet-
ing of the Association of National
Advertisers on February 2 that they
had either to regulate themselves or
face government control.
The advertisers replied by hand-
ing around the meeting a mimeo-
graphed definition of honesty: “An
advertisement is honest when ob-
jective facts which bear upon the
product or service advertised fulfill
in all material respects the wnder-
standing regarding them that is gen-
erated in people by the advertise-
ment when observed in the way or
ways that they normally perceive
it.” An asterisk after “honest” led to
this note: “Honesty is referred to
here in its objective rather than its
moral sense.” After this crystal-clear
beginning, the advertisers produced a
“Program of Action” featuring some
phrases which would have delighted
old Dr. Arbuthnot: “take such initia-
tive as they deem necessary” and
“this area should be reserved for in-
dividual self-regulation” and “offer
its good offices” and “furtherance
of mutual understanding” and “con-
tinued voluntary compliance with
the law” and “appoint committees”
and “establish machinery for con-
tinuing liaison” and “creation of bet-
ter understanding of advertising’s
contribution to the economy.”
Paul B. West, president of the
advertisers’ group, warned of the
“danger that the economy could be
seriously damaged if the credibility,
believability and public acceptance
of advertising is impaired.” It’s their
“Image” they’re worried about, that’s
all. “Even though we’re phony,”
they’re saying, “believe. us anyway
because we keep the wheels turning.”
With this new “image” firmly
planted in our skulls, we'll be de-
lighted to hear of the Skyjector
which will project luminous adver-
tising 1,000 yards wide upon clouds
five miles up. On a recent cloudless
night the developers of the Skyjector
used the backside of a skyscraper
instead of a cloud; the building man-
agement called the cops and made
them cut it out. Of course, we really
have no reason to worry about the
Skyjector; its developers (some ad-
men) assure us they do not intend
“to throw pictures and messages in-
discriminately in the clouds or atop
a mountain. The Skyjector will pro-
tect the interest of the public and
the advertising profession.” So rest
easy, you can always believe an
adman. Look what they’ve done
with television.
1960: Failure of Political Imagination . . by tenn Tinder
This article, written by a teacher of political theory in the Depgrtment of
Government, University of Massachusetts, complements. “1960:
Failure of
Social Imagination,’ by James Reichley, which appeared in these columns on
February 6. Taken together, the two articles may serve as gude-lines for the
thoughtful voter soon to be buffeted by the winds of this year’s Presidential
campaign. — Ep. ‘
AS ONE watches the present efforts
of Presidential aspirants and party
chiefs to discover issues which will
arouse voter interest and support,
he may wonder whether the grop-
ing uncertainty of those who seek
164
power, and the synthetic enthusiasm
and frank disinterest of the masses
who have power to béstow, are mere-
ly the phenomena an American
must, every four years, expect to
see. It may seem that the issues are
more contrived and the lethargy of
the onlookers more profound than
is usual. Are we viewing expressions
not merely of the expedient open-
mindedness of the politician and of
the sovereign detachment of the
voter, but of a failure of political
imagination?
Certainly on the one hand there is
a widespread awareness of problems
of a different order from those which
were most pressing a generation ago,
The Nation"
’
These do not lie simply in the di-
lemmas and terrors associated with
great-power politics, but derive as
well from a number of situations
within the nation. For example, there
are many signs of a growing fear
that our cities are uncontrollably
sweeping the people into vast, un-
structured agglomerations little suit-
ed for truly human life. Statistics
concerning juvenile delinquency are
for many indicative of something
seriously, but so far undefinably,
wrong in the society as a whole. Few
responsible people regard with very
much pride or satisfaction American
attainments and attitudes in the field
of education. The recent television
quiz scandals have provoked a good
deal of somber reflection, even
among those usually given to a kind
of patriotic optimism, concerning the
state both of our morality and our
culture.
Yet no party program, and no
Presidential candidate, leads us to-
ward a comprehensive vision of our
situation. We do not know how the
various problems confronting us are
related to one another. We do not
know how these problems are re-
lated to those of the past. We do not
know whether — if it is true that we
are entering a new political age —
there is a single, coherent program to
guide us. As long as our present lead-
ers, and those who are striving to re-
place them, do not help us to know
these things, our politics is threat-
ened with a deadly irrelevance.
THERE is a way of testing the va-
lidity of this sense of irrelevance. It
is to compare the insights of what
may be referred to as the. “political
mind” with those of “the literary
mind.” The former phrase is a way of
designating the consciousness of those
directly engaged in the pursuit of
political ends, whether as candidates,
party professionals, or amateur vol-
unteers; the phrase “literary mind”
refers to the mentality of those whose
prime business is the discernment and
communication of the truth (wheth-
er through fiction or otherwise)
rather than the gaining of particular
political goals. It may be assumed
that in a healthy society the political
and literary minds will not be in fun-
damental disaccord, and that where
they are, the literary mind, by the
February 20, 1960
Pay
St.
“Here’s to you!”
Louis Post-Dispatch
very nature of the vocation it rep-
resents, is apt to be nearer the truth.
The comparison reveals an omi-
nous chasm between the two minds.
Notably, this chasm can be discerned
in Western society generally, as well
as in America. The central tenet of
the Western political mind may be
defined as the welfare — interpreted
largely in economic terms — of the
people as a whole. This definition of
course subsumes a great many dif-
ferences, some concerning the degree
of economic well-being the masses
have a right to expect, and others —
even more pronounced — regarding
the means appropriate for attaining
it. But in most nations where mean-
ingful popular elections are held, the
paramount task of every political
leader is to convince the electorate
that his party is a more effective
instrument than any other for pro-
tecting and improving the average
man’s standard of life. The most re-
cent nation-wide elections in Eng-
land, in Germany and in America all
demonstrate the truth of this asser-
tion. These elections show, too, that
the conservative parties are little
more inclined to ignore the standard
of mass welfare than are their more
egalitarian and reformist opponents.
Even the “peace issue” appears to
derive its meaning in some substan-
tial measure from the material well-
being which depends on peace for its
enjoyment and enhancement.
It is not necessary at this point to
attempt a definition of the central
tenet of the contemporary literary
mind. It is sufficient to draw atten-
tion to the certain fact that it 1s not
the material welfare of the masses.
Whether one considers the great
novelists of the prewar decades
(such as Wolfe, Fitzgerald and Law-
rence), leading present-day writers
of fiction (for example, Hemingway,
Faulkner and Camus), American
scholars and essayists (Huxley,
Fromm, Riesman and others), or
European philosophers (notably
Jaspers, Heidegger and other ex-
istentialists), he becomes aware of
important groups of authors to whom
mass welfare is clearly not the great
problem of our civilization. This is
not to say that these writers are in-
different to the problem; nor is it
to say that there are no exceptions
(such as the early Dos Passos and
George Orwell). And of course this
near unanimity is only negative;
modern writers are hardly at one in
their positive analyses and prescrip-
tions. But anyone familiar with the
range of contemporary literature is
constrained to recognize that the
major concerns of the literary mind
are very distant from those of the
political.
IT IS interesting to note indica-
tions that this situation is not
unique to the Western nations. Be-
hind the iron curtain, where political
heads do not readily bear with im-
plicit challenges to the relevance of
their vision, the tension between the
political and literary minds has been
at the source of some of the more
poignant public dramas of our time.
In Yugoslavia, Tito has for a num-
ber of years kept in prison his for-
mer friend Milovan Djilas, who tried
to direct attention from the older
version of class struggle to the dan-
gers posed by a “new class.” In
Poland, intellectuals and _ writers
have suffered from the drive of
Gomulka and the ruling party to
enforce the primacy, in-relation to
new insights and attitudes, of some-
thing nearer the old-fashioned Com-
munist philosophy of mass welfare.
And in the Soviet Union, the mate-
rialistic and egalitarian conceptions
of the nation’s leaders recently came
into tragic collision with the very
different kind of imagination which
expressed itself in Doctor Zhivago.
' The present discussion, however,
165
is intended to refer primarily to the
West and above all to America.
Here, the discrepancy between the
political and the literary imagination
seems clear and it constitutes strong
evidence of a serious failure on the
part of the former. What is the
cause of this failure?
THIS question obviously cannot be
answered with precision and finality.
It is not impossible, however, to
offer certain hypotheses. The first
is that class society is giving way
to something essentially different—
mass society. For a number of dec-
ades (and in some ways for a num-
ber of centuries), the root social fact
has seemed to many to be the divi-
sion of rich and poor, or, in more
recent terminology, of bourgeoisie
and proletariat. That this inequality
has shaped fundamentally the imagi-
nation of reformers is evident in the
Marxist doctrine of class warfare, in
the Socialist passion for equality,
and in the New Deal sensitivity to
unfair privilege. That it has also af-
fected profoundly, if less decisively,
the imagination of conservatives is
apparent in the attitudes of Disraeli
and Bismarck. However, the situa-
tion is rapidly changing. The central
fact has become the dominance of
multitudes who among themselves
are more or less equal and, in respect
to economic circumstances, are more
or less contented. Inequalities re-
main; but the chief characteristics
of contemporary society are no
longer set so much by the ruling
temper of the upper classes as by the
ruling temper of the masses.
Many will balk at relegating class
conflict so definitely to the past.
The continued existence of various
forms of economic injustice will be
cited; and one will be reminded that
the most exhilarating heights of pros-
perity have in the past led abrupt-
ly to economic calamity. Never-
theless, the evidence that class so-
ciety is passing is very compelling.
It lies mainly in the fact, first, that
the Western nations are producing
quantities of wealth which are every
year more incredibly vast, judged
by the standards of every other so-
ciety in the world’s history; and,
second, that the masses in these
nations have the power, through
ballot and market, to allocate this
166
ane AE far
wealth roughly as ‘eer will hie
though extremes of economic depri-
vation remain (and may plausibly
be regarded as more insupportable
now than ever before), we must
grant these are experienced prin-
cipally not by the great masses of
people but by unfortunate minor-
ity groups; the more widespread
economic injustices which continue
in existence, such as medical insecur-
ity, have to do with only certain
aspects of life and do not, like the
industrial conditions of a century
ago, ordinarily degrade the entirety
of the lives of those subject to them.
As for the possibilities of another
depression, it would manifestly be
unduly complacent to assume that
our expanding affluence can never
fail; on the other hand, it would
surely be unrealistic to suppose that
the problem of economic cycles will
remain forever unsolved or even
that, in the foreseeable future, an-
other depression as severe as that of
1929 will be tolerated.
These considerations of course are
purposely confined to the prospects
opened up by developments in the
advanced industrial nations; in the
underdeveloped countries, these pros-
pects are not yet visible. And it may
well be that even before the industri-
al nations there lie far more trying
economic adversities than one is dis-
posed, amid present opulence, to
fear. But what does seem clear is
that — barring a third world war —
the great plunge into the joys of
abundance which has recently been
taken en masse by the peoples of
Germany, of France, of England,
and of America, heralds a new polit-
ical age.
Confidence in the onset of this
age, however, does not necessarily
reflect an unqualified optimism.
Most serious observers realize that
mass society is a long way from the
utopia which for many was the
imagined sequel to class society and
which advertisers and politicians
often try to convince us we now en-
joy. Indeed, many fear that while
we have, in a sense, solved all of our
problems, we are as far from our
dreams as we ever were, What has
gone wrong?
This brings us to the second hy-
pothesis bearing on the present fail-
' CAC ole
of political imagination, whic
is that mass society’ is accompanied
by a state of disintegration far more
subtle, but no less painful and no
less humanly destructive, than that
which was manifest in conflict be-
tween classes. To differentiate it
from the latter, that is, from class
disintegration, it may be called
“mass disintegration.” This new
challenge to human society is not
manifest in picket lines, in. poverty,
or in the bitterness of one group
against another. Indeed, it may be
most profound where much is made
of the camaraderie of the “team” or
of the warmth of “togetherness.”
HOW, then, is it manifest? Chiefly
in the isolation of the person. The
circumstances which produce _ this
isolation are various; among them
are a mobility which often suddenly
severs established relationships, the
customary priority of organizational
and commercial considerations over
those which are merely human, and
a rate of historical change which fre-
quently renders members of different
generations incomprehensible to one
another. But mass disintegration
does not affect relations among per-
sons alone; it also attenuates the
bonds between man and place, man
and nature, man and his possessions.
Thus the rootlessness of the con-
temporary individual is well known;
the difficulty and infrequency of
satisfactory contact with the natu-
ral world becomes plain if one re-
flects on the extent to which modern
life is carried on both indoors and
within cities; and as for the rela-
tions of a person to his possessions,
the supposedly radical idea of col-
lective ownership is merely in line
with a process of capitalistic collecti-
vization which, through such means
as the joint stock company, planned
obsolescence and installment buying,
has for many decades been alienat-
ing man from his possessions. In
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman,
one of the sons of Willy Loman
says, “... It’s what I always wanted.
My own apartment, a car, and
plenty of women. And still, goddam-
it, I’m lonely.” This, as David Ries-
man establishes in The Lonely
Crowd, might be taken as the cry
of the twentieth-century American,
It expresses the anguish of mass
Te Nation
vt 3
n
— sat Ce ee
worse is the fact that his references are
mainly taken from secondary sources.
The total effect is thus that of a pot-
pourri of clichés on God’s image and
man’s imagination.
These worn notions fail to do justice
to the theme of Mr. Harris’ book. His
worthy intention was to compare today’s
pedestrian concepts of God with the
biblical, medieval, Reformation, sectar-
ian and other traditional concepts. In
the process, more than anything else,
we learn about the author’s life and his
preferences and that he writes “special”
when he means “spatial” (p. 81), or
that “from time to time, a pair of
earnest, attractive people, a man and
a woman, but not married, ring our
doorbell to sell us copies of The Watch-
tower’ (why but?).
Actually, what Mr. Harris has ac-
complished recalls Professor Davies’
quotation from The God-Seeker, in
which Sinclair Lewis has Black Wolf, an
Oberlin-educated Indian, give his view
of Christianity in these words: “Most
of the whites believe, or profess to be-
lieve in Christianity, which is an idol-
atrous religion with many gods. Their
Catholic sect has thousands of mysteri-
ous divine beings ruled by what they
call the ‘Trinity,’ which consists of
Father, Son, and Mother Mary. The
Protestants have no Trinity, but a four-
god council consisting of Father, Son,
Holy Ghost, and Satan... . Among their
demi-gods are Santa Claus, Luck (whom
they worship by striking wood), saints,
angels, seraphs, witches, fairies, vam-
pires, evil spirits, the spirits of the dead,
tombs and statues, the cross and a
magic book called the Bible.”
Ireland Made Him
J. M. SYNGE 1871-1909. By David H.
Greene and Edward M. Stephens. The
Maemillan Co. 321 pp. $6.95.
Russell A. Fraser
THE late nineteenth century, after gen-
erations of neglect and disuse and pro-
fanation in the theatre, finally produced
the drama of Oscar Wilde and Bernard
Shaw. It produced also, though his work
in the theatre belongs entirely to the
first decade of the present century, the
drama of John Millington Synge, who is
now for the first time the subject of
an authoritative biography.
Four years after Synge’s death,
Maurice Bourgeois published a chron-
icle of his life and its relation to the
Irish theatre. But since all of Synge’s
papers had passed into the hands of his
brother Edward, who denied access to
them, Bourgeois’ book was necessarily
an interim account. In 1939, the papers
became the property of Synge’s nephew,
Edward M. Stephens, who for years had
been gathering material on his uncle
and writing recollections of him. But
the full-scale biography which Stephens
projected never appeared. When he died
suddenly in 1955, he left nearly three-
quarters: of a million words in manu-
script—more than any publisher cared
to undertake, and concerned, dispropor-
tionately, with the history of Synge’s
family. That manuscript and the papers
_ on which it rested were. made available,
_ RUSSELL A FRASER is at present in
Europe on a Council of Humanities fel-
lowship. He is a member of the English
faculty of Princeton University.
February 20, 1960
at Ly, sf . : .
by Stephens’ wife, to Professor David
Greene of New York. University. The
result, precisely fifty years after Synge’s
death, is a solid and immensely inter-
esting biography.
Synge was a greater man than almost
any of his contemporaries, of whom
you are likely to read in the history
books: Lloyd George and John D.
Rockefeller and Admiral Dewey and
Thomas Alva Edison. In the same year
that Synge was born — 1871 — Orville
Wright was born also. But the Wright
brothers only created an airplane. John
Synge recreated tragedy. He is the less
dispensable.
Synge does not suggest, on the face
of it, a latter-day Moses, leading the
drama out of the desert. He is not, in
his beginnings, anything like his great
predecessors in the drama, the masters
of the morality and mystery, or those
Elizabethan playwrights whose excel-
lence derives in part from what amounts
almost to collaboration with the popular
audience which applauded their plays.
Great drama is deeply rooted in _ its
time; in an important sense it is popular
and social. But Synge, at least initially,
was cut off from his time, a stranger to
it, was if anything the antithesis of
social. His family was Evangelical Prot-
estant in a land of Roman Catholics.
His early training reflected the embit-
tered zeal of the minister who was his
maternal grandfather, and who spent his
whole career, as it were in the bush,
fighting the barbarians of Catholic Cork.
As he grew older, Synge added to his
isolation himself. “By the time I was 16
or 17,” he wrote, “I had renounced
Christianity after a good deal of wob-
bling.” In doing so, “I laid a chasm
between my present and my past and
between myself and my kindred and
friends. Till I was 23 I never met or at
least knew a man or woman who shared
my opinions.” There are terrible impli-
cations in those words, of loneliness and
alienation.
SYNGE was also by birth a member of
the Ascendancy class, one of the landed
minority that exploited Ireland as a
kind of imperial colony, and so incurred
the hatred and resistance of the great
mass of the people. That hatred. cul-
minated in violence in the years of
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171
Synge’s youth, when the exploited ten-
ants came together in a Land League,
and resorted to a Land War against
their oppressors. And so the countryside
became a place of terror. Synge was
implicated in the terror, but willy-nilly
on the wrong side. The laconic cruelty
of his brother Edward, who was occu-
pied in driving the tenants of Mayo and
Wicklow and Cavan from their farms,
prompted him to argue with his mother
about the injustice of the evictions. And
his mother answered simply, “What
would become of us if our tenants in
Galway stopped paying their rents?”
There is no answer to that question
unless; like Charles Stuart Parnell,
Synge’s contemporary and fellow mem-
ber of the Ascendancy class, you become
as they say a traitor to your class, and
make war against the source of your
own income. But Synge, unlike Parnell,
was no revolutionary. Later, in Paris,
after hearing the anarchist Sebastian
Fauré, he wrote in his diary, “trés inte-
ressant mats fou.’ In 1892, when the
Irish National Literary Society held its
first meeting in Dublin, with Yeats and
Maud Gonne as featured speakers,
Synge was off in Wicklow for the sum-
mer, living in a boycotted house under
police protection.
His apartness was compounded by his
swarthy and singular appearance, by
poor health, and by a morbidity which
impelled him to make up his mind as
a boy never to inflict his sickness on
anybody else, and so never to marry.
He was forbidden ordinary sports as too
arduous. Walking was left to him, and
so he became a great walker, which
means, almost by definition, a solitary.
He became enormously fond of music,
but finally he gave up the violin and
the notion of a career as a concert per-
former, because he was too shy to face
an audience. This is how his mother
saw him, still in his teens, and studying
for a degree at Trinity College, Dublin:
“He leads a queer solitary life, poor boy.
He plays his fiddle a great deal and
reads and takes a walk. | wonder what
he will turn into by and by.”
One should be able to predict what
he would turn into: perhaps another
Stephen Dedalus, a late nineteenth-
century esthete, who turns his back on
the life of his times—too crude, too
coarse —who cultivates art but isn’t
able to create it, and who dies young
and unfulfilled like Ezra Pound’s Hugh
Selwyn Mauberly, exhaling a kind of
minor fragrance, the perfume of the
fin de siécle. Synge, before his astonish-
ing metamorphosis, was precisely such a
man. His sweetheart reports him as
writing to her, in the dedicated roman-
172
’
- ae a hh
f
i
rh
#1)
4
tical way,. “I feel there is that in m
which will be of #aluetto’the wari
But at the age of thirty, the value was
represented by two reviews, a scatter-
ing of articles, a bad play and an un-.
publishable book. His work, in Yeats’s
words, was “full of that kind of mor-
bidity that has its root in too much
brooding over methods of expression,
and ways of looking upon life, which
come, not out of life but out of litera-
ture, images reflected from mirror to
mirror.”
But Synge, like Yeats, beat his way
back to solid and substantial things.
He learned to repudiate “twaddle” —
his word—whether ascetic or aesthetic:
Thomas a Kempis and J. K. Huys-
mans. “I will not deny my masculine
existence nor rise, if I can, by facile
abnegation. I despise the hermit and
the monk and pity only the adulterer
and the drunkard. There is one world
of souls and no flesh and no devil.” Like
Yeats, he fashioned a past and a con-
text. As a boy he had been immersed
in the heroic legends of Ireland, before
the wild geese fled. In college he had
taken up the study of Irish antiquities.
And then by degrees the past led him
forward to the present. “Soon after I
had relinquished the kingdom of God I
began to take a real interest in the king-
dom of Ireland everything Irish
became sacred.”
THE result of his dedication to Ireland
was six years of intense and marvelous
activity in the theatre, between 1903
and 1909. In those few years, before
cancer took him off, Synge created the
two one-acters, /n the Shadow of the
Glen and Riders to the Sea, the partly
comic, partly tragic plays, The Well of
the Saints and The Playboy of the West-
ern World, a single farce, The Tinker’s
Wedding, and the final unfinished trag-
edy, Deirdre of the Sorrows. These are all
of them memorable plays; some of them
are great plays. And their writing owes
much to the patriotic impulse, in Synge
and in his time, that had already found
expression in the nationalist movement
known as Young Ireland, and in the
Gaelic scholarship of Sir Samuel Fergu-
son and Standish James O’Grady and,
most impressive of all, in the establish-
ing by Yeats and Lady Gregory of the
Irish National Theatre Society.
But obviously something is missing
to make really explicable the transfor-
mation of a failed esthete into a great
dramatist. Mere antiquarianism never
created a good play or good poem. The
Irish revivalists, Mangan and Douglas
Hyde and the early Yeats, are more
to be praised for their pious intention
than for the poetry they wrote, One
‘ !
3 ae
va , ” i é
te
at A ap'® ’ P
Pewee) | (ee ts 4
* might look, for confirmation, -
at th
pseudo-Celtic verse of Yeats’s first
period, and then recall the careful na-
ture of T. S. Eliot’s remark that Yeats
became universal as he became more
Irish, but more Irish not in subject but
rather in expression. It is the growth of
a new expression in Yeats that matters.
And new expression is the key to the
sudden flaring up of genius in Synge.
YEATS, indirectly, conferred on Synge
the gift of tongues. In the year before
the Abbey Theatre was founded, he
called Synge home from his fugitive life
on the Continent. “I said, ‘Give up
Paris, you will never create anything
by reading Racine, and Arthur Symons
will always be a better critic of French
literature. Go to the Arran Islands. Live
there as if you were one of the people
themselves; express a life that has never
found expression.’” Synge went to
Arran, “those gray islands, where men
must reap with knives because of the
stones.” It is the crucial fact of his
life. He lived among the people, listened
to and remembered exotic and_ vivid
ways of speech, became enamored of the
personal and palpable and concrete. In
the Preface to the Playboy, he con-
fesses his debt: “I am glad to acknowl-
edge how much I owe to the folk-imagi-
nation of these fine people”’—‘the coun-
try people of Ireland.” That folk imagi-
nation, expressed in a prose that comes
very close to poetry, is, it seems to me,
the heart of Synge’s greatness.
Here, from his experience on Arran,
as recounted in Greene’s biography, is
the sort of data he seized on, to make
over in his art: a mother’s keening for
her lost son, and the debate whether
the clothing taken from a body that
had been floating off the coast of Done-
gal belonged to the missing islander
from Inishmaan; the fashioning of a cof-
fin for the drowned man, out of boards
that had been saved to make a coffin
for an aged mother; omens and portents:
a mother’s glimpse of her dead_ son,
riding a horse behind the man who was
about to be drowned; and finally, this
letter from a Gaelic-speaking friend:
Johneen, Friend of My Heart. A
million blessings to you. It’s a while
ago since I thought of a small letter
to write, and every day was going
until it went too far and the time I
was about to write to you. It hap-
pened that my brother’s wife, Shaw-
neen, died, And she was visiting the
last Sunday in December, and now —
isn’t it a sad story to tell? But at
the same time we have to be satis-—
fied, because a person cannot live )
always. a
fe eit J ail
iat nee ee aay
‘ a,
» |
e
[
were
<r Ee
RES SE
it of this material, Synge created
Riders to the Sea, perhaps the finest
tragedy written in English since the
Renaissance,
The same shift in interest that dis-
tinguishes that play—from the indefinite
article to the definite, from wniversalia
ante rem to the particular fact, the
thing itself—lies behind and is indis-
pensable to the flowering of the English
drama. And as it marks the develop-
oo
ment of the trope, late in the ninth cen-
tury, into something like a legitimate
play, so it marks also, late in the nine-
teenth century, Synge’s transition from
a rootless and featureless “European,”
which is to say a cipher, a nothing, to
a particular Irish-man of positive and
particular identity, in short, to a great
playwright. Like Yeats, as Sygne began
to speak for Ireland, he began to speak
for man.
Curtain of Ignorance
A SOVIET VIEW OF THE AMERI-
CAN PAST. Edited by O. Lawrence
Burnette, Jr. and William Converse
Haygood. The State Historical So-
ciety of Wisconsin. 64 pp. $1.
AMERICAN TEACHING ABOUT
RUSSIA, Edited by Cyril E. Black
and John M. Thompson. Indiana Uni-
versity Press. 192 pp. $4.50.
Francis B. Randall
CAN ONE really know another coun-
try? The foremost foreign authority on
America is probably Denis Brogan, and
even he makes errors of interpretation,
of “feel,” which any knowledgeable
American can pick up. Then how can
the Russians hope to understand us
across cultural barriers so much greater?
And should we not be extremely modest
in estimating our own grasp of a society
as alien as Russia’s?
Rather discouraging answers to these
questions of international understand-
ing are provided by two publications
from the formerly isolationist Middle
West. A group of scholars in Wisconsin
has translated and annotated the ar-
ticle on American history in the Great
Soviet Encyclopedia, the standard com-
pendium of knowledge for the Com-
munist world. The article, published in
Russia’s year of crisis, 1956, is the
handiest source of knowledge about
American history for most educated
Russians, who turn to their Encyclo-
pedia far more often than we do to our
declining Britannica.
It is not a very good article. It is
much better than the Stalinist tirade
that might have been produced in 1952
- (Stalin is never mentioned by name; the
euphemism at occasions like Yalta and
Potsdam is “the Russian chief of state”),
but that isn’t saying much. The English
language sources listed in the bibliog-
raphy are mostly commendable—every- |
thing from John R. Commons on the
ce a St eee ey
FRANCIS B. RANDALL teaches Rus-
ian history at Columbia Ue ai.
labor movement to the Congressional
Record. But one is jarred by the presence
there of all of Herbert Aptheker, a
Communist historian of Negro rebellion
and repression, particularly when there
is no listing of C. Vann Woodward, prob-
ably our most distinguished historian of
the Reconstruction. There is a heavy
emphasis on race and class warfare, and
on our imperialist ventures (real and
imagined). In short, nothing is surpris-
ing. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia’s
presentation of American history is a
great improvement on Stalin’s last Seven
Mad Years, but when tested by decent
standards, it is the usual Communist tripe.
Some cautions are in order. First, we
cannot assume that so political a docu-
ment as an encyclopedia article rep-
resents the best private knowledge of the
Russian historians who wrote it. (They
almost certainly left C. Vann Wood-
ward out because they had read him!)
Second, our real dispute with the So-
viet encyclopedists is over the funda-
mentals of their religion, not over the
details of their views of American his-
tory, which are remote consequences of
their religion. Third, we might listen
carefully to what the Russians say;
every few pages they have an arguable
point. For instance, the article questions
the wisdom of our atom bombing of
Japan. The Wisconsin annotators try to
refute this by a reference to Henry Stim-
son’s memoirs—rather too hasty a gloss-
ing over of what remains an internation-
al debate. Withal, it is clear that most
Russians are not given the chance to
gain a balanced knowledge of America.
SOME Russian experts at the University
of Indiana and elsewhere discourage us
in a different way. They have examined
what is taught about Russia here in
America: the thirteen graduate centers
for Russian studies, college teaching on
Russia as typified by the colleges in In-
diana, and such scattered treatment of
Russia as there is in the high schools.
They do not bother with the question
of whether our view of Russia is sys-
tematically distorted by ideological or
cultural blinders; they are concerned
with the amount and quality of our
education in the Russian field, as judged
by our accepted set of standards and
values. On this basis they find that our
graduate Russian institutes are doing
well, considering that all were founded
after' World War II, and admiting that
much basic work remains to be done. The
authors of the survey wish that more
psychologists, anthropologists and sociol-
ogists could be persuaded to enter the
Russian area, and of course they think
it would be nice if America’s Russian
scholars knew Russian better — to say
nothing of Armenian and Uzbek!
But the graduate schools, which
should be the capstone of a whole edi-
fice of education in Russian studies,
rest chiefly on the ground. Two special
programs on Russia are now functioning
in Indiana, but less than half the col-
leges of the state offer any Russian his-
tory, and many fewer provide courses
in Russian language. Of 65,000 college
students in Indiana, less than two per
cent take even one Russian_ history
course in the four-year period — and
any teacher knows how little that can
mean! To the authors, “this is an alarm-
ing situation.” But this is intellectual
wealth compared to the situation in the
high schools, where, for obvious reasons,
Russia is scarcely mentioned. To put it
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‘174
most hopelessly, the overwhelming
majority of Americans draw their no-
tions of Russia from the mass press, the
mass magazines, radio and TV.
by and large, we and the Rus-
sians don’t know each other. Now what?
Our problems are very different. If com-
munism of the classic type continues to
degenerate in Russia for another few
decades, Russia’s American experts are
apt to acquire a pretty fair knowledge
of the United States by following their
unfettered scholarly impulses. (Jf!)
Then they would face our problem: what
can one do to overcome the ignorance,
apathy, inertia, and ultimately the
stupidity of the masses, especially the
masses that go to college? Phrased this
way, the problem is intractable; no peo-
ple as a whole has ever understood its
own society, much less a foreign cul-
ture. But the standard liberal procedures
— the application of more intelligence,
energy and money—could multiply both
the knowledge about Russia and those
who possess that knowledge five or ten
times on all school levels. This would
be nothing compared to the vision of
the Educated Society, but for practical
purposes in the next generation, can we
ask for more?
ART
Maurice Grosser
THE Smithsonian Institution of Wash-
ington, with its hodgpodge of historical
mementos and ingenious gadgets, of
natural history, ethnology and art. col-
lections in this and last century’s taste,
has always been one of my favorite mu-
seums. The Smithsonian is a huge enter-
prise. Its buildings on the Mall include
the Museums of Arts and Industries,
of Aviation and of Natural History, as
well as two museums of fine arts, the
Freer and the semi-independent Na-
tional Gallery. Elsewhere in Washing-
ton there is a zoo. In Cambridge there
is an astronomical observatory and in
the Canal Zone, a tropical island. The
Institution itself is the most important
of our learned societies. It conducts sci-
entific research, sends out expeditions
to the lesser-known parts of the earth,
and acts as a free distribution center
for international exchange of — sci-
entific information. Its astonishing col-
Jections of oddities, art and marvels are
only somewhat accidental accretions on
what is basically a scientific foundation.
The story of the Institution’s origin is
like the plot of a Victorian novel. James
Smithson, the fonder’ was English, a
gentleman, and illegitimate. His father,
a commoner who rose to become Knight
of the Garter and Duke of Northumber-
land, was the husband of his mother’s
cousin. Not surprisingly, Smithson’s
mother gave birth to him in France, and
it was under her name of Macie that
he entered Oxford.. The fortune he in-
herited came entirely from his mother’s
side of the family, Smithson’s great
passion was chemistry; he became fellow
of the Royal Society, friend of Caven-
dish and Arago, spent most of his time
abroad — apparently he had no love
for English society — and died in
Genoa in 1829. He never married. His
considerable fortune he left to his nephew
with the casual proviso that if the
nephew died without children — which
he did — the money was to go to the
United States to found “an establish-
ment for the increase & diffusion of
Knowledge among men.” The bequest,
amounting to more than half a million
dollars, was accepted by Congress only
after much hesitation. The first plan
— to use the bequest to found a uni-
versity — was abandoned in_ favor
of a foundation for’ scientific research
and publication, complete with library
and museum, and having all the financial
and political advantages of being a
ward of the federal government.
THE BOARD OF. REGENTS’ first
meeting was in 1846. Only two years
Jater the Smithsonian issued its famous
Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi
Valley, the first of its publications, was
already providing grants and apparatus
for outside scientific work, and was car-
rying on its own scientific investigations.
A number of these; in geology, weather,
fisheries, Indian ethnology, and so on,
proved important enough to the govern-
ment to warrant special subsidy, and
have even given rise to special gov-
ernment bureaus., Congress» began to
supply funds for certain of its.programs,
and. private benefactors began to add
their donations of art as well as money
to Smithson’s original bequest. Since
our government contains no department
of fine arts, it was decided in court that
the Smithsonian — which already pos-
sessed a small collection. of paintings
from the Smithson inheritance — was
also a National Gallery of Art and the
natural custodian of all bequests of art
intended to form part. of a national col-
lection.
In 1855, the first of the Smithsonian
buildings was erected, to house, among
other things, Smithson’s collection of
minerals, It is a wonderful Romanesque
pile (or Norman or Lombard or twelfth
century, as you will) by the New-York
architect, James Renwick, Jr. With its
dark red stone and nine towers, no two
alike, it is, to my way of thinking, the
finest piece of architecture in’ all Wash-
ington. In the early eighties the Arts and
Industries Building was erected, in the
_ exposition style of the time, to receive
objects inherited from the Philadelphia
Centennial. The Freer and National
Galleries on the same side of the Mall,
designed to hold the art collections left
to the nation by Freer, Mellon, Widener
and Kress, are too well known to speak
of here. The Natural History Building
across the way is somewhat earlier than
these. Built in standard 1910 “Classical,”
it contains, in addition to its exhibits
of natural history and ethnology, a col-
lection of art both instructive and en-
tertaining, but so inferior that the Na-
tional Gallery will have nothing of it.
THESE pictures belong principally to
the official American School of fifty
years ago. Some, like Thomas Moran’s
huge mountain landscapes, or Childe
Hassam’s charming adaptations of Im-
pressionism, stand up very well. But for
the most part, time has not treated
kindly these ladies at spinets and sweet
Arab maidens in their elaborate frames.
Even more dated are the story-telling
pictures — George de Forest Brush’s
clammy-skinned Indians, lined up like
Disney characters in a canoe, precari-
ously hoping to spear a moose, or Puvis
de Chevanne’s mawkish idea of what
went on in Fra Angelico’s studio, called
Inspiration Chrétienne.
The two specialties of the Natural
History collection are the works of
Abott Thayer and Albert P. Ryder
(twenty-three pictures of the one and
fifteen of the other), which serve to il-
lustrate the two extremes of late nine-
teenth-century painting in America.
Thayer, something of a New England
Tiepolo, was a fine draftsman, with
clean color and carefully considered
tone relations, direct and unsentimental
in his work. But his subject matter,
limited to depiction of a sort of noble
purity (calm-faced mothers and college
girls got up as angels) is as impersonal
as the engraving ona bank note, and the
result is as cold as a fish. Ryder,
much more famous today, was not cold
at all. He was a wild Romantic with as
subject all the Romantic commonplaces
from Flying Dutchmen to Dancing Dry-
ads and Pegasus (departing). But, to
judge from the pictures here, he could
neither paint nor draw. Apparently, his
knowledge of painting methods was also _
faulty, for the pictures are so crevassed
and darkened that it is impossible to
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tell what their color might have been.
Despite the few somewhat better
Ryders to be seen elsewhere, I suspect
that it is entirely because of its poetic
aspirations that his work has acquired
the importance it is given today.
ALL THIS makes one regret that the
Smithsonian’s unique collection of Cat-
lin’s Indian pictures is not on view; they
are incomparably more _ interesting.
George Catlin was a self-taught painter
from Pennsylvania, originally a lawyer,
who spent from 1830 to 1836 in Indian
country, doing portraits of Indians and
landscapes of the plains. He considered
his pictures as documentation, not as
art, and he exhibited them, charging ad-
mission, in all the Eastern cities, and
later in London and Paris. It was the
first Wild West Show, with Indian
costumes and weapons, more than 500
paintings of Indians, and live Indians
brought along to do war whoops and
dances. After some years of great suc-
cess, Catlin fell into debt. A _ fellow
American bought the pictures and ship-
ped them home to Philadelphia. It is
this collection, recovered from a cellar,
which the Smithsonian possesses almost
entire — 422 of the 517 paintings listed
in Catlin’s 1840 exhibition catalogue.
However great its value as ethnology,
the collection is even more fascinating
as painting. Catlin worked fast. He
must have done three or four pictures
a day, always — except in landscape
— on the same size canvas and with the
simplest of palettes: blue, yellow, ver-
milion, ochers and brown. He would
sketch in the subject, usually a por-
trait head or a single figure — outlin-
_ ing it in brown on an already-prepared,
neutral-tinted ground — and then go on
to finish the head and as much of the
figure and background as he had time
for. Few sitters were allotted a second
pose. He probably painted sitting down,
sometimes even on the floor. The some-
what disturbing enlargements of hands
or legs in some of the works seem much
like distortions of proportion caused by
looking up at the model. They were
probably uncorrected because of the
rush of work to be done. On the other
hand, the fresh directness of the paint-
ing, and much of its power to com-
municate, come from the rapidity and
spontaneity of its execution. The one
picture with “studio finish” is much in-
ferior to the others. The landscapes,
fresh as they sometimes are in color, do
not have the portraits’ precise char-
acterization and seem to have been
painted from memory. But the portraits
and figures are like nothing else I know.
y
The calm beauty and intense presence
ee ay Aaa Bi ne
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of these faces are not to be found in the
work of any of the other painters of
Indians. Let us hope that, as part of
the modernization program the Natural
History Museum is now enjoying, the
collection will eventually be put on show
along with the handsome new Indian
habitat groups. They are the one evi-
dence we have that the “Noble Savage”
of the eighteenth-century philosophers
was not entirely a fiction.
ONE of the modernizations soon to be
on view is a marvelous new swimming
whale, a life-size model suspended over-
head in the suavest of S-curve dives,
almost too graceful to be thought of as
a fellow mammal. My other particular
favorite here (the unicycle, with rider
seated inside the wheel; the transparent
matron; the Wright brothers’ airplane,
and Washington’s false teeth are in the
Arts and Industries Building) is the dis-
play of money from the Island of Yap
— immense stone disks, too heavy ‘to be
moved; a thoroughly stable monetary
system whose basis of credit (like the
early Spartans’) was too ponderous ever
to be stolen, lost or squandered.
MUSIC
Lester Trimble
THE YM-YWHA at 92nd Street in
New York had a lively evening of cham-
ber music last weekend, when it present-
ed the third concert in Max Pollikoff’s
series, Music In Our Time: 1900-1960.
Pollikoff’s enterprise, which has con-
tributed more than any other to the
contemporary part of New York’s musi-
cal life, has grown very smooth in
presentation over the past several years.
It has become broader in scope, as well.
The inclusion of works like Schénberg’s
String Quartet No. 2, a scandale from
yesteryear, along with music fresh out
of composers’ workshops, adds an im-
mensely useful historical perspective to
the programs. One sees how mild some
of these older pieces are when looked at
over the shoulder; how eagerly the com-
posers tried to break new paths, and in
many cases, how tentative and im-
perfect their products were. The ques-
tion of progress and revolution in art
is cast into a different light when the
work of an old revolutionist stands side-
by-side with that of his revolutionary
grandsons. The creation of music then
shows itself as simply a fallible human
endeavor, with success the exception,
and “progress” the product of an almost
pathetic struggle between men and ma-
terials. There have been few break-
throughs in the history of music. Most
of the development has gone slowly, by
inches, and every inch cost dearly.
It is in part the intense difficulty of
the creative act, a certain gratuitous-
ness about it, and the fact that, like
the mountain, “it is there,” which leads
people to attempt it. There is also, I
believe, an impulse to communicate, to
say something which will strike reson-
ances in other minds and psyches.
However, a certain amount of music
written in the twentieth century does not
fall under this description. It seems to
have been done “at” the audience, or
“on” them, rather than “to” them or
“for” them. There is as yet no name for
this music, but the quality which most
consistently marks it is an apparent
contempt for the audience. Morton
Feldman, who contributed a piece en-
titled Atlantis to Max Pollikoff’s pro-
gram, is a composer of such music. He
is a member of the coterie surrounding
John Cage (who conducted the work),
and seems to have subscribed to some
of the ideas about chance and accident
in music which are Cage’s latest pseudo-
musical preoccupation. His music is
constructed so that many of the deci-
sions (as to the notes which are to be
played, for instance) are left to the
performer. As I understand it, he in-
dicates the ranges within which the
performers are to make sounds at a
given moment, and the quality of sounds
they are to make. This can produce
horrendous results, as it did a couple of
years ago at the Cooper Union, when he
set a whole orchestra to work on a
sado-masochistic enterprise which up-
set my viscera for days, or it can by a
happier accident bring forth quite toler-
able sound.
Insofar as the actual sounds of At-
SS
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“ALTERNATIVES FOR 1960"
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@ Progressives in the
Party System.
@ Stevenson? Symington? Kennedy?
Humphrey? Lyndon Johnson?
@ Realignment in the Democratic Party
or Third Party?
Questions. Discussion,
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176
lantiy were concerned, I have no objec-
tion to make except that I don’t think
they add up to anything. Thanks to a
refined group of executants, they were
sometimes rather pretty, but I had
heard them all .before. Indeed, they
remind me of my favorite spot in the
Central Park zoo, a place half-way be-
tween the aviary and the building for
lions, tigers and such, where you can
hear a similar but much more interest-
ing mélange of sounds any day in spring
or summer. I would rather listen to them
in their natural state than to watch a
group of musicians trying to produce the
same effect in white tie and tails.
The real clue to the spirit behind this
music came in the forum session which
follows each Music In Our Time concert.
As is usual at the “Y”, the members of
the audience who stayed to learn about
contemporary music from the lips of
the composers were intelligent and deep-
ly interested. The other composers on
the panel were cooperative, and did
their best’ to respond to a sincere de-
sire to understand with a sincere desire
to inform. But not Mr. Feldman. He
went into an act which would have been
confusing if one had not seen others of
the kind. Many of the people present
were musically trained; their questions
could have been answered quite easily,
and even in technical terms. But the
composer did not want to answer. He
wanted to play with the audience, to
confuse and obfuscate. And as always
happens when a group finds itself tanta-
lized by a series of enigmas and seeming
contradictions, its desire to solve the
Fail
’
tiddle ‘rose to an ever higher pitch. In
‘this instance, the game went on for al-
‘most an hour; it was the most skillful
‘exhibition of audience manipulation I
have ever witnessed.
This sort of thing is not good for con-
temporary music. Audiences may be
‘more conservative or slow to respond
-than composers would like. But they
“are not one’s enemy, nor are they little
furry animals with whom one plays cat
and mouse.
THE two other living composers rep-
‘resented on this program were Donald
Erb, a young Clevelander, and William
Mayer. They are both extremely gifted.
Both Mr. Erb’s Music for Violin and
‘Piano, commissioned for this series and
played by .Mr. Pollikoff and pianist
Douglas Nordh, and Mr. Mayer’s Fan-
tasy for Piano, were representative of
what might be called a moderate twelve-
tone approach, including a fair portion
-of non-serial writmg. They were thor-
‘oughly communicative, the Fantasy being
-somewhat romantic and mood-inspired,
and the Erb piece more devoted to
strong, nuggetal ideas. As in the single
other work I have heard by Mr. Erb, a
Sonata for Violin and Piano, 1 was
struck by a singular quality of “pres-
ence” in the music: His ideas have a kind
of encapsuled vitality which arrests the
attention and projects. I am not. sure
that the formal structure of the Music
for Violin ‘and Piano is as ‘solid and
functional as it might be. But’ that. is
a question which only other perform-
ances could answer.
Safe
(Fail Safe: the term applies to military. equipment designed so that its mal-
or mis-function will not injure the operators; in other words, it applies to a weapon
that is perfectly harmless if it doesn’t kill someone.)
No matter how nimble your grandparents,
It bruises to learn to walk.
The man who nearly invented the wheel
Must have left his backside on the mountain.
A haywire poem can mangle, and the danger in painting
Is that the bad ones try to put your eye out.
I-ven the smartest lovers can say a Wrong Thing
That nags the dearest kiss. Or so it was.
But now the favorite catastrophes wear Isau’s skin
To kid the President out of his blessing.
The heart bleeds, but ornamentally, like Madras.
You answer wrong, but win your neighbor's wife.
With a good press to buncoanalyze and cadilleujah,
It is possible to die without knowing whom you betray.
Heart, tailored heart,
A skeleton wears us, and we saunter,
_ _ - >
weed Burszia No 655 ==
By FRANK W. LEWIS LLABEN
1
9
10
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13
14
16
18
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22
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24
no Fe
oo
i ‘ i
lo oo
ree
| a
eemtect sok} | | 2a
bd a ae
a ee
ACROSS:
First impression of the super-
market organization? (5,8)
With weapons, Nelson was one. (5)
This might be given rude linguistic
form. (9)
Obviously, home came first and
pressed close. (7)
Biting form of humor to the com-
mon man, (7)
On which old-time girders used to
operate? (5)
One way to get the old coach into
the barn, when not set in front. (9)
But Jack wouldn’t necessarily be
bright at such jobs. (9)
ay shape of my other Homburg?
5
Mobile state, according to two de-
grees. (7)
Stretch across, but take care after
the automobile backs up! (7)
a might be easy as falling off.
9)
Formerly Mesopotamian. (5)
Recommended when hung over the
shed covering, in part. (1, 4,2, 3,3)
DOWN:
Guernsey and Jersey are examples
of them. (7,7)
Made by those who own a form of
advertising business? (9)
Outstanding examples, at least on
the surface. (7)
“February 20, 1960
Monmouth & 5 St., Lakewood, N. J.
WASHINGTON’S BIRTHDAY Holi-
day Entertainment: Eli Mintz (Un-
cle David), Mort Freeman, Harry
Gendel, Allaben Ensemble.
Jewish American Cuisine
JACK & SERENA SCHWARTZ
Tel. Lakewood 6-1222
RELAX in a friendly atmos-
phere. Golf at a magnificent
Country Club. Dancing. En-
tertainment. Superb cuisine
Fireproof Bldg. Elevator serv-
ice. Group facilities. In New
Raa York City call at local rate.
FAirbanks 5-7227 i)
MAhopac 8-3449
9 ForeEST owe
Gumus LAKE MAHOPAC, N. Y. SD
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Philadelphia, Pa.
P.S.: I appreciate also your Books and Arts section,
particularly the excellent taste shown. by M. L.
Rosenthal in his poetry selections.
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FEBRUARY 27, 1960 . . 25¢
QUARRELS OVER
UNDERGROUND TESTING.
PUBL
Why We Walked Out at Geneva x
co
—~
‘
Edward Gamarekian
JETS and JOBS
Labor’s Stake in the Arms Budget
Clive Jenkins
GAMBLING, THE LEGAL VICE
Elijah Adlow
LETTERS
Problem of Problems
Dear Sirs: May I express both agree-
ment with, and compliments to, The
Nation for J. David Singer’s article,
“Surprise Attack,” in your Jan. 30 is-
sue? If we don’t solve this problem, we
may never have the opportunity to solve
any others (either wisely or foolishly)!
Ann Huppe_i
Ypsilanti, Mich.
What We Don’t Know
Dear Sirs: In his article, “Surprise At-
tack” (The Nation, January 30), Mr.
Singer seems to have forgotten ... that
the Communists do not want peace. A
violent overthrow of all existing orders
is necessary if communism is to be a
success. Khrushchev knows this and the
person who will succeed him knows it.
Only we don’t know it. All this gibberish
about open skies, radar systems, etc.,
means nothing to the Communists. When
they feel the time is right to strike, they
will strike, regardless of any agreements
that may be made.
Barry GREENBERG
Stanford, Calif.
A Lincoln Anniversary
Dear Sirs: On February 27, 1860, Abra-
ham Lincoln spoke in New York, for the
first time, at Cooper Union. The Presi-
dent stressed the serious problem of
slavery, but few among his audience, few
indeed among the whole people of the
country, were aware of what the next
ten years would bring: a devastating,
fratricidal war; bloody draft riots; the
ruin of large sections of the country; the
tragic death of the President himself.
“Neither side expected this war!” as
Lincoln was later to say, in his Second
Inaugural Address.
So much for 1860. What about the
1960s? Surely, the hundredth anniver-
sary of Mr, Lincoln’s New York speech
gives us something to think about. The
constant menace of global missile war
seems to cause us no concern. No one
_. bothers to consider that perhaps our at-
titude towards one another ought to be
more understanding, more compassion-
ate... lest catastrophe overtake us all.
And surely we ought—as Lincoln did—
to live by, and depend on, the motto “In
God we trust.”
WINTHROP STEELE
New York City
wt
lel eR ee ae gE
Yo 1 he it ai we Jf
Delightful Debate .. .
Dear Sirs: Congratulations and thanks
for publishing Mr. Howard Nemerov’s
poem, “Debate with the Rabbi,” in The
Nation of February 13. It is witty, pro-
voking and wholly delightful.
Jacop M. FrankEL
New York City
... or Bad Poetry, Poor Taste
Dear Sirs: Nemerov’s “Debate with the
Rabbi” was not only bad poetry, poor
taste and undignified, but bordered on
being anti-Semitic as well... .
J. I. Fisupein
Chicago, Ill. The Sentinel
The charge that Mr. Nemerov’s poem
1s anti-Semitic is so absurd that it de-
serves no comment. We refer readers to
the work itself, im the issue of February
13. — Tue Epirors.
Peekskill Pattern
Dear Sirs: 1 came across the following
news item recently:
Seven Peekskill football players
who lost a close game Saturday and
showed their resentment by throwing
rocks at a bus carrying their oppo-
nents, were expelled from Peekskill
High School for their lack of sports-
manship.
This is not the first time Peekskillians
have thrown rocks at football players.
World War II was not long over when
I heard that Paul Robeson, whose foot-
ball prowess is well known, was to sing
at Peekskill. He had tried to sing there
before and both he and his audience had
been assaulted by hundred per cent “pa-
triots.” Suddenly it seemed to me that
the four years I had spent in the Army
would be wasted if a man couldn’t sing
at Peekskill because his skin was not the
right color, or because his beliefs were
different from those of most people. After
all, my religious beliefs are different
from most people’s and hadn’t I attend-
ed Yom Kippur services in 1945 in Ger-
many in spite of Hitler and the whole
Wehrmacht? I went to Peekskill.
The rest of the story you know. The
people of Peekskill threw rocks at us. ...
The parents of the Peekskill High
School students must have been bewil-
dered at the expulsion of their sons, for
had not the sons simply followed the pre-
cepts of their fathers? After all, the chil-
dren had merely thrown the stones; it
was the fathers who had collected them.
Apranam I. Bracuer, M. 1D;
Brooklyn, Nels .
; —....-..
Ticket to Justice
Dear Sirs: One of the many problems
we face today is that of providing funds
for the maintenance of the governmental
structure. This reader has a modest
proposal to make: Sell tickets to trials.
It wasn’t long ago that tickets were .
sold to hangings and visits to insane
(Continued on page 189)
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
177 @
ARTICLES
179 @ Quarrels Over Underground
Testing: Why We Walked Out
at Geneva
by EDWARD GAMAREKIAN
182 'e Jets and Jobs: Labor’s Stake in
the Arms Budget
by CLIVE JENKINS
185 @ Gambling, the Legal Vice
by ELIJAH ADLOW
‘187 '@ Mission to Somozaland
by JAMES L. BUSEY
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
190 @ A Man with a Grievance
by FRANK O'CONNOR
190 ‘@ Another Ballade (poem)
by GALWAY KINNELL
191 @ The Revolutionary Century
by BRUCE MAZLISH
192 '@ Making It Hot
by NELSON ALGREN
193 @ Second Impressions
by ROBERT M. WALLACE
194 '‘@ Theatre
by HAROLD CLURMAN
194 @ Koré (poem)
by ROBERT CREELBY »
195 @ Architecture
by WALTER MeQUADIC
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 196)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
INNA
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, Bditor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Wditor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
tl
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. UL. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester ‘Trimble, Music
Alexander Werth, European
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, Feb, 27, 1960. Vol, 190, No, 9
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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 9
EDITORIALS
mao.
«MAY 2 JUN
NATION
Look Homeward Adlai
An encouraging aspect of this first trial heat of the
campaign is that elements of the Democratic Party are
beginning to exhibit a strong if belated sense that peace
is the key issue. The four active campaigners — Sen-
ators Kennedy, Johnson, Humphrey and Symington —
continue to stress other issues and are united in their
criticism of the Administrator’s cutbacks in the defense
program. But elsewhere a new wind is blowing.
Governor G. Mennen Williams has mapped a ten-
point “plan for peace” based on the reports of a con-
ference of experts which he initiated. The plan is a good
one: /. Continued aid to underdeveloped countries, “not
by way of bribes to stack U.N. ballot boxes but to pro-
mote human dignity”; 2. Adoption of a new policy to-
ward China and recognition of Red China “in the not
too distant future”; 3. Strengthening those international
institutions which promote peace; 4. A greater readiness
to negotiate political questions that create friction
among nations; 3. A nuclear test ban to be followed by,
6. Cutting off production of fissionable material for
weapon purposes and ultimate liquidation of nuclear-
weapons stockpiles; 7. Improvement of methods to pre-
vent surprise attack, including international inspection
(Dr. J. David Singer — see “Surprise Attack,” The
Nation, January 30 — was one of the Governor’s
consultants); 8. Steps to prevent limited as well as
all-out war; 9. Economic planning to parallel progress
in weapons disarmament; /0. Formation of a full-time
national peace agency.
Governor Robert B. Meyner of New Jersey has also
joined the ranks of those who feel that peace is the
key issue in the 1960 campaign. His speech at the
Democratic State Committee’s $100-a-plate dinner in
New York was greeted with stunned silence by the
assembled fat cats and officeholders and was almost
ignored by the press.. All the same it was a headline
speech. In much the same manner the press has ignored
Senator Joseph S. Clark’s recent speech favoring negoti-
ations with China and looking toward ultimate recogni-
tion, strong pleas for disarmament by Senators Morse,
Clark and Gruening, and Rep. Clem Miller’ s (D. Calif.) —
: pe a a twenty-one Democratic Con- —
ae
ay
a. s tests a
— of nuclear weapons deve
a
persuasive they may be, will fail to constitute a chorus
if the press and the mass media generally choose to
ignore them. For a fair test the politics of peace requires
a spokesman who can command national attention, pref-
erably a statesman as well as a politician. At the
moment the man who, on his record, best meets this
specification is touring South America. If Adlai Steven-
~re
son agrees with the growing number of Democratic
leaders who now see that peace is the issue, he should
hurry home and join with them in freeing their party
from the paralyzing grip of the cold warriors.
The Pentagon Wills It
If asked what is holding up an agreement on nuclear ay.)
test suspension, nine and a half Americans out of ten oo i
would reply that it is the possibility of evasion by the
Russians. The remaining fractional American might be
more skeptical of the Pentagon propaganda which is his
daily nutriment. If evasion were the issue, the United r
States position would be that we refuse to make an la
agreement which lacks firm guarantees, but for our u ;
part we shall not resume testing. Thus we should be
deferring to world opmion and reducing the risk of a we
future nuclear war which — rather than the contami- 2
nation of the atmosphere by testing — is the paramount j
consideration.
ee ; 4 4
But this is not the issue at all; the real logic of our fu
position, as it emerges in Edward Gamarekian’s article My
on page 179 of this issue, is simply a determination to ~
resume testing. Such is the will of the Pentagon and its
will is what will be done, under the earth if not in
heaven. On the NBC television program, “The Open _
Mind,” broadcast on February 7, Dr. Hugh C. Wolfe,
who knows as much about these things as anyone,
pointed out that American objections would not be
relieved if the Russians came up with a detection sys- —
tem ten times better than anything heretofore known.
The reason he gave was that “there are people in the ‘
Atomic Energy Commission and in the lesen who
are awfully anxious to continue the American p program
rent involving the set
of small nuclear explosions. oe these people h
been opposed to any kind of agreement |
let ce which woul ioe p their program. ”
_ business
Inspection for Disarmament, edited by Dr. Seymour
Melman (Columbia University Press, 1958) the argu-
ment is clinched. “Let it be clear at the outset,” Dr.
“that perfection cannot be guaranteed
here, nor in any natural or social phenomenon. Indeed,
Melman says,
foolproof and flawless reliability in inspection for dis-
armament is not only unattainable; it is not necessary
Not even a foolproof and flawless
typewriter has yet been invented. The Pentagon de-
mands perfection, but it would be horrified if in this
one field, contrary to all natural law, perfection were
for workability.”
achieved. It has only one desire and that it will pursue
to the death — literally.
A Miracle Is Wrought
Last week official Washington was shaken to its
political foundations — headlines blazed, editorial big
berthas boomed, Congressmen and Senators pounded
tables — and all because an Air Force training manual
was found to contain a more or less routine smear of
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the
U.S.A. as “Red infiltrated.” Throughout the period of
the cold war, smears of the National Council — a strong
force for peace, the voice of American Protestantism —
have been a common occurrence. The smears have been
uniformly unfounded, malicious and calculated to in-
jure; but they have escaped official rebuke. But the way
in which the wires burned between the Pentagon and
Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, last week augurs well
for the political reflexes of the top brass in an election
year which has echoed with discussions of religious
issues. Elections have been known to bring out the
worst in the best of us, but there are occasions, and this
is one, in which the reverse of this proposition appears
to be true.
Diamonds Are the Soviet’s Best Friend
In the London Observer of January 24, “Mammon,”
not a god but a journalist, tells a diverting story.
“Soviet diamonds,” he writes, “will soon be on sale at
Cartier’s, and no one will be any the wiser, not even
Cartier’s.” It marks the admittance of Soviet Russia
into one of the most exclusive cartels in the capitalist
_ world, and shows that really nothing divides East and
West except trifling details.
The cartel is the Diamond Corporation of London
“and Kimberley, South Africa. It was founded by Sir
Ernest Oppenheimer, with the backing of J. P. Morgan,
n a series of operations beginning in 1917. The diamond
had been suffering from an Mee” of free
eal ; Bia) OES > dl | ead 4
ae TS ARSON eT,
; ' Re
million from the Rothschilds and proceeded to organize
the unorganized, starting with the de Beers group of
Southwest Africa. From then on, when the price of
diamonds began to fall, the producers and brokers, by
ironclad agreement, held onto their precious wares un-
til the market recovered. Thus stability was maintained
until, in 1954, the Soviet Ministry of Geology and
Conservation of Mineral Deposits announced that “rich,
stattered and concentrated” deposits of diamonds had
been discovered in the Yakut Autonomous Republic.
Here, obviously, was an opportunity for Soviet Man to
disembowel his natural enemy, Cartel Man of the West.
And, in fact, Soviet Man made some threatening noises,
but then mysterious forces, or what the elder Morgan
called “community of interest,” prevailed. In January
it was announced that “an exclusive agreement has been
signed in London whereby all the diamonds from Soviet
Russian production that the Soviet authorities wish to
export for marketing in the Western world will be pur-
chased by it [the Diamond Corporation] and_ sold
through the Central Selling Organization of the de Beers
Group of Companies.” The Soviets will keep most of
their diamonds, since they need about six million carats
annually for industrial purposes, but there will also be
Russian gems for de Beers customers and these, as
“Mammon” points out, will be anonymous. “Women
are born every day, and while women are born diamonds
will be worn,” “Mammon” quotes. And they don’t care
whose diamonds they wear, nor does Soviet Man care
who wears them. The still unanswered question is when
will Soviet Woman, driving bulldozers and performing
appendectomies, insist on wearing those “Red stones”
now being exported, for mere foreign exchange, to the
Western world.
Goblin Time
Life (February 22) devoted one of its valuable pages
“Bewildering Appearance in Outer Space — U.S.
Tracks Satellite That May Be A Spy.” The only com-
fort Life could give was that the U.S. Air Force has a
spy satellite of its own, Samos, in the works. But this
counterspy is far from completion and Life was con-
cerned by the “frightening possibility” that the Rus-
sians were already televising the United States in prep-
aration for a nuclear massacre. Lt. Gen, James Gavin
(Ret.) was frightened too. Life and Gavin were not
alone; in the first two weeks of February, America’s
defenders, as well as those of our staunch ally Ar-
gentina, were having nightmares and rather enjoying it.
Besides the mystery satellite, which some crude sci-
entists suggested was just some space “garbage,” specil-
ically the last stage of a Discoverer rocket, a “mystery
craft” was seen traveling over Alaska at “tremendous
ed.” The Alaska Air Command, studying the situa-
é-
s
tion, was confused by conflicting repor a. ome had it
aie tal 7 A is ru I ie Ak mt ara d 1
y mae. ee Th
low and. slow,”
“Some had it high and fast.”
peaceful citizens of Los Angeles were disturbed by
“rumbling reverberations”
count. Another reverberation occurred when Lt.
the Army’s chief of research,
“slip of the tongue”
during a movie-news conference on development of the
famed futuristic nuclear defense weapon, Nike-Zeus.
The slips of Trudeau, a talkative general,
like glissades; in this instance he revealed that the
warhead of an ICBM could be neutralized through
Arthur G. Trudeau,
fered what was described as a
the public information officer
Somewhat earlier,
for which no one could ac-
said.
the
Gen.
suf-
All in all,
are more
WHY WE WALKED OUT AT GENEVA
Quarrels Over Underground ‘Testing .. tawesrd Gamuretian
AN EAST-WEST agreement on a nu-
clear test ban has not been brought
any closer by President Eisenhower’s
proposal of February 11.
Although the Administration is
proclaiming it a real step forward,
the Soviet Union refuses to consider
it. The plan would permit the test-
ing of fairly large nuclear weapons
underground and it has become ap-
parent to everyone, including the
Russians, that the U.S. Atomic En-
_ Department are eager to begin such
tests as soon as possible. The under-
_ ground tunnels are now being dug
and the weapons readied.
The Russian argument is relative-
ly simple—there is no logic in having
a nuclear test ban that permits tests.
The Russians insist that they will
‘not agree to any proposal that per-
ee tests of any size, anywhere.
+ Many Americans, on the other
hand, fear that a total ban cannot
be reliably policed at the present
time because of the difficulty of dis-
_ tinguishing small explosions from
_ earthquakes. What looks even more
difficult is the detection of a weapon
test that is intentionally concealed
in a large underground hole. The
Eisenhower proposal provides for a
joint research program that hould
eventually make it jPess solve
-ergy Commission and the Defense
been accomplished
the underground detection problem.
In the meantime, however, the pro-
posal would permit the United States
to test‘new weapons. Those who want
to resume testing say the Russians
have a bad record on keeping agree-
ments and would probably cheat if
they could. Therefore, they argue,
the U.S. itself must test in order to
maintain its lead.
Although the Eisenhower Admin-
istration says it would agree to a
total ban if there were a reliable way
of detecting violations, the Atomic
Energy Commission aad the Defense
Department seem more interested in
showing that a test ban won’t work
than in trying to make one work.
To illustrate, a group of scientists
headed by the noted physicist Lloyd
V. Berkner, after studying the prob-
lem of underground detection, came
up with a set of recommendations
last March which would have gone
a long way toward solving this
problem. However, nothing was done
for nine months. After Khrushchevy’s
visit, the prospects of an agreement
brightened suddenly and caught us
unprepared. The Defense | Depart-
ment hurriedly set up Project: Vela :
to implement the recomm
of the Berkner’ pa
_ During this san
sanse tonic. 1 Ene
employment of the neutron flux principle.
closure seems to have appalled the Pentagon, and re-
sulted in an unwonted,
silence on the part of the general.
This dearth of decibels was more than made up in
Golfo Nuevo, where the Argentine and American navies,
in comradely collaboration, were hunting Russian sub-
marines said to be lurking in the depths.
it was a fortnight to be remembered. As
Senator Francis Case said,
It’s that time of year. Appropriation committees are at if
work to divide the pie of the federal treasury.” be
The dis-
though no doubt temporary,
“This is the season of goblins.
ciently large underground hole. It » Aya
has already made at least eight test a
shots in a Louisiana salt mine with we
small quantities of chemical (non- %
nuclear) explosives under extremely a
difficult conditions. The scientists ie
have been held up by mud, but the Py
sense of urgency has already pro- “an
duced preliminary results—which in-
dicate that concealment is possible.
Most experts agree that the U.S.
is well ahead of the Russians in nu-
clear-weapon development and would
have less to lose from a nuclear test
ban. But the Atomic Energy Com-
mission, the Defense Department
and some key members of Congress
are solidly convinced that the na-
tion’s security depends on the de-
velopment of new weapons. The lack
of a foolproof test ban is used to
justify more tests.
AGAINST this background, the
problems of general disarmament ap- _
pear staggering. If they have this”
much trouble over the possible con- —
cealment of underground tests, hov ma
are the nations ever to deal with the
possible concealment of hoc: and
nuclear weapon pe :
scientific experts. The U.S.
at least theoretically, of evasion. But
one must ponder, in reaching deci-
sions on the very complex and dif-
ficult’ subject of arms control, the
enormous risks entailed if reasonable
steps are not taken to curb the in-
ternational competition in armaments
and be more effective in the direc-
tion of disarmament.
Very few would disagree with this
statement, but “some risks,” “enor-
mous risks,” and “reasonable steps”
mean different things to different
people. Also, they mean one thing
when the Russians seem friendly and
cooperative and something else when
they seem hostile and belligerent.
During the past few months, some
top U.S. officials have attempted to
make the Russians apppear more
hostile in order to reduce the chances
for a nuclear test ban agreement.
Such manipulation of public opinion
is a dangerous game when the stakes
are this high.
THE CHARGE is serious; here are
the facts to support it:
After Khrushchev’s visit to the
United States last September, the
Soviet delegation at the Geneva test
ban talks adopted a more coopera-
tive position. Having dragged its feet
for several months, the delegation
suddenly agreed to a scientific con-
ference on the detection and conceal-
ment of underground explosions. The
United States had been pressing for
such a conference since the previous
January.
Scientists from the United States,
the Soviet Union and Great Britain
met in Geneva on November 25. No
one had any idea how long the meet-
ing would last, but one thing was
apparent. If it went beyond Decem-
ber 19—the date on which the po-
litical conference was set to recess—
the scientific conference would have
to recess also and reconvene after
the first of the year. President Eisen-
hower’s moratorium on nuclear tests
was set to expire on December 31.
The scientific conference would have
a critical effect on whether or not it
was extended.
The scientists began their discus-
sion with a re-examination of the
conclusions and recommendations
reached by the 1958 conference of
team
then presented new data from the
a ; ie he adi
row) | eee an
underground nuclear explosions that
were held in the fall of 1958 during
the Hardtack test series. These find-
ings produced considerable discus-
sion and debate, with the U.S. dele-
gation contending that the detection
network was not as good as it first
appeared to be and the Soviet delega-
tion replying that it was not as bad
as the Americans said and could be
made better. The English did not
participate to any great extent.
IT IS NOT possible here to go into
all the details of the arguments, but
an indication of what they were be-
ginning to show ean be gotten from
comments made by Sir William Pen-
ney, head of the British delegation,
on December 3:
Listening to the presentations so
far, I had formed the opinion that
the Hardtack data did show that the
system we recommended was not as
good as we thought. I have also
formed the opinion that certain im-
provements in apparatus can regain
some or perhaps most of the ground
which had been lost.
Sir William criticized the Russians
for trying to make the problem look
too easy and later criticized the
Americans for trying to make it look
too difficult.
These three delegations maintain-
ed consistent attitudes on all contro-
versial issues. The United States was
invariably pessimistic about the ca-
pabilities of the 180-station detection
network proposed at the 1958 con-
ference. The Russians were invari-
ably optimistic. The British were in
between, tending toward the Ameri-
can position on some questions and
toward the Soviet position on others.
The going became particularly
rough when the U.S. delegation
brought up its big-hole theory. The
American scientists said that it
would be feasible to dig a hole large
enough to canceal a 700,000-ton ex-
plosion (TNT equivalent; the Hiro-
shima and Nagasaki bombs were
20,000 tons each). It would have to
be 800 feet in diameter (almost three
football fields) and five-eighths of a
mile underground. It might cost $30-
to $40 million to flush a hole this
size out of an underground salt dome
and would probably take three to
four years, they sa i but it was
possible. A much sma Her hole would
Tie Hy eee
aS itn |
do the trick, they added, if special
material were distributed through
the cavity to absorb heat from the
bomb and reduce the pressure.
The Soviets said they doubted
that it would be possible to get the
reduction calculated, took issue with
the heat-absorber theory, and said
the big-hole idea didn’t look too
practical.
The British agreed with the big-
hole possibility, but supported the
Soviets on the heat-absorber idea
and the practicality of the over-all
scheme. They raised some _ serious
questions about the assumptions on
which the big-hole theory was based
and wondered if they could be re-
alized in practice. They also wonder-
ed about the likelihood that the hole
would cave in.
On this issue, as on many of the
others discussed, the differences were
very great at the start but gradually
diminished during the interchange
that followed. On the _ big-hole
theory, for example, the Soviets ac-
cepted the idea that a test could
theoretically be concealed, although
they continued to question its feasi-
bility. The United States dropped the
heat-absorber idea in the final report.
ANOTHER major argument arose
over the problem of distinguishing
the tremors produced by under-
ground explosions from those pro-
duced by earthquakes. It was a key
point because the number of annual
on-site inspections depends on_ the
difficulty of detecting this differ-
ence. The Russians, fearing that in-
spections might be used for snoop-—
ing, were opposed to a great many
(some say to more than ten a year) —
and wanted a quota. The United
States, fearing that a quota might
make it easier to cheat, wanted
limit on the inspections,
According to the U.S. delegation,
the Hardtack tests showed that it
was much more difficult to distin-
guish an underground — explosion
from an earthquake than had _ pre-
viously been thought. At one point,
U.S. delegate Dr. Albert Latter said
an examination of the Hardtack
data showed that it would be im-
possible to distinguish a 1,800,000-
ton explosion with certainty. This”
annoyed the Russians since, an €X=
plosion of such magnitude ) ra 1 be
i, i et "
py ae
hn ae
most Bacoesibte to contain anider-
ground. FE. K. Federov, the head of
their delegation, declared that the
Americans were “on the brink of
absurdity.” Much capital was to be
made of this remark later by those
who wanted to show how belligerent
the Russians were.
Dr. Latter derived the very large
figure from the Hardtack data by as-
suming that one detecting seismo-
graph would be used. With 100 seis-
mographs, Latter added, it would be
possible to distinguish underground
explosions of 50,000 to 100,000 tons.
The Russians said the U.S. estimate
was too pessimistic — that it would
be possible to distinguish smaller ex-
plosions.
The British thought so too. The
U. S. delegation apparently didn’t
take its own estimate of the lower
limit too seriously because it was
dropped from the final report. In the
Eisenhower proposal, the lower limit
has been dropped to 20,000 tons.
To top it off, Latter—the day be-
fore the holiday recess—came up with
a new set of criteria which he said
would improve the system by a fac-
tor of 30, thereby cutting the 50-
100 thousand-ton limit to 1.7-3.3
thousand tons. This important de-
velopment should have brightened
the chances for agreement but it
was quietly forgotten as the U. S.
delegation curtly announced its plans
to wind up the conference on Decem-
ber 19.
_ The test moratorium was due to
~ end on December/31. The AEC, De-
fense Department and some mem-
bers of Congress argued against an
extension, charging that the mora-
torium was giving the Russians a
test ban without inspection. A few
also charged the Soviet Union with
‘carrying out secret underground
_ tests in the meantime, but admitted
that they had no evidence.
At Geneva, where agreement was
coming close on a number of im-
portant points, the British and So-
viets protested the ending of the
scientific conference by the U. S.
delegation. Federov suggested that
the decision be left to the political
conference. Penney, spealings for i
British, said:
| Ot course, J agree with Be Federov
~
ence and our governments to decide.
The technical matters which Dr.
Federov himself listed show signs of
coming together and I would be glad
to join my colleagues in telling the
political conference that although we
do have these disagreements—some
still serious and some not so serious
—we might well be able to make fur-
ther progress if we did reconvene.
As I said yesterday, the things we
are doing here are of vital importance.
They affect the world at large.
BUT THE U.S. delegation held to
its proposal to adjourn immediately.
It added, significantly, that it plan-
ned to publish a report which would
show the areas of disagreement. The
fat was in the fire. Penney apparent-
ly saw at once what effect a report
on disagreements would have and
how it might be used. He objected,
saying:
If we follow your suggestion, the
political conference (the echelon
above) will have to consider what it
says to the world....If it decides
that we must come back it will also
consider releasing none of this in-
formation to the world....If we are
to come back it will certainly be un-
wise to reveal differences at this
stage.
The British and Soviet delegations
pleaded for a joint report, as is cus-
tomary. The Americans refused. The
head of the U.S. delegation, Dr.
James B. Fisk, said a joint statement
would give “an unbalanced picture,”
but told the other delegations they
could sign the U.S. statement if they
wished, ‘(Pisce is the president of Bell
~Telephone Laboratories and a mem-
ber of President Eisenhower’s Sci-
ence Advisory Committee. )
Penney and Federoy were furious.
Penney said: “In some ways I am
sorry, but if the U.S. delegation has
their very firm view, if one delega-
tion does that, the others must do it
also.”
Federoy said: “I consider the ac-
tion of the United States delegation
as unprecedented, at least in the his-
tory of our technical talks, and ex-
traordinary.” On the ma
balanced report, S;
United States de
portant is to have three delegations a
in a three-power conference come to
an agreed scientific decision. oun te
“T think such action is aimed at ak
undermining our deliberations be- ve
cause, just as soon as some partial Ae
agreement came into sight, just as a
soon as we got to that agreement, i:
immediately the U.S. delegation has a
taken steps to ruin it. Do as you will, oe
Dr. Fisk. The Soviet delegation will
report, then, on the whole of the
agenda and will also report on our a
view of the action that you are tak-
ing.”
Fisk’s reply to all this was: “The
United States delegation fully ac-
knowledges the agreement which we
have reached on this subject.”
THE U.S. group put out its report.
the next day and went home. The
British and Soviet reports came out.
soon afterward. The three groups is-
sued a joint statement on methods
for improving the 180-station detec-
tion network. Although it was very
encouraging, it had little effect on
the generally pessimistic conclusions
in the U.S. report.
The Soviet report was optimistic
about the capabilities of the 180-sta-
tion network. It criticized the US.
delegation on a number of points —
for modifying calculations that were
based on the underground nuclear
tests of 1957 and 1958, for misrep-
resenting the amount and type of in-
strumentation used during these
tests, for using data in a way to make
the 180 staeion network look inef-
fective, and for specifying detection
criteria which made it seem impos-_
sible to detect underground explo-
sions reliably in the order of hundreds
of thousands or millions of tons.
Their charges were strongly worded
but were supported to a considerable
extent by the record. » ;
This report, plus Fisk’s personal ”
account of the conference to Presi-
dent Eisenhower on December 29
(he quoted out of context the Rus-
sian remark about “the brink of ab-_
surdity”), angered the President | i
deeply that he immediately tes if
known he would _ the moratorium —
expire on the 31s t. He declared
United States fre to resume testi
_A date was secretly set for the
sumption of tests ‘underground
Atomic Energy Commission offic
began to make speeches to prepare
the public. In an address prepared
for delivery at the Business Outlook
Conference in Los Angeles on Janu-
ary 13, AEC chairman John A. Mc-
Cone put the full blame for the out-
come of the Geneva talks on the Rus-
sians. He said they refused to give
serious consideration to the scientific
data presented by the United States
and submitted little or no data of
their own. Their report was void of
scientific evaluations, he added, and
contained bitter denunciations and
accusations.
The AEC chairman went on to say
that this behavior made it necessary
for President Eisenhower to bring to
the attention of the world this: in-
temperance and the _ destructive
tactics of the Soviets, and to declare
an end of the fourteen-month mora-
torium on the testing of nuclear
weapons. The United States, he con-
cluded, cannot lower its guard until
the Soviets modify their unyielding
position. “Until then, we must face
resolutely the hazards of the future.
To me, the greatest danger would be
to see our country — weak and pros-
trate — an easy prey for a Com-
munist dictator whose stated objec-
tive is to destroy all that we cherish.”
McCone gave similar but off-the-
record speeches to a women’s politi-
cal forum and to a group of reporters
in Washington.
On January 21, AEC commissionef
LABOR’S
group of people.”
John F. Floberg was even more blunt
at a luncheon of the American Ord-
nance Association in Washington.
“The Soviet representatives, wearing
the guise of scientists but obviously
just going through the motions in the
spirit of a formality which had to be
endured, furnished not a scintilla of
scientific information but instead
satisfied themselves with a tirade
against the men whom the United
States had selected. . . .”
The verbatim record of the Geneva
conference and testimony given by
members of the U.S. delegation to
the Senate Disarmament Subcom-
mittee on February 4, contradict the
McCone and Floberg statements.
At the subcommittee hearing Fisk
said, “Up until the last day, the Rus-
sians were their usual selves. They
discussed sensibly and made good
contributions. They are a very able
The comments they
made on the analyses of the U.S. del-
egation were “very good” and “made
us think hard and do work we had
not done,” Fisk said under question-
ing. It was only on the last day that
they “improperly” questioned the in-
tentions of the U.S. delegation.
The man of second rank in the
delegation, Dr. Wolfgang K. M. Pan-
ofsky of Stanford University, told
the committee that the Russians
made “elaborate theoretical contribu-
tions on the distortion of seismic
waves,” submitted data on large un-
STAKE IN THE ARMS BUDCET
JETS AND JOBS ee by Clive Jenkins
London
ONE OF THE most surprising at-
titudes of American trade-union
policy-makers is their reluctance to
face the consequences of disarma-
‘ment. This is coupled with their dis-
LIVE JENKINS, a national offi-
cer for a British white-collar union,
studied the aircraft and missile in-
dustry on the West Coast during a
recent visit here. He is the author
of Power at the Top, a critical study
of nationalization.
taste for the language of disengage-
ment.
During a recent visit to the United
States, I kept trying to find out how
much of labor thinking in this area
was politically based — and to what
extent economic factors were at
work. For the economic side effects
of world tension are objects of high
visibility in America. To a European
trade-union official, they are promi-
nent in the attitudes of ordinary
workers busy with! sapons produc-
tion, | A 4s e et
ii
ate ae
ee-
i
Peferound chemical explosions, anda
contributed seismic records taken in~
the Soviet Union which showed the
earth tremors from the U.S. under-
ground tests in Nevada.
MR. EISENHOWER does not ap-
pear to have been fully apprised of
what happened during the scientific
conference in Geneva. ‘That seems
the best explanation for the devel-
opments that followed:
1. The end of the test moratorium,
2. The setting of a date for the re-
sumption of underground tests in
Nevada (it has been put off for the
time being).
3. The new test-ban proposal of
February 11 which will make it legal
to carry out underground tests on
nuclear weapons that can be fairly
large if they are exploded in a huge
underground hole deep below the sur-
face.
The Russian — counter-proposal
would ban all tests and allow the
West to examine a limited number
of suspicious events anywhere in the
Soviet Union. The Russians would
have the same privilege in the West-
ern nations. This plan looks attrac-
tive because it would permit the use
of intelligence information to uncover
a violation. How far the plan gets
depends on whether the Soviet Un-
ion will agree to the number of in-
spections the United States would
consider adequate.
In Britain, engineering workers in
the armament industries have tradi-
tionally said they preferred to work
on peaceful production. I found a
similar, if more cynical, attitude in
California workers; perhaps they
were franker there. A discussion
with California machinists about
“peace breaking out” and its effects
on employment in the aireraft, mis-
siles and aerospace industries brought
this comment: “We don’t care if the
rockets don’t take off. Whe ably %
be a missile tramp? We have a say-
Cat ee “Sal
3
;
\
4
ing: If they’re operational, they’re
obsolete. Then we get laid off... .”
The International Association of
Machinists and the United Auto
Workers in Eos Angeles want to stay
in business, but they know that this
is unlikely, for any one of the three
major aircraft manufacturers has the
capability of providing enough civil
jet-aircraft to fill the needs of the
Western world. Each new jet can do
the work of five planes of the gen-
eration it replaces. “Everyone is in
trouble,” a senior plant manager told
me in a quite resigned and dispas-
sionate way. “Douglas is probably
in most difficulty. They have $300
million of their own money in the
DC-8 project and are lagging badly
behind Boeing. The airlines have
finished their first round of buying
and seeing which type gains public
acceptability. In the meantime, the
companies have to sweat it out.”
This, of course, is not the worst
feature of the current crisis. Over-
shadowing all the competition is the
fear that relaxation of international
tensions will cause an “end-it-tomor-
row” slash in missile procurement.
At the Douglas Long Beach plant,
it was admitted, “It could knock the
props from under us.”
_ THIS IS a key consideration for
policy-makers and workers in both
_ the United States and Britain. Can
_ Western governments afford to ne-
gotiate seriously on ~ Khrushchev’s
offer to “liquidate all military estab-
_lishments”? Or must they immedi-
___ ately dismiss it in private because of
_ its lethal impact on unplanned so-
cieties? Aviation industries now lie
PRETT:
close to the heart of national eco-
nomic activity in the West. This is
P particularly true of the United
f States, the lynch-pin arms shop of
_ the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-
1 tion. An J.A.M. international rep-
resentative estimated to me that an
absolute majority of all American
engineering manpower now works on
aircraft, missiles, aerospace programs
or the control systems associated
PSP Th
about the future of the work force:
“They will have to go. The industry
is over-expanded for peaceful pur-
times |
with them. He was deeply pessimistic
poses. That is, if we ever decide |
are peaceful again. At the —
vie al ~
an
moment, the production program is
divided, 55 per cent on missiles and
45 per cent on aircraft — mostly
military. Inside eighteen months, I
figure that missiles will account for
65 per cent, and they just aren’t
peaceful.” So what happens to the
economy if world political relations
continue to improve?
The 1961 U.S. budget allocates
$46 billion for military hardware
and services. Much of this goes for
aircraft and rockets at a unit cost
which soars from year to year. At
the Paris Air Show, a Douglas RB-
66B Destroyer twin-jet reconnais-
sance bomber had a tiny plate
mounted in the cockpit for the at-
tention of the pilot. It said: “This
aircraft cost us $2,440,819.00. Please
Handle with Care.” One wonders
what admonition is stenciled along
the sides of the obsolete, air-breath-
ing, subsonic Snark missiles in
Maine. Recently operational and
three years too late, this one wing
has cost $740 million. Nowhere near
ready for the stencil-painters are
the “sharp ends” of the Nike-Zeus
anti-missile-missile system. This gets
$300 million a year, but needs a
whopping total of $13.5 billion to see
whether it really is capable of being
made operational.
U.S. spending suffers from the
same problems as Britain’s. The lob-
bying of manufacturers and_politi-
cians is powerful enough to generate
an over-all blanket effectiveness on
military expenditures. As a result,
money continues to be allocated to
outdated designs aimed at counter-
ing manned fighters and bombers,
when everyone knows that a nu-
clear assault would, obviously, be
waged and won by a first wave of
irrecallable and unstoppable ballistic
weapons. The dislocation that would
be caused by slicing out the old-
fashioned, though juicy, orders. is
clearly unacceptable. However, the
taxpayer may generate some pres-
sures of his own against the current
score of seventy-seven different
types of missile-weapons systems that
he has financed without getting a
decently placed bang for his buck.
THE GLARING faults in U.S. De-
fense Department procurement are
mirrored wrongways - through - the -
telescope in Britain. Two years ago,
the Conservative Defense Minister
announced a “realistic” armament
policy, concentrating on a diversi-
fied rocket armory. He said categor-
ically that the last manned aircraft
was a-building and there would be
no more. His policy proved plastic
under the heat and pressure gener-
ated by the aircraft makers and
their freshly hired ex-generals and
admirals. A new “strike” aircraft is
to be built, and anti-aircraft missiles
are installed and replaced with newer
models in a steady rhythm around
Britain’s coast — to counter an air-
borne aggressor who will sportingly
fly an elderly machine.
The guided fatuities of military
purchasing are now common knowl-
edge inside the American and Brit-
ish industries: the lobbyists are
naturally concerned about what to
do when the news spreads.
_ Any cut in U.S. defense budgeting
will fall chiefly upon the dramatically
expensive aviation items. This will
primarily affect a large group of
highly paid workers, mainly in Cali-
fornia, but will not be confined to
ah Aas)"
ae .
*
TAs
=
Lee
4
them. The American market needs
at least $15 billion extra spending
power each year to keep employment
at its present level and to absorb
the million new entrants into the
labor market. Can it provide this
and also fill the hole left by, say,
a fast cut of $10 or $15 billion?
One way might be to sell more
commercial jet-liners overseas. Boe-
ing, Convair, Lockheed and Douglas
are well equipped to do this at the
moment, for they will have a massive
backlog of military orders to supply
the necessary funds. The money is
vital for development, for trade-in
of unsellable piston-engined types,
and for the extension of long-term
financing to capital-starved airline
operators. But this is a passing ad-
vantage; the basis is not stable
enough to weather a moderately suc-
cessful Summit conference. In
Douglas Aircraft’s 1958 fiscal year,
combat vehicles and missiles ac-
counted for 78.7 per cent of total
sales, while only 21.3 per cent was
devoted to civil enterprises. Douglas
executives are markedly concerned
about this situation. So are the un-
ions: “Between this and Landrum-
Griffin and automation we'll drop
another 200,000 members eventual-
ly in the Machinists.”
I HAVE already warned the white-
collar technicians in my own union
of the plans projected by the sales-
organization engineers of North
American Aviation, Inc. to decide who
will carry the 100 million passengers
on the scheduled services of the
seventy-four Western nations each
~ year. The objective is to establish on
a world-wide basis American pure-
jets and turbo-props as the primary
instruments on the international air-
lanes. But this will not be so easy
to accomplish.
Until a few months ago, the Brit-
ish industry (apart from certain
types of jet-engine) would have
been a sitting duck. Employing the
best-manipulated and brassiest lob-
by in Europe, it had obtained gov-
ernment money for research, proto-
type building, development, and
_ then orders from the armed services
or the nationalized airlines (British
— Overseas Airways and British Eu-
_ ropean Airways). This resulted in
only one world-selling type: the
turbo-prop Viscount, of which over
450 were made. But the replacement
Vanguard” has only twenty on
order from foreign customers and
seems doomed, like the rest of the
designs, to a perfunctory and ex-
pensive production run. The plain
truth is that there have been too
many companies: talent was spread
too thinly, and any management,
since it never gambled with its own
money, could try to hit the jackpot.
But as the industry became de-
pendent in an absolute way upon
public money, the government found
it easier to effect amalgamations
looking to the creation of two giant
units which could compete more ef-
fectively on the international market.
Following the Conservative vic-
tory in the October, 1959, elections,
Duncan Sandys (son-in-law of Win-
ston Churchill) was shifted sideways
from Minister of Defense to the
newly minted job of Minister of
Aviation, where he controls the air-
craft and missiles industry and also
the publicly owned air-transport
undertakings. He had a mandate for
amalgamation, and a powerful weap-
on to cement old rivals: “No mar-
riage — no money.”
Within the last two months, two
groupings have emerged. English
Electric and Vickers are talking
about combining their aviation in-
terests, while the huge Hawker Sid-
deley concern (having absorbed two
other companies in 1959) is now
about to take over the Comet-build-
ing De Havilland group. Most of
the other units are either associated
with the new giants or obviously
will be unable to avoid being whip-
ped into position.
The tempting bait is government
backing for a fabulously expensive
supersonic airliner program “to get
Britain back into the world market
seriously.” Renewed British compe-
tition, backed by state funds, may
not of itself worry American com-
panies (Boeing alone — 1959 sales
$1,600 million — tops the value of
the combined gross output of the
British firms). The Americans fore-
see sharp conflicts with the resur-
gent manufacturers of the European
Common Market, who are out to
challenge the rest of me world,
a, OTT oe) a > ey een Sa
i ia / ro er ae OTe
a ¥ Se ed
' The successful Caravelle jet, flown
by Air France, is from the state-
owned French assembly lines, and
its later versions may be purchased
by the airlines of the six-nation Com-
mon Market who have formed an
“Air Union” and are developing
maintenance and __ traffic-handling
facilities. It seems reasonable to as-
sume that their Paris-based Equip-
ment Committee will eventually urge
purchase of an airliner built in the
market area, probably by a Franco-
German consortium. The effect of
such a decision upon the traditional
suppliers in California would be for-
midable; and at least one engine-
maker, General Electric, is buying
a Caravelle for almost $2 million to
fit with G.E. engines to prove that
they are just as good as those built
for the plane by Rolls Royce.
OTHER American companies are
either forming partnerships with
_ former antagonists inside the Com-
mon Market boundaries, or regis-
tering their own subsidiary companies
there. This could mean a shift in
the location of the work force from
the continental United States to
Europe, with American personnel re-
placed by lower-paid French and
German engineers. This prospect has
still not entirely registered with the
unionized production men on_ the
West Coast, to whom the Common
Market concept has seemed far away
indeed. When I talked with one
aviation local in Southern California,
the president interrupted me to say:
“Hell, we ought to fix this thing be-
fore it goes too far. We'll be left with
just a bunch of white-collar brain-
trusters out here, and you can bet
your life they won’t be organized.”
He may very well be correct. There
are no signs that the international
leadership of the unions in this sec-
tor has projected the future at all,
or even hinted at the possibility of
a devastating cut in the employ-
ment capacity of the artificially
stimulated aircraft corporations.
While many labor leaders still
seem unable to jerk out of their fro-
zen cold-war posture, the managerial
braintrusters are starting to run
rings around them, Chief among the
re-locators is Lockheed Aircraft, now
a heavy investor in Aeronautica —
ee
NATION
y
p
é
PWitechi S.A.’ of’ Yealy, which: wil
produce a Lockheed-designed light
utility aircraft. Soon Lockheed ex-
pects the Indian government to de-
cide to produce a Lockheed turbo-
prop transport under license. At the
same time, it has persuaded the
Japanese government spectacularly
to reverse a series of decisions ap-
proving production of the Grumman
F11F-1F interceptor in favor of the
Lockheed F-104C (cost: $1,200,000
each). The first F-104C will not
emerge from the Japanese plants un-
til the end of 1962, and the produc-
tion run will not be complete until
the end of 1965 — just around the
time when the whole series will be
blatantly obsolescent.
But, useless or not, they might
have been built in U.S. shops.
United Aircraft has gone one bet-
ter: it has bought a 10.9 per cent
interest in the nationalized French
SNECMA organization, which builds
airframes and engines. SNECMA
will make Pratt and Whitney en-
gines under a nine-year license, and
have a United Aircraft man on its
state-controlled board of directors.
This loss of work extends into the
missile-manufacturing — field, too.
France is demanding her own IRBM,
besides the Raytheon/U.S. Army
Hawk ground-to-air missile system
which she is already making in part-
nership with West Germany, Bel-
gium, Italy and Holland. It seems
that the U.S. Secretary of Defense,
Thomas Gates, is trying to head this
off by promising “full assistance” to
an integrated NATO program for
a “European IRBM.” This may not
pir Ths.
if
:
x,
satisfy de Gaulle. For the French have
had an organization called SEREB
for over two years. This is conduct-
ing research and development on
several types of ballistic vehicles to
perfect their very own SSBS (sol-
sol ballistique strategique) for de-
ployment in numbers by 1967.
SEREB is connected with a major
Franco-German effort at St. Louis
(on the Swiss border), which car-
ries out basic rocket research.
This, in turn, will hammer down
employment in the U.S. missiles
factories — even if the cold war
continues.
LITTLE of this seems to be appre-
ciated by American labor leaders,
perhaps because they have become
so adjusted to the climate of the
cold war that they cannot envisage
arms manufacturing at a much re-
duced level. Yet the recent cancella-
tion of the B-70 bomber program
may be a straw in the wind. How-
ever, there is still major reliance
upon the feeling that the radical
technologies, always under develop-
ment in aviation’s search for ever
higher performance, are so important
to general industrial progress that
any administration will provide
funds to buttress weakened com-
pany structures.
The argument seems to be danger-
ously illusory, even though Dr. D.
V. Holmes of Douglas Aircraft re-
cently told the Institute of Aero-
nautical Science that at least 14
million man-hours would be needed
for the development of a supersonic
jet transport, and the program cost
could run as high as $2 billion. He
said straightforwardly that military
assistance, or some other form of
government subsidy, is a prerequi-
site for the project. But even state
support for such a scheme could not
reverse the trend towards a smaller
work force. In Britain, the unions
have accepted that the industry will
be reduced to a “normal,” though
subsidized, condition, and are urg-
ing government planning of alterna-
tive work in the stricken towns. To
this end, they are pressing the gov-
ernment to set up with them and
the managements a Joint Advisory
Council to be chaired by the Min-
ister of Aviation. The purpose would
be to plan and control the rate of
job loss, which has totaled 25,000
in the last two years.
The geographical concentration of
the American plants seems to cry out
for such measures there, too, to pre-
vent chronically under-employed
areas from emerging. Will the unions
involved be apprehensive about such
political action? Certainly many of
the leaders seem opposed to it, but
the rank-and-file strikes me as curi-
ously uninhibited on this count:
their lack of political sophistication
inclines them towards the action
which will be most effective — even
if it has not been tried before. But
it is still disturbing to hear so many
labor opinion-formers talking as if
the world clock had permanently
stopped at 1951, and thinking that
this exempted them from dealing
with the challenges represented by
disarmament coupled with automa-
tion.
GAMBLING, THE “LEGAL: VICE «by niich datow
SINCE the repeal of the Eighteenth
Amendment, America has witnessed
the ascendancy of gambling as a
major concern of public authority.
Indeed, from the emphasis placed on
gambling by prosecutors, legislative
commissions and reform groups, it
/ ELIJAH ADI. OW is Chief Tse of
Bo Municipal Gone: of 3 City on, ‘ile: ‘delin
Boston, 16
would seem that the numbers-writers
and bookmakers provide the only
obstacles to the achievement of an
orderly society. Of course, this is far
from the truth. Today the United
States is experiencing a crime wave
of unprecedented , ons. Every
category of crime
—robberies, crimes
unless checked, a United Stat
ica is overlooked in the oni
given to the evils deriving from —
gambling. If there is a moral crusade —
being waged today, it is a decidedly
lopsided affair, -
Granted that this emphasis is in
part merited: certainly | gambling i is
inextricably involved in the corrup
tion of police
weakening of authority; and surel
and the consequent
eventually must suffer economically
as well as morally from the ascend-
ancy of this parisitic enterprise. Yet
the question remains: “What have
we done to uncover the factors that
have contributed to making gam-
bling in America the evil that it is?”
The answer is, “Nothing.” The truth
is that we tend to shrug off the whole
problem with the phrase, “People
always gambled”—a reaction which
reveals the basic fallacy on which
all rationalizing about gambling in
America rests.
People did not always gamble.
Legalized parimutuel betting is a
comparative newcomer in the United
States. Prior to the advent of the
New Deal, there were few race
tracks; bookmakers operated under
cover, and the patronage they so-
licited was from that group identi-
fied as the “sporting element.” Gam-
bling resorts like Bradley’s at
Newport or Canfield’s at Saratoga
restricted their patronage to a negli-
gible fraction of the community (ad-
mission to either was a mark of social
prestige). There were plenty of low-
grade gambling dives in the country,
but they operated in secret and
catered to a disreputable element—
crap-shooters, card sharps, racketeers.
The general public considered gam-
bling a wicked and evil practice, and
one who made it a profession, or who
wagered for high stakes, was written
off as an undesirable citizen. The
mere possession of a racing form was
sufficient to invite ostracism by re-
spectable people.
Notwithstanding their prejudice
against the gambler, people- then
viewed card-playing as a pastime, or
_ for small stakes, in a charitable spirit.
_ Lawmakers and clergymen who oc-
- casionally denounced even this much
gambling were branded as “narrow
186
—s
backs” and “kill joys.
sense, the tolerance was justified,
since there were few ill effects from
the gambling which then prevailed.
It presented no serious threat to the
stability of our social or economic
order.
Today, millions of people spend
a considerable part of their time
studying racing forms, and several
billion dollars a year are bet at the
legally supervised race tracks in the
United States, not to mention the
vast sums which pass through the
hands of bookmakers and numbers-
writers. Gambling is one of our major
industries. To what can we attribute
this strange transformation?
The “numbers racket” was born
in the Prohibition era and grew to
great size even before the Eighteenth
Amendment was repealed. It owed
its growth to the fact that the em-
phasis on enforcement of Prohibition
diverted the attention of the authori-
ties from violations of law in other
directions. This made things easy
for the police, who could, with im-
punity, provide protection for the
promoters of the racket. As a matter
of fact, fortunes were made out of
the numbers even before the exist-
ence of the racket became known.
Then, when Prohibition was repeal-
ed, the horde that had lived on its
illicit gains turned eagerly to this
new and promising field.
WITH THE advent of the depres-
sion, many measures were suggested
for the alleviation of distress, and
among them was the legalizing of
gambling in the form of either pari-
mutuel betting or bingo. The sug-
gestions appeared to be sponsored
by well-meaning citizens, but the
truth is that the money that financed
the legalizing of parimutuel betting
in legislatures around the country
came from ex-bootleggers and racket-
eers. (A few of the better type of
citizens — some horse-lovers, others
interested in welfare programs which
depended on new taxes—also sup-
ported the measures, but they were
speedily disillusioned and disappear-
” In a certain ©
amazing number of legalized pari-
‘mutuel tracks, both horse and dog,
ed from the picture.). Since 1933, an a
have appeared, and with them, jai-
alai games. Of late, the trotters are
sharing the spotlight with the run-
ners, and one of the issues now
under discussion in state capitals is
not whether gambling should be for-
bidden, but whether the chartered
racing clubs should get more racing
dates. What was once branded as
wicked and sinful, today has the
sanction of government; where the
maintenance of a gambling nuisance
was once an indictable offense, to-
day a state racing commission super-
vises the horse and dog tracks, and
the state receives its share of the
profits. It is no longer a sin to gam-
ble at an authorized track; it is still
a crime to place your bet with a
bookie who has not received a char-
ter from the state.
TO ALL this must be added the fact
that many churches and_ fraternal
organizations raise funds by conduct-
ing lotteries and bingo games—some-
times with public sanction, at other
times clandestinely. What was once
a sin has been given a certificate of
good character by public authority
and by people who enjoy respectable
status in the community.
Is it any wonder that gambling
thrives in America?
It is estimated that the business
of the bookmakers and numbers-
writers equals, if it does not exceed,
that done at legalized parimutuel
tracks. A great many tax-conscious
citizens have gone so far as to sug-
gest legalizing off-track betting, and
there is considerable support for
state lotteries as an antidote for the
numbers racket. Either expedient
would serve only to intensify the
gambling mania and make bad con-
ditions worse.
Experts on crime tell us that cor-
rupt politicians and corrupt police-
men are primarily to blame for the
prevalence of bookies and numbers-
writers. Many denounce the judges
of our courts for being lenient. But
hardly any of these experts take into
consideration the crux of the situa-
tion—the juries that are called upon
to convict before anyone can be sent
to jail. In Massachusetts policemen
have arrested countless bookies and
The Navion
% x
, -
erry
years. Judges have sentenced many
to jail. In very few instances have
the defendants accepted the sen-
tence; almost invariably they have
appealed and in practically every
instance juries have acquitted them
(jury trials in such appeals are pro-
_ vided by Massachusetts law). I can
personally testify to this phenomenon
from records accumulated in my own
court. é
IT IS well to keep in mind that
the law violator does not put his
faith in juries alone. Before he ever
faces a jury, there are factors upon
which he can count to help him beat
the law. First and foremost, there
are well-disposed policemen, whose
indifference often practically guaran-
tees him immunity from prosecution.
Then there is the difficulty of gath-
ering evidence against him. Except
for those monstrous raids staged
for the edification of the public,
which rarely result in any victory
for law enforcement, most bookies
. are brought into court on the basis
[EIEN LE TE
of police searches conducted in a
manner that ignores considerations
of due process. (Why is it that the
defendants brought into court are
rarely big-name racketeers, but al-
‘most always small-time operators of
no importance whatever? To this
perplexed judge, it almost seems as
though they are stooges thrown to
the lions as a token tribute to law
enforcement. )
MISSION TO SOMOZALAND ee by James L. Busey
ONE WOULD suppose the Depart-
ment of State must have learned
| something from the fairly recent en-
_ tanglements of Ambassador Smith
with the Batista regime. It would
~ be reasonable to expect that Latin
science at the University of Colora~
do, and visited Nicaragwa on a
search im Central America -
JAMES L. BUSEY teaches political
oF aculty Fellowship award for re- fan
boa
isnt. vs
In this
public clamor
increases for stricter enforcement of
the gambling laws, and the legisla-
tures around the country have set
about to provide it by requiring jail
sentences for second offenders. In
1957, the Massachusetts Legislature
setting,
passed such a law; since then, only
one man has gone to jail under it.
Will the law abate the gambling
evil? I am not too optimistic about
the prospects.
It is rather remarkable that laws
designed to insure more severe pun-
ishment rarely achieve anything. In
1951, the Federal Wagering Stamp
Law went into effect. Since then,
arrests for registering bets and pro-
moting lotteries have fallen off over
50 per cent in Massachusetts. This
does not mean that 50 per cent of
the operators have retired from busi-
ness; it simply means that the busi-
ness has been conducted with more
care, and more attention to protec-
tion, than before. There can be no
doubt that vigorous Jaw enforce-
ment will in the end “exhaust” some
of the bookies, but it will never ex-
haust all of them. While the threat
of jail may frighten a few, most are
unafraid. After all, a bookie is a
gambler, and the record of our juries
is enough to give him a feeling that
he has better than a sporting chance
of beating the law.
Severity of punishment has failed
as a deterrent for crime even where
the crime is generally abhorred. Is
it not futile to expect that the pas-
America’s frequent protests against
alleged U.S. affection for dictators
would have had some impact by
now on our diplomatic practices in
this hemisphere.
Apparently not, at least in Nicara-
gua.
Next to the. bizarre Trujillo tyr-
Guard, or ‘Army. F hes
io 000,000. Ne araguans who have b been
sage of more severe laws will secure
more convictions by juries which
were reluctant to enforce a more
lenient code? Remember, gambling othe
is no longer sinful or wicked; the €
state has legalized it. hae
THIS is not to deny that gambling *
is a serious menace to America to- aw
day. How are we going to abate the
evil? Surely not by chartering more
horse and dog tracks, more trotting
parks; not by giving more racing
dates to Pircdred', charter holders. It
is vain, perhaps, to look for complete aa
reform, but the gambling mania
should abate with the reduction of
the extent to which gambling is le-
galized.
If we really want to control the
bookies and the numbers-writers, we hag
should reveal a greater capacity for
controlling ourselves. Fewer race
tracks, fewer racing dates, less racing
news will mean less business for the
professional gambler; and less busi-
ness for him means fewer bookies.
Today the climate is favorable to re
gambling as an industry. If the in- a
dustry is to be curbed, the conditions ond
under which it thrives must be cor-
rected, and the public generally, and
onlte. authorities in particular, can
do their share to correct them.
Somoza and his brother, Anastasio
Somoza, Jr., who have shared power
since the assassination of their father
in September, 1956. Luis, a civilian,
is the President; Anastasio, a mil-
itary man, is head of the National
cd
The opposition circulates typical
anti-dictator ‘Feports about the bru-
tality and corruption of the Somozas.
Dr. Guillermo Urbina Vasquez, a
leftist, asserts: that the personal for-
tune of Le is no less than $300,_-
‘Ss eS ee
close to the Somoza family have
given me even higher figures. Acad-
emicians confirm that the Somoza
wealth is very great. Charles W.
Anderson of the University of Wis-
consin, who wrote an excellent, ob-
jective summary of the background
of the Somoza dictatorship (Canadi-
an Forum, August, 1959), gave
$150,000,000 as a conservative esti-
mate of the family’s fortune. He
quite accurately reported that most
foreign transport by air and _ sea,
and about 10 per cent of the coun-
try’s arable land, belong to the Somo-
za clan.
Pedro Joaquin Chamorro, of the
conservative opposition to the dic-
tatorship, writes in his Estirpe San-
grienta: Los Somoza (Mexico, 1957)
on the torment undergone by polit-
ical prisoners (he had been one him-
self). He tells of elegant zoological
gardens adjacent to the Presiden-
tial palace, where some cages con-
tained African lions — and adjacent
cages housed political prisoners,
several of whom he names.
There are signs that Luis Somoza,
if not his brother, would like to
liberalize his rule; but it seems quite
likely that the Somoza dynasty —
es |
oe)
BEVIEWOKS.
STaNE
WUSTARY
COILMG
(rrrrnen,
n Tae ae
aad
a pee we
which ex-President José Figueres of |
Costa Rica would call a “hereditary
satrapy” will eventually disap-
pear. When the debacle comes, will
Latin American public opinion again
deem the United States to have
been clearly on the side of a dis-
credited dictatorship? Present evi-
dence indicates that this will be the
case. What is worse, the United
States is doing nothing to correct
the impression.
CRITICS of the Somozas differ po-
litically among themselves. Dr. Gui-
lermo Urbina Vasquez, president of
the Junta Revolucionaria, obviously
taking his cue from Castro, promises
to shoot all Nicaraguans who have
contributed in “greater or lesser de-
gree” to support of the Somoza re-
gime, and to include Communists
in a seven-member coalition cabinet.
Dr. Enrique Lacayo Farfan, Jefe of
the Umdén Nacional Opositora
(UNO), is as determined as anyone
to be rid of the Somoza rule, but is
more conservative. Whatever their
political differences, however, all
anti-Somoza leaders, and all Central
Americans | have interviewed on the
subject, charge that U.S. Ambas-
| AECACEMY
ain ae >
ya
.. ae “eR >
sador Thomas FE. Whelan is inextri-
cably involved with the dynasty.
In Chamorro’s book, it is alleged
that Ambassador Whelan has par-
ticipated in social functions in a
salon looking out upon the cages
which confined some of Somoza’s po-
litical opponents. Emilio Borge Gon-
zalez, exiled professor of law of the
University of Leén, wrote in a schol-
arly Costa Rican quarterly that Mr.
Whelan “acts as a propaganda agent
for the Somoza brothers.” Time, in
its issue of October 1, 1956, described
the Ambassador as “a poker-playing
personal friend of Somoza” (the ref-
erence was to the assassinated dic-
tator).
There are two curious facts about
our diplomatic representation in
Nicaragua. The first has to do with
the physical location of our Embas-
sy there. The second is related to
Ambassador Whelan’s long tenure of
office.
One cannot say much about the
Somoza dictatorship without talking
about La Loma de Tiscapa (or La
Loma, as it it popularly called), a
great hill that looms above the
streets of Managua. Official govern-
ment offices, including the Palacio
Nacional, which houses the Nicara-
guan Congress, are located in vari-
ous parts of the capital. But the
actual command post of the dynasty
is at La Loma. On its topmost ridge
are the huge, ostentatious homes of
the Somoza brothers, commanding a
view that extends over substantial-
ly all parts of the city. The mansion
to the west belongs to Luis, the
President; the other — literally a
castle complete with towers and tur-
rets — is the home of Anastasio of
the National Guard. To the south —
behind the palaces — La Loma drops
off precipitously into La Laguna de
Tiscapa, a deep crater lake. In front
of the mansions, to the north, the
descent to the streets of Managua
is less steep. Sentry boxes guard the
approaches, and soldiers are every-
where. Halfway down the slope is
a long, east-west wall with gun em-
placements, to keep back the rabble.
There is an elegant Casino Militar,
or Officers’ Club; a large field, and
an ornamental T’ribuna Monumental,
or parade reviewing stand, Ml the | q
buildings and grounds are protectec
by aesusity regu latio Ns; 0 ce V |
i ere
in
>} eo = a ee ae eet a a oa
a a ee i ee ee
the borders of a boulevard that en-
circles the area, one must have offi-
cial permission to take photographs.
The widow of assassinated Anas-
tasio Somoza, Sr., lives in a relative-
ly modest home — modest, that is,
by Somoza standards — within the
edges of La Loma, below and to the
east of the Somoza brothers’ palaces.
Outside the charmed circle, but
bordering on the boulevard, are
homes of National Guard officers.
Nearby, also immediately outside
the area of La Loma, are the huge
walls and grounds of the Academia
Militar, as well as the offices of the
police.
A few foreign embassies, notably
the French and Dominican, are with-
in a short distance of the security
area of La Loma, but most are in
other areas of the city. Not so
the Embassy of the United States,
which occupies a large building with-
in the restricted circle of La Loma,
not over twenty feet from the home
of Senora Somoza. With the reser-
vation that Eisenhower is no Somo-
za, it is as though the Nicaraguan
Embassy in the United States were
situated on the President’s Gettys-
burg farm. To all appearances, the
U.S. Embassy in Managua is either
an outbuilding of the Somoza estate,
or vice versa.
The reports current in Latin
America of our intimate relationship
with the Somoza regime may or may
not be true; the point is that most
Central Americans believe them.
And it would appear that in its
choice of an embassy location, the
United States is doing what it can
to confirm the belief.
IF THE location of our embassy
seems odd, the tenure of our Ambas-
sador is even odder. Thomas E.
Whelan has served in Managua long-
er than any other U.S. diplomatic
chief-of-mission has served at_ his
present post anywhere on earth. My
compilation of data from the Foreign
Service List of October, 1959, indi-
cates that sixty-eight of our eighty-_
three chiefs-of-mission have held
their present posts only since 1957;
ten of the remainder were ap-
pointed i in 1956, three in 1955, one
in 1954, none in 1953 or 1952. ‘Only
one — Thomas E. Whelan’ in Man-
T: a — has been soutind Nate 1951.
ar)
7
Mr. Whelan, a Republican from
North Dakota, was appointed to
Managua by a Democratic Presi-
dent, Mr. Truman. The unusual ap-
pointment needed some explanation,
and Time (August 6, 1951) offered
one: Mr. Truman wanted to reward
Republican Senator Wilham Langer
of North Dakota for having furnished
crucial support.
In response to my request for an
explanation of this long tenure, Wal-
lace W. Stuart, Deputy Director of
Personnel, Department of State,
wrote me on December 16. His “ex-
planation” was that “all ambassadors
are appointed by the President, by
and with the consent of the Senate,
and are commissioned by him to
‘serve during the pleasure of the
President of the United States’ ”;
that Mr. Whelan was appointed by
President Truman on July 28, 1951,
and reappointed by President Eisen-
hower on February 26, 1953; and
that Mr. Whelan “continues to serve
as Ambassador to Nicaragua at the
‘pleasure of the President of the
United States.’” Mr. Stuart added
that “Ambassador Whelan’s tenure
in Nicaragua sets no precedent,” and
cited the cases of Claude G. Bowers,
Ambassador to Chile from June,
1939, to August, 1953, and of Harold
Tittmann who, while not at one post
as long as Mr. Whelan, “was Ambas-
sador to Peru for nearly seven years
from June, 1948, until March,
1955.” Mr. Stewart commented that
“from four to six years’ service as
ambassador to one country is not
uncommon for United States am-
bassadors throughout the world.”
Mr. Whelan is now well into his ninth
year in Managua.
Mr. Stuart concluded by writing
that “I hope that this information
will be helpful in explaining the
length of Ambassador Whelan’s serv-
ice in Nicaragua.” Most Latin Amer-
icanists would say that the “explana-
tion” was not particularly helpful.
There may be some personal rea-
son why Mr. Whelan must remain in
Nicaragua: if so, it would seem that
the United States Go
find some other use a] employment
for him in Managua. Or it may be
relevant that Dr. Guillermo Sevilla
ee ae an assador to
Washington diplomatic corps. Still,
there is no protocol requirmg the
reciprocal retention of Mr. Whelan
in Managua; and in any case, if this
were indeed a factor, there is nothing
to prevent personnel officers from
saying so.
Managua
fested with
is hot, muggy and in-
mosquitoes as well as
Somozas, and few would relish the
post; but considering some other
spots to which foreign service per-
sonnel are assigned, this is of course
no bar to finding a replacement for -
Mr. Whelan.
It may be that the Ambassador is
quite popular with the Somoza fam-
ily, and that the Nicaraguan Gov-
ernment wants him to stay.
No rational person expects an am-
bassador to be openly hostile to the
regime to which he is accredited.
But in Nicaragua we have a clear-
cut case of the United States ob-
durately retaining one whom Central
Americans widely believe is playing
footsy with a hated dictatorship. In
the face of the Smith-Batista reve-
lations, and the widespread Latin
American impression that this is
precisely the way the United States
conducts itself with dictators, the
State Department should either ex-
plain or correct the Nicaraguan dip-
lomatic situation.
Or if that is impossible, we might
at least move our embassy to some
other part of Managua.
LETTERS
(Continued from inside front cover)
asylums. Today we go to movies and
the theatre. People will pay up to $3.00
tc see first-run films and up to $10.00
for a Broadway show. Since the do-
mestic relations court is at least as en-
‘tertaining as the latest Broadway prod-
uct, seats at a divorce trial might be
scaled up to $10.00. Higher prices
would be reserved for murder trials,
and a premium price could be charged
for the “crime of passion”
as the Finch trial in Los Angeles.
_ Since the representatives of the press —
-and entertainment world are making
hay from rae. on trial for their eh 5;
get its cut.
JOANNE Forman” ;
San Francisco, Calif.
cases, such —
7c. Tek. Ree eS,
A Man with a Grievance
THE MASTERPIECE AND THE
MAN: Yeats As I Knew Him. By
Monk Gibbon. Fhe Macmillan Co.
226 pp. $4.50.
Frank
MONK GIBBON is a poet who came to
fame largely because of a speech by
Stanley Baldwin, the pipe-smoking king-
maker of Great Britain, who in the in-
tervals of deposing and creating mon-
archs, liked to do the same for novelists
and poets. Like other young poets of
Trish birth, Mr. Gibbon sent his poems to
W.B. Yeats, and Yeats, always courteous
to young writers, wrote him a couple of
letters of encouragement and criticism.
Yeats was just forming his Irish Acad-
emy of Letters and, feeling that he was
by nature and upbringing an academi-
cian, Mr. Gibbon resolved to court the
older man’s favor. When Yeats next
asked him to his house, Mr. Gibbon held
his tongue, though Yeats said several
things he disagreed with. When the
company discussed whether or not
George Moore was impotent, Mr. Gib-
bon even refrained from revealing his
own special knowledge. “I could have
made my own interesting contribution
to the symposium by revealing that
J. P. O’Reilly had whispered to me one
evening at Rathgar Avenue not so long
before that he was quite sure that Yeats
himself was now impotent.” This would
certainly have been an interesting con-
tribution to Yeats’s symposium, and I
almost find myself regretting the good
breeding that suppressed it.
But even good breeding like Mr. Gib-
bon’s was not enough. Yeats did not
make him an academician. Mr. Gibbon
was a friend of the poet, A.E. (George
Russell), and “A.E.’s protégés were al-
ways anathema to W.B.” Besides, Yeats
resented contradiction and _ opposition.
There was the story of Seumas O’Sulli-
O’Connor
van, for instance. He and Yeats had
quarreled. There was a_ reconciliation,
and O’Sullivan became a member of the
, Council of the Academy, but “Seumas
. . Was never cut out for the part of
FRANK O'CONNOR is one of the
great contemporary Irish storytellers.
ha latest book is Kings, Laney, & Com-
' Prince; graceful as a faleon,
Hear what he did last of ; ile
a Og his way out of this:
yes-man in Council meetings. In a very
short time Yeats was doing his best to
rid himself of this difficult customer;
was striking the table pontifically with
his hand and exclaiming ‘We must have
a unanimous Council’: and_ presently
Seumas was off the Council and peace
presumably reigned once more.”
Nor did malice end with the failure to
make Mr. Gibbon an academician. Yeats
was producing some song sheets at his
own private press and failed to include
any by Mr. Gibbon. He was editing the
Oxford Book of Modern Verse, but
though Mr. Gibbon carefully dumped
his collected work on the poet’s wife,
none of it appeared. Worse, in Mr. Gib-
bon’s presence, Yeats said to Oliver
Gogarty, “ ‘Oh, Gogarty, I’m doing this
Cambridge (sic) Book of Modern Verse
and I don’t want to overlook anything
of yours. Have I got all your books?’
As i 1
Another Ballade
(from the French of Francois Villon)
Here ends the testament,
Here it finishes, of poor Villon.
Come to his burial
When you hear the bells ringing,
Come dressed in red and purple,
For he died a martyr of love;
He swore to this on his belly
On his way out of this world.
And I am sure he did not lie,
For he was chased like a slut
By his spiteful loves,
So that from here to Rousillon
There isn’t a broom or a brush
That hasn’t (he tells the truth)
Torn some patch from his back
On his way out of this world.
This is how it was, so much so
That when he died he had only a rag;
Furthermore, as he died, the spurs of
Love
Savagely cut into him;
Worse than the sharp nails
Of shoulder-belts did they make him
suffer
(And this is what we marvel at)
On his way out of this rid,
He drained a bottle ol
my wile who is the last person in the
world to read malice into anyone else’s
action — a look, almost a leer in my
direction, as though it were his deliber-
ate intention to wound me.” Can the
reader bear any further examples of
Yeats’s brutality? There was the oc-
casion when Mr. Gibbon deliberately
stood in the foyer of the Abbey Theatre
while the poet was there, and waited
for Yeats to speak to him first. Did
Yeats speak to him first? He did not!
“Yeats was extremely short-sighted and
may not have seen me. I rather think
that he did.”
HOW revealing those last two sentences
are! How perfectly they describe the
true collector of grievances for whom no
grievance is too small! And how these
grievance men all stick together, all
swapping spiteful gossip and immature
judgments, from J. P. O’Reilly to that
eminent critic Liam Brophy, who said
of Yeats that “he went after black
magic, spurned the popular cause and
denounced patriotism.” Many of the
personal matters Gibbon writes
about from hearsay I knew of at first
hand, like the council meetings at which
Yeats is supposed to have struck the
table “pontifically with his hand” (our
main trouble at these was to bring the
members together in a_ condition of
relative sobriety), and Mr. Gibbon
simply gets everything about them
wrong. Yeats did not choose his aca-
demicians himself; A.E.’s friends were
not “always anathema’ to ye) a
was considerably closer to A.E. than
Mr. Gibbon, and Yeats was a very good
friend to me. He did not resent con-
tradiction, nor did he always override
opposition. | contradicted and opposed
him in a way that is possible only to a
young provincial with little experience
of good society, and though he some-
times very properly resented it, he never
ceased to do me little kindnesses. The re-
mark, “I must smooth him down,” which
Mr. Gibbon uses as a lettmotif to rep-
resent Yeats’s low cunning, was not used
to L. A. G. Strong but to me; and it
was his reply to a rebuke for his be-
havior to A.E. — not a very overbear-
ing reply from a man of European rep-
utation to a young man who didn’t
know how to behave himself, “much less
teach his superiors to do so. |
1 wish that wi phages the great
7
aS
Pe
had the last word. Out of two letters,
three meetings and four grievances he
has managed to extract a. book of 226
pages, the royalties from which should
amply compensate him for his wounded
feelings. But I am afraid he has only
encouraged others less talented than
himself. Reviewing this book in the
London Spectator, a Dublin critic com-
pared Yeats with a Bronx ward boss
and discovered that in the poetry Yeats
i os sie ea
+ ge LA
Se fa,
himself had confessed to his gangsterism.
He quoted, “He that’s mounting higher
must on his neighbour mount,” assum-
ing — quite correctly, I fear — that
no reader of the Spectator would re-
member how the sentence ends — “And
we and all the Muses are things of no
account.” That we and the muses are
things of no acount is, I fear, the only
lesson we can learn from members of the
Grievance Club.
The Revolutionary Century
THE AGE OF THE DEMOCRATIC
REVOLUTION: A Political History
of Europe and America, 1760-1800.
Vol. I: “The Challenge.” By R. R.
Palmer. Princeton University Press.
534 pp. $7.50.
Bruce Mazlish
THE philosophes of the eighteenth cen-
tury thought that history was “philos-
ophy teaching by example.” R. R.
Palmer’s The Age of the Democratic
Revolution suggests rather that history
is example teaching philosophy. Mr.
Palmer’s subjects are: (1) the nature
of public authority, 1 in which he treats
of such topics as liberty, equality, sov-
ereignty and democracy; and (2) the
nature of revolution, or the breakdown
of existing authority and the substitu-
tion of new authority. Throughout, he
is concerned with the political theories
of liberalism and conservatism.
His major thesis is that in the eight-
eenth century it is possible to talk of
an “Atlantic Civilization,’ and to see
that this “whole civilization was swept
. .. by a single revolutionary move-
ment, which manifested itself in dif-
ferent ways and with varying success
in different countries, yet in all of
them showed similar objectives and prin-
ciples.” The movement which swept
both Europe and America was the
“democratic movement,” and it fought
on one side against aristocracy and on
the other against absolutism.
The author’s thesis is not simple,
however, and it is not one-sided. It was
not only democratic feeling that was on
the march; there was an aristocratic
movement as well. The “constituted
bodies,” those who claimed political
power and office by hereditary right, |
and as private property, were resurgent
af
BRUCE MAZLISH is co-
J. Pe of The Western Intellec-
7 i
author with 2 early America. Thus, 1
; that il bes I
everywhere in the eighteenth century,
pressing their claims as an attack and
not merely as a defense against both
Kings and Peoples. It is one of Mr.
Palmer’s virtues that he points this out
in emphatic terms—historians like Le-
febvre had already done it for the French
Revolution—and demonstrates it as a
movement of eighteenth-century West-
ern civilization. In the light of this
movement, topics such as elites, social
stratification, liberty, equality and the
law take on depth and dimension. Fur-
ther, Mr. Palmer is “present-minded”;
he inserts sharp contemporary references
to neo-conservatives and the like.
MR. PALMER’s political history is a
work of synthesis, a comparative study
which transcends national histories and
finds its materials equally in the Geneva
of Rousseau and the Hapsburg Em-
pire of Joseph II, which deftly juxtaposes
social upheavals in Belgium, Holland,
England, Ireland, Poland, America and
France to develop its major themes.
One such theme is that the contribu-
tion of the first major revolution—the
American—was twofold: a new idea,
that the people actually create and con-
trive the government; and a new insti-
tution, the constitutional convention,
which implements the idea. It was this
idea-institution which made the con-
cept of sovereignty of the people spring
into life from the paper on which it was
written. The Western world now tends
to take these ideas for granted; they
were by no means “self-evident” for
men of the eighteenth century. Mr.
Palmer insists, correctly, that the Amer-
ican Revolution was a revolution, and
that conservatives like Burke and others
after him simply express their general
distaste for revolution | when they try
to sponge away the “taint” attached to
-y blur the real
Sora characterist f Atlantic civi-
zation in the eight re n ntur
It is the “logic oO
e does not
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Frese
believe that the French or any other
cighteenth-century revolution arose from
a “conspiracy of ideas” or from the
willful ambitious men. Revo-
lutions when “confidence in the
justice or reasonableness of existing au-
thority is undermined. . In such a
situation the sense of community is
lost, and the bond between social classes
turns to jealousy and frustration.” Mr.
Palmer treats conflict in terms of actual
persons and groups, and not in terms of
abstract Thus, Rousseau and
Burke are seen emerging from a_ real
Geneva and a real England, and their
ideas are discussed in relation. to the
conerete circumstances which they hoped
to alfeet by their thoughts and actions.
drives of
arise
ideas.
IDEOLOGY is therefore subdued, but
not ignored, in Mr. Palmer’s account.
He suggests that it was not the Social
Contract but the exigencies of govern-
mental taxation (provoked by wars, like
the Seven Years’ War) which gave
energy to the events leading to revolu-
tion. (The role of tax systems as sparks
to social action is a theme sorely neglect-
ed by historians.) And he is severe with
people who turn specific issues into far-
reaching generalization; for example,
Burke who, in an orgy of disproportion,
warned that the election of Parliament
Single copy 10c;
50 or more, 40% discount.
OTHER BASIC PAMPHLETS BY CORLISS LAMONT,
available at same price:
No. 10—The Right to Travel
No. 11—To End Nuclear Bomb Tests
No, 12—A Peace Program for the U.S.A.
BASIC PAMPHLETS, Dept. N |
Box 42, Cathedral Station, New York 25, N.Y.
every three years instead of every seven
would see “society dissolved, industry
interrupted, ruined . . . morals vitiated
and gangrened in the vitals.”
In Mr. Palmer’s view, the logic of
the situation made revolution in France
not only necessary, but necessarily vio-
lent. “Moderate revolution was eminent-
ly desirable, but 1t was not one of the
possible choices.” Historians can debate
this view; but one need not agree with
it to be impressed by the power of the
author’s presentation. His history is
“tragic” history—and the reader is con-
vinced that what happened wnder the
circumstances had to happen that way.
A conflict of groups, a breakdown. of
the “sense of community,” these added
up in the eighteenth century to a revo-
lutionary situation. The real tragedy,
to use the word in another sense, is that
it need not have been that way: a feel-
ing of compromise, of true conservatism,
on the part of the upper orders might
have made for reform and not revolu-
tion. But this, according to Mr. Palmer’s
account, 1s to suppose other actors and
other events than the times provided.
Mr. Palmer’s tragic view of history
can be contrasted with the disdain held
in some quarters for the notion of his-
torical inevitability. Without attempt-
ing to settle the philosophical issue, I sug-
Around the
WORLD
in 30 minutes!
In ‘‘My Trip Around the World’’
CORLISS LAMONT presents a Humanist
philosopher’s refreshingly unorthodox im-
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lish college gardens... Art treasures of Flor-
ence and Athens... Soviet postwar recovery
... Tea-time at a Soviet collective farm...
Cow worship in India . .. Poverty and India’s
Five-Year Plans... Hiroshima: After-effects
of the A-bomb... World peace and human
brotherhood. (Reading time: 30 minutes.)
7 copies 50c; 15 copies $1.00;
(With Margaret Lamont)
what by now ought to be obvious,
but is not: that the revolutionary sitwa-
tion of the twentieth century, though dif-
ferent from that of the eighteenth ¢en-
tury, is no less revolutionary. To gen-
eralize from Mr. Palmer’s ideas, we in
the West (the old regime?) will not
avoid these revolutions, which frequent-
ly may be adverse to us, if we merely
fulminate against them and their lead-
ers, support the conservative forces, and
rely on the winning of men’s minds.
Unless we deal with the underlying re-
alities, the logic of the situation, revo-
lution may indeed be inevitable—and
tragic. We cannot beg off from the task
by plaintively asserting that our role
can at best be small. That is true, in
part. But as Mr. Palmer shows, the de-
cisive fact in almost all the revolutions
in the small countries of eighteenth-
century Europe, as in the American
Revolution, was the intervention, armed
or otherwise, of the large powers.
The present volume, “The Challenge,”
is the first of a two-volume work, and
carries the story to about 1791 and the
outbreak of war. One wonders whether
in the second volume, “The Struggle,”
Mr. Palmer will be more interested in
the totalitarian implications of Rous-
seau’s ideas, which he plays down in the
present volume; whether he will be more
concerned with the threat of democratic
tyranny, a threat which may not have
been merely an obsession of conserva-
tives and counter-revolutionaries, but
itself a part of the logic of the situation.
Making It Hot
THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN. By Terry
Southern, Random House. 148 pp. $3.
Nelson Algren
GUY GRAND, the last of the great
spenders, spends ten millions a year in-
dulging his special attitude toward peo-
ple — one he expresses as “making it
hot for them.”
With some 180 millions in ready cash, —
he is endowed with an imagination
equally ready. Entering the — big-car
field, he makes quite a splash with a
convertible longer and wider than the
largest Greyhound bus, one with a
great “gang’s-all-here” seat in the back
capable of accommodating twelve var-
sity crewmen abreast in roomy comfort,
Billing this monster as one with “lady-
like lines on a he-eman hunk of car,”
Grand neglects to mention that the ma-
NELSON ALGREN is the author of
The Man with the Golden Arm and A |
Walk'on the Wild Side. 5 Aer A Aapieiy !
i »% West ’
¥ mS ful 2 AT gi)
Ns ir a the I Cid
i * + f d i ie
cy
7
chine’s turning-are is greater than the
distance between opposing buildings.
Thus, when four of them, are driven
from display windows into midtown
Manhattan at the rush hour, all four
become wedged across intersections
leading to Columbus Circle and derricks
have to be brought up from the East
River to unsnarl traffic. This venture
costs Grand a pretty penny; but he
does succeed in making it hot for them.
Shortly after this venture Grand gives
a shock to British white hunters along
the Congo, as well as to a couple of ven-
erable American writers there on safari,
by showing up for a hunting expedition
with a 75 mm. howitzer. “A muzzle
velocity of 12,000 f.p.s.,” he boasts while
patting the field piece affectionately,
“she'll stop anything on this continent
that moves.” Marching at the head of
his safari with his pith helmet obscur-
ing his eyes, he pauses dramatically to
announce, “cat in the bush!” and fires
blindly. The recoil, hurling him forty
feet backward in an unconscious heap,
leaves Grand undaunted. “This baby
packs a man-size recoil!” he announces
and the safari continues, marked only
by an occasional boom, with reverbera-
tions scattering game in all directions
for miles. This expedition, needless to
say, also cost Grand a pretty penny.
A HEAVYWEIGHT title fight billed as
The Battle of The Century so interests
Grand that he buys the boxing com-
mission as well as both fighters’ camps,
his only condition being that the fight
be conducted in a fashion sufficiently
effeminate as to outrage everybody. But
after the champion cries, “I can’t stand
_ it!” and lies in a sobbing tantrum on
the canvas, striking his fists against the
- ring-floor, and the challenger’s hand is
raised in victory, the latter goes too
far by eyeing the referee in a most
questionable manner; it costs Grand, to
clear himself of complicity, another pret-
ty penny. 3
A ‘Other expensive ventures are Grand’s
publication of a newspaper of two mil-
hon circulation containing nothing but
__ readers’ opinions; the introduction of a
black panther at an international dog
_ show; issuance of a portable Do-It-Your-
self D. H. Lawrence; and — his final
coup in making it hot for them — the
launching of the ‘luxury liner Magic
8 Christian.
This is at once the most profoundly
satiric and wildly comi¢ account of our
life and times in years. It is what
Nathanael West might have accom-
plished had he remained undismayed.
But Mr. Southern is going to have
tro ible. A taken, Ste sk to do. so
Paes ee
Second Im pressions
Review of Paperbacks
Robert M. Wallace
India
The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal
Nehru (Anchor, $1.45) is unavoidably
sketchy in its survey of India’s history
but is compelling and useful as a state-
ment of Mr. Nehru’s understanding of
India and its mission. It is largely an
account of his formulation of opinions,
attitudes and modes and bases of action
during 1944 and 1945 while he was a po-
litical prisoner for his part in the “Quit
India” Resolution of 1942. He wrote as
from a Zauberberg with characteristic
detachment, clarity and intensity. Japan
was crumbling and the prospect of a
free India was brightening. A year after
he finished he was Premier of the In-
terim Government and, in 1947, Prime
Minister of the independent nation he
helped bring to birth.
Mr. Nehru is open-minded, generous,
often tentative in his judgments but de-
voted like the Congress Party to “action
based on peaceful methods.” He holds
the upper hand over himself and_ his
material equally when he agrees or dis-
agrees with Gandhi, when he explains
Indian sympathy for the Soviet Union
on the basis of British and French
policy during the twenties, when he
quietly devastates the British for their
hollow promises of freedom. He can wait
and act on principle. He rejects nothing
out of hand. He is eclectic, borrowing
not only from the Hindu and Islamic
elements of Indian culture but from
Western and specifically English science
and technology. He concludes this ex-
ploration of himself and his country with
quotations from Emerson and Lenin.
Action by a contemplative man of so
broad a background is likely to seem
hesitant and indecisive to Westerners.
The Discovery of India is valuable part-
ly in disabusing readers of that notion
or at least in qualifying it.
' The editing by Robert I. Crane some-
what reduces specific details but skill-
fully preserves the original style and
continuity.
~ Shakuntala and Osher. Writings by
Kalidasa, translated by Arthur W.
Ryder, preface by F. L.. Anderson
(Everyman, $1.25). The fifth-century
play which in 1789 was Europe’s intro-
duction to Indian drama, plus shorter
drama, lyri¢ and narfative.
Eastern Religions and Western
i. hought by S. Radhakrishnan (Galaxy,
$2.25 Js ‘Past ee with: pereeestions
(RELAND FREE >
MICHAEL MacLiAMMOIR :
iN REVOLUTIONARY SPEECHES
ANO POEMS OF IRELAND
SPORES
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3. T. S. Eliot—Old Possum’s Book of Prac-
tical Cats
4. Scenes from Shakespeare—Panl Rogers
5). Brendan Behan “sings” Irish Folksongs
6. Sonnets of Shakespeare—Anthony Quayle
. Treasury of German Verse — Henry
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of French Verse — Jean Vilar
8. Dorothy Parker reads ‘Tlorsie’ & poems
D. Synge: ‘Riders to the Sea’ & ‘In the Sha-
dow of the Glen’—Radio Wireann Players
10. Norman Thomas Reminisces
11. Arthur Miller reads from ‘Death of. a
Salesman’ and ‘The Crucible’
12. Treasury of French Drama-—Jean-Lonis
Barrault and Madeleine Renaud (texts)
13. Gaelic Sengs. and Legends—Ann Moray
14. T. §. Eliot: The Wasteland — Robert
Speaight
15. The Poems of Lenore G.
16. Moss ‘Hart—Autobiog.
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18. Raggle-Taggle Gypsy Tales — Walter
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for new Western borrowings from Indian
mysticism.
Buddhism: Its Essence and Develop-
ment by Edward Conze, preface by Ar-
thur Waley (Torchbooks, $1.25) and
Buddhist Scriptures, translated by Ed-
ward Conze (Penguin, 95c). Excellent
comprehensive discussion and_ selected
texts, most of them generally unavyail-
able, stating fundamental Buddhist doc-
trine.
The Way of Zen by Alan W. Watts
(Mentor, 50c) and Yoga by Ernest
Wood (Penguin, 95c). Origins, prin-
ciples, practices and some possible West-
ern applications.
Education
Creative Power: The Education of
Youth in the Creative Arts by Hughes
Mearns (Dover, $1.50), a classic of
“progressive education,” reveals Mearns’s
singular abilities and his principles as
he brought them to bear in 1929 at the
Lincoln School of Teachers College,
Columbia University. Examples of the
children’s writing are perceptive and
moving, and the book conveys the ex-
citement of a successful fresh enterprise.
Letters
A Reader's Guide to James Joyce by
William York Tindall (Noonday, $1.65),
an authoritative handbook considering
all Joyce’s major prose as a consistent
unit, identifies
themes and methods and explains the
texts, Ulysses most extensively.
Literary Reminiscences and Autobio-
graphical Fragments by Ivan Turgenev,
translated, with an introduction by David
Magarshack (Evergreen, $1.95), with
Edmund Wilson’s “Turgenev and the
Life-Giving Drop.” The recollections are
revealing even in their misstatements,
and the apologia for Fathers and Sons,
emphasizing interest in character rather
than dogma, is important to an under-
continuing purposes,
Os standing of Turgenev’s art.
; The Selected Letters of Henry James,
™ Leon Edel, editor (Anchor, 95c). A
sampling of the energy and artistry
_ which James lavished on private and
professional correspondence.
Writers at Work, Malcolm Cowley,
; editor (Compass, $1.45) collects sixteen
— Paris Review interviews with contem-
porary writers of fiction, especially con-
cerning processes of getting a start (often
with a set of characters or a situation)
_ and habits of proceeding from there.
Uniformly lively and interesting.
Rage for Order by Austin Warren
(Ann Arbor, $1.75). Nine closely rea-
soned analyses of the search for order
and its expression in such varied writers
as Edward Taylor, Pope and Kafka,
J ‘
Tyee
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Jane Austen by Elizabeth Jenkins
(Universal, $1.45). Readable, informed,
perceptive full-length study of Jane
Austen’s life and work.
50 Poems (Universal, 95c) and 100
Selected Poems (Evergreen, $1.45) by
E. E. Cummings.
Miscellaneous
This Little Band of Prophets: The
British Socialists by Anne Freemantle
(Mentor, 75c) with great vitality com-
bines personal reminiscence, politics and
economics from the days when Shaw, the
Webbs and their associates began the
Fabian movement.
The Open Mind by J. Robert Oppen-
heimer (Simon & Schuster, $1). Eight
non-technical lectures and papers, 1946-
1954, considering atomic policy and per-
suasively stating ethical, scholarly and
human values for scientists today.
Energy and Society by Fred Cottrell
(McGraw-Hill, $2.95). Interesting anal-
ysis, despite stuffy style, of complex in-
fluences of available energy on the
organization, growth and potential of
societies.
Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich
Harrer (Everyman, $1.45). Stirring ad-
venture, 1943-1950, and revealing experi-
ences in Lhasa, including a brief period
as tutor to the Dalai Lama.
Drama: Famous American Plays of
the 1920s, Kenneth McGowan, editor,
_and Famous American Plays of the
1930s, Harold Clurman, editor (Dell,
Koré
As I was walking
I came upon
chance walking
the same road upon.
As I sat down
by chance to move
later
if and as I might,
light the wood was,
light and green,
and what I saw
before I had not seen.
Tt was a lady
accompanied
by goat men
leading her.
Her hair held earth.
Her eyes were dark.
- A double flute
made her move,
*“O love,
_ where are you
leading
me now?”
Roserr
Te!
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750 ea.). Man and Superman by G. B.
Shaw (Bantam, 50c).
Fiction: Child of Our Time by Michel
del Castillo (Dell, 35c). The Lovely
Lady by D. H. Lawrence (Signet, 35c).
Our Man in Havana and 19 Stories by
Graham Greene (Bantam, 35c, 50c).
Anglo-Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson
(Compass, $1.45). Herself Surprised by
Joyce Cary (Universal, $1.25). Thur-
ber Country by James Thurber (Simon
& Schuster, $1.45). The Portable Russian
Reader (Viking, $1.45). Three Short
Novels of Dostoevsky (Anchor, $1.45).
THEATRE
Harold Clurman
THERE are certain things wrong with
The Deadly Game, a play by James Yaffe
based on a novel by Friedrich Duerren-
matt (Longacre Theatre), but it is
none the less a better than average Broad-
way show. These are loose terms: what
I mean is that the play is not boring;
that, in fact, as a melodrama it offers a
touch of excitement and that it piques
the mind a little.
In its own terms it lacks style both
in writing and in production, and the
central off-stage incident is rather banal.
If, however, I feel impelled to dwell on
the play longer than I usually would, it
is because it provoked ancillary thoughts
—which is perhaps also to be counted
to the play’s credit.
The theme is the guilt man feels to-
day in our society. The moral, as the
inculpated man screams in this play, is
that there is no justice, only law. He is
an American salesman who arrives by
chance at a house in the Swiss Alps
where a retired judge amuses his com-
panions—themselves former jurists—by
playing a game of mock trials challeng-
ing either legendary “defendants” (Judas
Iscariot, St. Joan) or substantial ones
when, as in this case, they find somebody
willing to lend himself to the fun. The
American believes himself wholly inno-
cent of anything worse than infringing
traffic laws or the peccadillo of adultery.
He nonchalantly agrees to pass time as
the “accused” in the old men’s peculiar
sport.
Very rapidly the prosecuting attorney
proves that the salesman induced a fatal
heart attack on his superior at the office
so that he might take over the dead
inan’s coveted job, Through greedy am-
bitiousness the salesman is a semi-con-
scious murderer—though the very notion
fills him with horror, He runs from the
“trial” in terror, for he (and the audi-
» Ai) te wil . ’
' i
i
kala Mien tent Wapiti, Mies ath. > lees ae
rr a er a a ee
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7
1
ence) are not sure whether the people
who tried him are madmen who actually
_ mean to carry out the death sentence
_ they pronounce.
The production is so flatly realistic
(except for Claude Dauphin’s slightly
caricatured but delightfully humorous
defense attorney and Wolfgang Roth’s
setting, which is in itself a handsomely
designed room) that no relevant atmos-
phere is created. If there is a nerve-
tingling ambiguity in the play, the pro-
duction should convey it, but that it
fails to do. Even so, the play itself ought
to disturb us, in the way that Graham
Greene’s entertainments occasionally dis-
turb. Its failure to be more upsetting is
_ the weakness that intrigues me.
THE PLAY’S material, though super-
ficially unusual, is basically stock. And
though it is true that religion, psycho-
analysis and latter-day sociology all em-
phasize the element of guilt in man as
one of the prime motives in his behavior,
one resists the idea when it is presented
in terms that are not in themselves con-
cretely, personally felt.
Differing in origin according to place
and generation, the theme of man’s sense
of guilt exists in Hawthorne, Dostoevsky,
Kafka—to mention only a few. Camus’
The Fall, though dull as narrative, exerts
a strong grip on many of us_be-
cause it is a naked statement of this
_ sentiment in contemporary middle-class
vocabulary. A whole dramatic literature
on the same theme has been developed
_ in France since the war. But while most
_ of these writers are truly imbued and
t oppressed with the feeling they drama-
_ tize, others employ it as a device.
_ The point is particularly worth mak-
_ ing because it involves not only drama
and art in general, but the whole pattern
of our thinking today. At one time we
_ were ashamed of wrongdoing, then we
_ began to confess that our sins were
signs of illness—“we are sick,” we said—
; then we began to exonerate ourselves
,
ee
ae
either on the grounds of social pressure
_ or on the fact of psychological traumas
suffered in childhood, and finally we
have come almost to boast of our de-
_ linquencies—either because we say they
are universal or on the assumption that
our boldness in proclaiming them is
a sign of extraordinary moral courage.
It has come to pass that in many French
plays and movies, for example, the hero
has to be a scoundrel lest we mistake
him for a hypocrite.
_ Duerrenmatt’s earlier play, The Visit,
was telling because the author found sev-
eral striking theatrical images for the
corruption he condemns in society. But
eve min that ; Bi one detects oo
Ree
Se
wh hich begins to ue suburbs in
facility, an artful glibness, asif its “tragic
farcicality” caused no real anguish in
its author or in anyone else. Universal
guilt is the latest commonplace to which
we give automatic consent for the pur-
pose of high-grade discussion and ad-
vanced “art forms.”
One can lie as much with “strong”
drama as with the frivolous; pessimism
can be as hollow as commercial ‘opti-
mism. In a play, as in any other work
of presumed art, authentic statement is
not achieved merely by just conclusions,
but by the degree of genuine experience
we sense in each moment or detail of the
author’s expression. The ends are em-
bodied in the means; the immediate ac-
tion is the clue to the eventual meaning.
ARCHITECTURE
Walter McQuade
LAFAYETTE PARK in downtown De-
troit is a serene but startling city-re-
newal project. It is the antithesis of the
dull housing monuments of our day,
those flat pyramids, those massive clus-
ters in which tall slabs have been sliced
off the standard apartment house cheese,
then grouped together to cast their shade
on stretches of limpid lawn—undeviating
examples of architectural logistics which
lack the design grace of a saltine.
Instead, Lafayette Park—or Lafayette
Plaisance, as it sometimes is murmured
by the proprietors—is a combination, so
far, of one simple but handsome verticle
apartment house slab, in front of which
a group of 185 row houses and court
houses are arranged subtly in twenty-
one separate horizontal structures. The
slab is twenty-two stories high; most of
the row units combine six or ten two-
story houses, with three bedrooms each;
the larger single-story houses, also con-
nected in rows, have two, three or four
bedrooms, and walled-in backyards in
courts. The apartments rent but the
houses are sold as co-ops, for $1,035 to
$1,690 cash down, plus monthly amorti-
zation-taxation charges from $174.52 for
a three-bedroom two-story court house,
up to $284.73 for a four-bedroom single-
story court house, including heat, elec-
tricity, maintenance, parking space and
services. (Another payment plan takes
a larger initial chunk, with smaller
monthly charges.) This i is the kind of
combined house and apartment project
which has long been w od by sociolo-
Ce planners and seat s for rede-
lopment areas; it is an 1 ban village
ONDUCTED on
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THE READER’S SERVICE DIVISION —
333 Sixth Ave. New York 14, N.Y.
195,
diverse types of housing and includes
the stability of individual ownership. It
has been difficult, however, to convince
the real estate developers who dominate
that such a scheme
could profit them as well as the city,
even with Title One support.
Title One of the 1949 Housing Act,
which may yet be a better architectural
monument to the late Senator Taft'than
that. scornful shaft of stone which
stands accusingly on the lawn of the
Capitol in Washington, provides that
the federal government will help clear
city slums by subsidizing land costs.
these enterprises
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196
This is necessary because in these days
of costly construction land must be
available at comparatively low prices
to private redevelopers if they are to
put up “middle-income” housing at a
fair profit. As readers of New York
newspapers and, more particularly, this
magazine’s October 31, 1959, issue, “The
Shame of New York,” will recall, the
terms “middle income” and “fair profit”
are sometimes both made of rubber, but
one thing they are almost never
stretched to cover is architectural quali-
ty. Nowhere has design been more
dominated by dollars. Tall slabs mean
more units, and this elementary equation
does not encourage low buildings.
THE Detroit redevelopment, however,
has never been locked into the conven-
tional equation. TPhis was not even the
first good design made for the area.
A scheme which had been proposed by
architects Minoru Yamasaki, Oskar
Stonorov and Victor Gruen several
years earlier was widely admired in the
profession for its mixture of building
types, but it attracted no investor.
Then the late Herbert S. Greenwald,
of Chicago, moved in with his partner,
Samuel N. Katzin. With him he also
brought architect Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe, who had designed several build-
ings for Greenwald and Katzin, and
who, in turn, brought along planner
Ludwig Hilberseimer.
The gallery groaned, and with reason:
Mies van der Rohe’s early European
fame rests partly on sketches for ex-
quisite town houses, but his American
reputation has been created in the
building of tall, handsome towers —
great, but not gregarious architecture,
extra-urban, not suburban. Mies him-
self is also so aloof in personality, so
remote from American homogenized
conviviality, that dignified austerity
seemed surely on its way to this site.
This apprehension was not dispelled
when Hilberseimer immediately de-
signed the site plan as a_ superblock.
Most alarming of all, the developer,
Greenwald, had until then built only
apartment houses. Many observers
were certain that this site would get
the technical real estate treatment after
all, and become a forest of towers.
But it did not, although Herbert
Greenwald was himself the victim of a
cruel technical error. He died at forty-
two when a prop-jet plunged into the
Kast River a year ago. His death is
the sadder because, I am convinced,
the houses would have delighted him as
much as anything Mies van der Rohe
ever designed for him. Greenwald was
a man of wit and imagination; he
Jes
om a
‘thought that living near a city, but not
in it, was very dull; yet he liked living
house, not an apartment. It is
true that he was successful enough to
earn himself a penthouse atop a Mies
tower in Chicago (with his office in
another penthouse, above the Loop),
but Greenwald would also have recog-
nized the buildings of Lafayette Park
-as his kind of abode.
For in a way they are penthouses on
the ground, rows of very elegant, sim-
ple, glass-steel-and-brick shoebox-shaped
structures that do not pretend to be
country homes. But they certainly are
not merely row apartments. For one
thing, although they have no side win-
dows, they are not dark at the core, as,
for instance, are most of New York’s
expensively converted brownstones; the
end walls are totally glass and have
calmer views than most suburban pic-
ture windows. Thé interior details are
handsome, with ‘simple, beautifully pro-
portioned rooms (although the kit-
chens lean ‘a little too far toward apart-
ment kitchens for my taste). Nor is
their atmosphere dogmatic. I toured
one court house that had a white vinyl
floor, beautiful hand-loomed rugs, and
elegant modern furniture; this treatment
made the design properly vivid, but a row
house néarby, furnished as’ an exhibit
by a Detroit department store, was also
very pleasant, its’ masculine architec-
ture not confused by the feminine’ fur-
nishings.
Not a little of their feeling of quality
comes from the way these sets of houses
are placed on the flat site (which is to
be extended by a city-owned park that
will certainly make this area prettier
than most Detroit suburbs). The apart-
ment tower stands aside, clear and tall
in its parking space. The row houses
don’t just form in ranks, but are de-
ployed in a pattern that creates interest-
ing spaces among them and breaks the
endlessness that depresses most row
housing. And, wonder of wonders, the
automobile has been dominated. Parking
lots are kept fairly small, and are set
lower than the houses; the cars sink
into the general ground level. (The row
houses have individual parking spaces,
and they too are set low, like boat slips.)
Metropolitan Structures Ine., the
young company which succeeded Green-
wald as developer here, carried out the
idea faithfully, and I hope they project
it to many other cities. For walking
through this project, | beeame convinced
that it is a valid new architectural type,
a true translation from theory, a city
house which could keep many urban
families from detecting nebiexansly to
the suburbs, Wulig .
Crossword Puzzle No. 856
By FRANK W. LEWIS
ACROSS:
1 See 4 down
4 Js it really quite sour, or, just as
unusual color? (9)
9 The Picard explanation certainly
doesn’t imply a land boom. (4,5)
10 In the words of Excaliber? (5)
11 Later a _ political division. placed
relatively far back? (9)
12 ae a disguise, by the sound of it.
5)
13 Lately, this might be secretly con-
sidered. (10)
17 Sundered the marriage knot? (5,5)
21 Annoyance at the suggestion of a
sly look? (5)
22 ay Liberty does to the world?
23 Leaning towards what Don Quixote
had with his supposed giants? (5)
24 Was the last Inca a false clue placed
in the way of the Devil? (9)
25 Was this the real struggle for 1
across? (6,3)
26 Recesses in perhaps established pro-
cedure. (5)
DOWN:
1 He tries to sell fruit—about 550, to
be exact! (6)
2 It’s not often found when the air is
ae try as you will to get around it.
6
3 One way to tie up a dog, and look
around. (6)
4 and 1 across Achilles’ answer to a
query as to when he first noticed his
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2 ee
fe
ieee
i i a ee
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ee | Mee ty
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me
foot trouble? (3,4, 4, 1, 3,'5)
5 One who figures out what might be
shot .in the Colorado? (5, 10)
6 Turns over the dessert, being rather
fresh! (8)
7 Kven pressure is nothing to a con-
fused indian! (8)
8 Do away with drama? (The last
ie on board, or on the gridiron.)
SHO)
14 Edelweiss, or just where the cubes
come from? (3,5)
15 As her host for dinner, you can ex-
pect some swell effects. (8)
16 With change for a dime, net results
might be thoughtlessness, to say the
least: (8)
18 Things to be done take time, and
must be straightened out. (6)
19 Though presently held by some, they
once held others. (6)
20 Am gone with one sign of our coun-
try, relatively speaking. (6)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 855
ACROSS: 1 Chain reaction; 9 Armed;
10 Gerundive; 11 Nestled; 12 Pungent;
13 Loins; 14 Backstage; 16 Sinecures;
18 Rhomb; 19 Alabama; 21 Subtend;
22 Decadence; 23 Iraqi; 24 A hair of
the dog. DOWN: 1 Channel Islands; 2
Admission; 3 Nodules; 4 Egged; 5
Carapaces; 6 Innings; 7 Noise; 8
Feather-bedding; 14 Bargainer; 15
Aforesaid;. 17 Chaldea; 18. Rubbish;
20 Accra; 21 Shelf.
<>
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This cartoon appears in :
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WAS THE STEEL STRIKE FIXED? — A subject
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CHINATOWN USA: The Unassimilated People
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mg : Sie I P
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af ;
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4 biggest names in the nation.
i HATE ROUND-UP — 214 anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S., with some details on what is causing —
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In the January issue these articles appeared:
THE EISENHOWER AGE (Sen. Hubert Humphrey, Upton Sinclair and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.,
in the bluntest possible criticism of Ike, his administration and the age we live in); THE
SAN FRANCISCO NEWSPAPER MONOPOLY; A TRIP TO ORAL ROBERTS (and to death) ;
RACE TROUBLE AT OLYMPICS?; THE CHINESE IMMIGRATION PUZZLE; NIXON
AMONG SIGNERS OF ANTI-JEW, NEGRO DEEDS. Also: A Leak in the Telephone Company,
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MARCH 5, 1960 . . 25c¢
Re
ACCIDENT or AGGRESSION?
The Ultimate Decision in the Minimum Time
Congressman Charles O. Porter
Knmknkkaekkkkkark
A LITTLE POISON in YOUR FOOD
Milton Viorst
\
roth bea si
‘THE NEGRO BIDS for UNION POWER
Dick Bruner
LETTERS
The Folding Shelter
Dear Sirs: After reading Carl Dreher’s
“Pie in the Sky” in your February 13
issue, | watched Frank McGee perform-
ing in NBC-TV’s World-Wide ’60. Just
to show you that I am an optimist, [’ll
renew my Nation subscription for the
three years of the missile gap. I was
tempted to write NBC and suggest that
they talk to someone at The Nation for
a fresh approach to the armaments race,
but what’s the use? This period of prop-
aganda is a ritual we must endure... .
The World-Wide ’60 program was
forty minutes gone before anyone in it
mentioned that the Nike Zeus, detonat-
ing an approaching missile, would lke-
ly make its hit very close to the Amer-
ican target city, and that the resultant
atomic fallout would be a danger. That
was the first word of concern in the
program for the lowest stratum of Amer-
ican society — the citizen-taxpayer. I
ask myself the question: “Will the deci-
sion for an all-out nuclear war be made
by someone in a bomb-proof shelter, or
by someone like myself with a Republi-
can newspaper as his only protection?”
Verpie L. Hacensrap
Phoenix, Ariz.
Dear Sirs: “Pie in the Sky,” by Carl
Dreher (The Nation, Feb. 13) is one of
the most revealing articles I have ever
read on how our government throws,
splashes, kicks, away the taxpayers’
money... . Ihe Eisenhower-Nixon Ad-
ministration has no hesitation in sub-
sidizing the aerospace industry to the
tune of tens of billions of our dollars,
yet squeals to high heaven greet any
plan for federal aid to our educational
system. Lining the pockets of big busi-
ness with projects of the most wasteful
and futile is free enterprise—building
sorely needed schools is creeping social-
ism!
ALLEN KLEIN
Mt. Vernon, N.Y.
Traveling Brief Case
Dear Sirs: | read with interest the edi-
torial entitled “Schizophrenic Industri-
alists” in The Nation of February 20.
There is much to what The Nation’s
editors have said. But Chairman Durfee
faces a dilemma too. Seldom in history
has there been such urgency in spending
so much to develop so few airplanes.
which can do so much to shrink pas-
senger schedules and be of so much sery-
ice in a single day!
A person who crosses the ocean in a
Mach 3 plane in the early morning and
leaves his brief case aboard accidentally,
might find that the plane — and brief
case — have made six to eight trips
before he has stopped by the airport at
nightfall to retrieve the case. This stag-
gers the imagination and points up the
propaganda value at stake for the na-
tion which provides the plane to ac-
complish the feat.
Warren G. Macnuson
U.S. Senator (Wash.)
DiC
Washington,
Prejudice and Policemen
Dear Sirs: Before a committee inves-
tigating police brutality toward minority
groups in Los Angeles, the head of the
city’s police department referred to
“some Mexican-Americans” as not being
far removed from the wild tribes of
Mexico. I know that such displays of
bigotry toward minority groups are not
uncommon among police chiefs. In Los
Angeles, however, they are particularly
dangerous; the memory of the 1943 race
riots in this city, and of the role played
in them by the police, is still fresh in
the minds of the Latin-American com-
munity here.
It ought to be obvious to every
thoughtful citizen that the most im-
portant qualification for a policeman,
whether he be an ordinary “cop on the
beat” or the head of a department, is
that he be fair, impartial and without
prejudice in enforcing the law.
ApoLpH VILLABRAZO
Los Angeles, Calif.
France’s New Slogan
Dear Sirs: Recent headlines out of Paris
and the Sahara relative to de Gaulle’s
frenetic drive for status may alter the
national motto of the French Republic
to read: “Liberté, Egalité, Radioactivi-
té. »
Harry Cimrinc
Los Angeles, Calif.
Gods of Wrath
Dear Sirs: 1 plead guilty to the charge
of ignorance in the Chessman case. It
was not until I read Mr. Meister’s arti-
cle in The Nation of Feb. 20, and his
earlier one of October 17, 1959, that
things became clear to me. . . . Before
my conversion, | shouted “Revenge!”
Now I wonder what happened to Justice
Harlan’s opinion of 1957; if Chessman
has been denied due progess, as the Jus-
tice said, then let us (the public) make
a searching inquiry into
which made the denial
ssible.
LAN J. ALLEN
Cambridge, Mass.
those events
The New Ideas ,
Dear Sirs: Congratulations on the lead
editorial in the February 6 Nation. The
issue in this election year is indeed peace.
But the Democrats don’t seem to know
it and Nixon is for peace only in a nega-
tive sense. He has no positive program.
We could get a repetition of the up-
heaval of a century ago (although I
doubt it), but let us hope a war will
not follow if there should be a flood of
new ideas and political forces. One dif-
(Continued on page 209)
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
197 @
ARTICLES
200 'e A Little Poison in Your Food
by MILTON VIORST
A Child’s Chemically Treated
Garden of Verses (poem)
by MARY T. RAUTH
Accident or Aggression?
by CHARLES 0. PORTER
Non-Survivability Plus
by GEORGE G. KIRSTRIN
Straight Thinking on Africa
by HENRY L. BRETTON
The Negro Bids for Union
Power
by DICK BRUNER
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
210 '@® The Long Shadow of Empire
by A. P. THORNTON
211 ® Power and Frustration
by MICHAEL D. REAGAN
Five Last Poems
by DILYS LAING
(Note by RAMON GUTHRIB)
Theatre
by HAROLD CLURMAN
Two Sentences (poem)
by PAUL GOODMAN
What Has Happened to the
Chair?
by LESLIE KATZ
Records
by LUSTER TRIMBLE
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 216)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
Fe eA a ae ee ee
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, Bditor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Wditor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Musie
201 @
202 @
203 ©
205 '@
207 @
212 '®@
213 '@
214 @
215 '@
216 @
Alexander Werth, European
Correspondent
Ee
= Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, Mar. 5, 1960. Vol, 190. No, 10
The Nation published weekly (except for omis-
sion of four summer issues) by The Nation
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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCI 5, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 10
EDITO
.
| MAY g
NATION
RIALS
*Disarmament Mess’
This is the title under which the Cassandra of the
Cold War, Joseph Alsop, discusses the present position
of the Western Alliance vis-a-vis the Soviet Union in
the disarmament contest. Jt is a contest as much as the
Olympic Games, for all the world is watching. And
the Russians are winning, for whatever their motives,
they make it look as if they want disarmament, and,
whatever our motives, we make it look as if we don’t.
It is entirely possible, of course, that appearances are
not deceiving. The Russians may really want disarma-
ment and peace, because this condition would be to
their interest as they see it, while we — or at least
our government — while not desiring war, may prefer
the indefinite continuation of a state of affairs which
is neither war nor peace. It certainly looks that way
when one considers the vested interests of our war
economy and its dependence on that annual $46 billion
} appropriation for defense which no longer defends.
: ‘These things Alsop does not say, but he says some
things which are certainly not inconsistent with them.
The mess of which he complains is that the United
_ States seems incapable of making up its mind. When
a great and powerful country is in a state of painful
_ indecision, something is fundamentally wrong. Crucial
_ mistakes have been made and are still being made.
_ Our British, French, Italian and Canadian allies ask us
_ what our position on disarmament is and, with East-
_ West talks on the subject due to be resumed on March
| 15, we reply, in effect, that we have been unable to
reach a decision. We are still debating with ourselves.
_ The new committee formed last summer under the
Boston lawyer, Charles Coolidge, came up with sub-
stantially nothing. Now a New York lawyer, Frederick
Eaton, is supposed to be carrying the ball. He is per-
haps willing and able, but where is the ball? The view
_ of the State Department is that we must talk about
nuclear disarmament, and of course this is incontro-
vertible. Even in diplomacy, with all its shams, there
SL TS a
ICBMs are on the pads ready to go. But the Defense
_ Department policy-makers, and specifically the Joint:
Chiefs of Spat, a etna discussion of nuclear dis-
as “unthinkable,” in
P
et
be ol
is no use talking about rifles when hydrogen-headed
. ‘ ‘ }
lsop’s phrase — and
- So g B
he is in a position to know. Hence our paralysis. But
of course there is a Constitutional provision for such
impasses — the President has the power and duty of
decision. He had better decide, and soon. The present
situation does offer an opportunity for some sort of
modus vivendi, even if an uneasy one, between two
armed camps. But opportunities evaporate as quickly
through indecision as through wrong decisions.
The Nation Proposes
The Soviet Union has announced that it will open a
University of Friendship in Moscow which will offer
specialized training, with all expenses paid, to students
from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Five hundred
students will be enrolled the first year, with an ultimate
enrollment of about four thousand. There is, of course,
no more reason to doubt that the technical training of-
fered will be first rate than there is to doubt that the
visiting students will be the subject of Soviet prop-
aganda and indoctrination. All the same, the idea war-
rants the flattery of imitation — with variations. The
District of Columbia is the home of a unique Amer-
ican educational Howard University,
chartered and opened in 1867 by the Freedmen’s
Bureau. Unlike Hampton Institute — which was also
originally sponsored by the Freedmen’s Bureau —
Howard is entirely supported by the federal govern-
ment; it has no endowment. Currently, some 5,000
students are enrolled — 2,200 in the Arts and Science
program, the rest in the graduate schools (Law, Med-
icine, Dentistry, Social Work). Since the Supreme
Court’s desegregation decision, Howard’s position has
become anomalous; the government can hardly con-
tinue to support indefinitely an institution which is
primarily dedicated to the education of Negroes even
though, in principle, it follows a policy of desegregation.
A few white students have always attended Howard;
in fact, some of the first white women to receive M.D.
degrees in this country were graduates of its Medical
- Howard does need a new purpose; and to con-
, as has been suggested, into a municipal univer-
or the District of Columbia is hardly consistent ff
its original idea or its fine tradition. Why not, |
institution:
S
*
rt
=. 4
__,
b
ate oe Ce lie ig fhe
Reopens ee * ian =) Se
fi
then, transform Howard into a great international
university to which selected students from every quarter
of the earth would be brought as guests of the gov-
ernment, with all expenses paid? Some additional facil-
ities would doubtless have to be provided, but much is
hand, including an excellent faculty and an
The Capital has a fine array of cultural
foreign students at Howard could
observe the functioning of our national government at
already at
ideal location.
institutions, and
close range.
A rededication of this sort would give new vitality
and significance to one of this country’s most remark-
able educational institutions. Student exchange pro-
‘i grams are a step in the right direction, but eventually
; an international community — if it is to become a
t . . .
reality — must be supported by at least a limited
number of international educational institutions. Let
$s Howard be among the first.
dy An Affluence of Effluvium
The President has signed his first veto of the Second
Session: Congress wanted to raise federal anti-pollution
e aid to state and local governments from $50,000,000 to
tf
ch : 5 * .
ra $90,000,000, whereas Mr. Eisenhower insists that it be
tf cut to $20,000,000 for this year and then discontinued
be altogether. The House failed, by twenty-two votes, to
. over-ride the veto, even though the measure enjoys
tS virtually universal support. Only two organizations,
i the National Association of Manufacturers’and the U.S.
ay Chamber of Commerce, spoke out against it, and the
ki N.A.M. was itself sharply divided on the issue. Why
xe should a measure so clearly in the public interest, and
% which involves but a pittance by comparison with other
budget items, be the subject of a White House veto
oi and extended debate? As the President sees it, federal
» 5 assistance might tempt local communities to delay
is. essential water-pollution measures. But in the four
years since the program has been in effect, local com-
munities have appropriated $4.70 for every $1 of fed-
eral assistance, the highest local-to-federal ratio of any
national aid program.
The modern water-pollution problem — quite unlike
anything of the kind we have known in the past — is
a direct by-product of the factors, such as accelerated
technological innovation, new industrial processes, an
expanding urban population, etc., which have created
the affluent society. But the connection is so obvious
that nobody sees it. On the President’s initiative, Con-
gress appropriates billions to pollute the earth’s at-
oar losphere with radioactive fallout — and with hardly
‘more debate than it has given this financially insignifi-
nt item of “must” legislation. Can it be that, along
with the social myopia which an affluent society seems
to foster, our sense of smell has atrophied to the extent
hat the President and his advisers are unaware of the
198
ar) te a a oe a a ee
effluvium that pollutes so many American rivers, lakes
and harbors? Or is the real explanation simply that
we chalk up the gains in GNP as though our burgeon-
ing productivity did not also occasion some small debit
items on the social side of the ledger? Whatever the
cause, the delay in enacting the water-pollution meas-
ure is a symptom of blindness to social need in a period
of unrivaled prosperity.
The Air Force Credo
Defense Secretary Thomas S. Gates is described by
The New York Times as “furious” about the training
manuals published by the armed services, in particular
the Air Force publication which stated that Communists
had infiltrated the nation’s Protestant churches. He
apologized publicly to the National Council of Churches,
the largest and most influential cooperative body of the
Protestant churches in the United States, and in a let-
ter to the three service secretaries referred to “glaring
inaccuracies” and material “lacking good taste or com-
mon sense.” The Secretary was certainly not over-
stating the case, but the question arises: how did large
sections of the services, and in particular the Air Force,
get that way? For there is every reason to believe that
thousands, perhaps a majority, of airmen and their of-
ficers believe the scurrilous drivel in the Air Force
Guide for Security Indoctrination. Nor is the Secretary’s
admonition likely to change their minds. In fact, the
Washington bureau of the New York Daily News re-
ports under date of February 24 that while the Air
Force has revoked the manual, it is retaining the sec-
tion on “How to Stop Communism in America,” which
included the drivel about the Reds taking over Amer-
ican Protestantism. Presumably when the furore has
died down, and Secretary Gates’s attention has been
diverted, the chapter — with or without deletions —
will be used in a new edition, this time advantageously
combined with the manual instructing ambitious airmen
on how to wash an officer’s dog.
John G. Norris, who reports on military matters for
the Washington Post, has come up with the most il-
luminating examination of the Air Force psyche that
we have seen. He points out that the Air Force, living
in what amounts to a “war-alert” situation, has be-
come addicted to the delusions and manias normal to
wartime: Isolated in their own communities and oc-
cupations, its field personnel tend to see God and
country in their own images, and there is no one to
correct them, for the officers are scarcely more en-
lightened than the enlisted men. Norris says that a
survey made ten years ago showed that only 47 per cent
of the Regular Air Force officers were college graduates,
compé ia ‘71 per cent in the Army and 87 per cent
in th tt The Air Force tried to remedy this “situs
ath , meet Berepssion, Book si coy ” a nd su Cc
“" Sn ee J Tt \)
Pe ae we prt.
ceeded in raising the ratio to 56 per cent by means of
night, correspondence and extension courses. It is doubt-
ful, however, that the devoted crammers have been
converted into potential Einsteins and Veblens.
If Secretary Gates is determined to bring political
sophistication to the Air Force, he has his work cut
out for him. Even its highest officers show precious
little of it in their public announcements — and prob-
ably less, if that be possible, in their thinking.
Rocky’s Folly
i" Seldom has a proposal by a popular governor re-
ceived such a frigid reception as Governor Rockefeller’s
request for mandatory legislation compelling New
_ Yorkers to build shelters against nuclear fallout. And
seldom has an Executive proposal deserved more un-
qualified condemnation. Much of the opposition stems
from the wrong reasons. The legislators yearn for re-
election, and they remember the Governor’s 1959 de-
mand for increased income taxes,
of the GOP-dominated Legislature. Some voters may
show their resentment in 1960, especially if the Gov-
ernor rubs it in by requiring them to spend still more
money. But the political motivation is not the only one.
_ Many citizens, whose integrity is no less than Governor
Rockefeller’s, will refuse to obey the law, if it is passed,
for reasons of conscience. The situation is made to
order for conscientious objectors, some of whom will
undoubtedly challenge the law in the courts.
Air-raid drills, shelters and all the other expedients
of civil defense are a means of mass psychological con-
ditioning for nuclear warfare. The inference is that it’s
; not going to be so awful, after all; if you survive the
blast and the fire, you can remain in a hole in the
ground for a few weeks and emerge as good as new. In
New York City, for instance? Even if some of the city
is left, where will the water come from, and power? A
single hydrogen bomb landing anywhere along the East
River would dispose of three Consolidated Edison gen-
erating plants, the New York Steam Company station,
and the BMT subway-power generating plant recently
purchased from the city. Most of the feeder and dis-
tribution network would go with the plants. And what
_ about water? The river water would be contaminated;
_ as for the aqueducts, anyone can buy a 20-cent topo-
graphical map from the federal government which shows
a —_
se wy
and the acquiescence
ee
Ser yy
WH? i
that a single bomb planted on Putnam County will »
contaminate and knock out Catskill and Delaware, and
contaminate the whole Croton watershed. Aside from
these material problems, which one may or may not be
willing to face, why should anyone want to live in a
world which has resorted to nuclear warfare and the
immolation of millions of men, women and children as
a method of settling political preheat:
“The qa a are not ready for this;
at high-ranking
Democrat is quoted as saying. “They need an educa- id )
tional program to convince them of the need for such it
a plan. They have a sense of fatalism about the chances
of survival in a nuclear attack and they are also con-
cerned about the cost of building these things.” The
educational program will need to be convincing indeed.
With still more skyscrapers planned for the Grand
Central area and the city in the midst of the greatest
building boom in its history, the people may be eh
pardoned for a certain amount of skepticism. The if
Governor, to be sure, has done his best to overcome | i
qualms about the cost. He plans to build a shelter for
himself and his family at lis own capense. With bor-
rowed funds, no doubt.
Strange Noises
Angry voices, echoing in the United States Senate
and elsewhere, have denounced the world-wide interest ‘
shown in the case of Caryl Chessman as some kind of a
plot to overthrow established law and order in Cali-
fornia. U.S. News and World Report, ever vigilant to
expose Communist conspiracies, is convinced on the ae
basis of evidence uncited that the Kremlin inspired the |
protest — presumably including the editorial plea for a
clemency in L’Osservatore Romano — which resulted ae
in “the strange spectacle of the highest courts in the 7 a
United States being ‘overruled’ by pressure from ,:
abroad.” What courts have been “overruled,” which {a
decisions have been set aside? Under particular attack vt
has been the action of Assistant Secretary of State
Rubottom in voicing the State Department’s concern
about the effect Chessman’s execution might have on
Latin American opinion on the eve of the President’s
visit. But the late John Foster Dulles did not hesitate
to urge former Governor James Folsom of Alabama to
commute the death sentence in a case that had aroused
intense interest in Europe. Even earlier, President
Woodrow Wilson did not hesitate to communicate with
California officials about the Tom Mooney case.
What Governor Brown’s purblind critics do not
recognize is that world opinion is one of the unmistak-
able realities of the modern age. Why shouldn’t citizens
of a-world becoming increasingly inter-dependent voice
their concern about a case that is everywhere regarded
as a symbol of the new interest in the abolition of the
death penalty? Americans are themselves among the
busiest wire-senders and petition-circulators; millions
of us, literally, have protested executions and prison |
prea in almost every land on earth. There is not!
ing “sinister” in the world-wide interest shown in the
Chessman case; on the contrary, it is a hopeful omen |
that the impending enactment of an obscene and
barbarous ritual can arouse this much concern amon
ns of people. What is sinister is the attempt to
ret this interest as a plot inspired by the Kremli
, ae hp
.
rw! Pee
‘¥ ‘ a
A LITTLE POISON IN YOUR FOOD. . ty viton rion
iF
«
THE PRESIDENT delivered a re-
proach to Secretary of Health, Edu-
cation and Welfare Arthur S. Flem-
ming early in February when,
submitting te the demands of agri-
cultural interests, he ordered a gov-
ernment committee to study the use
of chemicals in the human diet.
President Eisenhower’s action gave
the food industry an important
round in a battle that Secretary
Flemming and the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) have been
waging to protect the consumer
against chronic poisoning from these
pesticides and additives. The battle
has been under way for several
years, but it took the Great Cran-
berry Scandal of 1959 to bring it to
the public’s attention.
The chronic-poisoning problem is
something new in human history. It
used to be that if a man ate his meal
and escaped a bellyache, he could
feel that his food was safe. The dis-
coveries of modern chemistry nulli-
fied this conception. Within the past
few decades, but principally since
World War IT, the chemical industry
has forged a link in the human food
chain that is profitable for itself and,
at the same time, vital to the con-
sumer. Chemistry has made food less
expensive, tastier and more attrac-
tive. It has made America’s supply
more abundant, more mobile and, in
many respects, much more healthful.
But many are now aware that chem-
istry’s wonders may be also laden
with countless hidden hazards to
human health. The threat is not the
kind that kills or lays its victims
low as dinner goes through the diges-
tive process. It is the kind that lies
concealed in the diet and spreads its
damages over a lifetime.
Scientists began only recently to
recognize the menace of chronic poi-
soning, because of the great diffi-
culty of detecting damage in body
tissues that results from the continu-
s ingestion of minute amounts of
hemical substance. For years after
ILTON VIORST, as a reporter
the Washington (D.C.) Post, has
de a thorough study of the prob-
ns confronting the Federal Food
Drug Administration,
the discovery, FDA was hard press-
ed to do anything about it. The only
available weapon against a chemical
was laboratory. proof that it was
harmful. This was difficult to achieve,
particularly to the satisfaction of a
court of law. Within the past few
years, some progress has been made,
but effective detection still defies
research. This absence of scientific
certainty has weakened the position
of Flemming and the FDA before
the President and the nation.
At the urging of the Department
of Health, Education and Welfare,
Congress took cognizance of this
problem in 1954 and enacted a suit-
able law to control pesticides. In
1958, it followed with an adequate
additives law which gave manufac-
turers two years to have additives
then in use approved by the FDA.
The two-year period ends on March
6, next week.
The import of these new laws was
to shift the burden of proof from the
government, requiring the industry
to demonstrate the safety of its
products in the quantities it desired
to use them. The job will prove no
easier for industry’s laboratories than
it was for the government’s.
HOW does one prove that a chem-
ical is “safe”? By proving, as far as
possible, that it’s not unsafe. But
like the proof of some sticky theo-
logical point, there always remains
some doubt. In this case, a number
of tests have been devised to reveal
tissue damage caused by chemicals.
The tests are by no means exhaus-
tive or, for that matter, beyond re-
proach. The evidence must be col-
lected from animals. If no_ tissue
damage is discovered after a given
quantity of a chemical is fed to two
animal species—usually the rat and
the dog—the presumption is strong
it will be absent in the human. This
presumption is sometimes wrong.
Aware of this, FDA sets its toler-
ances with ample margin for quanti-
tative error. But it cannot refuse a
manutacturer’s petition if he has
demonstrated that his chemical has
passed all the known_ tests. FDA
researchers, when they’re n ot it bonged
was, eS 8 mnilliqn, ci
down i other tasks, tf y to > devise
new tests. But no honest scientist
would deny the existence of a vast
unknown area within the testing
framework. ;
This is to say nothing of the can-
cer factor, which stands by itself in
the pattern of chronic poisons. Legal-
ly, FDA can authorize the use in
small quantities of a chemical that in
large quantities causes, for example,
liver or heart damage. But under the
so-called Delaney Amendment to the
1958 additives law, no substance
that, used in any quantity, induces
cancer in animals can be allowed in
the human diet. The amendment,
generated in part by the terror which
cancer creates, is based on the theory
that cancer-producing substances
cause an “irreversible reaction.” Sci-
ence has no evidence, however, that
an equally “irreversible reaction” is
not begun by chemicals that cause
other diseases. The theory, in effect,
is that a little heart disease isn’t as
bad as a little cancer. The food in-
dustry argues that this theory is as
phony as Hoxsey’s cancer cure. But
Flemming supports it and insists he
will continue to do so.
As if these complexities were not
enough, FDA must be on the alert
for possibilities like these: (1) that
a harmless chemical in one food does
not react with a harmless chemical
in another to produce a dangerous
compound; (2) that the peculiar
eating habits of some people do not
lead to the consumption of a chem-
ical in dangerous quantities; (3)
that a chemical authorized in one
food does not add up to a dangerous
amount in the total diet if permitted
in several foods.
NOWHERE is there greater aware-
ness of how little is known about
the effecr of these chemicals than in
the FDA. Responsible officials are
frankly worried about what they
are doing, and frustrated because
they lack the facilities to find out.
FDA scientists have all they can do
to process industry’s petitions for
new additives and pesticides. There
is hardly a minute left for research,
FDA’s budget for research in 1959
—-
Fogarty (D., R.L.), a champion of
the consumer in Congress, FDA’s
appropriation was increased, over the
objections of the Administration, and
$2.8 million was made available. The
1961 budget proposed $2.9 million
for research. In comparison, the sum
requested for agricultural research—
which is undertaken for the benefit
of the industry and not to supervise
it—is $139.3 million. There is a cer-
tain irony in the President’s desig-
nation of a new committee to study
the very subject that FDA cannot
study because his Budget Bureau
has refused to assign the funds.
But when industry mounts its at-
tack, it is not against FDA’s scien-
tific activities. It would be unfair to
the chemical industry to imply that
it prefers, all other things being
equal, ignorance to enlightenment.
Industry’s contention is simply this:
It is unfair for Arthur Flemming and
the FDA to enforce so strenuously
regulations which, they say, are
based on arguable scientific premises.
This is the contention that was at
the heart of the Great Cranberry
Scandal.
This episode occurred when Flem-
ming refused to wink at an indus-
try’s patent violation of FDA’s pes-
ticide regulations. The cranberry
growers had been authorized to use
aminotriazole, the weed killer which
became a household word last No-
vember, immediately after harvest.
Residues left when it was applied
before harvest were shown to pro-
duce cancer in animals. FDA had
condemned some tainted cranberries
in 1957 and counted on the deterrent
effect of this action to last. Its con-
fidence was misplaced. The cran-
berry industry has since acknowl-
~edged that aminotriazole was used,
to an unknown degree, in 1958. In
1959, FDA became aware of what
the market place had long known—
that aminotriazole was still being
used incorrectly in many places. At
this point, Flemming held his famous
press conference, warning the public
against cranberry consumption and,
in effect, embargoing an entire year’s
crop for berry-by-berry inspection.
A cranberry grower in Massachu-
setts or Oregon could hardly be
expected to understand Flemming’s
act. In aminotriazole, he had a rela-
_ tively inexpensive weapon against
es / .
st 60 ah Ae ae 4
‘ee > x . E
A Child’s Chemically
r x dy ny
Treated Garden of Verses
Little drops of diethylstilbestrol,
Little grains of aminotriazole
Make it mighty dangerous eating
In this pleasant land.
Mary JT. Rautu
his perennial adversary—the weed.
The publications he read told him
the FDA had discovered that large
quantities of amiunotriazole caused
cancer in animals. No evidence, how-
ever, indicated that small quantities
caused cancer in man. It would not
take an evil, indifferent farmer to
wonder if the whole thing was not
the invention of some bureaucrat
in Washington. A little aminotria-
zole could save or enlarge his crop,
pay his mortgage, send his kids to
school, buy a new farm implement.
Industry spokesmen could justi-
fiably protest the Flemming tech-
nique of enforcement by press con-
ference. The less charitable wags in
Washington have said this is Flem-
ming’s way of acquiring second
place on the Republican ticket for
the fall elections. Perhaps, but Flem-
ming has shown himself a zealous
enforcer of the food and drug law.
Though he has never been known
to challenge the Administration
publicly for more funds, within the
framework of the law and the bud-
gets assigned him he has operated
a regulatory agency that seeks to
regulate. Other such agencies in
Washington cannot say the same.
In the case of the cranberry scandal,
the press conference was the only
weapon he _ possessed.
The current Administration is
not alone to blame for the weakness
of the Food and Drug Administra-
ie
ce
tion. Throughout its history, FDA
has been a stepchild in the federal
establishment. The Congress which
established it in 1906 assumed that
agricultural products needed little
policing, while manufactured drugs
were so uniform. that
sampling was good enough. This
thinking established the “spot-
check” tradition in FDA enforce-
ment. Phe Democrats of the thirties
and forties were hardly generous to
FDA and the Eisenhower Adminis-
tration, in its first few years, starved
it. By the mid-fifties, however, sen-
sitive people were becoming aware
of the problems modern science was
creating in the name of better foods
and drugs. Since publication of a
shocking citizens’ report in 1955,
FDA support has gradually in-
creased. This is more to the credit
of a militant group of Congressmen,
however, than to a generous Budget
Bureau. FDA’s staff of inspectors
is still limited to fewer than 400
men, assigned to police something
like 400,000 factories, 2,000,000
farmers and the never-ending chal-
lenge of quackery and dishonesty.
Two inspectors are responsible, for
instance, for the detection of pesti-
cide violations from Maryland to
North Carolina. They, in turn, are
hampered by a shortage of labora-
tory facilities for the testing of the
crop samples they submit.
A quick look at the cranberry epi-
sode will disclose that FDA was
lucky to catch the contamination
in the crop. The industry had for
several years been tipping its hand
because aminotriazole works so ef-
fectively on cranberry bogs. When
the cranberry growers howled that
they were being singled out for
punishment, they were right. This
and foods
was simply Flemmineg’s way of no-
tifying the food-producing industry
that he refused to be a party to
its pesticide violations. Had he re-
sorted to the cumbersome due-
process procedure that FDA is re-
quired to follow to make its seizures,
at least two more weeks would have
passed before cranberry shipments
could have been halted. Since No-
vember, some 325,800 pounds of con-
taminated cranberries have been
seized. An unknown quantity cer-
tainly slipped through; the public
presumably consumed these, along
with most of the 1958 crop.
No one can estimate reliably the
extent of pesticide cheating. FDA
officials concede that it is likely
to increase because new and more
powerful chemicals keep coming on
the market, many aimed at weed and
eS EEN tt RS A ee c
4 ena eye Cees ay Gl
. -
insect strains that eluded earlier
killers. Withal, it can be safely—or
unsafely—said that violations are
widespread. Foods with unauthorized
residues are reaching the dinner
table every day.
There is thus something ludicrous
in the food industry’s complaint that
Flemming and the FDA have been
overzealous in enforcing pesticide
and additive regulations. Flemming
may be disturbed and anxious about
violations, but he hardly has the
tools to be overzealous in stopping
them. The President’s statement
designating the study committee
provided specifically that the De-
partment of Health, Education and
Welfare is to continue enforcing the
law pending a report. This was at
least some consolation for Flemming,
because powerful farm groups had
been pressing for him to go slow
while the study was under way. It
may be argued that Eisenhower’s
move was a gesture designed to
mollify the farm groups while main-
taining Flemming’s authority. Still,
it is hard to see what a special com-
mittee will discover that FDA sci-
entists, who have been working with
this problem for years, do not al-
ready know—or know they don’t
know. More work in FDA or Public
Health Service laboratories would
appear to be a much more logical
answer. The vexing part about this
problem is that man is the object
of all this research and he is a very
bad experimental animal. He may
die the victim of a chemical in his
diet. But if he has taken it in tiny
doses all his life, chances are no one
will ever know.
ACCIDENT OR AGGRESSION? ee by Charles O. Porter
IF YOU place six chimpanzees in
la small room with a couple of
baskets of live hand grenades, a
minor catastrophe is inevitable. If
you place error-prone human beings
in proximity to thousands of nuclear
weapons, a major catastrophe is in-
evitable and the triggering of an
all-out massive exchange is prob-
able.
Brigadier (Ret.) C. N. Barclay,
British military expert, correctly
describes the problem in The New
York Times Magazine of August
23, 1959, but he reaches the con-
clusion that the real danger is ten,
fifteen or twenty years ahead when
many more nations possess nuclear
weapons. The risk of a fatal mistake
now, he thinks, is “much less than
most people suppose.”
I respectfully but emphatically
dissent. In my opinion, the danger
is now and it is extreme. As for
CHARLES O. PORTER is a mem-
ber of the U.S. House of Represent-
atives. A second-term Democrat
from Eugene, Oregon, he served for
four years in the Army during World
War IT, mostly overseas, and is now
a major in the Air Force Reserve.
202
_articulated,
what “most people” may suppose
about the risk, I can only say
wish more people, in and out of
government and the military es-
tablishment, thought about the sit-
uation at all.
Two attitudes, often not fully
seem to predominate.
One is that our atomic doom is in-
evitable and that nothing will avert
it. The other is that something will
turn up, as always. Both points of
view provide ready excuses for doing
nothing.
Barclay recognizes that while no-
body wants a full-scale nuclear war,
a war by “mistake” or “accident”
is likely because of the “necessity for
maintaining weapons of obliteration
in instant readiness.” He points out
that this is an unprecedented situa-
tion for which history has little
guidance. I agree with that defini-
tion of the situation, but I have to
leave him when he seeks to minimize
the risk of a mistake by stating that
“we can be sure” missiles have to be
made “live” by “teams under re-
sponsible leaders . . . especially se-
lected . . . controlled by headquar-
ters and highly trained staffs... .”
Barclay writes, “In these circum-
stances the chances of a mistake, al-
though not entirely removed, are
remote.” He cannot conceive that
one explosion could trigger a world-
wide nuclear war, nor that a tactical
atomic war could become a _ full-
scale nuclear war. I think the cards
are stacked now for vast destruction
and death. The facts, simple and un-
disputed, add up, in my opinion, to
World War III in the very near fu-
ture as the result of an unauthorized
or accidental nuclear explosion. This
is the war nobody wants and every-
body fears.
THE FACTS can be stated in a few
words. First, thousands of nuclear
weapons, many of unthinkable pow-
er, exist today. Second, almost all of
them are ready for instant detona-
tion. Third, their custodians are hu-
man beings.
A nuclear explosion resulting from
mechanical defect or inadvertence is
only remotely possible, but the same
is not true with respect to human
fallibility. I discussed this matter
last year with Herbert B. Loper, As-
sistant Defense Secretary for Atomic
Energy. He agreed that, given the
prevalence of such human errors and:
N A’ ro ON
Th
TENGE Re ee oe
it
'
?
THE WAY to disarm is to arm. A
country has to have more arms than
its potential enemy in order to nego-
tiate disarmament from a position of
strength. Once we have arms superi-
ority, the Russians will presumably
be forced to disarm. One odd thing
about this prevailing current doctrine
is that it is not expected to work in
reverse. If the Russians gain arms
superiority over us, we will not begin
to disarm—we will “close the gap.”
Another curious thing about it is that
when we did have arms superiority—
when we had the A-bomb and the
Russians didn’t—neither they nor we
disarmed. They closed the gap.
But just because the theory has
not worked so far in either direction
is no reason to abandon it. The task
before us is to compose a logic to
justify our immutable theory, and for
this purpose we need a new language.
Fortunately such an instrument is
already at hand, for both the armed
services and the research centers of
the great universities have men train-
ed in the manufacture of a new jargon
which will serve as a framework for
the new logic. For simplicity’s sake
and to differentiate it from English,
this language may be called Despe-
ranto.
For example, all reasonable men
know that the way to stop an enemy
from attacking us is to have the
capacity to destroy him if he makes
the first move. This ability for “in-
stant and massive” retaliation is label-
ed “deterrence” and for it to be ef-
fective we must have overwhelming
“deterrent capability.” General Power
points out that if we have sufficient
“deterrent capability,” it will be im-
possible for an aggressor to develop
a “confidence factor.” “Deterrent ca-
pability,’ the very keystone of the
new logic, has several synonyms, of
which the one most frequently used
is “kill”? power. Fortunately, we are
told that at the present time our
weaknesses as drunkenness, mental
breakdown, misinterpretation, mis-
guided idealism, venality or treason,
an accidental nuclear explosion is
probable.
Of course, precautions are taken
to prevent accidental or unauthor-
ized explosions; the regulations and
safeguards are carefully and cun-
March 5, 1960
iy
“kill” power—take it for all in all—
is superior to the Russians’. However,
we are still in danger because of the
“missile gap.” It is not enough to
have over-all superior “kill” power;
paradoxically, we must have a sur-
plus of it in order to guarantee our
survival. A surplus of “kill” power is
called “over-kill” and the key equa-
tion of the new theory is, “Over-kill
equals total non-survivability plus.”
In this equation, of course, we have
the “over-kill” and the enemy has the
“non-survivability plus.”
Unfortunately, we do not have
enough “deterrent capability” even
when we have lots of “over-kill,” as
we now have. “Over-kill” doesn’t take
care of “limited aggression” in what
Representative Walter calls “fourth-
dimensional” war. In order to stop
this “limited aggression” threat, we
must have “limited deterrents” or
clearly there will be a “deterrent gap.”
We must have an over-all military
“posture” capable of defending our-
selves by every means from launch-
ing “preventive war’ (this used to
be called “attack” in the old lan-
guage) to repelling invaders armed
with slingshots. I feel myself that the
military is guilty of overlooking our
slingshot “capability,” but perhaps
we should not be too harsh, for they
have overlooked little else. None the
less, the Democratic candidates, par-
ticularly Senator Symington, may
have a real campaign issue in this
slingshot “gap.” Fortunately, there is
not a correlative “bow and arrow”
gap, because we have a ready re-
serve or “militia” of sportsmen skilled
with this weapon.
The logicians of “deterrence” may
at last be satisfied when we perfect,
as we are sure to’ do soon, the
“Domesday bomb.” This weapon,
when hitched up to an_ electronic
brain, will be able to destroy the
remainder of mankind even if no
survivors are left in the attacked
ningly devised. But any rule ever
devised by man can be circumvent-
ed by man. You can’t legislate error
and weakness out of humanity.
I saw for myself the operation of
some of the safety procedures estab-
lished to prevent the unauthorized
dispatch of the Royal Air Force
Thor missiles in England. Because
NON-SURVIVABILITY PLUS - « by George G. Kirstein
country to set it off. This is what
spokesmen of the new logic call an
“invulnerable deterrent.” Apparently
this cobalt-coated hydrogen bomb
creates a radioactive fallout so ex-
cessive that On the Beach can be-
come fact—not fiction. This is total
“over-kill,” or the end of the line.
Indeed, the “Domesday bomb” may
be the “fantastic new weapon” about
which Mr. Khrushchev _ recently
bragged. So the “Domesday bomb
gap” may be already upon us, al-
though, due to the “intelligence gap”
and a reappraisal of Soviet “inten-
tions” as contrasted with “capabili-
ties,” it may be some time before we
can know whether we are in _ this
jeopardy. Unless a “Domesday bomb”
can be set up in each “free” country
the potential enemy’s “confidence
factor” may become absolutely over-
whelming, because according to the
experts only a weapon guaranteeing
“unacceptable damage” will deter all
rational rulers from aggression.
But I foresee a future gap even
alter we announce that we and _ all
our friends, great and small, also have
the “Domesday bomb.” Let us sup-
pose that the Russians beat us to the
moon. Suppose then that there are
two Russians or even a couple of
Russian dogs on that satellite when
the “Domesday bomb” goes off.
Clearly we have failed to reduce “sur-
vivability” to zero. We need a
“Domesday moon bomb”—one ca-
pable not only of destroying mankind
on earth but on the moon as well,
preferably simultaneously. Without
such a deterrent we are at the ab-
solute mercy of the enemy. Let’s have
no spiritual flabbiness nor lack of
zeal in perfecting this weapon. Let’s
have a “crash” program to meet this
problem. Here is a gap which can be
foreseen and “definitized.” Without
possession of this super-massive re-
taliatory defense deterrent, we can’t
“finalize” our future.
these procedures are classified as
secret by the Department of Defense,
I cannot describe how an apparent-
ly foolproof system was being wholly
frustrated without malice or deceit
on the part of anyone. These were
able and honest men doing an im-
portant job but, as so often happens,
they were blithely ignoring regula-
203
te
tions calculated to prevent an irrep-
arable disaster.
When I sought permission to de-
scribe the by-passing of these very
procedures in this article, the De-
partment of Defense, through its
Congressional liaison officer, express-
ed great chagrin and surprise. The
officer informed me that a complete
investigation would be made imme-
diately. There will be no one around
to investigate violations that lead
to an unauthorized firing.
ALMOST everybody knows that a
gun, allegedly unloaded or not, is
dangerous. Every day some person
is wounded or killed by mishandling
these puny weapons. The custodians
of the atomic weapons are error-
prone mortals.
If you had been the marshal of
Dodge City in its heyday you would
have kept a loaded six-shooter
handy. We too must keep our nuclear
weapons handy, and you don’t need
to know the details to realize that
they are poised for instant use. In
fact, they are being modified to fa-
cilitate quick detonation. On Octo-
ber 28, 1957, Admiral Stump, Su-
preme U.S. Commander in _ the
Pacific and Asia, affirmed that the
United States must retaliate instant-
ly, possibly with atomic weapons,
at the first sign of Communist ag-
gression anywhere in the world. The
following month, the late Secretary
Dulles stated that the order to shoot
back in the event of an attack on
NATO forces “like that on Pearl
Harbor” would be given by the com-
manders “on the spot.”
An explosion caused by a meteor
has been mentioned as the possible
occasion for confusion and misinter-
pretation leading to such an order
in a world made tense by atomic
warheads. And everybody knows that
decision times are becoming shorter
as count downs for missiles are sim-
plified or in some cases, reportedly
in the Soviet Union, eliminated.
This brings us to the question of
whether or not one accidental or un-
authorized nuclear explosion would
be likely to trigger the full-scale
massive exchange. Brigadier Bar-
clay wrote that he couldn’t “con-
ceive” of such a thing.
In December of 1957, I visited
Strategic Air Command Headquar-
ters in Nebraska and was briefed on
this problem. Since then I have
checked my conclusions many times
with other high military officers in
and out of the Pentagon. It is agreed
that if there were a “mystery” atomic
explosion which could not be identi-
fied either as an act of aggression
or as an accidental or unauthorized
explosion, our forces would imme-
diately go into their highest condi-
tion of alert.
This means that the ready planes
get off the ground and start head-
ing for their targets. It means that
other crews and planes are prepared
with all speed to get off the ground.
The count downs would start on our
missiles and hold firm just this side
of ignition. Of course, bases and mis-
sile sites would be the primary tar-
gets of the enemy.
If we were to go on our top alert
the Soviet Union would soon follow
suit, Just as we would do if the So-
viet Union had the unexplained
atomic explosion in their territory.
This leads to a problem for which
no one, military expert or not, has
given me the solution.
Here is the situation:
Our planes are making for the
Soviet Union; theirs are headed to-
ward us. Our missiles are made
ready for immediate dispatch; so
are theirs. ] remind you that we
cannot look to the gaping hole and
its lethal radioactivity to tell us who
caused the explosion and for what
reason. There is no wreckage to ex-
amine and there are no witnesses
to interrogate.
But less than twenty minutes after
the explosion, if it happens in the
United States, the Soviet Union’s
condition of top alert will be report-
ed to the White House by our in-
telligence officers. The tough ques-
tion is, how can we tell whether the
intensive preparations are defensive
or offensive?
The answer is that we cannot
make any such determination be-
cause the preparations for defense
and offense are identical.
Our planes can turn back when
they reach a certain point, called
the fail-safe line, but on what basis
do we dare allow them to return
when we know the Soviet planes
are heading toward us? Is this the
time when the President calls up
Khrushchev and says, “Tell me the
truth now, was that explosion the
beginning of an attack on us? Or
if it wasn’t, are you planning to use
our defensive preparation as an ex-
cuse for an attack on us?” It seems
hardly worth while to make the call,
yet how do we extricate ourselves
m such a crisis?
BEFORE I venture to propose any
remedies, let me suggest a further
complication—public panic. Consid-
er the immediate and intensive cov-
erage such an explosion would re-
ceive on TV, radio and in the news-
papers. Think of the impact on our
great urban centers of population
—the TV coverage and the descrip-
tions of the magnitude of the phys-
ical damages, the numbers of dead
and injured. Think of the terrible,
unbearable suspense of wondering
if this is only the first of many atomic
missiles being directed at our coun-
try by a powerful and implacable
enemy.
It seems likely that an almost uni-
versal breakdown in law and order
might ensue in the cities as people
sought, not unreasonably, to take
shelter or, in most cases, get out into
the countryside. There would be riot-
ing and looting. The President would
appear on TV and his voice would be
heard on radio. “Be calm,” he would
enjoin us, “my information is that
this is not part of an attack on us.
It was just an unfortunate accident.
Please return to your homes.” But
even he couldn’t know for sure that
it was an accident.
Let us be optimistic and say that
this announcement, along with other
measures, does deter a wave of panic.
What happens twenty minutes later
when the news comes (and it could
not be withheld from the American
people even if the President so wish-
ed) that the Soviet military forces
are mobilizing at top speed? Would
our people believe the President if
he told them that in his opinion the
Soviets were only doing this as a de-
fensive measure and that it was not
in fact a threat against us? It would
be difficult to present a convincing
basis for such an opinion,
This introduces one of the reme-
dies that I suggest we begin to ap-
ply without further delay—namely,
public recognition of the problem
* -—
N, TION
iG
: a
a oF ty) “4 a _—
presented to us by this mixture of
maximum weapons, minimum de-
cision times, and mere mortals. At
present the official position of both
the Defense Department and the
Atomic Energy Commission is that
accidental or unauthorized nuclear
explosions are but “remote possibi-
lities” hardly worth discussing. This
position must change.
THE TRUTH is that such explosions
are more than probable. They are
inevitable. A healthy skepticism of
man’s ability to manage safely such
weapons is the beginning of wisdom;
and an acknowledgment of the real
odds favoring accident will make
public reaction more rational when
the accident occurs.
Secondly, further efforts to lessen
tensions between the East and West
must be made along the lines of
the President’s example in agreeing
to exchange visits with Khrushchev.
Increased communication through
visitor exchanges can help lead to
the sort of understanding which must
be the foundation for any honorable,
stable peace.
Thirdly, — self-enforcing,
length disarmament agreements
must be negotiated. The most im-
portant is with respect to nuclear
tests. Once international inspection
has been established for one type of
armament, its application to wider
areas is unlimited and of immensely
hopeful potential.
Finally, we must understand that
the only alternative to rule of force
is the rule of law. The President be-
lieves this, so did the late Secretary
arms-
7
of State Dulles. So do Vice Presi-
dent Nixon, President de Gaulle,
all the top British governmental
leaders and, I would estimate, almost
every other responsible political
leader in the world.
It is essential that the
Nations Charter be reviewed. In-
deed, we have delayed too long.
High-level studies should start im-
mediately throughout the world, not
only within governments but among
the peoples themselves. The danger
of nuclear doom is clear enough for
those who will open their eyes. The
dream of a world rule of law may
seem impractical at first, but how
practical, I have to ask, is a nuclear
arms race? Just about as practical,
I’d say, as offering those chimpan-
zees I mentioned earlier more baskets
of live grenades.
An essential first step, now await-
ing enactment by the U.S. Senate,
is the repeal of the Connally Reser-
vation, which permits us at will to
deny the jurisdiction of the Inter-
national Court of Justice.
Last year I attended a meeting at
which Philip Noel-Baker, Member
of Parliament, Nobel Peace Prize-
winner and noted disarmament ex-
pert, said in an informal conversa-
tion that he was an optimist in that
he believed universal disarmament
was feasible in terms of providing
safeguards against one nation’s get-
ting an advantage over andithet, if
the nations all decided they wanted
that equality.
“But,” he added _ thoughtfully,
“T’m also a pessimist in that I be-
lieve that in ten years we will all
United
Dilip
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Re 4
End of the missile race?
be dead and the earth will be an in-
cinerated relic.”
The man standing next to him, a
top scientific adviser in our govern-
ment, declared, “I believe so too.”
I don’t believe so. Nuclear doom
is not one of the inevitables I intend
to accept. The inevitable accidental
or unauthorized nuclear explosion
need not mean World War III.
I think we are smart enough to
survive, but I realize that time is
terrifyingly short and that the task
is tremendous. An_ ever-increasing
number of devoted men and women
are responding to the unprecedented
challenge of unprecedented weapons.
That gives me faith that we frail
human beings and our free nations
will not, for a while anyway, perish
from this earth.
Straight Thinking on Africa .. by Henry L. Bretton
AS SELF-GOVERNMENT and po-
litical independence come to more
and more of the former colonial ter-
ritories on the African continent,
the critical faculties of the Ametiean
bublie will be focused more ‘Sharply
HENRY L. BRETTON, who teach-
es political science at the University
of Michigan, has conducted field
ee m ae and Nigeria.
on. events there. Stabiligy and order,
democracy and_ personal liberties
being very highly valued in our so-
ciety, much of what happens in
Africa will therefore be judged in
those terms. Given the general prac-
tice of over-simplification, and also
because the departing Putopeahs
have posed the question in this way,
the American public will be tempt-
ed to evaluate all news from Africa
solely in terms of whether the Afri- _
cans are capable of managing their
own affairs. (The question really is
contrived and irrelevant, inasmuch
as ants and bees appear to be able
to manage their own affairs, and,
conversely, ihakmmuch as certail
“advanced” elements of the human
trace appear to have been unable to”
do so, or at least have made a mess
of things for themselves and for —
205
everybody else.) Young states and
societies tend to be sensitive to criti-
cism from outside and it is the pur-
pose of this article to alert the
American public to the dangers in-
herent in failing to temper criticism
with the restraints provided by a
sense of fairness and by sympathy.
The newly developing states of
Africa deserve particularly our sym-
pathy and understanding because
their experiences do not significant-
ly differ from our own, and the
political and social problems en-
countered by their leaders are not
significantly different from those re-
corded in 2,000 years of history of
Western civilization. Most impor-
tant, perhaps, is the fact that the
new states of Africa are no longer
dependent upon the good will of the
West. If they are so inclined, they
can find sympathy, understanding,
as well as assistance in other parts
of the world.
NEWS coverage of Africa is still in
its infancy. It is sporadic and ten-
dentious, and it accentuates the
sensational. Too frequently it is
filtered through biased agencies,
some of European, some of Ameri-
can, identity. It still caters to the
public taste rather than to the pub-
lic intellect. The discovery of a
handful of Africans practicing some
form of cannibalism appears to have
greater news value than the discov-
ery of greatly accelerated educa-
tional activity in a newly independ-
ent African country. This defect is
the more serious because news cov-
erage of an area as unfamiliar to the
American public as Africa consti-
tutes the principal source of public
information and education.
Assuming, hopefully, a more ma-
ture, more sympathetic handling of
news from Africa by the Western
communications media, several sug-
gestions may provide guidelines for
the development of a constructive
public opinion on African affairs.
It is not fair to measure contem-
porary African political perform-
ance by the ideals which so-called
Western societies have never really
attained, In judging African ability
to operate modern political institu-
tions and to perform adequately the
processes identified with modern
politics, we should base our criticism
206
on our own practical performance,
rather than on textbook standards
or on glorified accounts of our sys-
tem and of our experiences. We
should be prepared to admit that in
many instances where newly inde-
pendent African countries appear to
encounter difficulties, we of the
Western world have had identical
experiences at comparative stages in
our development. In some cases we
are still struggling with the same
problems. If occasions of political
failure or misconduct appear to be
less prominent in our social setting,
it 1s because we have gradually and
laboriously brought into play effec-
tive forces to counterbalance our
weaknesses and our failings. There
is no reason to assume that Africans
will not in time generate similar
balancing factors.
It is conceivable that we have
been less concerned to apply our
great ideals than our citing of them,
in the form of lectures to the Afri-
cans, would make it appear. It would
be difficult to estimate the number
of participants in the American po-
litical processes who resort to mas-
sive deception, gross platitudes and
sheer nonsense in order to attain
their objectives. We have our share
of clowns in office. Massive corrup-
tion plagues our major cities. Yet
there is remarkably little evidence
here of the kind of action or reaction
which we expect to see in African
lands in response to weaknesses in
their systems.
It would not be fair, or just, to
forget that whatever we may proud-
ly cite in the way of Western
achievements—to be emulated by
Africans—came to us only after ex-
‘tended, frequently: painful, even
tragic, periods of experimentation
and failure. Our institutions, and
the processes associated with them,
did not dramatically and suddenly
materialize; they emerged slowly,
haltingly, uncertainly, from the
muck and mud, and the ignorance
of times past. They too are stained
with blood, human and. sacrificial.
Furthermore, an objective review of
our history will uncover instances of
comedy and farce in government
and politics, matching anything now
being witnessed as the Africans
struggle with the new garments of
self-government and independence.
IN EVALUATING African political
performance, it would be only fair
for us to acknowledge that “man’s
inhumanity to man” was practiced
not only in the outer spaces of Asia
but in the very heart of Western
civilization. The cruelty and bru-
tality, the total disregard of human
dignity, associated with _ political
practice in the Dark and Middle
Ages in Europe should never be
ignored if meaningful comparisons
between the West and Africa are to
be made. The multitudinous witch
hunts and burnings of the late Mid-
dle and early Modern Ages should
not be forgotten. The incessant
bloody and inhuman European wars
should not be overlooked. These
wars, too, were tribal in nature, but
European historians—and our own
—have dressed them up with ro-
mantic-sounding names, disguising
their pettiness and futility. The
cruel and cynical exploitation of
Europe’s masses by the several aris-
tocratic cliques, and the social and
political consequences of that exploi-
tation, should be kept in mind when
we examine African chiefs and their
“arrangements” with the illiterates
of the bush.
It was not so long ago that entire
electoral districts could be bought
in Great Britain, the cradle of par-
liamentary democracy. And who
would deny that mismanagement,
human and material waste, cynical
disregard of human rights and_ of
human dignity accompanied the de-
velopment of the American way of
life? There is no reason why Afri-
cans should skip every phase of our
development and avoid every pit-
fall into which we stumbled. To be
sure, the positive aspects of the rec-
ord of Western civilization are avail-
able to African leaders for study and
emulation, but theory and practice
cannot readily be brought into line
in human affairs, especially when
social, psychological and technologi-
cal conditions are as much in flux
.as they will be in Africa for some
time to come.
EVEN IF identical conditions pre-
vailed in both worlds, it would hard-
ly be reasonable to expect Africans
to be more judicious in the manage-
ment of their public affairs, to be
more humane and just in their so-
cial philosophies and _ engineering
methods, than has been the case
with their Western tutors, Yet, in
order to develop the resources of
their countries and their trade, Eu-
ropean rulers devised policies of
ruthless exploitation of their work-
ers and farmers including, as has
been dramatized by the Socialists,
men, women and children. Progress
was made possible at the expense of
political rights and social privileges
for the vast multitudes. Prosperity
was achieved at the expense of high-
er living standards for the masses.
Much of the capital so produced
found its way, through investment,
into the American economy and to
a considerable extent made possible
the development of the American
way of life.
But conditions encountered by
today’s African leaders are in cer-
tain respects far more demanding
than may have been true of Europe
150 or even seventy-five years ago.
African leaders must attempt to
solve difficult social and economic
engineering problems under condi-
tions which might have unnerved
almost any European statesman.
The African public cannot be kept
from knowledge of superior stand-
ards of living, as was done in Great
Britain, France, or Germany during
the periods of maximum exploita-
tion there. Africans are not as “se-
cure” against subversive influences
as Europeans were then, partly be-
cause of greatly expanded (in volume
if not in quality) mass-communi-
cations media, improved transporta-
tion facilities, improved educational
standards and the pressures gen-
erated by institutionalized world
public opinion. African leaders must
develop the economies of their coun-
tries from a lower level and more
rapidly, and on a broader front, to
benefit more people. Their problems
are intensified by scarcities of train-
ed personnel and of means which
are not the responsibility of Africa’s
modern leaders.
Finally, we are given to deciding
that the peoples of Africa are not
capable of self-government because
violence tends to accompany the
birth of their states. Are not the
people who celebrate the Fourth of
July among the last people on earth
to criticize violence? And it is per-
haps obvious to recall the War Be-
tween the States and the host of
European wars that accompanied
the birth of states long forgotten, or
of still others that avoided internal
bloodshed only by turning aggres-
sion upon neighbors.
PERHAPS the United States has
less choice in the matter than it
might assume. The Soviet Union,
being somewhat more akin to the
type of state now emerging in Africa,
produces leaders who are disposed
to be far more sympathetic to their
African counterparts than are the
leaders of the Western world. The
Russian interpretation of history
comes closer to that common among
African leaders, both pro- and non-
Communist, and the Russian strug-
gle to move a backward and under-
developed country into the twentieth
century is sufficiently recent not to
have been forgotten. We would do
well to ponder this and to shift our
concern from the hypothetical dan-
ger of Communist aggression in
Africa to the fact that Communist
sympathy and understanding are
being shown there.
The Negro Bids
IN JULY, 1958, a group of labor un-
ion functionaries at the Cleveland
convention of the National Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Colored
People decided to speak out on the
convention floor in favor of NAACP
endorsement of “right to work” leg-
islation. It would have been tanta-
mount to what the labor movement
regards as treason, but these Negro
staff members of unions were so
angry at the union treatment of Ne-
DICK BRUNER is a writer at NBC
News. His field is labor and he has
contributed articles about it to a
number of magaxines.
for Union Power e « by Dick Bruner
groes that they were willing to risk
the consequences in order to retaliate.
As it turned out, the speeches were
never made; the NAACP went on
record as opposing “right to work”
laws. It was proposed, in the mean-
time, that the Negro American
Trade Union Council (NATUC) be
organized.
In April of this year, more than a
thousand Negro union members will
convene in Detroit to ratify the or-
ganization of such a council. Its lead-
ers expect the council to have dues-
paying support frat a substantial
national headquarters and _ regional
offices, maintain a professional staff,
pabieh a newspaper, and hold con-
ferences under the direction of a de-
partment of education. “It will have |
a structure like the Jewish Labor
Committee,” says A. Philip Ran-
dolph, president of the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters, who is ex- _
pected to be elected to the top post
of the council. The purpose of this |
new organization is plain: to raise
unmitigated hell with, and within,
the American labor movement, with
the wholehearted support of NAACP rH
White liberals, accustomed to an
image of Negro-white brotherhood —
within the labor movement, may be
shocked by such a_ revolutionary
step. Negroes, however, are not
aware of this brotherhood. The labor
movement is behind many other
parts of our society in granting equal-
ity and freedom to Negroes, and they
are determined to erect a power bloc
of their own and achieve first-class
citizenship in the labor movement,
without help from what they feel
have been the patronizing go-be-
tween efforts of white liberals.
One of the primary functions of
the NATUC will be to operate as a
caucus within unions with substantial
Negro membership. Militant Negro
union staffers are eager to create a
weapon to discipline “Uncle Tom”
staff members who ingratiate them-
selves with white union leaders and
thus avoid discussion of controversial
civil-rights issues. Furthermore, the
NATUC will seek to elect its own
members to union office. Its basic
task will be to work for equality of
job opportunity for Negroes in all
trades and industries.
“We know that whites treat civil
rights as one issue among many is-
sues,” a highly placed Negro union
functionary said. “To us, it is the
issue which takes precedence over all
others.” To the Negro trade union-
ist it often seems that civil rights is
at the bottom of most white labor
leaders’ lists of priorities. He cites
these examples:
Negroes have been trying for years
to become members of Local 26 of
the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers in Washington.
208
For a while, the federal Government
Contracts Committee, headed by
Vice President Richard Nixon, made
some inept attempts to deal with the
problem. Finally, George Meany,
AFL-CIO president, took over. He
corresponded directly with the na-
tional IBEW president about the
matter and set October 31, 1958, as
the absolute deadline for an end to
Negro exclusion. Today there are
still no Negroes in Local 26.
Denial of membership in a union
is an effective denial of employment
in the building trades (it is an old
and bitter joke that no Negroes were
able to work on the construction of
the palatial AFL-CIO headquarters
because of the racism of the Wash-
ington building-trades unions).
Sometimes this denial takes violent
form. Herbert Hill, labor secretary
of the NAACP, in 1956 accompanied
a skilled Negro cabinetmaker to the
Carpenters’ Union hall in Terre
Haute, Indiana, where the latter sub-
mitted his application for member-
ship, along with the required initia-
tion fee.
“After a few minutes, the business
agent came out from behind the
wicket,” Hill said. “He threw the ‘
plication blank, with the money, 1
our face and said ‘Look, Boy, you’s
a nigger. This is a white union!”
The next day the cabinetmaker
began building a garage in a white
residential area. Pickets arrived, es-
tablished a picket line, smashed his
work, beat him up and sent him to
the hospital. Hill called the business
agent to protest this treatment, but
the business agent had a ready reply:
the pickets were protecting trade un-
ionism by giving a scab the treat-
ment he deserves.
VIOLENCE is not typical of union
treatment of Negroes but, unfortu-
nately, denial of membership (and,
consequently, the right to work at a
trade) is more typical than not.
Furthermore, there is no effective
appeal procedure against discrimina-
tion within the AFL-CIO structure.
The AFL-CIO Civil Rights De-
partment has a status in the federa-
tion’s Washington headquarters just
slightly higher than the building’s
custodial services. Since they have no
real communication with the top of
the AFL-CIO power structure, the
department’s three professional staff
members are effectively isolated from
the federation’s main stream. Three
years ago, for example, the Urban
League called the department’s at-
tention to the fact that the San
Francisco bartenders’ local union
does not admit Negroes to member-
ship. A department staff member
went to San Francisco, investigated,
and found the Urban League allega-
tion to be true. He returned to Wash-
ington, drafted a report which was
turned over to the Civil Rights Com-
mittee, a group of top officers of
AFL-CIO unions theoretically re-
sponsible for setting the federation’s
internal and_ external civil-rights
policy. The report became lost in the
limbo of oratory that replaces ac-
tion in the AFL-CIO, and there are
still no Negro members of the San
Francisco bartenders’ local union.
THE truth is that neither the Civil
Rights Committee nor the Execu-
tive Council has ever solved a civil-
rights problem. The committee has
not held a conference for nearly two
years; other committees usually hold
several each year. When it does hold
meetings, they are sparsely attended.
(Some union presidents who are care-
ful to build a public image of genuine
concern for the plight of Negroes are
most noted for their absence from
committee meetings. Steelworkers
President David McDonald, for ex-
ample, hasn’t attended a meeting
since 1956.) A problem must be
dramatic enough to attract the at-
tention of Meany, who has solved
civil-rights problems without the
help of either the Executive Council
or the Civil Rights Committee; or
the problem must be of such a small
consequence that it can be solved
by one of the professionals in the
federation’s civil-rights department
without having to consult the policy-
making committee.
The committee’s status can be in-
ferred from the fact that its chair-
man, Charles S. Zimmerman, is the
only AFL-CIO committee chairman
who is not the president of an in-
ternational union, Zimmerman is a
vice president of the International
Ladies’ Garment Workers. As such,
he would find it nearly impossible,
The Nation:
in the protocol-conscious American
labor movement, to suggest to an in-
ternational president that his union’s
race relations were less than perfect.
Status aside, Zimmerman is not
straining at the leash to provoke a
serious discussion of the civil-rights
issue with the AFL-CIO. He and
others who feel like him are con-
vinced that an attempt to enforce
the language of convention resolu-
tions would cut up the federation be-
yond the healing powers of George
Meany. Civil rights gets stepchild
treatment from the AFL-CIO hier-
archy because of the federation’s po-
litical structure. The powerful build-
ing trades (once the backbone of the
old AFL and still the largest source
of Meany’s support) are an impreg-
nable fortress of racism. Nothing
happening in the United States or
the rest of the world has changed the
conviction of the craft-proud car-
penter, bricklayer, electrician, or
plumber that, when a Negro holds
the same job, a white worker is di-
minished in status; his union’s offi-
cers support that conviction.
The AFL-CIO’s internal politics
lay behind one of the biggest public
faux pas Meany has committed. The
federation president could have
avoided the noisy break with the
NAACP which, early last year, made
the labor movement look so bad in
the eyes of liberals, the Negro com-
munity and much of the world. Be-
fore the public conflict between the
two organizations began, Roy Wil-
kins, secretary of the NAACP, sent
a letter and memorandum to Meany.
The memo outlined in meticulous
detail various union discriminatory
practices against Negroes. The letter
warned Meany of possible fireworks
and hinted that a word of assurance
from him could resolve the conflict.
Meany replied perfunctorily; he was
in no position to assure Wilkins that
anything could be done about dis-
crimination in the AFL-CIO.
Explicit racism, however, is not
the only reason for the frustration of
the Negroes who decided to organize
the NATUC. Unions like the United
Auto Workers, noted for their ad-
vanced attitudes on civil rights, are
_ being pressed by militant Negroes to
take the ultimate step: | RAE he b's
: the government (the 7
‘Se The statement was made ‘the other —
night that one of these days a quali-
fied Negro will come along and on
the basis of his contribution to his
Union he will be recognized. We
reject that totally because that con-
fers upon us Negro members of this
Union what we think is a_ special
status, a second-class status, so to
speak. There is no other group in
this Union that has to wait until
some day in future to run for of-
fice, top office, if you please, in this
Union. I think if we would follow
that logic then we ought to sug-
gest that Negroes defer paying their
dues until such time as they be-
come qualified and eligible to serve
on the International Executive Board.
These remarks were part of a
speech made at the UAW convention
last October 13 by Horace Sheffield,
a Negro staff member of the UAW,
as he nominated Willoughby Abner,
another Negro UAW staffer, for one
of the four vice presidential posi-
tions. Neither Abner nor Sheffield
took the nomination seriously; they
were simply making an attempt to
provoke discussion of a taboo sub-
ject in the UAW — election of Ne-
groes to top office.
One of every eight UAW members
is a Negro. Only one of every seven-
teen UAW staffers is a Negro; in
seven UAW regions there are no Ne-
gro staff members. Nor are there any
Negroes serving on the UAW execu-
tive board.
The auto union is fairly typical of
unions. Only six AFL-CIO
unions have Negroes in elected posi-
tions of leadership: the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters, the United
Packinghouse Workers of America,
the Hotel and Restaurant Workers,
the Allied Industrial Workers, the
International Longshoremen’s Asso-
ciation and the National Maritime
Union.
‘ ”
“ood
NEGRO leaders in the UAW are de-
termined to elect one of their num-
ber to the union’s international ex-
ecutive board. A group of them met
with vice president Leonard Wood-
cock and Jack Conway, assistant to
president Walter Reuther, shortly
after last October’s convention and
told them of their determination.
“We intend to have world attention
focused on this problem, if necessary,
by 1962,” said one Negro.
The NATUC will encourage and
promote such determination among
Negroes in other unions. As Herbert
Hill expressed it, “The most signifi-
cant recent development in Negro
attitudes is their refusal to allow
whites to represent them and their
aspirations. They are determined to
do it themselves.”
LETTERS
(Continued from inside front cover)
ficulty is that the new ideas and forces
need not necessarily be on the side of
peace.
L. Dewey Rapc.irre
Denver, Colo.
Argentine Mirage?
Dear Sirs: When Mikoyan said “They
will kill only fish,” he spoke with the
erudition of an Armenian prophet. The
elusive “mystery” (but preferably Rus-
sian) submarines supposed to have har-
assed the Argentine Navy probably
never existed.
That Navy has. sounded submarines
before, and the Argentit » Air Force has
been alerted to “ nystery” planes.
Stranger things have, occurred, as in
1948-49 when I was i enos Aires and
kept ee the s
ee kl Be ted: en eh i ed
ture of an atomic bomb, with the as-
sistance of a “mystery” Austrian refu-
gee scientist, on a “mystery” island off
the southern coast.
What does matter, and this event ac-
centuates it, is the preposterous preoc-
cupation of Argentina, and countries
like her, with financially ruinous and
morally inexcusable military expendi-
tures. Argentina, barely solvent and
desperately in need of farm and indus-
trial machinery, etc., spends vast
amounts pampering an officer class,
maintaining an army and navy of con- —
scripts, and purchasing and maintain-
ing war ships, jet aircraft and fi ring
power,
comes ee apparent and “mys-
tery” subs are spotted as an excuse for
a grand maneuver, ‘
F. J. WeissenBorn’
Boston, Mass.
Sometimes this madness be~
THE END OF EMPIRE. By John
Strachey. Random House. 351 pp. $5.
A. P. Thornton
Kare
SOME OF the fervors that were ex-
pended in the building of Empires are
now diffused in writing about them: in
this field we find ourselves grappling
with that disagreeable concept, “the
i, verdict of history.” Historians will of
ay course continue to issue their differing
_——_— verdicts, appraising this, weighing that,
yy shaking a rueful head at the other; but
ae, there does seem to be a general opinion
a, that if Caesar is to be buried it is also
fitting to praise him, that indeed it will
hes do no harm to erect a respectable monu-
a ment over his grave. In the case of the
a late British Empire, its own monuments
cast such long shadows athwart the po-
: litical structures of Asia and Africa that
an even the most committed of national-
ists is unlikely ever to walk clear of
a them. If, as happened i in 1959 in a pro-
a vincial assembly in Pakistan, an in-
; furiated politician beats the Speaker of
i the House so forcibly about the head
with a microphone that the unfortunate
man later dies, this is no warrant for
ol : bib
re, saying that politicians, Speakers, as-
by, semblies and microphones — all of them
Bn in their day exports of Empire — are
=
out of place and date and must shortly
disappear. It tells us merely that an
> exported institution needs to be ac-
; companied with the appropriate atti-
tude of mind.
John Strachey, the distinguished
Labour politician, is the latest English-
man to examine the record of the British
Empire and to come to judgment both
on it and on the dilemma of the British
people bereft of its comforting psychologi-
cal, economic and international support.
In a strikingly argued and vigorous book
that in style and matter could not have
come from his radical pen twenty-five
years ago, he examines from his own
standpoint both the premises and the
inhabitants of what was a splendid Hall
of Fame, and seeks to plot the course
of the drafts that now whistle through
emptinesses. The End of Empire
esigned as the second volume of a
ies on the Principles of Democratic
P. THORNTON, author of The
J
M Martin's ), teaches history at University
Col Be of the W est Indies, hee
. ; hie i
v ?
iperial Idea and Its Enemies (St.
B 0 0 K S an d th » AR rs
The Long Shadow of Empire
Socialism but, as the British Empire
was founded and maintained on an en-
tirely different set of principles, the
book necessarily falls into two halves.
The first half offers its view of Brit-
ish imperial history, and in particular of
the history of British rule in India —
for which Mr. Strachey, the descendant
of a long line of able and devoted
“guardians” of the old Indian Civil Serv-
ice, has a warm filial regard. He is an
emotional writer, and therefore his style
and method of attack are well fitted to
what is a highly emotional subject; for
the British Empire was based on power,
and power is neither used not witnessed
without emotion. He does not arrive at
this notion himself until page 192, and
then only gingerly: he has broken free
from the direct influence of J. A. Hob-
son and Lenin, but not from their en-
vironment. In searching for a “prime
mover” (p. 123) in the story of Empire
he is still, in this writer’s opinion, too
obsessed with the idea that economics
underlies it all; that exploitation is the
real theme of Empire, and that for that
reason alone we are all well rid of it.
For the truth is that the Victorian
capitalists themselves never saw any
point in British India, and they were
equally and rightly skeptical about the
problematical profits that would accrue,
as the imperialist prospectuses so often
assured them, from the annexation of
large and unproductive areas of the Af-
rican interior. And few British wage-
earners ever cared about India, to its
last day under British rule.
If, as Mr. Strachey argues, the Brit-
ish really did receive a psychological
shock when “their” Empire was ended,
and awaited a fall in their standard of
living as an immediate result, there is
nowhere much evidence for this. The
British governing class — not referred
to by Mr. Strachey in these terms, as
he is a member of it himself, whether in
or out of public office — had certainly
always resented the imputations of ex-
ploitation that nationalist agitators —
supplied with argument from British
radicals of Mr. Strachey’s own kind —
had constantly thom at its collective
head. This class, if too greatly offended
in its erpeiliges — as By President
Nasser in 1956 — was capable, and may
still b be yet, of flailin ng Ou W ild “ii
reached on the bent backs of groaning
coolies, was one that particularly irritat-
ed men who had a long record of ex-
perience behind them to prove that only
five colonies out of fifty-odd actually
managed to balance their budgets, and
that only three brought in a profit. In-
deed they discovered this more than
fifty years ago, and if they ‘did not
“end their Empire” then on economic
grounds it was because they were po-
litically committed to its existence, they
had responsibilities towards its inhabit-
ants — which, as Mr. Strachey rightly
insists on and takes pride in, they have
largely fulfilled—and they had a defense
system of international proportions con-
structed around it. These are matters
much more of power than of profit.
The narrative of this section is ex-
cellent, however; J have not read any-
thing better on the first British incur-
sion into India, and Mr. Strachey’s
handling of the opinions of such im-
perial seers as Cromer and Milner is
balanced and just. All his detail has been
most carefully chosen for its point and
thrust. This demands a kind of academic
accuracy which Mr. Strachey has con-
vinced himself sits uneasily upon him,
but in fact his scholarly spectacles be-
come him, and it is only when he puts
them aside and steps on to the political
platform that a reader may begin to ask
questions other than those which the
author is determined to put. Was it
really true, for example, that a con-
sideration of international strategy was
only a minor item in the minds of those
who upheld Empire? Was there ever
“a modern popular prejudice that Em-
pire means wealth”? Or can it really
be said that Empire has ended at all
when there is not a single new or
emergent nation that can possibly de-
fend itself successfully against attack?
THE SECOND part of the book is
much more diverse and diffuse, being
in the main speculative rather than
critical. Mr, Strachey’s mind is wide- |
ranging, and his view of the modern |
world and of the part Britain ought to |
play in it has many profound insights.
Like his forebears in India, he be-
lieves in mission: “it is the highest
mission of Britain in our day to help
ihe: underdeveloped world” (p, 244),
This itself is an imperial, or cart
not ion Me any commons sed
comment on the desertion of responsibil-
ity that this necessarily entailed, and
sees the British-built administrative
system which today operates in India
as that country’s “priceless asset,”
comparing it with the chaos left be-
hind by the Dutch in Indonesia. It
was “the end” in Egypt, as he rightly
notes, that “spoiled everything.” If
there was something to spoil, that is
surely an implication that “end of
Empire” is not necessarily virtuous in
itself. This confusion of thought is not
a sign that Mr. Strachey’s own think-
ing is confused, for he is direct and
clear enough: but it does arise from
his underlying assumption that Empire
was always an economic aberration and
bound to bring damaging social and
political consequences in its train. Now
and then it leads him to make remarks,
as an aside to his main theme, which
either disprove it or at any rate are
worth further investigation. Such a
judgment as this, for example, is sim-
ilar to that which infuriates white men
in South Africa every day of the week:
“No concern for the future of the
French settlers in Algeria, natural as
such concern is, should really weigh
with a patriotic Frenchman on_ this
issue.” This is a bit hard on French set-
tlers, on Algeria itself, and on the idea of
patrietism. If a concern is natural, it is
perhaps the business of representative
government to seek a political means of
expressing it.
a eee
¢
Mr. Strachey’s own patriotism is in-
tense: it is indeed the mainspring of his
book, and the reason it makes such a
distinctive impact. He is worried that
the British people, deprived of the sat-
isfaction of Empire, may become like
the people in Spain, with her “three
centuries of uninterrupted sterility and
rancour” (p. 212). He hopes that the
Commonwealth will become a symbol
to replace Empire, but admits that it
has a long way to go. If Empire was a
movement that involved only a minor-
ity, it would be hard to contend that
the Commonwealth is a movement at
all. The old British Empire was built
by the service class and the upper civil
servants, plus a handful of more or less
reputable eccentrics; “the people” for
whose welfare Mr. Strachey is con-
cerned could be stirred only by the
bunting and the heroes, and then not
for long. Still, an imaginative boy
might take fire and heart more quickly
from a picture of General Gordon at
bay in Khartoum than he will from a
speech by Mr. Diefenbaker or Mr. Men-
zies. I do not think, with Mr. Strachey,
that the nation will “break its heart” if
its imagination is not fired somehow;
but I agree with him that it may indeed
lose its soul, and that is a more desperate
fate.
A good book, with an unusual crusad-
ing touch; a warmhearted book from a
gifted mind. What defects it has indicate
its qualities.
Power and Frustration
Michael D. Reagan
IF A liberal feels frustrated by the
stranglehold over legislation exercised
by the Republicrat coalition in Con-
gress, and fears that the “tweedledum-
tweedledee” characterization of our par-
ties is being proved correct, it can be
perversely refreshing to read Edwin L.
Dale, Jr.’s book on conservative frustra-
tions in power. For Dale’s well-docu-
mented thesis is that on matters of
economic policy there is a clear dif-
ference between Republican and Demo-
cratic administrations.
On questions of tight or loose money,
budget-balancing, economic growth and
welfare expenditures, the Republican
position is definably different from the
_ Democratic. And on the basic point of
_anti-recession policy, far from there
being a post-Keynesian consensus that
tween the Congression
CONSERVATIVES IN POWER: A
Study in Frustration. By Edwin L.
Dale, Jr. Doubleday and Co. 214
pp. $3.95,
THE CONSERVATIVE ILLUSION.
By M. Morton Auerbach. Columbia
University Press. 359 pp. $6.75.
UP FROM LIBERALISM. By Wil-
liam F. Buckley, Jr. McDowell,
Obolensky. 205 pp. $3.50.
budget deficits are the proper medicine,
Dale finds considerable ‘reason to doubt
that a conservative administration
would purposely run a deficit to stop a
recession. (In 1954 and 1958, the deficits
that stimulated recovery were for the
most part inadvertent.)
But if there are diff
the Presidential (if no
erences between
s clearly be-
branches _ of
t clear polit-
ig with the
=
the parties, do these
problems of American society — or
simply intuitive, pragmatic reactions?
The second alternative is the right an-
swer, and it points to the troubles in
which liberalism and conservatism now
find themselves.
The problem of conservatism as a
political movement is simply the un-
reality of its assumptions. As M. Mor-
ton Auerbach demonstrates by examin-
ing the writings of Kirk, Viereck and
Peter Drucker, as well as those of
Burke, conservatism has yet to find a
social base to replace the landed aristoc-
racy that never existed in America; and
it has failed utterly to come to grips
with industrialization and democracy. A
business-based party is the closest thing
we have to a conservatism that has ef-
fective power; and business conserva-
tism bears little relationship to classic
conservatism with its orientation to-
ward tradition and authority .
If one turns to William Buckley, Jr.,
the enfant terrible of today’s self-styled
conservatism, one gets another kind of
irrelevance: that of the defender of
nineteenth-century economic orthodoxy.
And this position, while perhaps closer
to the businessman’s mind than, say,
the theories of Kirk, suffers the defects
that it is neither: (1) in touch with the
reality of the contemporary mixed econo-
my, nor (2) conservative in any philo-
sophical sense.
In short, the exponents of classic con-
servatism have no message for the world
of industrialization and universal suf-
frage; and the business-oriented con-
servatives lack any sense of society at
all, lost as they are in a defunct in-
dividualism.
THE PROBLEM of liberalism’s short-
comings is a bit more complex, for on
the surface it appears to be well at-
tuned to reality. Are not liberals aware
of, and pressing for action to solve, the
trouble spots in education, housing and
urban renewal and depressed areas?
They are indeed ready to jump in and
help; their hearts are in the right place.
But look at their approach.
Each problem is taken by itself, with-
out relating it to other problems and
without any attempt to assess the extent
to which some basic characteristic of our
society may lie behind a whole range
of problems. The solution is invariably
a new federal grant-in-aid program —
piecemeal tinkering with both the fed- —
eral structure and the economy. The
Democratic Advisory Council issues —
heady statements on farm problems and
the school crisis; but it has yet to issue _
any analysis of the structure of Amer- *
ican society or of the operations of —
3,
211.
(Continued on page 213)
yy Pee eee ae eee ern) Nee .
Te ie
ae
Five Last Poems.. byp
DITLAYS
February
LAING died suddenly on
14. Her published work
consists of two volumes of poetry, a
novel and the poems that appeared
over the past thirty-odd years in
numerous American and British
periodicals. A collection, Poems from
a Cage, has been announced for
publication this spring. Her work is
sensitive and sharp and refleets both
an unsentimental love for the world
and its denizens and an indignation
ate the incompleteness and
warping of our destinies.
Dilys Laing’s contribution to poetry
is not confined to her own writings.
The dictum that poets are born,
not made, is true enough in its way
(it applies equally well to the practi-
tioners of all the arts, and probably
to scientists, surgeons, lawyers and
athletes). But a poet does need a
certain amount of “making” too,
One of the desirable ingredients of
his making is an audience, a_ live
audience, and preferably one that
can understand and criticize.
About fifteen years ago Dilys
Laing and her husband, himself a
poet and novelist, began providing
poets who lived in about the
Dartmouth area with just such an
audience. There was nothing planned
or formal about these “poetry meet-
ironic
and
f
read and discuss their work were
of all ages and degrees of experience.
They were undergraduates, faculty
members, townsfolk, — established
poets and beginners. They went
there, not to exhibit their poetry
for approbation, but to try it out
on their peers. The criticism they
received was serious and_ practical.
Almost invariably it was useful.
Dilys Laing herself was a_ perfect
audience, not only because of her
critical perception, but also because
of her ability to share in what Proust
calls “la joie du créateur.” She was
as excited over a good poem by a
fellow poet as she would have been
if she had written it herself.
The “Thursday Poets,” which the
Laings also evolved some years ago,
differs from the poetry evenings in
that it is open to the public, that it
meets regularly on Thursday after-
noons and that, in addition to work-
shop sessions, it schedules readings
by visiting or local poets or under-
graduates who are ready for a pub-
lic reading.
It was not Dilys Laing’s way to
have protégés or disciples. She did
not discover poets — though she did
help reveal them to themselves and
others. By her perception and love
and the special qualities of her spirit
ilys Laing :
The Double Goer
A woman took a train
away away from herself.
She thought: I need a change
and wheels make revolutions.
I’m half a century old
and must be getting somewhere.
And so she futured on
away from her own presence.
The landscape boiled around her
like a pan of beans.
A man without a face ~
made her ticket holy.
Adventure thrilled her nerves
restless rapture shook her.
Love is in the next seat,
she mused, and strength and glory
are over the hill, and I
grow younger as I leave
my me behind.
The telephone wires were staves
of a quintet score.
The hills were modulations
through the circle of keys.
Freedom is music, she thought,
smiling at the conductor.
This is your station, lady,
he snapped, and on the downbeat
she stepped to the vita nuova.
A crowd had come to meet her
and they were fond in greeting:
husband, child, and father,
¢ mother, and all the neighbors.
ings.” We met — usually at the ; g
Laings’ house — whenever it seemed
to be a good idea.
The people who gathered there to
she created a climate that inspired
poets to discover, rediscover and re-
new themselves.
—RamMon GuTuRie
They travel as fast as I do,
she thought, and turned to climb
back to freedom’s flying.
The door was shut. The train
streamed off like spilled water.
Dance of Burros
Nothing at all more delicate and charming
than the way the donkeys came,
their eyes downcast like eyes of senoritas
taught to dissemble shame
She faced the crowd and cried:
1 love you all but one:
the one who wears my face.
She is the one I fled from.
They said: You took her with you
and brought her back again.
You look sick. Weleome home.
their small hooves treading neatly, shoes of dancers
making a shape for music, striking the stones
into sudden tune, tapping the brookbed street
to echo on the adobe. How could bones
travel so nimbly under the tall sun
carrying burdens as the donkeys did:
cubed fields of cornstalks? And the pale maize rustled
in frail percussion from the carrying tread.
Genesis and Exodus
The home that we all seck
is no man’s land
Piano piano piz vasts drummed b thas
piano” piano. te Beasts drun y between the right and the left hand
with delicate beat, as light as twigs on tile, ;
rete t beoween the light and dark,
through raining light above their own small shadows — pepween the light) and. d
trotting in single file. a Woman and man, earth and heaven,
¥ ’
ae we face each other’s garden :
And three brown men in white, beneath sombreros, ae ne d a a ee gar oa
moved with the donkeys quietly, to climb he ; ; abs x
‘ . ; Nh: from which — ast | |
the cobbled hill. The white walls yawned them in, _ WD A , i alta ae cape eluatlin
burros and men and burdens keeping time. (aii Fa aA © ake NO andes oe a
ar Ab. ue t Pasa ee | Li se areal Ons GIN
§ is ‘4 7 F { a : ms if ; TV i a { A L
; i Pe, i. ‘3 } :
‘eae hee te es f Ms aa igh
p
;
Fe
aS
SES Pe eas Fe aa, ce i eed . ae ee ee
liberals are “lost.”
We, the god-imagining mammal,
whose flesh is baked of corn or clay:
a sacrificial meal for the compost-goddess—
what nourishment shall we supply
to feed the vigor of our thinking seed?
Will our children bless our bones that tick
in the contaminated earth, or curse
their crazed heirloom, the fallout from our hands?
How can the young take heart from history—
clinical record of their family sickness?
In our disease they dread their raving death
and long debility. They learn that they might be
Attila, Caesar, Hitler, Jenghiz Khan,
bloody uniters of the savage world.
Yet at two trees death gives them measure
of human stature: death at the legal tree
of Rouen, where a country virgin
is winnowed into ash and immortal virtue;
death at the legal tree on the hill of the skull
where a delinquent Jew is nailed to Godhead;
but at one tree, at Gaya, in Bihar,
the contemplated navel of the world,
blood is illicit, cruelty renounced.
The living fig tree of the Buddha, fat with seed,
sucks mercy from the breasts of death
In a Green Shade
The Sacred Wood
(For Ned O’Gorman)
In the forest of the Alphabet the child
could not pass the tree called Fear.
The deathly owls came mewing from its boughs
and ripped the hinges of his tongue.
The boy wept at his teacher’s knee:
“T cannot learn to read my life.”
In the forest of the Alphabet the youth
could not pass the tree called Joy.
Two phoenixes came flying from its boughs
and tried to strike his tongue to fire.
The youth said to the long-eared crowd:
“Your eyes have stricken me with fear,
I cannot read my poems clear.”
In the forest of the Alphabet the man
reached the holy oak Omega.
The winged sun was beating in its boughs
and dropped 4 leaf of hght upon his tongue.
The poet sang to the black century:
“Here in the sacred wood [ stand,
a sickle burning in my hand
and tents our seed against immoderate suns.”
(Continued from page 211)
power, by which the relationship be-
tween discrete social problems and the
character of the society might be re-
lated. Lacking any theory of what
causes social dislocations in America,
the liberals are unable to suggest basic
reforms that might diminish the rate
at which new problems similar to the
old ones arise. It is in this sense that
(In must be said,
however, that it is better to propose
~ ameliorative measures, even if one lacks
a more fundamental strategy, than to
be void of ideas at both levels — as
the conservatives are.)
Liberals in large numbers have joined
in the post-war “American celebration”
and have accepted the alleged virtues
of “pluralism” and checks and balances
without much analysis of the anti-ac-
tion, anti-democratic implications for
social policy of a political system de-
_ signed to frustrate the majority in gen-
eral and the unpropertied in particular.
By so doing they have failed, as Robert
Lynd has said, to develop a theory of
social power for social ends, and a set
of institutional reforms to make such a
theory, effective. In the -absen e
once ae Camus |
to cut the bough that is a brand,
and they who love will understand.”
THEATRE
Harold Clurman
ALBERT CAMUS’ Caligula (54th
Street Theatre) is replete with atroci-
ties and a profoundly moral play. For
Camus was above all a moralist. This
does not mean that his play is without
dramatic power. But like most parables
its interest inheres in its ideological con-
tent rather more than in its surface
story. That is one reason why the play,
for all its record of vice and crime, does
not deeply shock or move us. We know
that its savagery—though historical—
is only symbolic.
Written in 1938—when Camus was
twenty-five—Caligula reflects a sensitive
man who came of age in an epoch of
concentration camps and civic nihilism.
More important than this is the atmos-
phere of despair at a time when intelli-
gent and educated people had begun to
question all traditional values-
ed idealism. to a
, had hitherto re
come only violent or mad. Fierce and
bloody action itself appeared to cause
no human repercussion.
The young men of France felt them-
selves spent. When war broke out in
1939 and France collapsed, shaming it-
self not alone by defeat but by the be-
havior of so many of its most respected
citizens, there seemed nothing left to do
but abandon oneself to the filthy tide
or rebel. Many of those who rebelled
(like Camus) did so not in the name of
their country alone nor in the name of
any certified value—for they were skep-
tical of all explicit values—but from a
sense of the spirit within them, a spirit
we might call the remnant of human ~
feeling which miraculously (or mystical-
ly) rejects the brutal disorder that na-
ture and society perennially foster.
Caligula. attempts: through an inver
tain freedom by in
lic ferocity of life a
ie, and the worl
d as sacrosanct or
proper. He becomes a logical killer by
pursuing the illogic of na ture and society
tating the ar
destroying all
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214
for a man cannot deny life without elim-
inating his own. One cannot destroy
others without creating an aloneness
more terrible than death. No individual
can sever his connection with his fel-
lows; who says connection inevitably
says love—no matter how the word may
be distorted.
In reviewing Stuart Gilbert’s transla-
tion of Camus’ plays last year (Justin
O’Brien’s translation for the stage is
much better) I wrote that they were
important rather than good. I meant
that while Camus’ plays—to me Caligula
is the most interesting—are the emblem
of a generation and a clue to much that
has been thought, written, painted and
happened not only in France since the
war but to some extent almost every-
where in the West, they are not com-
pletely realized works. The writing—
while distinguished—does not achieve
the white heat or specific imagery of
poetry, the characters and scenes attain
only a general or moralistic definition.
Camus himself seems to have sensed
this, for he acknowledged the play’s
shortcomings and spoke of Caligula as
an actor’s and director’s play. To this
and to all I have already said I should
add that, for all its flaws, I found that
the play merited and got my absorbed
attention: that it is in short a superior
piece with trenchant passages through-
out. The production—simple to emacia-
tion in Paris 1945, where it was a tre-
mendous success with Gérard Philipe—
here leans to the spectacular.
I have been. told that Camus advised
Sidney Lumet, who directed the play,
to eschew the obligatory austerity of its
original production. Perhaps Camus
thought our audiences might find a stark
presentation forbidding. But I am not
at all sure that there is not some other
style for the play which would be neither
bare in the manner of an improverished
Paris nor costly in keeping with our
prosperity. | am sure that Broadway
with its high prices—behind and in front
of the curtain—does not provide the
most favorable conditions for the mount-
ing of such a play.
Sidney Lumet’s direction is intelligent,
faithful and sometimes ingenious. Yet
all the details of the production struck
me as being somehow irrelevant. One
cannot help being “held” by the light-
ing, the set, costumes, etc., but I could
not really like them, because in some
peculiar way they all seemed foreign to
the author’s idiom, They are too elab-
orately decorative to suggest classic re-
straint, too mechanically modern to
be inconspicuously beautiful. Kenneth
Haigh’s Caligula is creditably, even im-
pressively sincere, and accomplished to
Pup Sw tage
*
a degree. It lacks only the astringency
of intellectual anguish and tragic dimen-
sion. In the role of a humanist Phillip
Bourneuf’s straightforward intention and
diction reach the mind.
ONE OF the distinctly better off-Broad-
way productions this season is The
Prodigal by Jack Richardson (Down-
town Theatre). This is also the work
of a twenty-five-year-old who employs
age-old material—in this case that of
the Orestia.
Richardson’s Orestes is a young skep-
tic; at once entirely indifferent to the
fundamentalism of his father, Agamem-
non (representing established notions
of culture and progress), and_ scornful
of the somewhat gross egalitarianism of
his mother’s lover, Aegisthus. This Ores-
tes is a princely beatnik who preaches
the graceful quietism of a Christopher
Fry hero with barely a trace of bitter-
ness. But events, history and more espe-
cially the presumed hot blood of the
theatre audience, which demands com-
mitment, will sweep Orestes into a re-
luctant gesture of heroism which, as we
all know, must entail vengeance and
murder.
Richardson writes well; his play is re-
freshingly literate and occasionally witty
(he has undoubtedly read Giraudoux)
and there are signs in it of a genuine
theatre flare. [ am not wholly convinced
that the most fruitful path for an Amer-
ican playwright who forswears natural-
ism is one which leads back to Attic
models. This young playwright has a
gift for words and with time may well
develop a personal style and something
a little more concrete to say.
The production under Rhodelle Heller
has been aptly staged and is well spo-
ken by a hearteningly confident cast.
Two Sentences
(Wellfleet Harbor)
The continuous hissing of
the ebbing tide says,
“Indians who took
oysters in this bay
were better than these whites,
had hotter hearts and senses
to nature sharper, though
superstitious and square-jawed.”
But as the low sun flamed
in the mirror-water and
the calm of evening
was deafening, I heard
whispers of eternal
poetry and sprang up
onto my motorcycle
before it was too late,
Paut GoopMan
“
—
WHAT, if anything, is happening to the
American at mid-century? What are
designers, manufacturers and merchan-
disers doing to him, with his consent?
For a quick answer to these and other
questions, let us look at what has hap-
pened to the chair. We can look in any
furniture store, ten-cent store or drug
store. Today chairs are on sale every-
where.
Like people a generation ago, chairs
of the past were round and upholstered
and stuffed full of great ample cushiony,
tufted, buttoned-up places. Or, they
were high, straight-backed, and upright
(fancy or simple, mahogany or pine),
having an alert dignity, solid and still
or rocking gently, to and fro.
Today’s chair tends to be a rigidly
molded free form of homogenized syn-
thetic rubber, mounted and angled to
SOR re
2 GEL Fe
——~
™
SS
give a floating effect with a niche built
in for a tendency to slump, a foam that
buoys, a form that fits, a sling that
slings, a fulcrum that reclines, or a ma-
chine that vibrates.
Perhaps the function of sitting has al-
tered. When sitting at home, people
used to have a formal relation to other
people. In times past, a person sat
down for one of a variety of special
purposes, such as to read, rest, converse
with visitors, tell stories, work with the
hands, hold something or someone in
the lap. Today’s chairs appear designed
to collapse in, or as instruments in the
fight against collapse.
The modern sitter is very busy and
has no time to waste. When he sits he
expects the chair to do something. If
the chair is just going to stand there,
it must be an object of art. Some modern
chairs are too beautiful to sit in. The
human physique spoils their perfect
lines.
THE revolution in chair design has
been .won and the designer has been
enthroned. We should remember that
the designer, like the engineer and the
architect, is a man of science, as well
as an artist and creator. He knows what
is best for us, just as the doctor does,
_ or the psychiatrist or the priest. But
_ the designer has his problems; he too is
_ human. He is torn between the needs of
science and the needs of art. He must
invite and respect the seat of the sitter.
nr ee
Roan at we writes ae tote es-
‘What Has Happened to the Chair?
Leslie Katz
At mid-century, every
and ae ae re
At the same time, he must preserve in-
tact the integrity of the chair.
Fortunately, he is aided by modern
Bent plywood will bend to
his wishes. Rubber-coated wire has its
own way of sitting, but isn’t too par-
ticular. Fiberglas, being indestructible,
has almost no feelings at all, and can
be made to fit and outwear practically
any sitter.
In the United States, the moral vir-
tues of sitting (Save Your Heart!) are
winning out over the mystique of design
(Form Follows Function!). Americans
today are tending to sit, not because it’s
good for the chair or for Le Corbusier,
but because it’s good for the sitter. They
recognize the chair as a tool of inspired
uplifting purpose. Opposing the design
for which the human being is a mere
decorative addition, they favor the sci-
entifically conceived shell seat which
induces and promotes proper sitting pos-
ture. The next development in chairs
may well be a patented means of frying
each one to personal order, like the
molded space shoe, based on a plaster
cast of your spine.
materials.
IN OUR age of motorized activity,
wherein the home resembles an outsized
cockpit decorated with instrument
panels, and a man may spend more hours
in his automobile than his house, what
could be more natural than the present
vogue of the electric lounge chair that
vibrates? Sears Roebuck offers three
models for living room or den. The com-
pany’s best is a three-motor vibrator
lounger that gives variable massage at
back, seat and legs; each adjusts from
very mild to very strong. There is a
separate finger-tip rheostat control for
each vibrator, and a fully automatic
timer, adjustable from five minutes to
one hour, that shuts off motors as de-
sired. “Relax in glorious comfort while
simple tension and fatigue are eased
away. Enjoy deep vibration daily in
privacy of home or office. For all mem-
bers of the family.”
Life is the jitters; vibration is a kind
of empathy. When you come home after
a hard day, you can climb in, recline,
turn on one of the motors and taper off.
Others in the family re have had all
day to vibrate.
_ This is progress.
eoasidered marathon da
pole sitting exhilarating sp
Political
Freedom
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of the People
By ALEXANDER MEIKLEJOHN
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The Federal
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Edited by
HERBERT V. PROCHNOW
Executive Vice President, The Pirst
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“Must reading for bankers, and for others
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banking system and its role in our complex
economy.’—Jrss—E W. Tarp, Chairman of
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Whitehead’s
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Lissays in Social
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Edited with an introduction by
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At your bbb batine or from '
HARPER & Sila N.Y. 16 ,
it’s good for him. Ideology rules every
roost.
The Simmons Company, makers of
Beautyrest mattresses, to keep up with
the competition have come out with a
popular-priced motorized or manually
operated bed that raises any basic part of
you any degree at the flick of a wrist. Be-
ing supine alone or in company need no
longer be mere pleasure or relaxation.
The bed can be more than just an im-
passive place of sleep, play or affection.
Now, like the chair, it can join in, an
electrified step in the process of becom-
ing relaxed, an educated device and aid
to help release spontaneous joy. Oh the
glorious exoticism of jaded innocence,
the bed with an engine. An unguarded,
voluptuous movement, the button is
pushed, your position changed to fit
your mood, and youre off. To a lucky
new generation, this will be Experience.
What does the future hold? A table
to lie down on? A bed to eat off of (or
at)? Perhaps, even, a chair to stand in?
The American imagination must not flag
or fail us now. Advertisements for the
latest furniture often show modern peo-
ple sitting on the floor, gazing in rapture
at the chair. Maybe we’ll all end up on
the floor together.
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RECORDS
Lester Trimble
SIR THOMAS BEECHAM’s readings
are interesting as much for their lapses
as for their splendors. Even when the
performances do not go as one thinks
they should, there is a refreshing flavor
about them of iconoclasm and musician-
ly honesty. They have personality. Only
an Englishman, I suspect, could main-
tain such individualism within a frame-
work of scholarship and tradition,
In its best portions, Beecham’s RCA
Victor recording’ of Handel’s Messiah
is marked by a kind of consciousness
that almost transforms thought into
sensation. A forceful example of the ef-
fect can be found in the Pastoral’ Sym-
phony of the ‘oratorio’s first. part. In
this instrumental interlude, which sets
the scene for the soprano. recitative,
“There were shepherds abiding in the
field, keeping watch over their flocks
by night,” Beecham controls every
note. Everything is attenuated (though
the triple meter is not violated, nor is
there genuine rubato) in order to es-
tablish a skylit-night mood. It is in a
different world of insight from the
usual, ingenuous treatment accorded the
Pastorale. Since. the manipulation of
each phrase and-integral ornament-is so
apparent and deliberate, | cannot guar-
antee that the effect will be as happy on
a twenty-fifth hearing. One could be-
come impatient. But for the first hear-
ings, at least, I find it lovely, and re-
vealing many. unsuspected. meanings in
the music. It also establishes a neces-
sary change of mood. Coming shortly
thereafter, the soprano aria, “Rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Zion!” runs off
at an incredibly fast tempo, and goes
more perfectly than I would have
thought possible at such a speed. It
could not have been done without the
preparation of the Pastorale.
That is the bright side of. Beecham’s
Messiah, Vhere are other. sections which
do not say anything or at least any-
thing remarkable. They are marked by
a passivity which could mean that the
conductor did not have any precise
idea in mind, or that he was working
with performers who were not able to
execute his ideas. Giorgio Tozzi, a
basso whose fine reputation is de-
served, does not seem to fit well into
the general spirit of this performance.
There is nothing definite to criticize,
save a flabby phrase at the very begin-
ning, but he does not match the mood
of Anglo-Saxon alertness that is this
recording’s principal asset, The soprano
Ce | © ee
.
Jennifer Vyvyan, contralto Monica Sin-
clair, tenor Jon Vickers, all sing splen-
didly, and the Royal Philharmonic Or-
chestra and Chorus are extraordinary.
CHARLES MUNCH and the Boston
Symphony Orchestra have recorded,
also for RCA Victor, Beéthoven’s
Eighth’ and Ninth Symponies. In the
latter, the New England Conservatory
Chorus and_ soloists Leontyne Price,
Maureen Forrester, David Poleri and
Giorgio Tozzi are participants. The
performances are smooth, but unre-
markable. Munch does achieve an un-
usually pretty effect in the little mil-
itary march of the Ninth Symphony,
‘but other than that, the music is
presented in routine professional man-
ner. RCA Victor LM-6066 (2 disks).
The Mendelssohn Violin. Concerto
and the Prokofieff.G.Minor Violin Con-
certo’ have been recorded by Jascha
Heifetz, with Munch and the Boston
Symphony as accompanists. Heifetz 1s
still the greatest: violinist in: the world,
and his playing, even when it throws
musicianship aside in order simply to
dazzle, has the advantage of an almost
unbelievable technique. I don’t care that
he speeds up the fast movements in the
Mendelssohn, since the music has little
to say. But listening to them is like try-
ing to read station names from the win-
dow of a behind-schedule express.
Heifetz’ performance of the Prokofieff
concerto pays more respect to the music.
Perhaps he is less bored with it. He
sems less deeply involved than he was
in an older recording of the work, which
is no longer available. However, his tone
is ideal for this de-sentimentalized senti-
mental music, and one can argue against
this performance only from the evidence
of the earlier one. RCA Victor LM-2314.
Jean Martinon and the Paris Con-
servatoire Orchestra present readings
of the Prokofieff Fifth and Seventh
Symphonies which, in terms of percep-
tiveness, differ greatly. The Fifth is color-
ful and accurate of statement; the
Seventh is: partially hamstrung by un-
conyincing, over-slow tempi, and a gen-
eral misunderstanding of the musie’s
requirements. Martinon’s reading of the
Fifth, however, is worth hearing. RCA
Victor LM-2272 (Symphony No. 5);
RCA Victor LM-2288 (Symphony No.7).
The marvelous harpsichordist, Wanda
Landowska, is presented on an RCA
Victor Memorial Edition (ILM-2389) in
performances of the J.S. Bach Two and
Three Part Jnventions. This is a delight-
ful disk, with a portion devoted to
spoken commentary on the music by
Landowska herself. Since this remarkable
woman died in August of last year, the
remarks now have a particular poignanee,.
5
\ -
bo» fi + INATION
tk
Crossword Puzzle No. 857
By FRANK W. LEWIS
ACROSS:
Bill seems crazy, perhaps, to allow
a girl to get home. (3, 5)
right there!) (3,2, 4)
Do those interminable finales, from
the narrower aspect? (7)
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A
arch 5, 1960 |
Printed in the U.S.A. by RCR Publication Printers Corp., N. Y. C.
In “Test Case on Atomic Waste,” published in our issue of August 1, 1959, Gerald McCourt de-
scribed the turmoil in a Connecticut town which followed the awarding of an Atomic Energy Com-
mission contract to a local trucker for the temporary storage of atomic wastes. What this country
needs, Mr. McCourt concluded, “is a nation-wide standardization of the process by which .. . local
permits are issued” for this purpose.
About two months later —on September 19—we published “Atomic Waste Case No. II,” by
Grace DesChamps — another tale of the cavalier handling by the AEC of the radioactive “garbage”
produced by atomic energy.
Since then other similar cases have been reported, notably one involving the unhappy Long
Beach, California, junkman who was told by the City Council to remove barrels of atomic waste
from his yard —and was stopped from doing so by the city police.
* * *
’ All this has now caught up with the AEC, one of whose spokesman says wryly, “We’re holding
a can of worms.” And in the House, three bills — HR 8187, 8423 and 7014—have been introduced
calling for transfer of atomic-waste control from the AEC to the U.S. Public Health Service.
* * *
4 The moral? If you want to know what Congress will be discussing tomorrow, read The Nation
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2
CORRUPTION
IN CHICAGO
A Big City Ripe for Reform
Leon M. Despres
THE SAME OLD GERMANS
Jesse D. Wolff
DON’T COUNT ROCKEFELLER OUT
James Desmond
LETTERS
The Fallible ‘Czar’
Dear Sirs: Stanley Meisler is to be com-
mended for his article on narcotics
czar Anslinger [The Nation, Feb. 20],
the major booster of the unworkable
drug laws his own department tries to
administer. Legal expert Rufus King
has stated, “It is precisely our law-
enforcement efforts, and nothing else,
that keep the price of drugs, nearly
worthless in themselves, so high as to
attract an endless procession of criminal
entrepreneurs to keep the traffic flow-
ing.”
Commissioner Anslinger continues to
deny this and to treat with great con-
tempt any criticism of prevailing policy.
As Mr. Meisler rightly notes, the
Narcotic Bureau’s recent report on
ABA-AMA reform proposals “resembles
a screech more than an argument.” An
interesting example is the bureau’s ref-
erence to the “unfortunate narcotic situ-
ation in the United Kingdom. . . .” I
have just returned from two years in
England studying British narcotics pol-
icles in operation. All the data I ob-
tained indicate that the British approach
(a medically oriented one, which in-
cludes provision of low-cost drugs for
certain addicts under medical supervi-
sion) is extremely effective and sen-
sible...
Thus far the backers of our present
drug laws have labeled all critics “self-
appointed narcotics experts” who “con-
ceal their ignorance by ostentation of
seeming wisdom” (such critics have in-
cluded, of course, leading judges, law-
yers, physicians and social scientists).
But such invective cannot long keep in
the background the glaring deficiency
and inhumanity of our present addiction
policy. An outraged public opinion, de-
manding a sane alternative, could help
bring about a much needed (and, I
should think, inevitable) reform.
Epwin M. Scuur
Instructor in Sociology
Wellesley College
Wellesley, Mass.
Light Light Bills
Dear Sirs: 1 have read the article,
“TVA: the Unlearned Lesson,” printed
in The Nation of August 1, 1959, and
just reprinted in Senior Citizen for Feb-
ruary of this year. It is refreshing to
read a factual article which “lets the
figures speak for themselves” and_re-
futes the insinuations of the private-
power interests,
As a resident of the TVA area, I used
18,298 kw. of electricity in my home in
1959; the national average is 3,500.
When will the private-power interests
learn that high rates discourage con-
sumption and keep profits low?
H. A. WezpB
Nashville, Tenn.
A Lead for Liberals
Dear Sirs: The Nation has excelled it-
self with the editorials in your issue of
February 6. . . . I immediately phoned
the head social-studies director of our
regional high school and told him that I
wished to supply each. of the school’s
seniors with a copy of the issue, in the
hope that he would organize a debate
around the problems raised by your edi-
torials. He was extremely sympathetic
to the idea.
Please accept my sincere congratula-
tions on the superb job The Nation is
doing for the leaderless liberals in the
United States.
Jures ArcHER
Pine Plains, N.Y.
Democrats’ Opportunity
Dear Sirs: Your editorial, “The Candi-
dates and a Politics of Peace” [February
6] is a masterful statement of the po-
litical dilemma facing the American
people. Congressman James Roosevelt’s
reply, far from resolving the dilemma,
highlights its importance. In connection
with civil rights, he says there has been
a majority in the Democratic Party
which has not played politics on civil
rights and that what has kept Congress
from making solid progress on this is-
sue is a coalition of Republicans and
Southern Democrats. This, he implies,
absolves the Democratic Party from all
blame.
Has Mr. Roosevelt’s liberal majority
used their votes within party conven-
tions to get a strong civil-rights plank in
the platform? Do they exercise the
myriad of disciplinary measures and
pressures that every party majority can,
if willing, use on a recalcitrant minority,
or are they marking time so as to pre-
serve the Solid South for a Democratic
Presidential candidate? In two suc-
cessive elections they have done this.
I hope that they are not preparing to
do this a third time.
In the past hundred years, the
Democrats have elected only four Pres-
idents — Cleveland, Wilson, Roosevelt
and Truman. Cleveland’s election has
been attributed to a chance remark
made by James G. Blaine; Wilson’s to
a split in the Republican Party; Roose-
velt’s to the depression and Truman’s
' a
;
« a
. . we
to his assumption of the mantle of his
predecessor. The Democratic Party can-
not win by taking over the Republican
platform, by adopting the cold-war
policy of Truman and Acheson, by
statements by Stevenson about stronger
“labor” bills, by Kennedy’s cry for a
strong President to lead us — “where”?
The party would do well to adopt your
advice and give real leadership to the
latent longing of the American people
for the kind of platform the editorial
outlines.
Henry H. Aprams
New York City
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
217 @
ARTICLES
220 @ Corrution in Chicago:
A Big City Ripe for Reform
by LEON M. DESPRES
223 ‘@ Don’t Count Rockefeller Out
by JAMES DESMOND
225 @ The Same Old Germans
by JESSE D. WOLFF
228 @ The Tragic Entertainer
by DAVID CORT
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
230 @ Postscript to Power
by GHORGHE STEINUR
Ringing the Bells (poem)
by ANNE SEXTON
New Ear for Emerson
by DAVID L. NORTON
Highbrow Satire
by NPNNETH REXROTH
Art
by FAIRFIELD PORTER
Snow (poem)
by SALVATORE QUASIMODO
(Translator, Ben Belitt)
Theatre
by HAROLD CLURMAN
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 236)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
oe! cece ce ee
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, Wditor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Wditor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clorman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M, L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Musie
Alexander Werth, European
Correspondent
231 '@
232 @
233 '@
234 @
235 @
236 @
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, Mar, 12, 1960. Vol, 190, No, UL
The Nation published weekly (except for omis-
sion of four summer issues) by The Nation
Company and copyright 1960, In the U.S.A, by
the Nation Associates, Inc,, 333 Sixth Avenue,
New York 14, N. Y, Second class postage paid
at New York, N. Y,
Subscription Price eee zene Ay Two.
4, Three a ao. Ag (
|
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCI! 12, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. Il
ae
EDITORIALS
The Never-Ending Debate
“Defense” continues to be debated, but the conclu-
sion is as predestined as Calvinist damnation: spend
more. If the debate is lost at one level, it is carried to
a higher. When the Administration won a draw, or
perhaps better, in the recent debate before the Armed
Services Committee, the issue was promptly carried to
the “hitherto obscure Congressional study group” head-
ed by Senator Henry M. Jackson, the gentleman from
Boeing. Previously this group had received about as
- much attention as a confabulation of orthodontists in
Atlantic City, but now it basks in the limelight of
Time, Newsweek and the other purveyors of “right
thoughts.” Here the cast was made up of “elder states-
men.” There was Robert C. Sprague, Massachusetts
banker and industrialist and co-chairman of the Gaither
Committee of 1957, who distinguished himself by re-
fusing to sell his stock in Sprague Electric to serve as
Under Secretary of the Air Force. Said Sprague, blunt-
ly: “The idea that an increase in spending for survival
¥ will bankrupt us is, to put a plain word on it, silly.”
His words were echoed by James P. Baxter III, presi-
t dent of Williams College, another Gaither alumnus, and
_ by Thomas J. Watson, Jr., of I.B.M. who, gritting his
é teeth, announced his willingness to pay higher taxes
in order that the United States should not become a
.
_ battery-operated drink stirrers, esos thanicure files,
and. electrically. driven eae ue
_ Soviet province. The lead-off witness was Robert A.
Lovett, who was also in favor of increasing the arms —
budget by making more military gadgets and fewer’ = . pens to be true. Herr Strauss du
Me Meer sy Or ot RP 23 4 My
7 ”
“ AN
ieee
Tre
NATION |
of General Dynamics to lobby for more Atlas missiles.
But Senator Case of South Dakota now demands that
Lanphier make clear whether he has actually divested
himself “of any major stock interest” in General Dy-
namics, as well as “any stock option rights he may
have in that or any other corporation with missiles to
sell.” It only goes to show that no matter what a man
does for his country, he cannot escape calumny.
NATO and the Germans ie
The subordination of West Germany through NATO 7
was the price of German rearmament. All of Western
Europe understood this, the Germans as well as the
countries they had bombed and overrun. It was a half-
way plausible theory five years ago, but today it works
badly and tomorrow it will not work at all. This is the
lesson of the attempt of the Bonn republic, our ally
in NATO, to forge a military link with Fascist Spain,
our ally outside NATO. It brings to light facts so un-
pleasant that few American newspapers have had the
courage to face up to them, but the facts are there and
the consequences will follow as the night the day. if
The fairy story has been that Franz Joseph Strauss, |
Chancellor Adenauer’s dynamic Defense Minister, un
handedly went behind NATO's back in an effort to
conclude an arrangement with Franco, and, was ca ;
and brought to book. But, though Herr ‘Strauss . sno
~ doubt capable of pulling a fas se one, none of t
‘NATO's
do. H
German pilots and missilemen — “soldiers of God” in
Dr. Adenauer’s phrase would undergo training pe-
R riods in live firing, which would be impossible in what
is left of Germany without blowing the Birghers’ heads
off.
As a military man, General Norstad could hardly
have failed to see the practicality of Herr Strauss’s
: proposal. After all, “the soldiers of God” must
‘ also have supply depots. But as a political adminis-
i trator, General Norstad could not overlook the ob-
it jections to locating these depots in the land of Franco,
ef where the budding liaison would be sure to arouse
: memories of Guernica, Malaga, the Blue Brigade and
so on. He told Herr Strauss to take it easy. But Herr
Strauss is not so easily dissuaded. Apparently, on re-
even
a
Bie turning to Bonn, he gave a fairly optimistic report to
a? his colleagues and continued his endeavors. Now here
is what is not generally realized on this side of the
at water. General Norstad had no authority to order Herr
Strauss to desist. All he could do was leak the story to
oa’ The New York Times. General Norstad can give orders
within NATO (although they are not necessarily
te obeyed); he can tell the West Germans what they can-
not do in West Germany (although they may do it
surreptitiously ); but in its relations with a non-NATO
country, West Germany is outside of NATO’s jurisdic-
tion. It is even possible, as various British Labour
oe
MPs have alleged, that the Germans already have some
sort of missile research under way in Spain. It would
be legal. None of the military conventions with West
Germany have teeth in them; besides, you don’t bite
your good ally, the “last bastion of Western civilization
against the barbarism of the East,” as Dr. Adenauer
described his country to the Pope.
The Western allies have raised a Frankenstein mon-
ster, and the monster is growing. There has been such
a monster before. In the twenties, the commander of
the Reichswehr, General Hans von Seekt, and the head
of military intelligence, Admiral Canaris, made ar-
rangements for the training of German military aviators
in the USSR. Germany was forbidden to possess sub-
marines, but German submarine crews have not given
up their plans for facilities and what-not in Spain. And
Jet it be noted that Herr Strauss is forty-four. Herr
_ Adenauer is eighty-four, and it is not at all improbable
that Herr Strauss will be the next Chancellor.
AYR
Requiem for Jim Crow
cP ie
event of incalculable moment has taken place in the
a the New Negro has stepped forth on the stage
confidence, courage and boldness. Brilliant social
eties are usually the invention of a risin ‘social class,
as stupid, self-defeating tactics cs
ing social, milieu. The palin pes
fy 7
1 wani
| While the civil-rights debate drones on in the Senate,
1e pent
4
\ es
Remibpotrations as it have spread to some ewenty-four
Southern communities is obvious. The “sit-ins” bring
the full force of Negro purchasing power to bear on
important nation-wide chains. In today’s South, Ne-
groes constitute as much as half of the total purchas-
ing power of particular communities. It is estimated,
for example, that the Negro community spends more
than $150,000,000 a year in Charlotte, N.C. In the
North, Negro purchasing power may be relatively less
significant in particular cities but, in the aggregate,
it is greater than it is in the South. The sit-ins dram-
atize the absurdity of Jim Crow. What it comes down
to is that the stores tolerate “vertical” integration —
that is, so long as the Negro is standing — but reject
a i
his patronage when he sits down. The Negro students
conducting the demonstrations are themselves almost
immune to economic counter-reprisals, since most of
them are (a) away from their homes and (b) enrolled
in Negro institutions more dependent on Northern than
on Southern philanthropy.
That a large, influential section of Southern “white”
opinion is aware that the sit-ins herald a new day in
race relations is indicated by the behavior of the South-
ern press, which for the most part has given “straight”
coverage to the demonstrations. The press is well aware
— after all, it is dependent on advertising — that Jim
Crow has been undermined by the South’s prosperity.
Negroes and whites will fight over a few scraps of
bacon rind, hominy grits and greens, and the plantation
owner will fight to keep his sharecroppers and servants
in their place, but a merchant will not long drive cash
customers from his door. Nor is the cash register’s logic
the only logic that is working to undermine Jim Crow
today. The lunch-counter demonstrations are not
“student strikes” for this or that concession; they are
eloquent assertions of the New Negro’s sense of his
own aenity: as a human being. He is demanding more
than “service”; he demands respect. It is the demand
which every ean minority has learned to make
in time and, in the end, it is irresistible because it is the
basic, the historic American demand.
As it swells to a chorus in the South, Jim Crow is
doomed. The sit-ins in the five-and-ten-cent stores,
not the sit-down in the Senate, i is the pivot 7 today’s
debate. “ rey
The Man Back Home
The striking thing about the current civil-rights—
filibuster is the absence of venom. Some may be let
loose as fatigue sets in, but fatigue is not ee
conviction, passion or anything that supposedly ani-
8 a statesman talking unto the death, The visitor
lars. ne wonder aay ier are filib pase 2
oF '
trol of the police department?
far the Mayor has promised to
almost everything about the de-
do
partment except try to take it per-
manently out of partisan politics—
yet nothing less will accomplish the
reforms that are needed.
Serious police scandals are not
new to this city. Most Chicago
mayors have produced them and
dismaliy survived them. The depart-
ment is the prize handed to the vic-
torious political party in a city elec-
tion. It dispenses the favors which
bring in campaign contributions;
collects the revenue which nourishes
the machine; sets the limits for il-
legal election conduct, and guaran-
tees fortunes for favored individuals.
The department has done this for
both Democrats and Republicans.
Its manner of performance is dic-
tated, more or less, by the structure
of the municipal government.
ee Ser re
?
=
CHICAGO'S legal system gives the
Mayor power of instantaneous re-
moval of the Police Commissioner,
thus putting the commissioner in
} -permanent bondage to City Hall.
Under this system, as Bruce Smith
said in a 1931 report on the Chicago
Police Department, the commission-
er “. . . may show independence,
and im some instances has done so.
In that event the hour of demotion
Peissat hand.” /. |
The political pressures on Chi-
cago’s City Hall are so great that
no mayor has ever been able to keep
his public promises to clear up the
department. What is needed is the
adoption of a system that has work-
_ ed well in Milwaukee, i.e., creation
_ by state law of a board to appoint
the commissioner and remove him
only for cause, a free hand for the
commissioner in running the depart-
ment, fair appeals arrangements for
Police officers, and a decent person-
nel system ioe recruitment, training
and promotion. m2 ‘
The appointment . of a new com-
missioner is only a first step toward
a new Police Department. For the
present, Mayor Daley has put for-
ward an interim city ordinance —
b oe his huge | City Council ma-
lees
ee Sees
prospects for state action are poor
unless the Mayor and the Governor
can agree on what specific legisla-
tion is needed. The Governor has
already indicated his willingness to
call a special session of the legisla-
ture for action; the Mayor, however,
has said he will support a new law
only in 1961.
Thus, protected only by a may-
oralty promise of support and by the
revocable ordinance of a machine-
dominated City Council, Police
Commissioner Wilson will find him-
self fearfully handicapped in putting
through the drastic departmental
reforms needed.
THE COST of a political machine
to Chicago is more than just a bad
Police Department. The machine
always trics to avoid all steps, how-
ever necessary, which may disturb
voter complacency, arouse resent-
ment, threaten solid precinct control
or affect the privileges which it pur
veys. The city is falling behind i
the war on neiphhottined decay; an
inefficient Building Department is
failing to prOWae decent enforce-
ment of a housing code so modest
that it does not even meet the min-
imum standards set by the Ameri-
can Public Health Association. With-
out any internal checks, and with in-
credible confusion and a good deal
of “payola,” the department limps
along to the great benefit of Chi-
ccago’s multi-million-dollar slum in-
dustry. Code enforcement is inade-
quate even in neighborhoods which
actively demand enforcement. Over-
crowding continues to depreciate
houses, schools and community life
while complaints about it are inter-
red in-a. special repository.
The city’s urban-renewal potential
has also suffered severely at the
hands of the administration. The
~ program can boast tremendous pub-
licity, but its achievements are in-
finitesimal. In twenty-five years, few-
er than two and a half of Chicago’s
210 square miles have been planned
_for urban-renewal clearance, includ-
ing public housing. Less than one
gaa one-half square | uiles have been
actually cleared. A long
Tenewal plan fo e
z 0
yo
e “nation as well as the city Ie fi
fifty-year-old Chicago Plan Commis-
always out of date even before t
rf Ae
machine scarcely even talks about
it, much less tries to solve it. The a
city’s 800,000 Negro residents live Ve
in a concentrated and almost con- de
tinuous T-shaped segregated area A
with a. population density five times
the average for the rest of the mu-
nicipality. As new residents arrive,
the area continues to spread. The
result is terrible damage to the city,
both inside the area and out. Inside,
there is severe overcrowding (exeepe
for a small proportion of single-
family areas), physical and emo-
tional ills, rapid building deteriora-
tion, and segregation in fact (even
though not in law) for schools and
public facilities. Outside, existence
of the ghetto causes fear and decay
in surrounding neighborhoods.
Segregation has become the prime
enemy of urban renewal, because
many Negroes fear that demolitions
will deprive them of needed housing,
while many whites fear that rede-
velopment means the breakdown of
segregation and their engulfment by
the Negroes. The Daley administra-
tion has helped Chicago become the
“most residentially septepated city
in America” (U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights); it has never given any
leadership to the forces favoring
housing integration or open occu-
pancy, which alone can save the
city’s neighborhoods and its integ-
rity. One lily-white public housing
development of the Chicago Hous-
ing Authority still stands as an elo-
quent example of segregation to the
rest of the city. ;
Chicago’s housing, urban renewal
and metropolitan problems require
the best planning available. The city
administration has failed to provide
it. In 1957, Daley asked for aa ob-. |
tained abolition of the staff of the —
sion and the creation, in its stead, of
a Department of Planning. The aa
partment is permitted to plod along
on an announced project to unveil
a “comprehensive plan” at the end
of 1962—just in time for the r ¢
mayoralty election. Such gr. grand
blueprints, however beautiful, | are
are revealed. What Chicago ne
day-to-day paoeg of goals and
measuring | F pla ns against them.
The politica ie ine damages |
work effectively for a liberal, con-
structive, national program. At the
Democratic convention, it controls
a fistful of delegates who, under ma-
chine orders, are usually ready to
risk a national Democratic victory
by supporting a “cautious” nominee
and a conservative program. Local
needs come first. ‘The controlled
local delegations will not work to
free either the party or the program
from the oil barons or Dhixiecrats.
In Congress, the Chicago delegation
in the House gives routine support
to the Democratic program, but does
not give the leadership which the
nation has a right to expect from a
great city. In the Senate, the ma-
chine supports Paul Douglas, whom
it nominated along with Adlai Ste-
venson, Congressman Sidney Yates
and other distinguished office hold-
ers, in the year of despair of 1948.
Neither Stevenson nor Douglas
would have gotten a tumble after
1948.
IN THE state government, the Chi-
cago machine has assured tenure to
an undistinguished and conservative
Republican regime by either offer-
ing defeat-marked Democratic can-
didates for governor or by under-
mining the Democratic state ticket
RF palpee
with fatal scandals. Last year, when
the city had an opportunity to sup-
port a strong Democratic nominee
for Speaker of the Illinois House,
Daley yielded to the other ward
committeemen, provocatively spon-
sored an unacceptable river ward
candidate, and thus insured a Re-
publican victory. The result was a
mediocre session of the legislature.
This year the great hope of the men
on the state Democratic ticket is
to uncover enough scandals among
the state Republicans to offset the
scandals of the Chicago Democratic
machine.
The machine has systematically
buried or driven out of the city and
county organizations most of the
significant, fresh, new, liberal ele-
ments. It has denied a place to
Stephen Mitchell, Adlai Steven-
son’s former National Democratic
Chairman. It has now also rejected
Joseph Lohman, able liberal Univer-
sity of Chicago sociology professor,
who was Daley’s blue-ribbon Sheriff
in 1954 and State Treasurer in 1958,
but who was refused support for
Governor in 1960. In the current
primary both Mitchell and Lohman
are running for governor against the
machine designee. Both candidates
have used the Chicago police scan-
SAG SOORIAN
dals with effect and both of them
hope for a huge primary vote to
overcome the machine’s stranglehold
over the city.
WHY DID the Chicago police scan-
dals erupt now? The timing was due,
I think, to the reaction of the victors
after Mayor Daley’s re-election in
April, 1959. At that time Daley had
an opportunity for greatness which
he rejected. The victors misinter-
preted their victory as a complete
endorsement of the status quo, and
relaxed,
The result was that last year, one
scandal after another began break-
ing out. Any one of them could have
been fatal to the machine had not
Daley built up a remarkable reserve
of press and business support in his
own behalf.
First came the bail-bond scandal,
exposing a network of bailiffs, clerks
and bondsmen, helped by orders of
the Municipal Court Chief Justice,
who had voided hundreds of thou-
sands of dollars in bondsmen’s lia-
bilities on forfeited bail bonds. The
Chief Justice admitted he had gone
on hunting trips with the chief
bondsman, but said he had repaid
all expenses. The Chief Justice was
indicted, freed by a judge, and in-
dicted again—and again freed, this
time by another judge.
Then came the traffic-ticket scan-
dal. It showed that a group of Mu-
nicipal Court employees, policemen
and ward politicians had profited by
millions of dollars in traffic-ticket
fixes and fine payments which had
never reached the city treasury. Two
more judges were indicted, and also
some traffic referees, court employ-
ees and ward politicians. As a result,
the party has dropped the Chief
Justice for re-election this year and
is seeking to save its Municipal
Court ticket by nominating in his
place an outstanding candidate, Au-
gustine Bowe, distinguished lawyer,
chairman of the city’s Commission
on Human Relations, and ex-presi-
dent of the Chicago Bar Association,
(Echo of the nominations of Ste-
venson and Douglas in 1948!) But
along with Bowe, the machine has
presented a “safe” river ward com-
mitteeman and a “safe” politician
as candidates for court bailiff and
clerk, offices which control fat budg-
The Nation
oF ———_
4, ¢
ets and more than 1,083 patronage
employees.
Then came the payroll scandal.
For weeks, the press ran daily stories
about hoodlums, non-workers, con-
victs and other unsavory characters
on city payrolls, men who found
their way to non-working jobs only
through the careful efforts of a po-
litical machine of which they were
a part. This time there were some
dismissals, but no indictments.
Chicago’s municipal personnel pol-
icy, which produced the payroll
scandals, is atrocious. The city ad-
ministration has ignored recommen-
dations that it support legislation
for a new civil service board and a
department of personnel to handle
recruitment, examination, promo-
tion, training and personnel relations.
While powerful craft unions deal
effectively for the city employees,
whom they represent whether on or
off civil service, the bulk of the gen-
eral city civil service employees are
shabbily treated and underpaid; the
Albany, N.Y.
IMPRESSIVE indications are ac-
cumulating here that Governor
Rockefeller is still available for the
Republican nomination for Presi-
dent and that, given any kind of a
break, he will give his supporters
around the country the go-ahead to
see how many delegates they can
corral before the GOP convention in
July. The break needed could be a
bad slip in the polls by Vice Presi-
dent Nixon vis-a-vis the leading
Democratic candidates, or a serious
blunder by the national Administra-
tion that would put Nixon on the
spot before the country.
The people around Rockefeller
don’t expect a fumble by the Ad-
. ministration, believing that the
President’s well-known aversion to
making decisions is likely to keep
the government on an even level
_ JAMES DESMOND is in the Al-
_ bany bureau of the New York Daily
_ News. sh
March 12, 1960
4s Ba ct
es,
best treatment goes to an increas-
ing percentage of “temporary” pa-.
tronage appointees.
So the 1959 scandals accumulated,
each eroding the machine a little
more and together creating an at-
mosphere ripe for a major scandal.
Then came ahe police-burglary ex-
plosion. Most Chicago scandals last
only three weeks. This one is likely
to be kept alive at least until the
November elections. Although the
sharpness of the first reaction is al-
ready blunted, indignation keeps ex-
pressing itself over and over. The
halo around the city administration
has gone and the old predatory as-
pects of the machine have been pub-
licly revealed. The machine is gambl-
ing now that it can be saved by
delay, by superficial concessions,
perhaps—if it is lucky—by some di-
version of public attention.
In many ways, the situation here
is reminiscent of conditions in New
York City. The resemblance can be
found not only in the prevalence of
unless unforeseen developments in
world affairs intrude on the scene.
The polls are a different matter.
Nixon hit his popularity peak in
the closing weeks of last year when
the Republican leaders, jumping to
the Vice President’s bandwagon,
convinced Rockefeller that the cards
would be stacked against him in the
-
Governor R ockefeller
corruption and a lack of progressive
leadership, but also in the way both
municipalities are failing in their
national roles. Chicago and New
York, with their tremendous poten-
tial resources, could contribute bold-
ness, energy, imagination and liberal
leadership to the national Demo-
cratic Party. With painfully few ex-
ceptions, neither has done so in the
past; nor does either show any signs
of doing so when convention time
rolls around in the summer.
The course of the nation is close-
ly connected to what happens in the
wards of Chicago and New York. Is
it naive to hope that the current
scandals in Chicago may at last
smash the machine which has for so
long held the nation’s second largest
city in thralldom? Surely the scan-
dals have given this city the chance
of a lifetime to take politics out of
the police department and corrup-
tion out of politics, and to give it
a government worthy of the city’s
cultural and industrial greatness.
Don’t Count Rockefeller Out e « by James Desmond
primaries, regardless of his rank-
and-file appeal. That was the basic
reason for the Dec. 26 statement
taking the New York Governor out
of the contest. Another reason, ac-
cording to Rockefeller’s friends, was
to show the GOP bosses that he is
not out to rock the boat.
But by limiting his withdrawal
to the primaries that might interfere
with the performance of his duties as
Governor during the legislative ses-
sion, Rockefeller reserved to himself
wide opportunities for reactivating
his campaign without going back on
his word. The most important of
his gubernatorial chores will be over
when the bill-signing period ends in
April; from then on, he will be free
to campaign where he pleases, falling
back on precedents set by Al Smith,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and
Thomas E. Dewey.
First, one must consider Rockefel-
ler’s present political “posture.” He
has been scrupulously correct in
staying out of national party politics
223
;
\
Yale oh
/
4
7 224
sit
since his withdrawal statement, and
has continued to reserve his position.
For one thing, he has carefully avoid-
ed endorsing Nixon, mentioning the
Vice President publicly only once
this year and then merely to con-
gratulate him for endorsing the
Rockefeller call for new blood in the
Republican Party. For another thing,
Republican county chairmen in
New York have been advised pri-
vately to avoid committing them-
selves to Nixon until Governor
Rockefeller’s position has been fur-
ther clarified.
And, more recently, ‘Rockefeller
declared himself ready to resume
speaking out on national and world
affairs. ;
NOW FOR the polls. Most pollsters
dropped Rockefeller’s name from
their ballots after his withdrawal
statement, pitting Nixon against the
field of Democrats on a man-to-man
basis. At the outset that worked in
Nixon’s favor.
But as the pre-convention cam-
paigns have progressed, Nixon has
been sliding off here and there. And,
significantly, a recent, unpublished
New York State poll, known to be
available to Rockefeller, shows that
Democratic Senator John F. Ken-
nedy would win New York handily
against the Vice President.
There is no way, of course, to put
any poll to the test without an elec-
tion. But the very real fear among
Republican Jeaders that they may
lose control of the State Senate,
which they are presumed to own by
right of gerrymander, tends to sup-
port the theory that the Democrats
will pull strongly in New York State
next November.
This fear is based on the fact that
while the Republicans elected thirty-
four state senators in 1958 — a loss
of four from 1956 — the twenty-
four Democratic senators got over
50 per cent of the votes cast in the
senatorial contests. And no one can
say, precisely, just how many GOP
senators were saved by Rockefeller’s
coattails in his 570,000 plurality
sweep to the Executive Mansion in
Albany.
‘The anti-Nixon sentiment in New
— York, if backed up by subsequent
polls still in progress, could have a
profound effect on the Republican
a “ated
4 : maucD\’
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Hope Springs Eternal
Presidential nomination. After all,
about 10 per cent of the country’s
voters live in New York and except
for 1948 — when Dewey beat Har-
ry S. Truman narrowly — they al-
most invariably vote for the winner
in Presidential elections. (And
Dewey, it should be recalled, was
a minority winner, owing his victory
to the fact that Henry A. Wallace
siphoned off 500,000 Democratic
votes in his doomed Progressive
Party campaign.)
So, if the belief should grow that
Nixon can’t carry New York — a
state vital to Republican Presiden-
tial hopes, although not to the
Democrats’ — the very minimum
reaction would be a realistic re-ex-
amination of the Vice President’s
strength as a candidate. And the
maximum effect could be a revival
of the old “Nixon-can’t-win” slogan
so widely heard only a year ago.
That could be the crusher. Until
Republican hopes began to soar with
President Eisenhower’s increased
stature late last summer, when he
began making his moves toward the
Summit, it was common to hear Re-
publicans admit that Nixon was
anathema to the Democrats and a
dirty word to millions of independ-
ents who resented his campaign tac-
tics. But through the fall, the ob-
vious difficulties of the Democrats
boosted GOP hopes and tended to
obscure Nixon’s liabilities.
Now with the convention and
campaign drawing closer, prospec-
tive candidates at the gubernatorial
and senatorial levels are beginning
to wonder whether Nixon would. be
the perfect head of the ticket. These
doubts—expressed openly here at the
organization meeting of the National
Conference of State Legislative
Leaders in December—will increase
if Nixon should fail to make a strong
showing vis-i-vis the total votes cast
for the Democratic candidates in
the primaries where he is running
unopposed.
EVEN these doubts, however,
couldn’t change the nomination pros-
pects of the Vice President if the Re-
publican Party were the monolithic
instrument it seems to be, with the
bosses who oppose Rockefeller firm-
ly in command. But the fact is that
the Republicans are far from uni-
fied. They are led, for one thing, by
the same men, by and large, who
took them down to defeat in the
1958 Congressional elections. And
there are new elements within the
party seeking to broaden its base and
change its direction.
In a number of states—specifically
Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, Wash-
ington and, yes, even California—
the divisions are so deep that only
all-out warfare can settle them. And
how better to wage a fight against
installed leadership than with ‘a
Rockefeller as standard-bearer
against the bosses’ Nixon?
Significantly, in all of these states
there is a hard core of Rockefeller
supporters, anxious to take any
opening to swing into action for the
New York Governor. And they are
by no means amateurs or do-gooders.
They include, for example, the fol-
lowers of the very practical Senator
Homer Capehart, who is fighting for
his political life in Indiana. And
they include the Johnson’s Wax peo-
ple and their Wisconsin allies.
Additionally, across the country
there are the far-flung interests of
the Rockefellers, whose mostly Re-
publican executives could be expect-
ed to exert pressure on their local
political leaders if one of the Rocke-
feller boys should become an open
candidate again. There is, of course,
nothing improper in this. Nelson
Rockefeller is an easy man to like
on acquaintance, and presumably
Rockefeller executives, substantial
men in their communities, would just
be doing what comes naturally.
7p oh ny ON
: i ,
éo ae
=
;
.
.
i.
ae me
What all this adds up to is that
Rockefeller, given the breaks, could
go to the convention as head of New
York’s ninety-six-vote delegation,
with a substantial bloc in his corner.
At best, from his point of view, this
could give the men now so deter-
mined to nominate Nixon a reason
to re-examine their position. At
worst, it would strengthen Rocke-
feller’s power to shape the Republi-
can Party closer to what he thinks
it should be, at the same time put-
ting it on notice that he would have
to be considered the next time a
candidate was sought.
As for timing, the logic of events
indicates that the time is now ripe
for Rockefeller. He will be fifty-two
when the Republican convention
meets on July 25—and he will still
be the one Republican who was the
stand-out winner in the country in
the face of the Democratic landslide
of 1958. Still fresh in the public
mind is the boldness with which he
put through the tax-increase pro-
gram to put New York State on pay-
as-you-go financing—a slogan _hal-
lowed in oratory, if not in practice,
by the GOP.
He could hardly hope to preserve
this public image for another four
years, much less for another eight.
And, of course, if he had to wait
eight years, he would be sixty at the
1968 convention, very close to the
cut-off age for first-time nominees.
Furthermore, there is Rockefeller’s
character to be considered. He is a
very wealthy man, used to getting
what he wants. In 1958, he ignored
the advice of nearly everyone around
him—including most of the profes-
sional politicians except those who
had hitched their wagons to his star
—and boldly sought and won the
governorship. It would be unrealistic
now to expect him to sit back and
take it just because a handful of
politicians, who lost their elections
while he was winning his, prefer to
hand-pick one of their own for the
Presidency.
The best prospect is, therefore,
that Rockefeller’s name will be pre-
sented to the convention. At least
up to now, he has refused to say he
wouldn’t allow it. And he still hasn’t
endorsed Nixon for anything.
THE SAME OLD GERMANS e « by Jesse D. Wolff
I AM NEITHER a foreign corre-
spondent nor a State Department
career man, but simply a practicing
American lawyer who makes occa-
sional short business trips to West
Germany. Yet perhaps an amateur
observer like myself has certain ad-
vantages over the professional who
is stationed in Germany; the changes
that come over a country stand out
more sharply to the _ occasional
visitor.
On my most recent visit—it was
a few months ago—to the Federal
Republic, I thought I noticed a
change in atmosphere from what it
had been only a year ago. I asked
a friend —a_ thoughtful Canadian
businessman brought up in Ger-
many and now, by inheritance, the
owner of an old and successful Ger-
man manufacturing business —
whether he had remarked the shift;
and, too, I wanted his views on
the German people’s reaction to
Western, and particularly American,
aid since 1945.
“The Germans have an incurable
national psychosis, a real paranoia,”
he replied. “But for fifty years you
Americans have viewed them mere-
JESSE DH WOLFF is a. ) New York
attorney.
ly as precocious and sometimes iras-
cible scamps who, nevertheless, have
a genius for getting a job done. You
have been deluding yourselves that
with material encouragement and
good example from you they will see
the errors of their ways and quickly
follow in your footsteps.
“The truth is that you recognize
neither their symptoms nor their
disease. You just won’t learn that
you can’t treat an incurable para-
noia with loans, gifts and a friendly
pat on the back.”
Webster’s New International Dic-
tionary defines paranoia as “a chron-
ic mental disorder characterized by
systematized delusions of persecu-
tion and of one’s own greatness,
sometimes with hallucinations.”
Does Chancellor Adenauer (cer-
tainly a man of good faith) recog-
nize the incurable disease?
Commenting on the rash of recent
German anti-Semitic incidents, he
stated, “I say to all my fellow Ger
man citizens, if you catch a ruffian
anywhere, execute the punishment
on the spot and give him a sound
thrashing.” Whip the little para-
noiacs soundly and put them to bed,
says Mr. Adenauer, and tomorrow
morning they will wake up sadder
but wiser young men, —
Has the United States system of
financial aid to Bonn proven success-
ful? From a purely material and
fiscal point of view, certainly. A
trip by car down the Autobahn from
the North Sea through Frankfurt,
Stuttgart and Munich, in the year
1960, is a revelation. Practically no
bomb damage remains. And there
is eye-opening evidence of great ma-
terial prosperity. Germany is as sleek
and fat as a prize pig in the late
fall. The great steel-producing areas
of the Ruhr and Rhine valleys are
a mass of smoking chimneys and
huge new plants. Between Frank-
furt and Stuttgart and down
through the provinces of Wurttem-
berg and Westphalia, what was rich,
small-farm land only fifteen years
ago, is now almost a continuous line
of spanking new factories, usually
with modern glass-fronted offices
and beautifully landscaped premises.
Unemployment is non-existent. A
German automobile producer with
a surplus of capital and a deficit of
skilled labor is buying a small motor
concern (for about 8,000,000 marks,
or $2,000,000); the isctarite will be-
sold or junked, the buyer’s only i in-
terest being in the acquisition of ad-
ditional trained workers.
The most serious problem of the
25
industrialists is to insure that com-
petitors don’t pirate away their la-
bor force. The owner of a substantial
textile company in Wurttemberg
built a plant addition, partly to
create better working facilities with
which to attract additional labor.
He also imported workers from Italy
and Spain, supplying them with
company-financed living quarters.
Many German concerns are follow-
ing this practice.
Real estate is booming beyond
the wildest fantasies of real-estate
operators. The owner of former farm
Jands in the outskirts of a small vil-
lage near Stuttgart recently was of-
fered $12,000 an acre for undeveloped
land without road or utilities—land
which had cost him $100 an acre
twenty years ago. There just isn’t
much undeveloped land left in Ger-
many and businesses are so flushed
with profits that many bid sky-high
for land to be used for factories,
parking lots or housing developments
for occupancy by factory workers at
nominal rents.
* *
BUT HAS American financial aid
“i to West Germany been successful
from the American point of view?
If our aid was designed not merely
to fill German stomachs, but to teach
the Germans that a free economy
works better than a controlled econ-
omy, and to build a strong ally to
help us against potential enemies to
the East, then we have taken a
ee Ay pa bic pratfall.
Sw . executive of one of the most
my successful playing-card manufactur-
ers volunteered some comment over
a fourth brandy in plush Rumpel-
mayer’s Restaurant in Munich. The
burden of his views:
“You silly Americans think you
own us because you gave us money
and aid after you bombed out our
homes and factories. While you were
*
cities and return us to an agrarian
state. After you had pretty well ac-
. pcomplished this, you saw Russia be-
ginning to make serious noises about
controlling all of Eastern Europe
~ around and poured money in to build
up our industry, particularly heavy
industry.
“If you think we now owe you a
: debt of gratitude and you can call
heath ek
fighting us, you said you’d level our
and maybe more. So you turned.
ace * ie eT aa
iw! Wee 4 ee
eg Re
h | i be 7
£7 or é
iw
nee
Pa EP
on us to repay this debt sometime
when you decide that the chips are
down, you must take us for fools.
Your financial aid speeded our re-
covery, but it didn’t really create
the prosperity that you see in this
country. We did it, we Germans,
with our own intelligence, our own
initiative, our own hard work. You
are dead wrong if you think we will
pull your chestnuts out of any fire
that the Russians may start. We are
businessmen pure and simple. We
will trade with the bogeyman if it
is profitable, and will make a busi-
ness deal with the devil if his cur-
rency 1s sound and he knows what
he is doing and where he is going.
Business is one thing and ideologies
another.”
a ee
——$
* *
WHAT IS West Germany’s reaction
to the recent rumblings of neo:
Nazism — the swastikas on syna-
gogues and churches, the pamphlets
distributed on street corners? A
respected and extremely intelligent
seventy-five-vear-old lawyer who
fought the Nazis on principle and
not because of his religion, and who
spent three years in a concentra-
tion camp during the war, gives an
answer typical of the older genera-
tion. In his opinion, these outbursts
have absolutely no significance; they
are the work of young hoodlums and
delinquents with no controlled mass
movement behind them,
But I have the feeling that this
is the view of men too old to carry
the burden of Germany’s conscience,
too willing to hope for the best, too
eager to allay their own doubts.
The daughter of this same respect-
ed, elderly lawyer, a widow in her
middle forties now teaching in a pri-
vate school, was less sanguine than
her father. She feels that the power
and future of Germany now lie in
two quite clearly defined genera-
tions: the middle-aged who knew
Hitlerism and what it stood for, and
the younger generation who were
children and teen-agers between
1933 and 1945. Quite naturally, her
interest as a teacher lies with the
younger generation. She deplores the
fact that history textbooks are al-
most silent on developments in Ger-
many during the Nazi period. Last
year she tried in a small way to
remedy sis by including in her his-
re
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nars on the objectives ‘and accom-
plishments of the Third Reich, both
good and-bad. The result was a per-
sonal catastrophe for her. Vehement
complaints came from parents and
fellow teachers. Parents resented be-
ing put in the embarrassing position —
of having to answer Junior’s ques-
tions as to whether or not Papa had
been a Nazi Party member, or had
used slave labor in his factory, or.
had ever objected to what had gone
on in Dachau or Belsen.
Did the teacher believe that to-
day’s young adults would repeat the
follies of their parents? She shrugged
and answered with another ques-
tion: “What can you expect of
young people who honestly don’t
know what really went on, whose
adult lives were not touched by the
war, and who now live in a com-
pletely materialistic world which
gives them hundreds of creature
comforts and teaches them that only
their God-given superiority put them
where they are today?” She has cer-
tain reservations about their reac-
tion to the present subsurface rum-
blings; and she has even more seri-
ous doubts about how they would
behave if a formal political party
arose that would really seek to fol-
low the Nazi line.
She stated that she is inclined to
believe that any party or person
promising a continuation of the eco-
nomic status quo and the restoration
of Germany to its “rightful place”
as the leader in Europe, would get a
favorable reception from the young-
er generation. She is afraid that the
youngsters would never oppose any .
government, neo-Nazi or neo-Fascist,
which their elders might adopt. As
she put it, “To oppose a return of
a strong nationalistic government,
emphasizing discipline and power,
would require a strong-minded rebel.
We are not breeding political rebels
of any sort.”
*
he * .
WHAT of the older generation, the
people who control Germany today?
Are they upset about recent develop-
ments and frightened of a repeat
performance? I am afraid that para-
noiacs are not cured that easily; and
it is no help, in this regard, that we
seem perfectly happy to have the
Kruppe, the reas and oa cons
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ed war criminals back in the Ger-
man economic saddle. |
Our forebearance with Krupp, who
insists that he cannot find buyers
for his steel empire and thus must
keep it intact despite our previous
directive that it be broken up, is not
lost on the Germans. They are aware
that we acquiesce in the control of
German heavy industry by a group
of three or four large banks and some
ten or fifteen industrialists—almost
all former Nazis or Nazi supporters.
Today the “master” thesis prevails
in the German economy to an even
greater extent than before the war
—this time with our blessing. (One
important German banker told me,
firmly, that the plan for the sale
of the government-owned Volks-
wagen Company to small investors
was doomed; no matter what ap-
peared on the surface, he said, the
banks would see to it that control
was kept in the hands of a few banks
and industrial combines, “where it
_ should be.’’)
Will the economic dictatorship we
_ have encouraged lead inevitably to
_ political dictatorship? This gets back
_ to the question: is the adult genera-
tion which now controls Germany
upset about the possibilities of a
return to Nazism or neo-Nazism?
A German art dealer told me of a
recent luncheon of his colleagues in
Munich, The discussion got around
to the subject of swastikas again ap-
pearing on public buildings at
Christmas time. One prosperous and
well-known dealer stated openly
that it was about time the German
people showed that they were “in-
dependent of Western control,” and
that the United States could not use
them as pawns against the Russians
or anyone else. He went on to say
Der Welt (West Berlin)
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that although he had been quiet fer
fifteen years on the subject of the
Nazi government, he was now not
afraid to say quite openly that he
had been a party member by choice
and not by force or even inertia,
that he hoped for a return of that
government or a similar one, and
that Hitler’s only real mistake had
been in timing.
Granted, this is only one man’s
opinion; but it is the opinion of a
leader in a field made up of educated
people. And I feel that he would
never have spoken so openly had
he not felt confident that his posi-
tion was popular with, or at least ac-
ceptable to, his German clientele
upon whom his prosperity depends.
* oe *
IS THE Adenauer government will-
ing, and politically able, to take a
strong position on Nazi-like out-
breaks? I do not refer to public
statements about naughty children
who paint swastikas on public build-
ings. A high Bonn official recently
was approached with the request
that the government intervene in
litigation involving the property of
a German Jew killed by the Nazis.
This government official was duly
sympathetic, but significantly he ex-
pressed the belief that the personal
reactions of governmental officials
had to be tempered with practicality.
Government intervention in favor
of the heirs of the German Jew, he
said, probably would prove futile
and might well boomerang against
the complainants. ‘Too firm a posi-
tion in a matter such as this, he
added, would tie the government in
the public mind to a cause which
has become “unpopular” with the
1960 electorate. He felt that the
espousal of too many such embar-
rassing causes might lead to the re-
placement of the present regime by
another which might be less “sym-
pathetic” and less “trustworthy.”
% % *
THERE ARE, of course, some Ger-
mans who are able to view their
country dispassionately. I spoke
with one lady, about forty years of
age, born to a title and immense
wealth, who had the benefit of an
international education. She has a
genuine sense of guilt arising out of
close contact with free peoples of
. 7
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Sanomat, Helsinki
“My art is still misunderstood!”
other countries, both East and West.
Today she is worried for herself, her
husband and her three young chil-
dren, whose ignorance of twentieth-
century German history appalls her.
But she admits that she is no cru-
sader, nor does she want to risk the
social ostracism of her children by
encouraging them to question the
myths of German infallibility and
superiority. She seriously doubts the
wisdom of the Western Allies in re-
arming Germany, and is absolutely
convinced that the West Germans,
with Western (or at least American)
approval, will be making their own
nuclear weapons within the next
few years. She is satisfied that when
this happens, and possibly even be-
fore it happens, the present Aden-
auer government will fall, and a
deal will be made by West Germany
and the USSR whereby Germany
will be unified in exchange for a
commitment of neutrality in any
East-West. showdown. This initial
neutrality, she is certain, will lead
ultimately to German cooperation
with the stronger power — and she
has no doubt which power Germany
feels is the stronger.
As for herself, she does not pro-
pose to remain with her family
while all this happens. If events in
Germany proceed as she expects
them to (and if German law permits
the removal of money and property
outside of Germany without pen-
alty), she intends to move herself —
and her family to England within —
the next two years. She feels that
the English, at least, recognize what
is happening in the Germany that
only fifteen years ago committed the
grossest “crimes against humanity”
for which we tried and punished ©
their leaders, but which we now find
it expedient to forget.
THE TRAGIC ENTERTAINER . .
THE SEARCH for the tragic hero
goes on. The martyr is still brought
into the Colosseum, composed, twitch-
ing, crawling or dragged in feet first;
but his identity has changed.
This was seen when several lively
murder trials were swept quite off
the front pages by the hurt feelings
of an entertainer who five nights
a week is in the living rooms of be-
tween five and ten million families
who have TV sets. The tragedy was
that his audience had not been per-
mitted to hear him tell a joke. His
network’s Standards and Practices
Committee had cut it out of the
taped program. The next night Jack
Paar said his last words from the
center of the arena and walked out
on the show. Forever? Hardly; he
returned this week, the joke ap-
parently forgotten.
It will be agreed that this affair
plunges tragedy to a new low of
triviality, nearly as ignominious as
that of Arthur Godfrey’s firing of a
mediocre singer for a want of hu-
mility.
But the newspapers gave it head-
lines day after day and tons of
wordage. Every nuance was inves-
tigated; it seemed to be of critical
importance that the reader get ex-
actly right the shadings of the news-
paper’s opinions on Paar’s soul, pub-
lic and private manners, taste, home
life; and of course most readers al-
ready felt toward Paar more friend-
ly intimacy than they felt toward
most of their relatives. This made
it as important as if their little girl
had been snubbed at Sunday School.
STILL, one can see why Jack Paar
was immediately enraged. There is
nothing more infuriating than to
tell a joke in good faith, obviously
trying to please, and then to find a
lot of pompous jerks, suddenly
swathed in the moral law, bearing
down with their rules of good taste
flapping. No joke can stand up.
Even the very great jokes can get
DAVID CORT’S latest book, Is
There an American in the House?,
has just been published by Macmil-
lan.
228
a é.
you into trouble. And you will never
get out of trouble by explaining the
joke.
Since this is so important, I will
say that the tragic joke was one
based on another I heard twenty-
five years ago. A husband had told
his wife that his club had given him
a silver cup for the best account of
the happiest moments in his life, and
that these were the times he had
spent in church with her. She later
tells a member of the club that she
simply cannot understand her hus-
band’s story, since he had been there
only three times: once before they
were married, another time when he
had fallen asleep, and a third (which
I have forgotten). Of course he had
won the prize for giving his hap-
piest hours as those in bed with her.
Paar’s joke, as everyone in the
United States now knows, took a
similar misunderstanding, this time
Wayside Chapel for the English in-
itials W.C., meaning bathroom.
Nearly any special disposition con-
cerning chapel services would be
funny if misunderstood as of a W.C.
The formula is a classic.
Good taste is another of the sub-
jects on which everybody has to be
an expert. Not only the columnists,
but’ the man-and-woman on_ the
street, expertised: “questionable,”
“poor judgment,” “indelicate,” “in-
ept,’ “improper,” “blue,” etc., etc.
Paar thought the Hearst press was
leading the pack, and this meant
Dorothy Kilgallen, Lee Mortimer and
the TV reviewer, Jack O’Brien, but
not Walter Winchell. Certainly the
Hearst papers suddenly sounded
wonderfully pure. Their views on
religious good taste are certainly of
moment; however, they run a regu-
lar comic cartoon about a foolish
little monk and, if one wants to play
this game, many people regard that
as in distinctly shady religious taste.
A monk’s vows are very serious.
Furthermore, Hearst anti-commu-
nism seems to me as feeble as it is
frantic, in that it relies almost ex-
clusively on Roman Catholic doc-
trine, surely not the capital objec-
tion to communism among about
150,000,000 Americans. There are,
by David Cort
at least for me, better reasons for
hating communism.
Kilgallen had guessed wrong: and
gone West to cover a murder trial
when the Paar tragedy broke in New
York. She stormed back to an-
nounce that all the other reporters
were idiots, only she being cute
enough to see that “The whole
routine was as elaborately choreo-
graphed as an Agnes De Mille ballet;
Paar felt the need of a great surge
of audience sympathy to distract
from the criticism he’d been getting,
and NBC realized the stunt would
cause front-page headlines from coast
to coast... .” This merely indicates
the fury she was in at having missed
the fun, at seeing anybody else get
publicity, and at not being first with
the answer. In the Colosseum, her
scoop would be that the martyr gave
the lions ptomaine.
MORALITY, somebody has said, is
a subject that lends itself to ex-
aggeration—and that is what makes
tragedy. The easiest, safest and most
comfortable thing any human being
does is to disapprove of another.
Seeing this fatal genius in mankind,
Christ asked men please to con-
centrate on their own trespasses.
If we try a little de-exaggeration,
Paar’s joke looks all right, especial-
ly at midnight. Furthermore, some
of the steam leaks out of the recent
TV quiz scandals where the tragic
hero was Charles Van Doren. For
an obscure citizen to accept the an-
swers from the examiner before the
examination, in order to play an as-
signed role, is scarcely wicked at all
and would be only laughable if there
were no prizes. There is wickedness
here of course, but it lies with the
examiner, and with the sponsor who
requires that the answers be given
out and the mockery continued. The
citizen has no power and no respon-
sibility; he ean only watch the non-
sense with his jaw dropping. But the
tragedy settled on Charles Van
Doren because he was the one in all
the living rooms whom the people
liked and trusted.
In the case of both Jack Paar and .
Charles Van Doren, we see the abuse
‘ The Nation
one parent), other neuroses, an early
by the venal bureaucracy, the in-
visible ones, of the naive, boyish,
innocent individual, each time .on
charges of an imperfect innocence.
And this is in line with sacrificial
practice in all cultures and all times.
To look ahead to the new era of
tragic heroes — the TV hero meets
the first requirement of tragedy: he
is conspicuous; and the second: he
is committed to a role, his “public
personality”; and the third: he has
enemies (executives, writers, critics,
the competition and anybody who
doesn’t tune him in); and_ the
fourth: he is essentially alone, while
conducting his great work like a
lumberjack walking a log in a whirl-
pool.
THE SHAPE of the new tragedy
comes clearer when we see further
that he is a comedian, or semi-
comedian. Dean Martin and Jerry
Lewis break up their act; Sid Caesar
and Imogene Coca break up their
act; Milton Berle and Jackie Glea-
son go off the air; Henry Morgan
is in and out of hot water; and all
their hearts, we are to believe, are
breaking.
If you think a comedian is not
fit for tragic heroism, just look at
comedians. They are especially high-
strung. From being continually the
life of the party, they are naturally
hated by their friends. They look for
jealousy, and always find it. They
were, in the majority, very poor
boys, and many had _ drunken
mothers: witness, by their own
stories, W. C. Fields and Jackie Glea-
son. Their acting triumphs over life
are manic, and hence not easy to
systematize for regular profit. They
are show-offs, but not pretty: wit-
ness no names here. The differences
in talent are disastrously obvious;
and they can never be reduced. They
live in a perpetual madhouse, and
they must seek out their enemies
nightly, at Lindy’s Restaurant in
New York. They are in every real
sense out of the world, and yet they
must keep contact with the real
world, which it is their chore to
amuse.
To be a comedian at all, one must
have a strong streak of the anti-
social, derived from a _ miserable
childhood (you should hate at least
March 12, 1960
rg
grasp of human absurdity, a lunatic
mischief, or a cold, unsympathetic
intellect. The comedian must early
learn to mask these unpleasant qual-
ities behind a disarming smile, dead-
pan or look of idiocy.
It is by no means irrelevant that
the above also describes, with some
understatement, the comic
who is the lago to the entertainer’s
Othello. The comic idiom, by the
mysterious nature of laughter, is at
once extremely contemporary and
based on very ancient formulas. A
new comedy is merely a new accent
for the old jokes. Only geniuses
(and don’t wait up for one) make
new jokes. This means that come-
dians, and comic writers, can only
writer,
survive by thievery and must fight
viciously for the false copyright that
the little superimposed accent gives
the stolen goods. The comic writer
is both a thief and a “fence,” or
receiver of stolen goods. The TV
writer, and not only the gag-writer,
despises the performer, the true
tragic hero, as was brought out on a
recent Susskind forum of comic
writers. Since the good serious writ-
ers are frustrated from doing their
best by TV, they have evolved in-
to perfect cynicism and mischief. It
is a commonplace in this business to
write material that will make the
performer look ridiculous. And why
not, when the executives, sponsors
and performer are all too stupid to
spot it? TV writers as a closed group
would reward much closer attention
than they have so far had.
As of comedians, a distinction must
be made between the current crop,
7
our tragic heroes, and the old guard,
who rarely got into any trouble — ie
Groucho Marx, Bing Crosby, Bob Ne
Hope, Danny Thomas, Jack Benny, |
George Burns and the late Bobby ti
Clark; and we can surely forget ha
Fatty Arbuckle, Frank Tinney, etc. ‘hae
The difference appears in a sad, F
ghosted book about Keenan Wynn’s ly
life (Ld Wynn's Son, Doubleday,
$3.95), for Keenan has been, though
is not currently, a first-rate and de-
lightful comedian. Keenan was cer- ji a
tainly not a poor boy, but he had Ce
troubles none the less. Ed Wynn WE
married a daughter of Frank Keenan, hi i
the grandee Shakespearean actor, i
and thus became a_ brother-in-law
of Colonel Frank A. Sloan of a so-
cialite New York family. It was a .
tough milieu for the roughhouse Jew- a
ish comedian, but he didn’t back
down. Keenan Wynn was a beauti- 4
ful, fair-haired child who nearly died
of mastoids. The ladies of the house
did some secret drinking. And then
there was the godlike figure of Frank
Keenan, a benevolent nineteenth- or 3
even eighteenth-century gentleman.
Keenan Wynn psychoanalyzes him-
self as having been jealous of his i
father, but one might find other ex- i
planations.
f
!
THERE have been other accounts
of these tragedians: Jackie Gleason, i
who got his comic start at the public
school of which my father was prin- ve
cipal; Groucho’s marvelously non- i
tragic story; Joey Adams’ serial ip |
story; and so on. One would like
to see an objective, slightly hostile
biography of Charlie Chaplin, whose |
early classic pictures were great bal- !
let, but never to me very funny, ex-
cept in the pure slapstick, which is
of course close to ballet. As a small
child, I smelled Chaplin’s tightly
introverted contempt.
This is the figure, however, whom
we must accept as the public tragic
hero of the future — a rich and
neurotic mountebank Pagliacci who
only affects to hide his broken ¥
heart. He may not look very prom-
ising for the purposes of great dra-
matic tragedy for Arthur Miller or
Tennessee Williams; and yet I sug-
gest that these gentlemen at least
look him over as a possible subject.
He is already the main tragic proto-
type for the whole American people.
229
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PINT Swine
Postseript to Power
FULL CIRCLE. The Memoirs of Sir
Anthony Eden. Houghton Mifflin Co.
676 pp. $6.95.
George Steiner
THIS is a somber story. Having been,
for too long a time, the crown prince in
Churchill’s giant shadow, Sir Anthony
Eden finally acceded to power in April,
1955. Less than two years later, he had
to resign, broken by political circum-
stance and ill health. History, moreover,
played him a cruel turn. The virtues
which had carried Eden to high place,
his skill as a classical diplomatist, his
uncompromising hatred of dictatorship,
and his aloofness from partisan politics,
proved inadequate or inappropriate to
the task. The man failed to match his
hour.
Eden’s conception of policy was com-
pletely molded by the events of Febru-
ary, 1938. At that time, he resigned from
the Chamberlain government rather than
condone further appeasement of Hitler
and Mussolini. Two years later the world
plunged into a catastrophic war. It is
Eden’s profound conviction that this
war could have been avoided on two
conditions: the Western democracies
would have had to take a decisive stand
against Fascism and Nazism from the
start; and they would have had to work
together in close, flexible alliance. When
the Second World War ended, Eden was
resolved that the errors of the 1930s
should not be repeated. As Foreign Sec-
retary and Prime Minister, in the pe-
riod from November, 1951, to January,
1957, he sought to pursue two principles:
the containment of dictatorship: wher-
ever it might arise, and the transforma-
tion of the Western alliance into a struc-
ture of real and permanent security.
Both these principles are unassailable,
but the difficulty lay in applying them.
first, because the Western democracies
no longer held even a potential monopoly
of military initiative (as they did in
the 1930s); second, because the allies
— with whom Eden had to deal were no
hy
GEORGE STEINER, now teaching at
_ Princeton University, was on the staff
and 1954-56. He was in London during
the two shipowners’ conferences and
i, nearly the whole of the pre-Swen crisis.
_ Mr. Steiner is the author of Tolstoy or
_ Dostoevsky (Knopf). s
, a 0
of The Economist, London, in 1952-53 —
longer a Roosevelt or a Marshall, but
an Eisenhower and a Dulles. It was
Eden’s peculiar tragedy to have learned
the lessons of history too well; he did
not realize how greatly the context of
power had altered.
THESE memoirs center on two crises:
Indo-China and Suez. The first showed
Eden at his finest; the second brought
him to political ruin. In April, 1954, the
French position in Indo-China was grow-
ing hopeless. On April 24, the Western
leaders met in Paris. Mr. Dulles ad-
vanced the view that Anglo-American
military intervention was now essential
and that an air-strike should be ventured
to relieve the hard-pressed garrison at
Dien Bien Phu. Admiral Radford sup-
ported this view and suggested that
R.A.F. units should be sent from Malaya
or Hong Kong to Tongking. “Neither
he nor Mr. Dulles gave any more ex-
plicit account of the joint military ac-
tion they contemplated.” Eden at once
raised the question of a Chinese counter-
intervention. “Admiral Radford replied
that he had never thought that the
Chinese would intervene in Indo-China,
nor had they the necessary resources
available. If they attempted air action,
we could eliminate this by bombing the
Chinese airfields, which were very vulner-
able.” Eden immediately returned to
London, convinced that the United
States had neither formulated a con-
sequent policy nor weighed the full
risk. Sir Winston Churchill concurred.
As he saw it, England was being asked
“to assist in misleading Congress into
approving a military operation, which
would in itself be ineffective, and might
well bring the world to the verge of a
major war.”
During those hair-raising days, Mr.
Dulles played his usual complex game
of impulse and vacillation. By-passing
the British Ambassador in Washington,
he sought to suggest to the French that
the British Government was now com-
mitted to some form of military action.
Fortunately, M. Bidault realized that
this was not the case. On the con-
trary: on the afternoon of April the
28th, Her Majesty’s Government de-
cided to reject the American proposal.
eden now faced an immensely difficult
task: he had to justify this refusal to
the imperiled French, safeguard the
Anglo-American alliance, and ia
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about some settlement of the Indo-
China war by negotiation. In the en-
suing weeks, he showed his great tech-
nical mastery of diplomacy. Although
agonized by the news of the fall of Dien
Bien Phu, Bidault understood perfectly
British reluctance to intervene on Mr.
Dulles’ vague and unconsidered terms.
The real difficulty lay with Washington.
One cannot read Eden’s account of the
preliminary meeting at Geneva without
an acute sense of embarrassment about
the tone of American foreign policy un-
der the Dulles regime:
Mr. Robertson, whose approach to
these questions is so emotional as to
be impervious to argument or indeed
to facts, was keeping up a sort of
“theme song” to the effect that there
were in Indo-China some three
hundred thousand men who were
anxious to fight against the Vietminh
and were looking to us for support
and encouragement. I said that if
they were so anxious to fight I could:
not understand why they did not do
so.
To this perfidious objection the im-
passioned Mr. Robertson seems to have
had no answer. Fortunately, Mr. Bedell
Smith arrived upon the scene. With his
help, Eden succeeded in pulling Mr.
Dulles back from the brink. One more
crisis occurred on June 18: “Mr. Robert-
son... at the last moment launched a
violent and wholly unexpected attack on
the Chinese proposals which the French
were working on.” But now Mendés-
France was in the wings, able and willing
to conclude an armistice. “He was,” as
Sir Anthony notes with Churchillian
aptness, “the man for the short lap.”
Although Dulles had been largely re-
sponsible for calling the Geneva Con-
ference, he refused to associate the
United States with its outcome, Eden’s
achievement was nevertheless a major
one: “we had stopped an eight-year war
and reduced international tension at a
coint of instant danger to world peace.”
July 21, 1954, was Eden’s finest hour.
The Indo-China crisis should have
alerted him to the underlying stress of
the Anglo-American entente. Instead,
Eden abided by his lofty conception of
mutual trust. The American interven-
tion in Guatemala in June, 1954, struck |
the British Government as inept and 4
perhaps unjustifiable, but London felt
that the first priority must be given to
the solidarity of the Anglo-/ nm erican ale
Hance, “It ales are to actin concer
a re Pip "ia
ind ae es weal ’ ny
7
4
.
only when their views are identical, al-
liances have no meaning.” That noble
doctrine was to become Eden’s epitaph.
THE ROOTS of the Suez crisis can be
traced back to April, 1956. During that
month, Bulganin and Khrushchev came
to London. In the course of discussions
on the Middle F: Eden thought it
best “to be absolutely blunt about the
oil, because we would fight for it.” In
his opinion, the standard of British life
depended closely on the free flow of
Middle Eastern oil and on the concomi-
tant free passage through the Suez Canal.
Whoever would threaten this flow would
be putting his thumb on England’s
windpipe. In short, a Nasser might suc-
| ceed where Hitler had failed. Eden is
often charged with failing to understand
the differences between the two dictators.
| That is not entirely true. He saw plain-
ly that Nasser was a more petty busi-
ness. But in certain respects he was bet-
ter located than Hitler. He could strike
at the heart of the British economy
while staying close to home. Knowing,
moreover, how closely Hitler followed
ist,
the mad plans set forth in Mein Kampf, .
Eden took more seriously than did other
Middle East experts, Nasser’s avowed
intention of forming a single Arab bloc
F from Bagdad to Casablanca. When Nas-
I ser seized the Canal, on July 26, 1956,
__ he seemed to be on the way to his wild-
est ambitions.
Why did England and France not act
at once? In part, because Eden hoped
_ to prod the United Nations into ac-
_ tion. Freedom of navigation was, after
all, an international concern and the
United States had long left in abeyance
its solemn pledge to secure such free-
_ dom for Israeli ships. But the more im-
portant reason was one of logistics:
_ Cyprus had no sufficient harbor for
_ landing craft and transports, and “We
_ had nothing like enough airborne
troops.” Unable to use immediate force,
Eden set out to marshal world opinion
and, above all, American support. The
latter was forthcoming but in a man-
ner which Eden judged fatally inade-
quate:
At the beginning of the crisis the
Americans appeared to wish to isolate
Egypt among the nations of the
world, and to bring the moral pres-
sure of combined opinion to bear
upon Colonel Nasser. This was. an
acceptable intention, but it took no
ser would show himself impervious
to moral pressure. In practice it was
to mean conferences and resolutions,
but no action. The result was words.
hie 3 is the crux of the Eden case, and
ro wey, easy f y ef’
account of the probability that Nas- ,
the results of the two London conferences
of shipewning nations confirmed his
gloomy prediction. Nasser derided the
proposals brought to him by Mr. Men-
zies and regarded the very fact of in-
ternational concern as an insult to
Egyptian rights.
Once again, moreover, Mr. Dulles
played a queer, shadowy game. At one
moment, he was eloquent in support of
international pressure on Egypt. In the
next, he would refer to the whole con-
flict as a distasteful vestige of British
and French colonialism. One thing would
be said to the British Embassy in Wash-
ington, another over the direct wire to
Downing Street, and a third to State
Department cronies who would then leak
it to the press. On September 12, 1956,
he let the cat gaily out of the bag. He
let it be known, in a nearly casual man-
ner, that. the United States would not
use force and that he did “not recall
just exactly what Sir Anthony Eden said
on this point.” This was to signal Nas-
ser that he could with impunity reject
the final proposals of the eighteen-nation
conference. From that moment on, Eden
and Pineau knew they would either have
to surrender to Nasser or go it alone.
Up to that point, Eden’s account is
thoroughly defensible. It is thereafter
that the memoirs become as unconvinc-
ing as was the actual Suez campaign.
Ringing the Bells
And this is the way they ring
the bells in Bedlam
and this is the bell-lady
who comes each Tuesday morning
to give us a music lesson
and because the attendants make you go
and because we mind by instinct,
like bees caught in the
we are the circle of the
who sit in the lounge o
and smile at the smiling woman
who passes us each a bell,
who points at my hand
that holds my bell, E flat,
and this is the gray dre
who grumbles as if it were special
to be old, to be old,
and this is the small hunched squirrel girl
on the other side of me
who picks at the hairs
who picks at the hairs
and this is how the bells really sound,
as untroubled and clean
as a workable kitchen,
and this is always my bell responding
een to my hand that responds to the lady
, | who points at. me, E flat; >
a: although we are no better for it,
they tell you to go. And you do. —
=
a
*
Sa
oe
7 i a i se iby Ni,
Eden could have argued thus: the
American attitude and the Soviet veto
made effective intervention by the Unit-
ed Nations impossible. There was clear
proof that Nasser was trying to gather
the Arab nations toward a renewed at-
tack on Israel. If he were allowed to get
away with his seizure of the Canal and
given the time to equip his armies with
Soviet tanks and planes, there would be
no stopping him. This was Nasser’s
Rhineland. If the democracies fought
back now, as they might have done in
1934 or 1936, a potential Hitler might
be brought to bay. One can agree or
disagree with this estimate. But it is
perfectly justifiable. Instead, Eden sticks
to his original contention. England and
France, he asserts, wished only to
separate the hostile armies of Israel and
Egypt. The purpose of the entire Suez
operation was to safeguard the Canal
from “becoming a zone of warfare, and
to arrest the spread of fighting in the
Middle East.”
This makes no sense. One does not ar-
rest a war by joining it. One does not ,
jeopardize one’s most precious alliance
in order to create a no-man’s land be-
tween two foreign powers. And by stick-
ing to this curious explanation of his
motives, Sir Anthony does nothing to
allay one of the gravest charges against
him: that of collusion with Israel. Many
——— . = ———— =
wrong hive,
crazy ladies
f the mental house
ss next to me
over her lip,
over her lip all day,
ANNE SEXTON
231
e
Jack of experience.
had no interest in the “dismal science”
of economics. He felt that he must take
jn.
observers have stated categorically that
the attack on Port Said and Ismailia was
timed to coincide with the Israeli sweep
through the desert and that England,
I’rance and Istael had been in close
prior consultation.
BUT whatever his motives, Eden had
entirely failed to gauge the reaction both
in the United States and in England it-
self. He had thought that Washington
would grant to its closest ally that bene-
fit of the doubt which it often accorded
to its enemies. The saddest passage in
this sad book is that in which Eden
compares the American attitude toward
Hungary with its attitude toward Suez:
The United States representative
. voiced his suspicion that we were
urging the Hungarian situation to di-
vert attention from Suez. The United
States Government appeared in no
hurry to move. Their attitude pro-
vided a demiipine contrast to the
alacrity they were showing in arraign-
ing the French and ourselves.
Mr.
full accord with Mr. Nehru.
Dulles seemed to find himself in
The Jatter
thought the Anglo-French outrage
against Egypt “clear as daylight,”
whereas he could not follow “the very
confusing situation” in Budapest.
But Eden was left in the lurch not
only by the United States and most of
the Commonwealth. A spasm of revul-
sion went through England. Its extent
has been grossly exaggerated, but un-
doubtedly a great number of English
people were not prepared to support
armed intervention even against Nas-
ser. Eden tells pathetically how Lady
Eden went out to Trafalgar Square to
view the hostile demonstrations. It is
a revealing note. Having spent his po-
Jitical life in foreign affairs, the Prime
Minister was gravely out of touch with
his own people. Here Churchill must
bear part of the blame. He had long
viewed Eden as his successor but done
little to broaden him for the task.
The final blow, however, came neither
from Moscow, nor from Washington, nor
even from the flaming oratory of Mr.
Bevan. On November 5, the Chancellor
of the Exchequer informed the cabinet
that the Suez crisis had unleashed a
heavy run on sterling. Reserves were
falling fast, he asserted, and he felt
dubious iacuihed Fastand could finan-
cially sustain further military action.
Again, Eden was vulnerable through
Like Churchill, he
~ his Chancellor’s estimate at full value;
A cease fire became inevitable.
Now this raises a fascinating question,
ra
discussion program carrie
0 RE co eee a ea
Y y *y Hae ay a 0 aes 5 | re
3 the es es a
s
: G
TY a ft
for who was the Chancellor? None other
than Mr. Macmillan. At the start of the ©
Suez venture, Macmillan seers to have
given Eden his complete backing. Did
he swiftly reappraise the situation when
he saw matters going wrong? And
might he not, in that event, feel that it
was his duty to the Conservative Party,
to the Anglo-American alliance and to
england to ease Eden out of office?
Perhaps we shall never know, but it
seems hard to believe that the run on
sterling was quite as damaging as Mac-
failion! made out. One cannot help
wondering, also, about Churchill’s role.
Might he have given Macmillan a
gentle nod? In view of Macmillan’s
New Ear for Emerson
EMERSON, A MODERN ANTHOLO-
GY. Edited by Alfred Kazin and
Daniel Aaron. Houghton Mifflin Co.
399 pp. $4.
THE EARLY LECTURES OF RALPH
WALDO EMERSON,
1836). Edited by Stephen Whicher
and Robert Spiller. Harvard Univer-
sity Press. 545 pp. $12.50.
David L. Norton
TWO GENERATIONS of our forebears
looked to Ralph Waldo Emerson as the
embodied spirit of religious America,
and a third knew his name as the author
of a set of volumes shelved prominently
in every cultivated home. Then his light
failed, and there are few people today
in whom the name Emerson sparks more
than a dim association or two. Now, sud-
denly, there are signs that the voice
of the Concord saint will be heard again.
The psychic pendulum of the recent
past has swung between anger and an-
guish. Ears attuned to sonic boom and
cries of outraged flesh give no response
to the serene harmonies of a Transcen-
dental mystic. To have turned to -mer-
son in the first half of our century would
have been an act of madness, like tend-
ing a rose throughout a shattering earth-
quake.
Curiously, both the quakes in_ our
human foundations and the great struc-
tures which science has nevertheless
managed to build on them throw cold
light on two failings of Emerson —
his blindness to evil and his disregard for
DAVID L. NORTON is Associate
Leader of the Ethical Society of St,
Louis. He writes regularly for the
Bostayatch and is coxproducer of a
ed o1 the edu-
cational TV channel in St.
wf 5 \ :
ro anova
Vol. 1 (1833- ,
ley Oey Wt ait)
.* 7 hard | A
superb renovation of the Tories over the —
past three years this would have been
ruthless farsightedness. Eden had to go.
And so he did, a sick and bitter man.
It is his conviction that. present. trends
in the Middle East are accumulating
toward future disaster and that ne
democracies are repeating in the sixties
the errors they committed thirty years
ago. The Full Circle is a grim one; it
seems to lead back to Munich. Sir
Anthony is confident that the dark
future will justify his action against
Suez, though it may not forgive his lack
of prompt success (or, one might add,
his methods). Many of his readers will
disagree. I believe he is right.
facts. Evil for him was a misunderstand-
ing, a shortsightedness. It threatened
only those who lacked a nobler. vision.
Emerson’s own preoccupation with the
ideal left him no room for anything less.
And facts were merely springboards for
the mind. “Nature is no literalist; every-
thing must be taken genially.” Facts, he
thought, require only to be recomposed
by Reason—by which he meant imagi-
nation. This past half-century has dealt —
harshly with geniality and metaphysical
imagination.
But signs appear now, indicating that
we are ready to forgive. These two
books, one popular, one for scholars,
will turn new interest toward Emerson.
At least two recent studies of current
values in our culture have cited Emer-
son, and ealled for reorientation on lines
he laid down. A traveling exhibit of —
American art has been organized on
Emersonian principles, opposing the so-
ciological mode of interpretation. And
soon, I predict, interest in the humanism
of the late Albert Camus will evoke a
perception of his startling similarity to
the Concord philosopher.
If Emerson’s voice is becoming audible
again, this can mean only that our en-
vironment is setting us free, for a time,
to contemplate ideal possibilities, to
perceive the grains of beauty in ugliness,
of truth in absurdity, and of virtue in
the unswept corners of existence.
Se
THE Modern Anthology is particularly
suited as a reintroduction to Emerson’s
thought, Drawing from the /ssays, Jour- —
nals, and Letters, it regroups the most —
characteristic passages under themes _
ol current interest. We mong the chapters: ie
carved out by Messrs. Kazin and Aaron |
are “An Original Relation to the Uo
: verse” vy {nen sics nt dl religion),
“af hog obit, OY ald ih NT a
“4
;
“Friendship, Sex, and Other Subtle An-
tagonisms,” “Our Abused Age” (po-
litical and social criticism, much of it
still fresh today), “Art and Artists,”
“The Great Man” and “Himself” (in-
trospections ).
Clearly, this is a scissors-and-paste
book, but the method does no great
violence to the originals, for it is a
quality of Emerson’s own composition
that separate ideas stand apart like
sculptured islands. He wrote as he
thought, aphoristically, trapping the
moment’s insight, freeing it quickly so
as not to smother it, and then captur-
_ ing another. He never succumbed to the
- system-building urge; he foresaw, we can
be sure, the inevitable sophistries in
such an enterprise, and the remoteness
of crisp conceptual structures from ex-
- istence as directly perceived. As George
Santayana said, “His finer instinct kept
him from doing that violence to his in-
spiration.”
The rules he chose to abide by were
those of poetry rather than philosophy.
Consequently, he felt no obligation to
work an idea beyond the moment of
inspiration, or to defend it thereafter.
Once, when challenged to give arguments
in support of his views, he answered
that he had no arguments, and further,
, that he did not know “what arguments
_ mean in reference to any expression of
t thought.” He perused carefully what
_ flora and fauna he found in his path,
_ relieved of the burden of subjectivism
by his confidence that others passed
the same way.
Continuity is provided in the Modern
Anthology by the lucid commentary of
_ the editors, who deserve to be canonized
for honestly highlighting Emerson’s
_ weaknesses as well as his strengths.
_ Their handling of the “Friendship,
Sex .. .” chapter, for instance, makes
_ it clear that some human relationships
_ refused to be spiritualized, even by
_ Emerson, and remained obstinately
what they were despite his vision of
them as something else entirely.
The Early Lectures is a book for con-
_ firmed Emersonians, not newcomers.
_ First of a projected three volumes, it
_ contains twenty-two addresses given by
the youthful Emerson after leaving the
Unitarian ministry and before the. publi-
_ cation of his first book at age thirty-
three. Designed to meet specific educa-
tional needs of his audiences, they are
‘mainly factual and derivative, only
faintly suggesting the originality of his
later thought. Nevertheless the five
lectures under the heading “Biography”
(other categories are “Science,” “Italy”
and “English Literature”) are interest-
ing, for they foreshadow the Emerson-
Carlyle thesis that men shape history,
b 7
i
Pee ee ae
4
rather than the reverse. In new forms,
this individualism is returning today to
haunt the prevailing orthodoxy.
The candor and serenity which drew
people to Emerson in his own time are
clearly present in both of these volumes.
In him we the purest spirit,
through him we seem to see a nobler
world. If those doctrines which secured
his reputation then are more to be held
against him now, perhaps this is to our
advantage. By clearing away the doc-
trines of Correspondence and the Over-
Soul we can see better what remains,
which is considerable. To an age stifled
by convention Emerson brings a breath
of creative intuition. To a world frag-
mented by narrow loyalties Emerson
offers the unity of poetic truth. Most
of all, at a time when we look, awestruck,
on the kinetic power of the atom, Emer-
son turns our eyes to the potential
power of human personality.
sense
Hiehbrow Satire
KO, OR A SEASON ON EARTH. By
Kenneth Koch. Grove Press. 115 pp.
$3.50.
Kenneth Rexroth
THE JACKET blurb says, “Ko, or a
Season on Earth, is the first poem of
epic length and spirit to appear on the
American scene in more than thirty
years. Following in the great comic tra-
dition of Orlando Furioso and Don Juan,
Kenneth Koch has written a poem with
a subtle-interweaving of plots which...”
etc. Statements like this do a young
author no good.
Many poems, some. quite good, of epic
length and spirit have appeared on the
American scene in the last thirty years.
In fact, poems of this sort are almost a
vice of American authors. They all do
it. The conventional ones write folk epics
like John Brown’s Body. The middle
brows write Newfoundland or—I can’t
choose a Conrad Aiken, he writes almost
nothing else. The highbrows, again there
is too much to choose from: Olson’s
Maximum Poems, Zukofsky’s A, even
Eli Siegal has epic intentions, and the
compressed Robert Creeley might sur-
prise us any day with a ten-line epic.
Almost all these poems are just plain
better than Kenneth Koch’s Ko. Fur-
thermore, some are deeply comic. Some
of course are not. American poets run
a i a eT
KENNETH REXROTH, poet and crit-
ic, is the author of Bird in the Bush,
recently published by New Directions.
to the philosophic epic—but certainly
Zukofsky and Olson have far more kin-
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IS THERE AN
AMERICAN |
INTHE HOUSE? ~
Ee
ee
Fites for every publi-
ship with the great tradition of bitter
comedy than, as yet, does Kenneth
Koch.
There is nothing seriously wrong with
this book. In fact, it is pretty good for
a second book, especially one conceived
on so ambitious a scale. What is this
scale? Don Juan? Orlando Furioso? Cer-
tainly not. Kenneth Koch, fortunately
for him, has better sense and knows his
limitations. The tradition is the light,
highbrow satire of popular comedy, in-
vented I suppose by Apollinaire and
pushed to its greatest achievement to-
ward the end of Dadaism by Soupault,
Aragon, Roger Vitrac. Its greatest rep-
resentative today is Raymond Quennell.
How well does Kenneth Koch carry
on this, his real “tradition”? The list of
his French ancestors gives an indication
to those in the know. These writers
used prose, or at the most a kind of
irregular free verse when the piece was
in dramatic.form. And whether classed
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234
as fiction or as drama, the dramatic
form was kept tense, sharp, lively. Even
Kenneth Patchen, who can write when
he wants just about any kind of verse
he wants, used prose for Albion Moon-
light. But Ko is not Albion Moonlight;
it is a somewhat lighter Memoirs of a
Shy Pornographer. Now the trouble with
wit is that it must be organized in such
a way that it never gets tedious. Noth-
ing is harder to sustain. Here there op-
erates a kind of inverse law of diminish-
ing returns. The real resemblance to
Don Juan and Orlando is formal. Ko is
in eight line, ten syllable stanzas, rhym-
ing ABABABCC. This may have done
fine once—but the very point of Byron’s
verse is that it was deliberately “re-
actionary” even in his day. In our day
it is self-destructive. It is quite impos-
sible to hold interest with this relentless
clatter, and the frames of reference that
once made it a kind of ironic parody
are gone.
Another fault. Young musicians —
even young Serialtes Saaiphially put too
much, too many musical notions, the-
matic or otherwise, into their composi-
tions. So too Kenneth Koch. This tale
is too busy. Too many dogs beaten. Too
many jokes. Only utter hilarity like
Harold Lloyd can pile up humor safely.
Most humor, all wit demand the strict-
est ordonnance. But this is a good second
book, by a promising young writer. If
it is far from as good as Quennell’s Zazie
in the Metro, it is probably better than
Robert Coates’s Later of Darkness. Once
Kenneth Koch achieves a more engaging
form, he may well be a comic writer to
be reckoned with. Now why can’t blurb
writers say things like that?
ART
Fairfield Porter
WHEN a critic suggests that something
is not worth doing because it has been
done before, he is in effect urging an
artist toward one of the more exciting
aspects of art, the attempt to achieve
the impossible. The creation of life by
imitating its appearance was the im-
possibility attempted by the first repre-
sentative artists. “Life” now has sub-
jective validity, and deadliness is con-
comitant with what is not achieved,
or in Cézanne’s phrase, not realized.
The Janis Gallery got together (for
an exhibition that closed on March 5)
excellent examples of the painting of
Mondrian and the sculptures and reliefs
of Arp, in what they call their classical
. ibis 2% ae
. ae - A » 5 Vey a 512 “eh!
phases. The show was beautifully ar-
ranged, What these artists have in com-
mon is that each in his way made a
heroic effort to achieve the impossible.
Each one goes to a certain limit, and
insofar as they achieve this limit, which
is a sort of perfection, what they have
done is paradoxical. They fix something
—life—which cannot be fixed. However,
the paradox is a logical one, for a work
of visual art is stationary, it doesn’t
grow or move, or if it does, it inevitably
changes into something unintended.
Mondrian’s paintings, characteristically
straight black bars dividing the white
rectangle of the canvas into right angles,
with smaller rectangles of red or blue,
have a severe, puritanical look; as De
Kooning has said, like prison bars. But
though the indiscipline of feeling seems
to be rigidly excluded, at the same time
they are not “thought up,” not systema-
tized, nor in the narrowest meaning,
willed; but reached by contemplation.
IT TOOK Mondrian a long time of much
adjustment to find the exact arrange-
ment, which in every case has the ab-
soluteness of justice. Mondrian seems to
deny sensibility, but really what he
lacked was quickness of intuition, a
quality clese to trust. It took him a long
time to arrive at his decisions. He needed
protection from the world, like an ascetic.
He withdrew, to be free from interrup-
tion. His unbending exactness of line,
his limiting himself to the right angle
and to parallels, and to red, yellow and
blue, gave an outer support against inner
distrust. Certainly the right angle is re-
liable. But his fierce will was countered
by a strong attachment to rhythmical
music. His later paintings, like Broad-
way Boogie Woogie (in the catalogue,
but not on the wall) are dominated, not
by black bars, but by the intervals be-
tween squares sectioned from bars; and
New York City, I (1942) is dominated
by yellow bars. They emphasize abso-
lutely controlled rhythm and_ color.
Rhythm is the most temporal aspect of
a temporal art, and time is what these
paintings control into fixity. The ten-
sion is almost too much. Mondrian’s ef-
fort was always in a way the denial of
time, as well as the denial of depth, All
of his paintings resemble a section across
depth. But depth takes its revenge, and
the white background becomes a_ hole.
Mondrian paintings that relate to
music make, as it were, an instantaneous
cross-section through the music. Ingres
“left it to time to finish his paintings,”
but Mondrian would not have thought
of that. Mondrian’s paintings would be
perfect raw material for a picture: re-
storer, who wants to make the paintings
that come into his workshop look as
they looked when they first issued from
the hand of their creator. Already the
paintings from 1921 are beginning to
look a little dingy; the perfect white
surface (or in 1921, sometimes gray sur-
face) is covered with fine cracks where
the paint strokes have shrunk away
from each other. Mondrian denies time,
which in its turn has demonstrated its
supremacy.
t
i
PONS PF;
| ARP’S tour de force, in his smooth
-marble abstract sculptures and in the
reliefs of flat jig-saw cut-outs on a plane
surface, is to reconcile infinite variety
| with absolute definition. As Mondrian
used only right angles, so Arp never
uses right angles, seldom straight lines
(then only straight line-segments that
are pert of a continuity, which in top-
ology comes under the definition of a
| curve), never circles, elipses, or plane
_ surfaces, but always irregular or ovoid
curves and surfaces, and incommensur-
able angles. This is the infinity with
which Arp is concerned. He encloses it.
He cannot accept infinity, so he goes
right to the heart of the matter, and
uses it. He not only uses it, he polishes
it: he tries to make it completely per-
_ ceptible. Few artists in any field think
_ about the question at all (maybe Arp
_ does not either, but if not, he has intui-
_ tive knowledge of it); they accept va-
f riety, they take it for granted, it is the
f way things are. Arp, too, knows that it
is the way things are, but he wants
somehow to control it. Like Mondrian,
_his originality consists in not taking the
obvious for granted. But what he does
_ is not (maybe) so impossible as what
Mondrian does; for instance, some in-
finities can be enclosed in a limited
_ space: it is mathematically possible to
make a line of infinite length on a post-
_ age stamp. His magnificent craziness con-
_ sists in wishing to have this under his
_ thumb, in not being willing to let any-
_ thing escape him. And so something does
_ who wishes to deny the mystery of his
_ actual existence. If all there is to life is
its infinite variety, Arp gets it; just
as, if life can be willed, Mondrian gets
it. One can say that life is more than
these things, for if infinity can be en-
closed on a postage stamp, or if time
can be sectioned, what you have is lim-
ited to the postage stamp or contained
in an instant without duration, and all
outside of this is judged invalid. The
ar as they approach logical perfection,
they are very satisfying. But sometimes
one wants something else. _ +4
Snow
Night falls; beloved emblems of earth,
you leave us again with the trees
and the animals, the poor folk
locked into the tunics of soldiers, the mothers
with tear-withered wombs.
Snow kindles a glow for us now on the fields,
like the moon’s. O death-stricken ones, batter
our foreheads at last! batter your way to our hearts!
Let there be one to cry out in the quietness
in this whitening circle of graves.
SALVATORE QuUASIMODO
THERE IS something else at French
and Company: a huge exhibition of the
sculpture of David Smith. Smith is the
first American sculptor to make exten-
sive use of welded steel. In a way, one
could call his abstraction an answer to
Arp and Mondrian. He does not repre-
sent, but his variety is the variety of
the direct experience of nature. Nature
means landscape (his sculpture looks
best out of doors), and it means also ex-
perience that comes from more senses
than just the visual one; for example,
the welding, Running Daughter; and
nature includes further, one’s experience
of tools and machinery. Smith’s sculp-
ture is sculpture for a new country, an
empty country, where a high degree of
technical achievement goes with the de-
velopment of new and relatively unin-
habited lands. It is the Coca-Cola bottle
(Translated by Ben Belitt)
glinting in the wilderness, the abandoned
gasoline pump at the edge of the
virgin spruce forest, the railroad signal
tower among the sunflowers of the
prairie. It is these things, taken out of
context, mischievously or artistically
considered. Smith has tremendous en-
ergy, and he keeps producing things
that have no systematic background of
philosophical program; he convinces by
the weight of his endlessly various in-
vention, like Victor Hugo, pouring out
poetry. But Smith’s sculpture seems to
me not to be a sculpture for cities, where
it is overwhelmed, and where it doesn’t
add. His Tank Totems which were sug-
gested by watertanks on_ skyscrapers,
would not compel your attention on the
tops of buildings. In the city his Sen-
tinels and Landcoasters look like unem-
ployed baggage dollies: inadequate or
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236
superseded. Smith’s various Agricolas,
suggesting farm implements, make art
out of the machinery that rusts with
disuse and obsolescence around farm
buildings, since they are too large to be
got rid of. In this case the organic struc-
tural relation to their use with growing
things complements both an artificial
and natural environment, while the disk-
and-bar constructions called Albany
hold their own best if helped by a bare
or uncompetitive background.
THEATRE
Harold Clurman
IF YOU were thirty and: inclined. to-
ward radicalism in the days of the Fed-
eral Theatre Project, you are likely to
call Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will
Rock (recently revived by the New York
City Opera) “dated.” If in the mean-
time your radicalism has been trans-
formed into that form of retirement that
passes as aestheticism, you are prone to
speak of the American piece as an in-
ferior Three Penny Opera.
If however you are thirty today—or
if the good old rebel time of which 7'he
Cradle Will Rock was a landmark pass-
ed by without your noticing it as any-
thing more special than a period of bad
business—you will probably enjoy the
Blitzstein opera as a good show with a
quality all its own.
The subject matter and plot of The
Cradle—though crudely cartoonlike—is
no more dated than the libretto of La
Bohéme. One is sentimental about
“workers,” the other about “artists.”
The charm of neither is specifically re-
lated to its surface story. And while it
is true that without Brecht and Weill
there would never have been a Cradle,
Blitzstein has given the Cradle its very
particular quality.
What it typifies is a certain perma-
nent American big-city young-man cocki-
ness, a derisive unwillingness to take
any guff—political, social or casual—
from anybody. It’s the boy in the candy
store, the man at the bar, the alert Ja-
borer refusing to be hoaxed by any pre-
tension. It is the poor man’s perpetual
Bronx cheer against complacency that we
hear on any city street not yet razed
by traffic or the police. The music alter-
nates between a note of vulgar guying
and sweet, heartbroken yearning. Blitz-
stein is less sophisticated than his Ger-
man models; more acid in anger, more
tearful in hurt. Bx vin
The new production—staged by How-
; , ’
i
ard da Silva with sets by David Hays—
is excellent in every. respect, though
Blitzstein’s orchestration — otherwise
very effective—seemed too meager at
the end to be as rousing as intended. If
this opera is retained in the repertory
of the New York City Opera, don’t let
the snobs or the fearful prevent you from
seeing it.
THE CITY CENTER was recently the
scene of a perfect theatre event: the
presentation by the Piccolo Teatro di
Milano of Goldoni’s eighteenth-century.
farce T'he Servant of Two Masters. This
production is to tour a number of large
cities and if it comes to a town within
your compass, don’t miss it.
The foreign language should not put
you off. The production—including the
dialogue—is all action. The players’ very
volubility is explosively and _ hilariously
theatric, the sense of movement cease-
lessly exhilarating. There is a visual his-
trionic joke (or sight gag) every minute.
The precision of each trick or invention
sparkles with the freshness of something
improvised. The company is one of the
finest theatre ensembles anywhere in
the world. Such companies are usually
associated with “heavy” drama. You
will be glad to learn that The Servant of
Two Masters is all exuberance.
I AM a coward: I hate to admit that
A Thurber Carnival (Anta Theatre)
did not delight me. I was about to write
a “rave” review of it saying that I am
probably the only person in New York
who didn’t care for it. Or to evade the
issue by saying something cryptic like,
“the show is simplicity itself.”
Such critical orneriness (or obtuse-
ness) must be explained. Let it be said
immediately that this series of Thurber
sketches boasts two pretty girls and
several admirably cast comedians—lTom
Ewell, Paul Ford, Peggy Cass, John Me-
Iver—and that the scenery which uses
Thurber’s now classic (and very indi-
vidual) drawings is cleverly devised. I
laughed too—though not nearly as much
as most of the audience.
But I was not happy. There is some-
thing arid in this humor. I feel as if I
were looking at a caricature of a latter-
day Winesburg, Ohio, in which every
creature was turned into a goon without
charm. The world here is dehydrated,
deflated, humanly emaciated. ‘There
is no trace of affection, joy, even good
fellowship, The point of view is so dis-
abused and disengaged as to appear ni-
hilistic. Perhaps we should call it
scarecrow comedy, Satire is undoubtedly
implicit, But it strikes me as macabre, |
1 am more horrified than amused by it, |
Crossword Puzzle No. 858
By FRANK W. LEWIS
1
6
10
11
12
13
15
2
3 and 12 A successful revolution—re-
per) Pee Pome
EER earan
m1
ro nnn
ae eee
eae es
J00SSoeoee Jae
SE
nee. PCL
ACROSS:
It might be necessary in a girl-to-
boy arrangement. (10)
To some extent a reason has no off-
shoot. (4)
To involve the fruit ball inside is
completely wrong. (7)
See 1 down
See 3 down
Doesn’t sound like a very bright hint,
but it’s a sign of softening. (10)
Evidently the last part isn’t paid
for, but is still provided with
money. (7) °
Some type might be like the sand—
shifted. (4-3)
Where to expect dates to be broken,
as an alternative? (7)
Strangely enough, the 28 is never
this, despite the platitude about
winning. (4,3)
C three H six 0 three. (6, 4)
The responsibility seems to be placed
upon you and me. (4)
Even gas gets even! (7)
A British politician in a bad condi-
tion of paralysis takes the waters
in Africa. (7)
Soil or clean. (4)
The door of one was opened wide
in Coleridge’s poem. (10)
DOWN:
and 11 across But the Delius ver-
sion wasn’t the Tom-Tom number.
(4, 3,.5,.3, 3, 4)
Tried hard, like a boy who is a dull
fellow at heart. (7)
putedly to be followed by counter-
revolution? (4, 4)
4 Everything bound to be around it is
scored. (7)
Rather low, but not close up to the
pike, for example. (7)
Gives a 12 or so all over
about such as Boreas. (7)
Implying a mad man couldn’t tell
the difference between many wines?
(3, 4, 2, 1, 5)
9 The quality of flesh, when not quite
eured? (9)
14 Cry appearing in chants off the
floor, perhaps. (9)
18
19
or
=I
again,
oO
Not kept by the teller. (7)
Red airs rather more conservative
than “Comrade!” (4,3)
Most of 28’s mate gets persuaded,
but expressed anger. (7)
The place where the chamber is
oe and filled with wild noise.
i
Sticks up for a holier-than-thou at-
titude. (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 857
ACROSS: 1 Mad money; 5 Oscars; 10
Vaulted; 11 Hairpin; 12 Motif; 13 Ob-
session; 14 and 22 Night Watch; 16
Gold leaf; 19 Lampreys; 24 Shipshape;
26 Alert; 28 Doublet; 29 Twelfth; 30
Steady; 31 Presents. DOWN: 2 Doubt;
3 Out of step; 4 Endlong; 6 and 1 down
Swiss movement; 7 Applicant; 8
Sonant; 9 Chisel; 15 Gratitude; 17
Lawmakers; 18 Thatches; 20 Exacts;
Ht Shelters 23 Asides; 25 Solid; 27
in.
20
21
24
Printed in the U.S.A. by RCR Publication Printers Corp., N. ¥. C.
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“Harold Clurman is in/a class by himself
because he is the only critic who has spent all
of his adult life actually working in the theatre.
One of the founders of the Group Theatre in
1931, he has since directed more than fifty
plays, the last of which was this season’s pro-
duction of Shaw’s Heartbreak House. His prac-
tical experience enables him to bring to criti-
cism the ability to analyze the significance of
text, acting and direction, and a deeper under-
standing of a production as a whole. Unfor-
tunately, he doesn’t reach a large enough audi-
ence of readers.”
—Helen Lawrenson in ESQUIRE (March, 1960)
Im a
. Class
by
Himself
Thank you, Miss Lawrenson. As for your final sentence,
the situation is easily remedied: see cowpon below.
P.S.: If any Nation reader would like to introduce the
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VISTA OF THE ’60s
Titans, Old Folks and Feeble Clerks
Edward W. Ziegler
NEW HAMPSHIRE’S
ONE-MAN INQUISITION
Norman Thomas di Giovanni
: Progress or Evasion?
a i; Thomas I. Emerson
LETTERS
Call for a Test Ban
Dear Sirs: At the time of the first
Pugwash Conference of nuclear scien-
tists, the U.S., the USSR and the U.K.
were the sole possessors of the dread
secret of the bomb. Over a four-year
period, five Pugwash. scientific con-
ferences have brought together 112
eminent specialists from twenty-three
major nations, East and West, all of the
unanimous opinion that weapons of mass
annihilation must be universally banned,
and that delay can only lead to the
eventual possession of the worst forms
of weaponry by every country of con-
sequence around the globe.
With the recent French explosion in
the Sahara, membership in the nuclear
club has increased to four. Unless in-
ternational agreement is reached soon
to prohibit tests and ban nuclear weap-
ons, each of the other nineteen nations
on the Pugwash list, along with others,
will in all likelihood be equipping itself
with nuclear weapons.
These grave considerations dictate
the urgency for the early conclusion of
a clear-cut ban agreement at Geneva,
where negotiations have been dragging
along for fifteen months. There can be
no hope whatever of agreement at
Geneva as long as pressure for further
testing, however limited, continues to
be successfully exerted on the White
House and the Congress by the U.S.
Defense Department, the Atomic En-
ergy Commission and the small handful
of official scientific advisers with a
vested interest in urging the United
States to run the risk of more tests.
America’s closest Western allies have
restrained themselves from open criti-
cism of the U.S. position with the great-
est forbearance, but now seem determ-
ined to convince world opinion that they,
for their part, favor a different course.
The Canadian government has just an-
nounced a straightforward new foreign
policy calling for the end of all nuclear
testing and the complete prohibition of
nuclear, biological and chemical war-
fare. At the same time, Great Britain
is giving every evidence of intending to
follow the Canadian example promptly.
The rivalries that now seem to loom
large between the U.S. and the USSR
will be overshadowed by the terrible
hazards that will confront mankind if
twenty-three or more nations become
manufacturers of their own nuclear
arms. The eyes of the world are focused
on the President of the United States,
the one man who can make the fateful
pee are atin 218 Oe ae ee \ OS ibe,
’ ; , 2 i ¥ . P - Z
a "_ ‘
~ Aa!
*
decision. Let us hope that his concern
for humanity and respect for world
sentiment, coupled with his profound
knowledge of weaponry and broad ex-
perience in warfare, will tip the scales
toward the immediate end of nuclear
testing as the first step in disarmament.
Cyrus S. Eaton
Cleveland, O.
Advice and No Consent
Dear Sirs: In reviewing Christiane
Rochefort’s novel Warrior's Rest (Oct.
10, 1959), I criticized Lowell Bair’s
translation for “rendering Miss Roche-
fort’s vivid ribaldry in technical com-
monplaces.” A New York friend later
transmitted to me a rumor that the
publisher, McKay, and not Mr. Bair
was responsible for thus perverting the
book’s spirit. This rumor the publisher
readily confirmed, insisting that changes
in and omissions from the original text
of the translation had been made on the
advice of legal counsel because, it was
felt, the original would leave the pub-
lisher open to suit for violation of ob-
scenity codes.
Legally, of course, the publisher, as
commissioner of a translation, may make
any changes he desires. Morally, and
aesthetically, it seems to me his respon-
sibility at the very least is to check
such changes with the translator and to
permit him to revise, as no doubt he
could do most competently, any “offen-
sive” passages. But the publisher per-
formed his bowdlerizations strictly on
his own.
Moreover, after the Lolita and Lady
Chatterley tests; one cannot help doubt
the wisdom of a prissy legalism which
so seriously depreciates a book’s value
(and, most ironically, its market suc-
cess). And is it not pernicious for pub-
lishers in any case to submit to the fic-
tion that legal opinion is the proper
judge, in a free community, of the merit
of a book or any part of a book?
Paut Laurer
Amherst, Mass.
Senator Morse on Peace
Dear Sirs: 1 read with great interest the
editorial entitled “The Candidates and
a Politics of Peace” in the February 6
Nation.
For many years now it has been my
belief that the greatest issue facing the
United States and, in fact, all nations,
is that of disarmament. I have tried to
point out that if we continue this com-
pletely immoral armament race with
the Soviet Union, our two countries
are bound to lead mankind into a nu
clear war. Obtaining binding disarma
ment agreements and using the ma
chinery of the United Nations to set
tle international disputes are even more
important, in my opinion, than closing
the missile gap.
I shall develop this thesis during
the forthcoming Presidential campaign
Wayne Morse
U.S. Senator (Oregon)
Washington, D.C.
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
237 '@
ARTICLES
240 @ Negro Registration Laws:
Progress or Evasion?
' by THOMAS I. EMERSON
242 @ Vista of the ’60s: Titans, Old
Folks and Feeble Clerks
by EDWARD W. ZIEGLER
249 @ Strike Insurance
by H. HOWARD OSTRIN
253 '@ New Hampshire Inquisition
by NORMAN ‘THOMAS di
GIOVANNI
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
257 '@® Lucky Jim and the Martians
by ROBERT HATCH
The de Gaulle Era
by WILLIAM G. ANDREWS
Threnody on the Demise
of As and Now (poem)
by DILYS LAING
Letter from Italy
by WILLIAM WEAVER
Theatre
by HAROLD CLURMAN
Art
by DAIRFIELD PORTER
{
Marriage Song (poem)
by, SUSAN MOIRA MOK
Records
by LESTER TRIMBLE
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 264)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
HMINWNLNNINN HLA
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, [Editor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing BWditor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Ilarold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Musie
Ml
Alexander Werth, Muropean
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, Mur, 19, 1960, Vol, 190, No, 12
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EDITORIALS
There IS a Spirit of Camp David
' It is sheer fantasy to deny it. After a decade and a
half of bitter and dangerous contention, it was hardly
to be expected that the two superpowers would achieve
I state of millenial love overnight, but the fact is that
ie world has gone five months without a major crisis.
ad anyone predicted, five months ago, that an acri-
be diplomatic row would break out between the
United States and another country, with ambassadors
utually withdrawn and the chargés d’affaires being
yawled out by the inflamed foreign ministers, it would
ave been automatically assumed that the Soviet Union
vas the adversary. It is not: the Republic is being
yadgered by a neighbor who possesses not a single nu-
clear device or missile — Cuba. The fact is that the
United States and the Soviet Union have adopted, on
an experimental. and tentative basis, an attitude of
mutual forbearance, and the experiment thas so far been
as successful as any realist in international relations
could: haye expected. The differences remain and there
Is no expectation that they will be obliterated over-
night. The problem i is precisely for nations with con-
flicting ideologies and ways of living to occupy the
planet together without. blowing it up. For the present,
at east, East grid’ West ‘are trying not to exacerbate
the difficulties that are bound to arise. Joseph C.
Harsch points out in the Christian Science Monitor
that since World War Il, we and the Soviets have been
“leaning against” each other, each hoping that the
other would yield. Both nations have now abandoned
this posture, which was as fatiguing as it was futile,
an d, from the normal upright position of Homo sapiens,
per paps getting a better view of each other. The
, for ‘instance, “have been extremely moderate
mn their ‘most recent statements on the Middle East
ation, while our own moderation is’ shown by the
r eversal oe boa announced intention to fly into West
Berlin above pk nema ceiling. att, ess
F Reasouitble or 1
in. the areortie! between. West Germany and Berlin.
rh e Pent: gon decided that it wanted to fly « ‘cargo jets
t higher se ra This
in
resumption
The Be ee the cout Horn ‘ ou
church-goers in this country; the Protestant | sects have
ot, this ceiling has been the custom |
have been for sound
was the motive, and it was joined by non-Communist
Scandinavia and other West Eu-
ropean countries, which saw the plan as “provocative.”
Now the President has decided that the flights are
not “operationally necessary” at this time, and the
Pentagon has acquiesced. There is nothing humiliating
about this sensible procedure; it is merely a correction
of a maladroit and inopportune proposal. If our cargo
jets would be safer at higher altitudes, General Eisen-
hower can try to work the matter out with Mr. Khru-
shchey at the Summit meeting. The spirit of Camp
David may be succeeded by the spirit of Paris, and it
may develop that if the two sides are less insistent on
their rights, both will have more rights to enjoy. ae
elements in Britain,
U nchallenged
The Newspaper Guild of New York has given its
Page One Award for the best magazine reporting of the | {
year to Fred J. Cook and Gene Gleason for their Nation “I
article, “The Shame of New York.” Last year Mr. Cook’s “ts
Nation article on the FBI received the Page One ve
Award for the best magazine writing. Two aspects of
this year’s award merit special emphasis. The first is
that the awards committee consisted of three well-known
members of the working press: Oliver Pilat, of the New
York Post, Robert H. Prall, of the New York World-
Telegram &% Sun, and Ralph Jules Frantz of the New
York Herald Tribune. The other is that the award was 3
accompanied by a citation which reads: [for] “a cou- |
rageous and unchallenged political survey of our city.” | ia
To Mayor Robert Wagner, District Attorney Frank
Hogan, Robert Moses and assorted sachems of Tam-
many Hall, we say: “Please note that word ‘unchal- —
lenged.’”’ : ;
7 * . 7
Ae
‘Protestants have long constituted ae majority of <3
the largest endowments, the richest treasuries ote ; ER
0 t ivies on their churches. In most American com-_
es, the reins of social power re lain secur
stant | hands. So d omin: nt
that there is no wot
denote oe ere
“anti-Catholic.” In their strength and_ self-confidence,
Protestants have even been able to indulge other groups
in the illusion, fostered by local concentrations, that
they—the minorities—run the country.
Yet from this country’s large herd of sacred cows,
the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the
U.S.A.—and all that it symbolizes—has been excluded.
Rather than a “sacred cow,” Protestantism would ap-
pear to be “the cow with the crumpled horn.” Kicked,
goaded, milked and otherwise abused, old Betsy Protes-
tant, fat and gentle, has been willing to chew her cud
in good-natured contentment, knowing that she is, after
all, the sleekest beast in the pasture and the one with
the most blue ribbons. Anyone can twist her tail or
beat her unmercifully with the milk stool; she merely
rolls her gentle eyes heavenward. It is quite inconcéiv-
able, for instance, that the House Un-American Activi-
ties Committee would dare charge that American Jewry
or the Roman Catholic hierarchy was harboring spies,
traitors and saboteurs among, respectively, its rabbis
and priests, much less that a Secretary of the Air Force
would long remain in office if he appeared to tolerate
a smear of either faith of the type involved in the
notorious Air Force manual. Yet in his groveling ap-
pearance before the House committee, Secretary Sharp
left the impression that the Air Force secretly agreed
with the committee members.
Here and there, however, a few dignitaries have
spoken out in mild protest: Francis Cardinal Spellman,
to his credit, has deplored accusations of disloyalty
against Protestant chaplains in the armed services (the
baptism of fire “clears” them, presumptively) or “on
the loyalty of the general body of ministers whom they
represent.” Who knows, given this gracious gesture,
but that Secretary Sharp may yet be able to screw
up his courage to the point where, in all manliness, he
will inform Chairman Walter that he is withdrawing
his withdrawal of the offensive sections of the manual.
The State of *“*Chassis’’
The whole world 1s in a state of chassis.
—Sean O’Casey
The “chassis” which developed in the marble halls of
the United States Senate on March 4 began routinely
enough. “Mr. President—” Mr. Fulbright of Arkansas
intoned, and was recognized, but by no one except the
chair. “Mr. President,” Mr. Fulbright said plaintively,
“may we have order in the Chamber?” After several
minutes of admonition, the Senate came to order, i.e.,
several Senators began listening to the speaker, who
then launched into one of the most resonant orations
since Demosthenes spit out his pebbles.
_ As is the way with great speeches, Mr. Fulbright
viewed with alarm. “We endure in an era of total
crisis,” he began. “The great truths are denied.” If any
2an ? .
Senators were in doubt, they probably surmised by this
time that their colleague was alarmed by communism.
In its current manifestation, according to Mr. Ful-
bright, communism is something new under the sun, for
“the sun itself is no longer inviolate and unattainable.}
For the first time a would-be conqueror could win the
world; win it in perhaps thirty minutes.” And whose
is the fault? Not such distinguished soldiers as former
Army Chiefs of Staff Generals Ridgway and ‘Taylor,
nor Generals Gavin and Power, nor distinguished jour-
nalists like Joseph Alsop and Walter Lippmann, nor yet
the Rand Corporation and the Rockefeller Brothers
Fund. Mankind moves on ideas and few men of ideas
come to Washington — “They are not likely to seek
service under a Chicf Executive who is scornful of their
kind.”
In a later chapter of his oration, Senator Fulbright
invoked Robert A. Lovett, Robert Sprague and Thomas
Watson, Jr., who, as related in Jast week’s Nation, are
eager to give their all for national survival. Mr. Aiken
of Vermont interrupted the flood of eloquence to ask
whether the witnesses who had testified to the weak-}
nesses of our defense were not engaged in “the manu-
facture of munitions or the financing of the manufac-
ture of munitions of war, or .. . hold Government con-
tracts, or . . . would like to have larger Government
contracts?” Mr. Fulbright replied that it was incon-
ceivable to him that such men could be motivated “by
a desire for personal gain.” Recalling Clark Field in
1941, when our aircraft were destroyed on the ground}.
(Mr. Fulbright failed to give due credit to the com-}
manding general, Douglas. MacArthur), the «speaker
was supported by Mr. Johnson of Texas who, in af
moving interlude, revealed that his sixteen-year-old
daughter had come to his office earlier in the evening
to pronounce her verdict on an earlier speech of Sena-
to Fulbright: “Daddy, this is the finest speech I have
read in a long time.” Vindicating Miss Johnson and his
other fans, Mr. Fulbright rose to even greater heights,
lamenting the presence of toilet water in drug stores,
the passing of the American Indian, and our condition
as a “20th century Babylon, headless and heartless,'a
big, fat target for the ably led Communist world and
the clamoring, poverty-ridden new states.” On this note
he suggested the absence of a quorum and sat down.
In the same issue (March 5) of the Congressional
Record in which Senator Fulbright’s extended remarks
are preserved for our posterity (if we have any), Sena-
tor Engle of California called the country’s attention to
the lamentable state of our defenses under the caption,
“Two Red Telephones and the Atlas Missile.” At Van-
denberg Air Force Base, a single Atlas stands ready to
fire on twenty minutes’ notice, if the young officer in
the block house receives the order over one of his two}
red telephones, About his neck he wears the eneaps
. ate z)
a
"ated code word on a chain, just in case he should for-
get it. The young officer also wears a pistol. It is, of
course, traditional for a soldier on such duty to be
equipped with a sidearm, but it might be better to let
this young officer go unarmed. He might read Senator
Fulbright’s speech and shoot himself.
Total Sincerity
A trade journal, Uniforms and Accessories Review,
is our source for additional data on the new ethics of
television advertising. On pages 34-35 of its spring issue
appear specifications for a du Pont commercial sched-
uled for screening in May. The “story” will involve the
adventures of a nurse, a doctor, a bed patient (young
female) and her mother; the moral will be that the best
healers wear uniforms made from Dacron Polyester
Fibre (du Pont).
The note of ethical purity is struck in the following
specification for casting the professional roles:
The actress selected must be a registered nurse; similarly,
an actual doctor must be used in the commercial.
We note with some concern that no assurance is given
that the girl in bed will really be sick or that the lady
hovering anxiously over her will in fact be her mother.
Nevertheless this meticulous casting is a long and
wholesome step in the direction of total sincerity. It
operates on the double principle that doctors and nurses
may properly be hired to model a commercial product
and that a product endorsed by a model with a medical
degree is certified to be the best that money can buy.
_ Could anyone ask fairer than that?
Is Nixon Getting Soft on Communism?
It is a fixed rule in the demonology of communism
that when anyone is accused of softness toward it, he
is guilty. If he has proved himself relentless, he could
p not be attacked, since in every moment of his waking
~ existence he sould be hunting Reds and while he slept
_ his encephalograms would show that, like a dog, he is
hunting in his dreams. It follows that when Governor
, Wesley Powell of New Hampshire accused Senator John
_ F. Kennedy of being soft on you-know-what, he had
_ ferreted out something which would. shortly become
clear to every Red-blooded American. Yet, apprised of
~ Governor Powell’s statement, Vice President Nixon saw
: fit to issue the following statement:
Kennedy since they served together on the House La-
bor Committee in 1947. While they have some differences
on issues, they have always been in complete agreement
in their unalterable opposition to communism at home
and abroad. ite ees
pao Femyell was py indignant and
t ja
:
The Vice President has known and worked with Sen..
ron the attack in this — nological solution.
election.” He reiterated that while Mr. Kennedy might
be “loyal,” he intended to continue to attack his “soft,
straddling record in his approach to the Communist
menace.” The Governor should not stop there. Mr. .
Nixon may have climbed to power over the bodies of ~ ait
Jerry Voorhis and Helen Gahagan Douglas, but that
was a long time ago. He cannot claim immunity on these
grounds today, any more than a woman can lay claim
to the title of Miss America 1960 on the strength of
having been in the chorus line of the Ziegfield Follies
in 1924. Let Mr. Nixon repent and harden himself, or H
get out of the Presidential race in favor of someone a)
made of sterner stuff, such as Governor Powell.
Bemuse
“Bemuse” is the accepted pronunciation of BMEWS,
the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System now in a
BMEWS, for those
few who are curious about where their money is going,
building to thwart the Russians.
is an advanced radar system, costing up in the billions, . ’
the successor to the DEW (Distant Early Warning)
line in Canada, which also cost billions but was made
obsolete when the Russians inconsiderately went in for
missiles aircraft. BMEWS, according to
Radio Corporation of America data, is capable of .de-
tecting a flying object the size of a house door at a dis-
tance of about 3,000 miles. It will be installed at York-
shire, England; Clear, Alaska; Greenland.
The Thule equipment is presently housed in a gigantic
whence,
as one science writer puts it, Radio Corporation of
America scientists
instead of
and Thule,
plastic globe or radome at Moorestown, N.]J.,
“hope it will be able to see missiles: B./
missiles rising, war-bound from the Soviet Union, loaded
with hydrogen bombs and headed for New York, Chica-
go and other American cities.” If this means what it
says, the scientists’ hopes will not be widely shared. :
Some of our scientists and engineers are inebriated
by their achievements — the same technological fury
has no doubt possessed the Russian geniuses — but
the prospect is that their latest creations, like their
earlier ones, will serve no other purpose than to give
them something to discuss in their learned societies.
BMEWS, for all its complexity and cost, will give only
fifteen minutes’ warning of an ICBM’s approach. But
if we or the Soviets go mad and launch an attack, it
is scarcely likely that fewer than hundreds of ICBMs
will be sent into action. Warning will be of little avail —
except to insure that suicide will be mutual. Nor is
there any assurance, if insanity prevails, that ICBMs
will be used. The Russians could just as well send sub-
marines to within IRBM range of American shores, or
closer, and leave BMEWS scanning the skies ir-_
_relevantly. There may be a political solution for the |
missile woes of the nations; there is certainly no tech-
© teat
oo ey, Te
NEGRO REGIST RATION
IN THE excitement over parlia-
mentary maneuver, we seem to be
overlooking the serious substantive
problems involved in formulating an
adequate federal voting bill. The
fact is that neither of the two leading
bills now before Congress, if enacted
in present form, is likely to result in
the voting of more than a few thou-
sand Negro citizens in a few scatter-
ed districts.
The basic Constitutional issues
are not hard to resolve. As to Sen-
ators and Representatives, the Con-
stitution gives Congress power to
regulate the “times, places and man-
ner of holding elections.” A similar
power is implied with respect to the
election of President and Vice Pres-
ident. Constitutional experts agree
that Congress has full authority to
take over the entire federal election
process, including registration, vot-
ing and counting of ballots in both
primary and final elections, or any
part of that process.
So far as concerns the election of
state officials, the powers of Con-
gress rest mainly upon the Four-
teenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
These give the federal government,
acting through the courts or through
legislation, authority to prevent any
form of state action which denies
equal protection of the laws or
abridges the right to vote on account
of race, color, or previous condition
of servitude. Here, too, the powers
of Congress are entirely adequate.
To enforce the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Amendments, Congress
can assume control over all or any
part of state elections.
The formulation of concrete meth-
ods for making these powers effec-
tive, however, poses far more trouble-
some issues. Experience over nearly
a century, as well as currently,
sharply focuses the difficulties and
frustrations of federal efforts to elim-
inate racial discrimination, As long
ago as 1880 the Suprepte Court eld
i THOMAS I. EMERSON, on the
faculty of the Yale Law School, is
; co-author with David Haber of Po-
— litical and Civil Rights 1 a the nited
pene ‘ 4 vt “
re istration or ‘voting b
i“ te “4 ae
ib
ae sti
LAWS.
that discrimination against Negroes
in the selection of juries was a denial
of equal protection and nullified the
trial of any Negro properly raising
the question. But- such discrimina-
tion is still widespread in the South.
Southern resistance to the segre-
gation decision of the Supreme Court
makes the point even more plainly.
Nearly six years after pronounce-
ment of that decision, not a single
Negro child goes to school with a
white child in five Southern states.
In five other states, there exists to-
day only token integration, limited
to.a few dozen or a few hundred
Negro children. In the process of
thwarting the Supreme Court’s de-
cision, the eleven Southern states
have, during the. six-year period,
enacted several hundred evasive
laws. At least no one can say the
South has not given the proponents
of equality in voting full warning
of what to expect.
Not only the degree of resistance,
but the sheer magnitude of the prob-
lem, must be recognized. The report
of the Civil Rights Commission last
year estimated that in 1956 the total
number of Negroes registered to vote
in the South was 1,200,000, out of
5,000,000 Negroes of voting age in
the area. This constituted 25 per
cent of the potential voters, as con-
trasted with a 60 per cent white
registration. If the percentage of Ne-
groes registered were brought up
even with the whites — assuming
the white proportion remained the
same — it would mean enrolling
1,700,000 new voters. Even if a far
more modest increase were achieved
in Negro voting — say a 10 per
cent increase over present figures—
it would be necessary for the federal
registration system to register 500,-
000 new voters.
THE assumption underlying all pro-
posals for new legislation is that no
substantial increase in Negro voting
can be achieved in the foreseeable
future through “court proceedings
under existing statutes. tes. Those stat-
utes do, in theo prectthe
citizen against disc ninatl eg-
Ny
sis Gy Poin
‘the explanation of the department’s
egro”
i) ea ihe ey
ot te ep
s I, Emerson
>
forceable by criminal prosecution,
injunction proceedings and suits for
damages. But the judicial process has
proved inadequate to the task, as the
Civil Rights Commission indicated.
The reason for this is partly that
the Department of Justice has never
undertaken any large-scale enforce-
ment program. No criminal prosecu-
tions have been brought in recent
years. Since the passage of the Crvil
Rights Act of 1957, giving the At-
torney General power to institute in-
junction suits, the Department of
Justice has commenced only four
such proceedings. The department
justifies this lack of action on the
ground that it is necessary to pro-
ceed slowly until the Supreme Court
has passed on the legal issues. But
these issues are actually settled, and
record is more political than legal.
Another, and more basic, reason
for the failure of existing laws is that
the criminal prosecution, the injunc-
tion and the assessment of damages
are simply inadequate tools for
coping with the infinite variety of
discriminatory practices employed by
a multitude of local officials. Some
more direct control over registration
and voting is essential.
STARTING from this premise, there
are several possibilities. One is for
the federal government to take full
control over registration and voting
machinery in federal elections and,
if necessary, in state elections. An-
other is the enactment of a Consti-
tutional amendment eliminating all
qualifications for voting except age
and residence. The bills currently
under consideration, however, follow
a more moderate ‘and less certain
course. They are all based upon the
recommendation of the Civil Rightsf
Commission that federal registrars
be appointed to register those citi-
zens who are being discriminated
against. And they all rely upon the
judicial ‘process—criminal or injunc-
tive — to assure that such federally
registered voters will be allowed 0
vote and have their votes countet
There are now three rota
posals bela: Sopeii ies is a
; out ant “a
7 } 2 ¥ . |
oir
ii id The Ni
/
ie
-
a
:
ed by Attorney General Rogers
introduced by Senator Dirksen
the Administration’s program. It
bvides that if, in an injunction
beeeding brought under the Civil
hts Act of 1957, the court finds
Pattern or practice of discrimina-
yn, it may appoint a Voting Ref-
empowered to recommend to
= court the registration of all quali-
d_ persons who have been denied
ristration by state officials. A re-
sal to allow any person registered
the court to vote is punishable
$a contempt of court.
A second proposal has been offered
Senator Hennings, Chairman of
e Senate Rules Committee. This
ewise commences with an injunc-
on proceeding under the Civil
ights Act in which the court must
nd a pattern or practice of dis-
mination. Upon such a finding, the
resident is authorized to appoint a
ederal Enrollment Officer for the
lection district, who may register
ny individual who claims discrimi-
ation. The right of such individual
_yote is enforced through a sup-
emental injunction proceeding or
iminal prosecution.
third proposal, embodied in a
il introduced by Senators Javits
nd Douglas, combines the original
pmmission proposal, with modifica-
ions, and the Attorney General’s
ill. It authorizes the President, with-
ut any preliminary administrative
r judicial proceeding, to appoint
ederal Registrars authorized to reg-
ter any person from an election dis-
rict who is a member of the group
eing discriminated against. Such
lersons are eligible to vote in fed-
ral elections. The bill also includes
he Attorney General’s procedure for
egistration by Voting Referees of
ersons who will thereupon be en-
tled to vote in both federal and
tate elections.
N the House the Rules Committee
finally reported out a civil rights
embodying recommendations
made by the Administration last
year, which does not include any
rovision for federal voting regis-
rars. But the House bill is open to
me mdment: and the Attorney Gen-
s, and probably other proposals,
be offered from the floor.
effectiveness of these various
proposals must be measured by the
manner in which they deal with four
main problems posed by a federal
registrar system.
1. The Appointment of Federal
Registrars or Referees. The first, and
perhaps the most crucial, step is the
appointment of the federal registra-
tion official. The essential point here
is that the procedure be simple and
expeditious. A formal administrative
or judicial proceeding, involving the
taking of evidence, a finding of dis-
crimination in individual cases, re-
views, appeals and all the intricacies
of protracted litigation, is simply un-
workable on the scale necessary to
achieve results.
BOTH the Attorney General’s bill
and the Hennings bill are seriously,
indeed fatally, defective in this re-
spect. As a condition of appointment
of a Voting Referee or Federal En-
rollment Officer, they require a full-
scale judicial proceeding, in each
election district, in which proof must
be made not only of individual cases,
but of a pattern or practice of dis-
crimination. On the basis of past ex-
perience the number of such law-
suits which could be successfully
completed in the course of several
years would be insignificant in rela-
tion to the number of election dis-
tricts where discrimination now
takes place. And if the Southern
states reacted, as we must expect,
by increasing the number of election
districts, the number of Negroes
registered would be even smaller.
The Douglas-Javits bill solves this
problem, as to federal elections, by
providing that the President may
appoint Registrars for any election
district in a county where he has
reason to believe that discrimina-
tion occurs. No formal administra-
tive or judicial proceeding is re-
quired. This simplified procedure is
entirely appropriate and legal. The
question of whether to appoint a
federal registration official is essen-
tially a matter of legislative policy,
turning upon general conditions in
the area, not on proof of discrimina-
tion against any individual.
The Douglas-Javits bill, however,
does not extend the simplified pro-
cedure to registration for voting in
state elections. The assumption is
that, in many or most areas where
Negroes obtain the vote in federal
elections, political and__ practical
forces at work will give them the
vote in state elections. Moreover, if
voting in state elections is refused
to federally registered voters, proof
of discrimination in criminal or in-
junction proceedings is greatly facili-
tated. Should this result not be
realized, the Douglas-Javits _ bill
makes available the same procedure
as in the ‘Attorney General’s bill for
the appointment of Voting Referees.
2. Who is Eligible to Register?
Once a federal official has been ap-
pointed, who should have the right
to register with him? The best sys-
tem is one which defines broadly the
category of those eligible and places
the fewest conditions upon their
right to apply.
Here, also, the Attorney General’s
bill is both restrictive and compli-
cated. It conditions the right to reg-
ister upon proof that the applicant
has previously been denied the op-
portunity to register by state officials
or rejected by them. This does not
meet the problem. The devices em-
ployed to prevent Negro voting in
the South are designed not only to
reject the relatively few Negroes
who actually apply for registration,
but to discourage the great majority
from making the attempt at all.
Thus, to require each applicant to
show that he has applied to state
officials, or been affirmatively pre-
vented from doing so, adds an un-
necessary complication and _ forces
the applicant to undergo the hu-
-miliation and risk of exhausting state
procedures.
The Hennings bill and_ the
Douglas-Javits bill are much _pref-
erable in this respect. They au-
thorize the federal official to register
anyone in the category discriminated
against, that is, any Negro in the
election district.
3. Procedure im Registering. A
third factor in any scheme of fed-
eral registration involves the actual
procedure of registration. This should
be done in the usual way, by the
applicant simply presenting himself
before the federal registration official
and establishing his qualifications.
To the extent that this process be-
comes an adversary proceeding, in
which hostile state ‘officials oppose
(Continued on page 264)
241
a
‘ Mey: ph ee . e's vy
Og OS eh et eee
a J a ‘I res me
TITANS, OLD FOLKS AND FEEBLE CLERKS
VISTA OF THE 00s - « by Edward W.
I
YESTERDAY, a group of metal-
trades workers won a small fringe-
benefit increase. Their new measure
of security is as illusory as it will be
short-lived. For they will not long
have the jobs with which their new
benefits go.
Today, industrial management,
alarmed by high labor costs, firmly
resolves to find a substitute for the
expensive manpower in the plant.
Tomorrow, a new milling machine
controlled by punched paper tape
will move into the plant and the
“secure” jobs will vanish. Not all at
a blow, but steadily and certainly.
Thus, quietly, the American in-
dustrial hourly work force is dis-
integrating.
Even middle management is los-
ing its outposts of power. That great
Sahara of Mediocrity made up of
men above the rank of foreman and
below the rank of vice president is
attenuating. “Recentralization,” a
word seldom heard, is a_ practice
that will increase with each passing
year. It will obliterate the middle
managers’ celebrated teamwork,
shatter their hopes of advancement
and leave them a group of feeble
clerks.
Real corporate power will concen-
trate into fewer and fewer hands —
the eager hands of a top manage-
ment that controls what it does not
own. The Titans of industry will be
beholden to no one save the stock-
holders, their own consciences and
a potent High Priesthood of scientists
who will form a staff elite possessing
immense power.
At the same time, an aging popu-
lation will increasingly become a
population on fixed incomes. Those
people over sixty-five and retired
will have long outpaced the withered
industrial work force in total num-
bers and in political power. As medi-
cal science prolongs lives, and there-
by increases the proportion of old
newspaper man, is now an editor at
McGraw-Hill.
242
hel satel I
EDWARD W. ZIEGLER, a former
people in the nation, a new set of
political and economic conditions
will assume the dimensions of major-
ity will.
This inquiry centers on three of
the most obvious effects of the radi-
cal changes we are now undergoing
and then attempts to examine some
of the less obvious effects and their
future course.
As the production powers of
America become increasingly con-
centrated, a marked change in the
equilibrium of interests is already
manifest. Probably the quickest way
to get to the core of the matter is to
consider, first, the agents of change
(the three principal economic pres-
sure groups) and their several in-
terests.
The division of society into prop-
ertied and non-propertied classes is
now an archaic nomenclature. To-
day the lines must be drawn among
the three basic power blocs that in-
teract and tend to counterbalance
each other:
1. The salaried, managerial-pro-
fessional class that controls (but does
not own) industry and the organiza-
tions of finance and commerce;
2. The wage-earning industrial
work force that acts — through its
unions — as the “loyal opposition”
to management’s “establishment”
and checks the inequities that man-
agement may promote;
The fixed-income, retired class
(or rentiers) that tends to align it-
self with management in economic
interests, but is a class distinct be-
cause of its unproductive nature.
As with any generalization, this
division is not entirely precise; but
it will give passable service. Again,
to generalize, both managers and
rentiers are growing in power at the
expense of the wage earners.
It is appropriate, then, to examine
closely what is happening to the dis-
integrating bloc of wage earners.
|
1 think that, upon the whole, it
may be asserted that a slow and grad-
ual rise of wages is one of the general
laws of democratic | communities, In
4,
a
$ (oun
: ei
’
rs
S
iy
;
Ziegler
proportion as social conditions be-
come more equal, wages rise; and
~-as wages are higher social conditions
become more equal.
Thus wrote de Tocqueville in
Democracy in America in the eight-
eenth century. More than half way
through the twentieth century —
March, 1958, to be exact — a worker
named Roosevelt Barton was laid
off at Chrysler’s Detroit body plant.
Barton took the blow philosophical-
ly. The same thing was happening
to many others who were making $2
an hour, as he was. Even if he was
unskilled, there would be another
good job soon. At the very least,
there would be the unemployment
check every week until things picked
up again.
A year later he was still waiting.
His old job didn’t exist any more.
And what was harder for him to un-
derstand was that his old plant was
offering its remaining workers over-
time. “I could understand it at first,”
he said. “Sure. Car sales were
down ... they had to do something.
But things are changed now and I
got to drive a truck for a dry cleaner
at $65 a week because I couldn’t get
the job back at the factory. And the
wife’s got to work at day work and
the kids run free. .. .”
Roosevelt Barton and thousands
like him in Detroit were feeling first
pangs of “technological unemploy-
ment” among the semi-skilled and
the unskilled. For many other wage-
earning manufacturing workers,
the story will be much the same.
The young men without skills will
be the first to go. A disproportionate
number will be Negro. But until the
day the wage earner gets laid off,
he will be well paid — so well paid
that the impersonal logic of cost
reduction will oblige his manage-
ment to do without him,
The clearest indication of what is
happening to the wage-earning class
can be seen in the membership rolls:
of the big industrial unions: the
Autoworkers, Steelworkers, Electri-
cal Workers, Railroad Brotherhousay
and Mineworkers. —
During the 1957-’58 oaualen 2.4 |
* The Ns Te
a ge
hi “manufacturing jobs disap-
eared; in recovery, only a fraction
was replaced. From an all-time peak
of 1.5 million members in 1953, the
Autoworkers are down to = about
900,000. From 1.3 million members,
the Steelworkers have shrunk to
about 900,000. The International
Union of Electrical Workers have
dropped from 400,000 to 300,000.
Railway employment has dropped
from 1,042,000 (1956) to about
810,000. The Mineworkers, once
boasting 700,000 members, today
have only 218,000. (The growth of
the Teamsters, it should be noted,
‘is the one exception of consequence. )
The big industrial unions form the
backbone of the industrial work
force. The unions’ emasculation by
factors beyond their control is un-
dermining the workers’ feeling of
‘solidarity. Those still at work in
anufacturing are becoming better
aid, but their status is changing.
he Mineworkers, with a $90-million
welfare fund for 218,000 members,
is a union far different from the old
union of 700,000 members. “They'll
eet themselves down to ninety mem-
bers one day, then retire themselves
as millionaires,” is the way one mine
operator put it. His comment serves
to illustrate this significant change
‘in ‘status. In a real sense, today’s
Wage earners constitute a new oli-
garchy of skilled workers who are
losing their identity as part of the
industrial work force as their real
‘income rises and their number
dwindles.
Dwindling union membership
figures gain more meaning and sub-
stance when added to other evi-
dence. The evidence falls into. six
broad categories.
Bt. The labor force. In 1919, ac-
Bring to Secretary of Labor james
Mitchell, goods-producing work-
¢ Be erinbered service workers al-
nost two to one; but by 1958, goods-
Reducing Beaters numbered about
25 million, while service workers
numbered about 30 million.
2. Fixed costs. The rise in fixed
costs — rent, amortization and cer-
tain taxes and salaries — noted by
most experts is a strong indication
f a decreasing percentage of total
na er issuing costs accounted for
y wage earners, as, for he most
X
_duction
part, wage costs eee eh ea
ume of output. One estimate, made
by Factory magazine along with the
McGraw-Hill Department of Eco-
nomics (and drawn from the U.S.
Bureau of the Census annual Census
of Manufacturers), listed these ag-
gregate fixed-cost figures (in 1947-
49 dollars): 1939, $26.1 billion;
1947, $46.2 billion; 1950, $55.1 bil-
lion; and 1956, $75.3 billion.
3. Number of engineers. Engi-
neers, as is well known, abound in
direct proportion to the amount of
highly specialized, mechanized pro-
equipment. During a 100
per cent increase in productivity be-
tween 1928 and 1955, the number of
engineers per 100 industrial workers
rose by 250 per cent. To put it an-
other way, in 1928, there was one
engineer per 100 workers; in 1952,
there were two and a half per 100
workers. On the conservative sup-
position that there were about 475,-
000 engineers in industry in mid-
1959 (and a work force of 16.5 mil-
lion, assuming no steel strike), the
ratio is now about three per 100.
4. Cost distribution. Labor costs
have always ranged between 35 and
55 cents on the cost dollar. Man-
agement says its direct and indirect
labor costs are by far the heaviest
obligation it has to meet. Past his-
tory supports this contention, but
the present facts do not. The Sep-
tember, 1959, Monthly Bank Letter
of the First National City Bank of
New York lists these costs (in terms,
of percentages of receipts by 100 of
the largest U.S. non-financial cor-
porations) in the year 1958: materi-
als (including goods and_ services
purchased), 54.4 per cent; labor,
26.6 per cent; depreciation, 4.6 per
cent; all taxes, 8.1 per cent.
5. Maintenance costs. The ex-
tremely costly mechanized and auto-
mated equipment that is displacing
workers requires specialized and con-
sistent maintenance. Thus the figures
Factory magazine has used to de-
scribe the growth in importance of
the maintenance function can be
viewed also as an index of the de-
creasing importance (and ‘rising
costliness ) of the remaining produc-
tion labor. In 1947-49 Bitar, the
figures for maintenance in the three
postwar years compared with 1959
1946,
$5.4 billion;
1948, $8.6 billion;
and 1959, $14 billion. Adding further
significance to these figures is an-
other set of findings developed by
were as follows:
1947, $7.2 billion;
the magazine’s editors, Carl G.
Wyder and Carroll W. Boyce
(“Maintenance Management Prac-
tices Today,” October, 1958), indi-
cating that mactarie industry
is specializing its maintenance in in-
strumentation, electronics and me-
chanical-millwright work—all proc-
esses that require high skills, high
wages and heavy training; and all of
which give further indication of the
pace of mechanization.
6. Wage increases. The bargain-
ing success of the unions represent-
ing the industrial wage earners is an-
other sign of management’s incentive
to automate more fully. Thus an in-
dustry such as the textile industry,
which is not regarded as particularly
profitable or highly modernized, has
granted its workers only 52 per cent
more in wages since 1947. The wage
figures (uncorrected for inflation )
on a per-hour basis are $1.04 in
1947, $1.58 by May, 1959. On the
other hand, wages in primary metals
(including steel, aluminum and cop-
per) have risen 106 per cent from
an average of $1.33 an hour in 1947
to $2.74. an hour in May, 1959.
Metals producers have been busily
automating for the last decade.
In addition to the steady wage |
gains, these union members have
won an average of twelve fringe ben-
efits, the typical package including
unemployment compensation, paid
vacations, cost-of-living escalation,
life insurance, hospitalization insur-
ance and other health benefits, a
pension, paid holidays, workmen’s
compensation, travel insurance, a
tuition-refund plan and _ overtime
and shift premiums for working un-
usual hours. These benefits, of course,
are provided jointly by the company
and the government. Nevertheless,
the cost that the company’s portion
adds to the basic wage makes man-
agement all the more anxious to de-
crease the hourly work force.
It should be pointed out, in con-
cluding this discussion of the vari-
ous indexes of the disintegrating in-
dustrial work force, that total auto-
mation is not likely to occur except
in those industries that produce a
limited number of products of stand-
ard manufacturing dimensions and
sell them in a mass market. Thus a
turbine maker will need his crafts-
men and highly skilled production
men at least as long as the present
basic turbine design remains un-
changed. But that serves to empha-
size the point at hand: Those work-
ers who remain in industry will
themselves become a privileged class,
losing their identity with the un-
skilled (the traditional fabric of the
wage-earning class). In their disor-
ganization, the poorest, least skilled
will have no suitable bargaining posi-
tion within institutions now avail-
‘able to them from which to redress
the inequities they suffer.
THE SIX indexes we have ex-
amined have a relationship to the
marked rise in productivity achieved
by industry in the past thirty years.
Since 1928, productivity has doubled.
Since 1880, it has quintupled. There
is a distinct relationship between in-
creasing productivity, increasing la-
bor costs, a weakening wage-earning
class and increasing automation.
Ewan Clague, Commissioner of La-
bor Statistics of the U.S. Depart-
ment of Labor, said the Labor Rela-
tions and Arbitration Conference at
San Francisco in May, 1959:
Over a long period of time there is
a reasonably close relationship be-
tween output per man-hour and the
real hourly wage income of workers.
. . Since World War II there has
been a change in the composition of
the labor force in manufacturing. .. .
There has been a difference in the
244 é
ete. ea ee
lake
growth of production workers since
1947 as compared with all employees.
In January, 1948, production work-
ers numbered about 13 million and
non-production workers numbered a
little more than 2% million. The lat-
ter includes supervisors, engineers,
economists, statisticians, scientists
and other such groups. Note that
production workers fluctuate with the
business cycle, rising in prosperity
and falling in business recession. On
the other hand, there is less varia-
tion in the employment of non-pro-
duction workers. In January, 1959,
eleven years later, production work-
ers numbered less than 12 million,
while non-production workers had
risen to nearly 4 million.
Hence it is clear that the wage-
earning class not only is weakening,
but that its poorest members — as
always — bear the brunt of business
recessions. Without a skill, you don’t
draw top pay; without a skill, you
are the first man laid off. Propor-
tionately, those least able to pay,
pay the most. As the strength of the
wage-earner class diminishes, it will
find itself increasingly helpless to
bargain for the security enjoyed by
non-production labor during times
of business distress.
Thus the business cycle, the wage
spiral, the march of automation, in-
creasing productivity, advancing
technology and an expanding econ-
omy all work together to diminish
the power of the wage earner; to
drive him from his traditional cen-
tral role in manufacturing industry
and to send him on his own Diaspora
into less integrated, widely scattered
service industries where his union—
if any—will be equally scattered and
feckless.
TO GAUGE the pace of the dis-
integration of the industrial work
force, it is well to consider the dif-
ferent types of automation (which
range from the negligible to the com-
plete). This will serve not only to
illustrate the probable pace of dis-
integration, but also to illustrate a
strange paradox of automation: The
lower the level of automated ma-
chinery, the higher the production
skill required to operate it, and the
higher the level, the less skill. Thus,
as James R. Bright (writing in the
Harvard Business Review of July-
August, 1958) put it: “In the metal-
Eee ee
& tee eee 4
4 j ; ; = <2
working field, the ‘effect ie aeoaee
cycling is to substitute workers of
lesser training (machine operators)
for machinists.”
tion Raise Skill Requirements?”)
went on to list seventeen levels of
— range includes hand, hand tool,
with hand control; the range is called
starts with a tool performing a single
function on a fixed cycle, the same
sort of tool with a sequence of fixed
functions, a remote-controlled power
tool, and a tool actuated by the in-
troduction of a piece of material.
that measures the characteristics of
formance. His fourth—and ultimate
Bright’s study (“Does Automa-}
automation. The first — and lowest
powered hand tool, and a power tool
“Hand Control.” His second range
This range is called “Mechanical
Control.”
The third range, classified by
Bright as the “Variable Signal Re-
sponse” level, ranges from a_ tool
the work to a tool that records per-
range — is labeled “Variable Con-
trol.” It includes extremely sophisti-
cated devices (such as tools that
respond in speed, position and direc-
tion to a measurement signal), and
ranges up to tools that anticipate
action required and adjust them-
selves accordingly.
“At some point above level four
(1.e., above the first range) the edu-
cation required by the worker no
longer increases,” Bright concludes.
He adds that in terms of physical
effort, manipulative skill, experience,
responsibility and influence on pro-
ductivity, the worker’s contribution
is generally decreasing and, in many
instances, 1s already nil.
It seems safe to conclude, then,
that the need for the production
worker will continue to drop along
with the need for higher skills among
wage earners (at least among those
not already possessing them). As a
result, what can be expected to hap-
pen is that a certain portion of mid-
dle-management will become down-
graded to fill the gap that is too
broad for the wage earner to bridge.
In a few instances, no doubt, the
most intelligent, best-trained work-
ers will have a chance to jump the
chasm; but net many and not often,
WE HAVE discussed the disintegra- |
tion of the industrial work force in
d
The i Tt
a a
“in specific terms the effects of what
industry calls “cost reduction” or
“cost improvement” in two typical
plants. (Both terms. describe labor-
cost reduction, in the main. To the
degree that labor-cost reduction suc-
ceeds, the hourly work force in the
plant diminishes in number and in
power. )
At the Sturtevant Division of the
Westinghouse Electric Corporation,
‘in Hyde Park, Mass., the 1959 budg-
et for cost reduction was $600,000.
In 1956, the century-old plant cut
$403,000 in costs; in 1957, the figure
was $602,000; and in 1958, it was
$493 ,000.
A good example of a cost-cutting
project at Sturtevant is a one-man
assembly line for an air-cleaner unit.
One operator lowers an air-cleaning
sub-assembly onto a roller conveyor,
and then, by means of an intricate
system of overhead conveyors,
brings all the components together
in fifty-seven minutes. The same job
used to take 105 minutes. At the end
_ of the line, he feeds the finished and
crated unit to a large C-hook that
lifts the unit off to the shipping
| dock. This is typical of how “cost
- reduction” cuts the labor force in an
; old plant.
IN NEW plants, the story is the
same — only more so. When’ West-
~inghouse built its new transformer
plant in Athens, Georgia, it engi-
-neered the entire layout for maxi-
mum machine production. In_ its
560,000 square feet of floor space,
the plant has only 200 production
and maintenance workers. With the
managerial, engineering
staff personnel added, there are few-
eer than 400 Bilonecs in all. In
terms of population density, that
makes the Athens plant less than
three times denser than the average
~ suburban subdivision if you figure
_ a family of four has a one-third acre
‘lot (about 15,000 square feet) for
its own. (Four men at the Athens
plant have 5,600 square feet in which
to roam.)
No man in this plant picks up an
object weighing more than two
pounds. In building the body of the
high-voltage Westinghouse trans-
picts. fifteen automatic welding
and other
4
machines, ten automatic positioners,
and two automatic turnover devices
perform fifty- five assembly opera-
tions on any of thirty-two different
pieces without a single production
worker.
IN 1949, SIXTEEN of every 100
manufacturing employees were white-
collar workers; in 1959, the ratio
rose to twenty-three. Workers who
remain in manufacturing will in-
creasingly reach white-collar status.
A University of Chicago research
group estimates that the proportion
of white-collar workers in the en-
tire civilian labor force rose from
5.7 per cent in 1870 to 15 per cent
in 1910 and to 27 per cent in 1950.
Today the figure is. probably close
to 33 per cent. But only 16 per
cent of these workers are unionized.
The differences in dress and style
of life even in manner of speech
—set the white-collar worker apart
(at least in his own mind) from the
wage earner. Additionally, the white-
collar worker, for the most part, can
work at his own desk, be in physical
proximity to management, be re-
lieved of over-the-shoulder supervi-
sion, move about the office when he
pleases, carry on an active social
life over corporate phones, and work
just nine-to-five.
Industry is not insensible to the
psychological balm of status. The
public relations department -of the
big corporation is trying to expunge
the word “worker” from its lexicon;
the payroll consists of “employees,”
not “workers.” Steel, hoping to gain
all the support it could in its 1959
battle with the United Steelwork-
ers, had not laid off any of its white-
collar workers in Pittsburgh after
seventy-one days of the strike, de-
spite the fact that these workers
were playing gin rummy on the job,
taking 180-minute lunch hours, and
anxiously awaiting work assignments
that were not forthcoming. In con-
trast, in the thirty-five-day strike
of 1956, the companies laid off office
and clerical help and put low-echelon
managers on short work weeks after
just a few days. 4) |
The sort of attitude that will be-
‘come increasingly typical of workers
granted white-collar security is well
summed up by these phone company
workers (as noted in 1958 by Joel
Seidman’s University of Chicago
Press book, The Worker Views His
Union):
I think the public thinks. pretty
well-respected people work for the
phone company. And as. a_ general
rule, when you talk to anybody and
tell them that you work for the
telephone company they tell you
that you have a good thing there.
They don’t take you as a laborer
or somebody. They attach a little
prestige to it; and the people who
work here, I guess, feel the same way.
They {the union] put out a paper
show a radical at-
and they very
titude. And they always print
all the bad things the company does
and they make it sound so much
worse than it is; it’s so colored, so
prejudiced — as if the company is
your enemy.
The industrial work force disin-
tegrates at just the time when a
new codicil has been. tacked onto
the American dream: Respectability
with Security. Workers who remain
in manufacturing industry will as-
sociate themselves more with the
middle-class instincts of the white-
collar employee and will — as their
corporations wish — call themselves
employees, not workers.
As one observer has suggested,
“One approach [to promoting co-
operative. motivation among work-
ers| is to associate the workers’ in-
terests more closely with the man-
agement’s, so that they will be will-
ing to bear the risks and. frustra-
tions. Profit-sharing plans and
yearly salaries are ways of doing
this.”
Whether anyone sets out to as-
sociate the interests of the two
groups more closely or not, they
will automatically become more
closely associated as the industrial
work force continues to wither. The
wages of those who stay will become
their salaries; their militant solidar-
ity will become prim respectability;
and their sympathy for their fellow
workingmen will become affection
for the firm that employs them.
So much for our inquiry into the
disintegrating industrial work force.
Coincident to this change is a far
subtler alteration going on in man-
agement that will have equally far-
reaching effects.
Ill
The changes taking place in man-
agement have attributes similar to
the changes taking place in the gen-
eral economy. Whereas the three
principal groups in the economy at
large are the manager-professionals,
the industrial work force and the
retired persons, or rentiers, the divi-
sions within management are top
management, the “High Priesthood”
(or staff elite) and middle manage-
ment. Both top management and
the High Priests are gaining power
at the expense of middle manage-
ment, just as in the economy at
large, management and the fixed-
income population are gaining power
at the expense of the industrial work
force.
Recentralization is bringing more
power back to headquarters man-
agement, while vastly increased in-
dustrial-research expenditures (up
more than 160 per cent from 1953-
54 to 1959-60) are indicative of
the growing importance of the sci-
entific-engineering contribution to
industry. The middle manager,
meanwhile, loses power as more of
the daily decisions which he once
provided become the responsibility
of centralized computers and the
High Priesthood.
“If you think you’ve seen a lot
of changes in business, just stick
around a few years.” That is what
a senior partner in a management
consulting firm told Dun’s Review
€¥ Modern Industry magazine. “In
one way or the other,” said the mag-
azine, “many top executives are say-
ing the same. And they’re not just
talking about market shifts and
technological changes. Equally signif-
icant... are the sweeping organi-
zational changes taking place today
in industry.” (“Top Management
Tightens Controls,” July, 1959.)
Hundreds of companies that de-
centralized right after the war are
recentralizing again. Among them
are Rheem Manufacturing Co.,
American Bosch Arma Corp., Ray-
theon Manufacturing Co., Socony-
Mobil, American Brake Shoe Co.,
and Olin Mathieson. Recentraliza-
tion is motivated by the desire to
control costs by means of co-ordinat-
ing marketing, finance and long-
range planning. Before recentraliza-
246 —
te A po 6 Tee.
tion, Olin Mathieson’s fifty plants
and various autonomous divisions
“were running off in different direc-
tions and the company soon was
falling apart under its own weight.”
American Bosch Arma’s “talented
engineers .. . had lots of interesting
irons in the fire, but costs were so
high and accounting so poor that
the company was racing toward
Skid GRow si.) 2 ats
As the “cost-push” continues, the
pressures for recentralization are
sure to grow. Harold J. Leavitt of
Carnegie Tech and Thomas L. Whis-
ler of the University of Chicago,
looking forward to the 1980s, have
concluded that a new technology of
management that they call “infor-
mation technology” will totally re-
distribute management organization
and the control of managerial power.
Writing in the November-December,
1958, Harvard Busmess Review on
“Management in the 1980s,” Leav-
itt-Whisler predict four major de-
velopments:
"7. Information technology should
move the boundary between plan-
ning and performance upward. Just
as planning was taken from the
hourly worker and given to the in-
dustrial engineer, we now expect
it to be taken from .. . middle man-
agers and given to. . . specialists.
Jobs at today’s middle-management
level will become . . . covered by sets
of operating rules governing the day-
to-day decisions that are made.
4/2. Large industrial organizations
will recentralize, top management
will take over an even larger propor-
tion of the innovating, planning and
other “creative” functions.
3. A radical reorganization of
middle-management levels . . . with
certain . . . jobs moving downward
. while other[s] . . . move up-
ward into... top management.
4. The line separating . . . top
from... middle [management] will
be drawn more clearly and impen-
etrably than ever, much like the line
drawn in the last few decades be-
tween hourly workers and first-line
supervisors.
Leavitt-Whisler foresee an in-
creased emphasis on creativity, along
with the Titans’ growing ability to
control their middle management.
“Decentralization,” they say, “has
ot
been largely negatively
Top managers have backed into it
because they have been unable to
keep up with size and technology.”
But the new age “promises to allow
fewer people to do more work .. .
{and holds the]... promise of al-
low|ing| the top to control the mid-
dle ec”
IMPLICIT in this discussion (as in
the preceding discussion of the dis-
integration of the industrial work
force) is the growing centrality of
the electronic computer and data-
processing techniques to industrial
progress. The history of that devel-
opment was sketched by Jay W.
Forrester, Professor of Industrial
Dynamics at M.I.T., in a Harvard
Business Review (July-August,
1958) article, “Industrial Dynam-
ics.” Forrester saw the growth of
data processing as falling into five
five-year phases:
{From 1945 to 1950 was the pe-
riod of electronic research and the
demonstration that machines having
many thousand vacuum tubes would
indeed operate.
(From 1950 to 1955 was the pio-
neering period in applying computers
to the solution of scientific and en-
gineering problems.
{During the present period, 1955
to 1960, electronic machines are being
substituted for clerical effort in com-
mercial organizations.
{From 1960 to 1965 we can expect ©
to see the application of digital com-
puters to physical process control.
Already there are digital machine-
tool controls... .
{From 1965 to 1970 we should see
all these developments converging in-
to pioneering developments in the
central management process. The
routine, repetitive types of decisions
will become more formalized, while
management creativeness will be di-
rected to how decisions and policies
should be made rather than to the
actual repetitive making of such de-
cisions.
The “feedback” accorded the
Titans by their data-processing
ganglia will allow them to enlarge
further their central role in the
economic affairs of the nation, Ulti-
mately, immense power will funnel
into the hands of, at most, 10,000
men who direct the nation’s 500
largest corporations. j
.: The N
,
” vas
motivated.
ee ee ee ee ee ee ee
a eA ee
We shall return to a discussion of
¢ Titans’ power and interests once
e have explored the growth of the
faff elite and the metamorphosis
middle management more fully.
IR. IRVING P. KRICK of Denver,
‘olo., is earning his keep at the Shell
yl Company. Dr. Krick predicts
he weather. In early 1958, he gave
hell a set of predictions covering
e weather in eighteen marketing
eas. For the nation as a whole, he
as 99 per cent right. But his out-
anding accomplishment wasn’t his
ghly accurate over-all forecast; it
as his warning that December, 1958,
yould be much colder than normal.
“The oil industry,” observed
vtroleum Week magazine, “stands
9 gain greatly from any consistent
mprovement in _ predicting the
yeather. W. J. Sweeney, vice presi-
ent of Esso Research & Engineer-
Co., has told the American Pe-
poletim Institute that even a 50 per
‘nt improvement in seasonal
orecasting could save the oil in-
dustry $100 million a year in reduced
tankage costs and savings in lower
nventories.”
General Electric’s recent reorgani-
ation of its “human relations” ap-
aratus into a single department in
charge of a full-fledged vice president
s further indication of the growth
f the staff elite. The task of G. E.
ocial scientists is to find out “what
t is that motivates people . . . to
lo a better job.” Behavioral sci-
tists are becoming more and more
mportant to industry, not only in
human engineering” but in design-
ng and distributing new products
ind services.
The increasing entry of industry
nto research is another symptom.
The figures are illuminating. Ac-
0 ording to a survey conducted by
McGraw-Hill Department of
nomics, the outlay for industrial
arch almost doubled between
953 and 1957. Even in the reces-
ion year of 1958 the total expendi-
ure was in excess of $7 billion. The
t that Russian competition has
ven to military and defense re-
ch in America has been trans-
penditure in the 1959-69 decade of
$160 billion. By January, 1960,
Business Week was estimating an
annual total of $28 billion for re-
search by 1969.
UNTIL THE present, one fact that
has been slow to impress itself on
industry is that there is a consider-
able time lag between initiation of
a research program and _ tangible,
salable results. This lag has given
all but the most progressive corpora-
tions a bad case of research ambiv-
alence and has disturbed traditional
ractical” values. Hard-headed, ac-
SR heesientated companies have
been notably unprogressive, where-
as sales-orientated companies like
du Pont, General Electric and Rey-
nolds Metals have shown in their
profit figures the uses of a more
venturesome spirit. Yet often the
very nature of research ill accords
with “practicality,” as was evidenced
when former General Motors presi-
dent Charles Wilson—an eminently
practical man—indicated that “Re-
search is what you do when you
don’t know what you’re doing.”
The capricious fate that produces
valuable new processes and products
in random fashion has made most of
industry shy away until recently.
Consequently the scientist has not
felt at home in an industrial environ-
ment. But all that is changing. An
industry that remembers that stain-
less steel was developed by mistake,
that nylon just happened, and that
the transistor was discovered inci-
dentally, is adopting a new stance.
The insatiable hunger for more
sales ultimately requires new prod-
ucts (and, more ominously, an ad-
_ -vertising effort to “create” the need
for these new products). This year,
new products will account for
13 per cent of all manufacturers’
sales (compared with 8 per cent in
1956), according to McGraw-Hill
findings. And the same survey also
reported the following pattern of re-
lationships between capital expendi-
tures for expansion of production of
old products and expansion of pro-
duction for new products:
Shift in Capital Spending
(in pet. of total spending)
1956 60 °65
Old Products 46 30 22
New Products 6 7, 30
New tools and
processes 48 53 48
Total new
expenditures 54 70 78
Source: “Survey of Manufacturing
Industry, 1958,” McGraw-Hill.
Thus industry’s increasing depend-
ence on research—and therefore on
its High Priesthood—will sooner or
later result in a high degree of in-
dependence and power for the men
who will be the principal source of
increased sales potential. But it will
also result in a long-range down-
grading of the status, numerical im-
portance and authority of middle-
management positions. In fact the
high authority to which middle man-
agement has risen will be viewed, in
retrospect, as an organizational fluke.
Imagine, for instance, the ABC
Manufacturing Company’s Eastern
Plant, which last year produced
$1,860,000 worth of Whammits. Its
net profit was $96,000; it spent
$360,000 for direct labor, $540,000
for direct material and $234,000 for
manufacturing overhead in winning
its profit.
Middle management at Eastern
had always supervised the control of
direct labor (including regular time,
overtime, bonuses, taxes and fringe
benefits); direct materials (includ-
ing opening and closing inventory
management); and overhead (in-
cluding supervision, inspection, fuel,
power, supplies, maintenance and
repairs).
But sooner or later the greater
part of these control functions can —
and will be “computerized,” and the
computers will be programed by
men who know far less about plant
operations than they know about
247
tions
rn SEES ME SUR eR ey
4 4 a” f he
| , is ae
largest | group, ae bie Ferountee or that th Lis group egal
Functions aimed at
_ mathematics.
controlling direct costs of labor (such
as. methods improvements, — plant
layout, production planning, sales
co-ordination and accounting) will
respond to the unafraid clacking of
a computer. Direct-material func-
(like quality control, value
analysis, inventory control) will fol-
low the same course. Manufacturing
overhead (for example, material
handling and certain types of sched-
uling) will likewise be governed by
the impersonal and remote judgment
of a computer that gets its sense of
values from the High Priesthood.
Thus middle management has good
prospects of mutating into a class
more in keeping with its lust for se-
curity—a class of docile and feeble
clerks.
IV
While the industrial work force
decomposes and management grows
more highly structured, the fixed-
income class—increasing with the in-
crease in longevity—becomes a vast-
ly more influential power bloc, Its
demand for a stable dollar will meet
with sympathetic response from the
Titans. What better way to fight off
higher wages than by a sturdy stand
in favor of price stability and against
“inflation”?
In July, 1959, 67,596,000 Ameri-
cans were at work (2,500,000 were in
the armed services, -and
500,000 were unemployed). Of the
total number at work, 12,212,000, or
18 per cent, were in the industrial.
work force (identified in the federal
census as
ness,”
about 3,-—
“cperators”). The next
ee or
13.8 per cent of the total, while
craftsmen-foremen, the third largest
group, accounted for 13.2 per cent.
But already, by 1959, the fixed-
income population had surpassed the
industrial work force. With a mem-
bership of about 14,000,000, the old
folk represented a bloc equivalent to
more than 21 per cent of the entire
active group of working Americans.
Even if we include some of the
craftsman-foreman category and
some service workers as part of the
industrial work force, it would con-
tain, at most, no more than 14,000,-
000 members. At the most liberal
estimate, then, the industrial work
force is no Jarger than the fixed-
income group.
But figures put out by the Census
Bureau indicate a rapid growth of
the fixed-income population. The
population estimates for “over-sixty-
five” Americans (drawn from the
Census Bureau Series P=25, No. 187,
“Current Population Reports—Pop-
ulation Estimates”) are as follows:
1960, 15.8 millon; 1965, 17.4 million;
1970, 19.6 million; 1975, 21.9 mil-
lion; and 1980, 24.5 million.
In this same period, as we have
seen, the industrial work force will
become severely attenuated and will
probably have ceased to operate as
an effective economic power bloc.
(That is not to say that the entire
“wage-earner” class will be dis-
persed; far from The point is,
rather, that its solidarity and cohe-
siveness will be so weakened that it
will no longer constitute an effective
countervailing force.)
“Tf you stand still in this busi-
a General Electric vice presi-
dent used to quote, “you only move
backward... .” That is precisely the
problem caused by the msing demand
for stability by the fixed-income
Americans. Their. understandable
preoccupation with a stable dollar
has already had much to do with
the direction of the great debate in
Washington on price stability versus
economic growth, The fixed-income
population’s interests have had no
small part in shaping the public
opinion that seems to support Presi-
dent Eisenhower's tight-money, anti-
inflation policy, Indeed, the pres-
ent. relative price ee is evidence:
. Pe 7 whi oer
may care deep down inside, but they
some of the political power “it ha
lost to the industrial work force in
the years of the New Deal. But the
old folks and the laborers can il
afford to swap power between them-
selves. The Titans’ ability to play
them against each other while re-
maining ostensibly aloof and dis-
interested is the hallmark of a dur-
able, resourceful and flexible elite—
although not necessarily of an elite
much concerned with economic Jus-
tice or equity.
V
These, then, are the Americans of
the future:
{A timid Bucknell graduate (class
of “48), uncomfortable today in his
middle-management job whenever he
has to make decisions, will find his
job as a quality-control co-ordinator
bit easier tomorrow. They’ve just
completed the ultrasonic test line,
and the test results will henceforth
be recorded on punch cards. The
outward signs of status will remain
his. But the inner strife of respon-
sibility and authority will trouble
him just that much less. He can re-
hearse the night’s offerings on the
Jack Paar Show as he absent-mind-
edly pens a reply to a memo from
the plant-safety engineer.
"A restive chap bearing a shock of
hair that would have given his em-
ployer doubts as to his political or-
thodoxy twenty years ago, will enter,
his office late. But no one will re-
buke him. Resident mathematicians
are too rare and too costly for sense-
less rebukes. No one'cares if his coat
doesn’t match his trousers (they
wouldn’t dream of saying anvthingte
just so long as he remains happy and
productive. Chances are his research
re see | 4
is just as late, just as preoccu-
d, 1, just as indifferent to corporate
tany and ritual. Today the mathe-
atician will derive half a formula
pverning odd-lot production sched-
ling that will save his company
5,794 over the following six months.
mall wonder that top management
‘indulgent. Imagination is the one
w material without surrogate.
§A man who has been up until 3
.M. goes into a richly paneled room.
n his brief case is a sheaf of papers
at lists sixteen major proposals for
hew capital equipment. In rapid
uccession he hears the petitioners,
sierces their vague descriptions with
rapier questions. By noon he has de-
ided to reject six out of hand, refer
hree others to the board of direc-
tors, and provisionally approve the
rest. He retires to his own office
Where lunch awaits him. He pores
over the production records, the
monthly profit-and-loss reports, the
ales figures; he scans inventory,
marketing and research reports. At
IN A FREE society the right of
employees to withhold their labor is
inviolate and unassailable—no less
basic, indeed, than the fundamental
rights of “life, liberty and the pur-
suit of happiness.” One must recog-
nize, however, that under our com-
plex economy, a prolonged work
stoppage, particularly in a key in-
dustry, may trespass upon the rights
of the general public. Sound public
policy, therefore, requires that every
bona fide effort, short of compulsion,
be made to accelerate the termina-
tion of all strikes.
Free collective bargaining first re-
ceived the imprimatur of our gov-
ernment in 1926, when Congress
passed the Railay. Labor Act. In
addition to providing machinery for
the settlement of railway and_air-
line labor disputes through media-
tion, fact-finding and voluntary ar-
ae the Act requires employers
at
H. | HOWARD OSTRIN is a practic-
in 1g New York attorney.
Mar arch 19, 1960 :
=i
a
6 P.M., dinner arrives at his desk.
He returns to his papers. His head
is infinitely capacious: it is an order-
ly file, a fast and accurate synthe-
sizer, analyzer, computer, gauge. He
leaves for home at 10, a full brief
case in hand. He will continue to
work on into the night.
{In the warmth of the Southern
sunshine, a pleasant old man plucks
his pension check from a mailbox.
His sense of security is stronger to-
day than at any time in recent years.
Life was not always so free of tur-
moil. But, for now, he knows that
there are those who look after his
interests. And that knowledge sus-
tains him in a way that his older
friends cannot be sustained.
{A man who does not understand
tedious economics walks in the chill
night air to clear his head. Tomor-
row, again, he will make the rounds:
the state employment agency, the
union hall, his old plant-personnel
office. And the answer he hears at
each place will be the same two syl-
in these industries to bargain col-
lectively with representatives of their
employees. In 1935, the Wagner Act
extended this concept to all other
industries engaged in interstate com-
merce. Twelve years later, the Taft-
Hartley Act extended the require-
ment of good-faith bargaining upon
unions in their dealings with em-
ployers.
Mindful of the public’s stake in
industrial controversies, the Taft-
Hartley Act is introduced by a suc-
cinct observation that strikes can
be prevented or minimized if man-
agement and labor recognize that
neither party, in its relations with
the other, has the right “to engage
in acts or practices which jeopardize
the public health, safety or interest.”
Any device hich prolongs a dis-
pute or otherwise impinges upon the
public interest should therefore be
discouraged, if not rejected. By the
same token, any tactics employed in
the course of a labor-management
impasse which contribute to, or re-
doubtless
lables: “Nothing.” He is just begin-
ning to realize that his sort of man
in industry is obsolete. For, without
a skill, he might as well give up. He
might as well drive the dry cleaner’s
truck at $15 a week less than he
used to get at the auto plant. He
might as well agree to let his wife
go to work.
Such are the particulars of the
disintegrating industrial work force,
the enfeebled Clerk, the Priest of
arcane knowledge, the aggrandizing
Titan, and the patient Old Folk.
And underlying all is the rising
plateau of costs that causes daily
rewriting of the established form-
ulas of production, distribution,
marketing and consumption.
Under these circumstances one can
only hope that public policy will
work to maintain economic balance.
Else we are left as mute spectators
in the contest H. G. Wells foresaw
when he wrote, “Human history be-
comes more and more a race between
education and catastrophe.”
TRIKE INSURANCE e ¢ by H. Howard Ostrin
sult in, a combination to restrain
or stifle free competition should be
enjoined through the application of
our anti-trust laws.
It is within this frame of reference
that the subject of strike insurance
and its effect on the collective-bar-
gaining process is here considered.
Subtly referred to as “suspension
insurance” by the members of the
American Newspaper Publishers’ As-
sociation (ANPA), as a “mutual
assistance pact” by our major air-
line companies, and as a “service in-
terruption agreement” in the rail-
road industry (where its sponsors
are presently seeking adherents),
these industry-wide strike-insurance
arrangements manifestly are intend-
ed to provide self-help in the event
of work stoppages.
As an economic counter-weapon,
beyond contemplation
of Congress when it gave statutory
approval to the collective-bargain-
ing process, this stratagem may con-
ceivably impede negotiated settle-
ee “Ly:
4
ments, prolong strikes and
the general public. In its relatively
short lifetime, strike insurance may
already have contributed to the de-
mise of one company which perhaps
relied too much upon its potential
as a strike-breaking maneuver.
On June 30, 1955, the American
Newspaper Guild, one of the first
unions to be confronted with strike
insurance, called upon the Attorney
General of the State of New York
to investigate the subject of pub-
lishers’ strike insurance “as a pos-
sible conspiracy in violation of the
insurance and other laws of the
State of New York.” On August 2,
1956, the Attorney General (the post
was then occupied by Jacob K.
Javits, now U.S. Senator) responded:
Upon investigation, this office
learned that insurance against busi-
ness losses due to strikes did exist
and was being made available to
members of the American Newspaper
Publishers’ Association.
The material which this depart-
ment has acquired in the course of
its investigation, including copies of
the insurance policies then in use,
was referred to the State Department
of Insurance. On July 26, 1956, I
was advised by that department that
the filings of each insurance company
involved were rejected on the ground
that approval of such coverage would
be contrary to public policy. (Italics
supplied.)
Referring to this rejection of a
strike-insurance rate schedule by
the New York State Insurance De-
partment, Hditor and Publisher, an
organ of the ANPA, in its August
18, 1956, issue, noted that the ruling
applied only to carriers licensed to
do business in New York State. Said
Editor and Publisher: “The strike
insurance group merely transferred
its insurance to other companies. . . .”
Available evidence supports the
conclusion that strike insurance can
be procured only from foreign firms.
“SUSPENSION insurance,” though
not generally publicized, has been
available to members of the ANPA
for many years. The details of the
plan currently in effect are particu-
larized in a seven-page memorandum
issued by the Newspaper Publishing
Premium Fund on May 29, 1958.
250
stifle
competition—all to the detriment of
The sponsoring noe
pates
issued by the underwriters will not
be less than $17,500,000.” Premium
checks are payable in U.S. dollars to
the order of the “Montreal Trust
Company.”
In the event of “total suspension
of publication,” the full daily in-
demnity will be paid beginning with
the eighth publishing day after the
strike starts and will continue there-
after for a period of twenty-five,
fifty or 100 days, depending upon
the premium paid; or upon termina-
tion of the strike, whichever occurs
first. Benefits are also payable in
the event of a partial suspension of
publication. These consist of reim-
bursement for actual losses such as
fixed charges, expenses and loss of
profits; provided that the total bene-
fits paid do not exceed the amount
that would have been paid in the
event of total suspension.
The maximum daily benefit is
fixed at $10,000 per publishing day
and $500,000 in the aggregate, pay-
able in U.S. dollars. (The under-
writers are located in Canada.)
The cost of insurance is determined
on the following basis: $123, $163.50
or $203 per $100 of premium indem-
nity, depending upon whether the
insured desires twenty-five, fifty or
100 days of coverage. Sunday insur-
ance may be purchased by the pay-
ment of an additional premium.
Indemnity payments will be made
only if the insured publisher offers
to arbitrate his dispute with the
striking union. He need not, how-
ever, offer to arbitrate where the
strike issue involves news and edi-
torial policy, assignment of editors,
reporters Or writers, pension or wel-
fare plans, union shop or other forms
of union security unless such pro-
visions are already included in the
collective bargaining agreement.
WHETHER strike insurance con-
tributed to the demise in 1956 of
the century-old Brooklyn Eagle and
the consequent loss of more than six
hundred jobs is a debatable matter
as to which reasonable men may dif-
fer. That it affected the course of
negotiations and paradoxically led
to an avoidable strike is much less”
subject to speculation,
“that the aggregate coverage
Newspaper Guild of New York of-
fered to have an arbitrator determine
whether its members were entitled
to receive the wage increase they
were then demanding. Had the pub-
lisher accepted, a strike would have
been averted. Instead, the Eagle in-
vited the Guild to arbitrate the en-
tire agreement. Since money was the
only real dispute between them, the
Guild rejected the publisher’s pro-
posal and the strike ensued.
Were it not for a subsequent arbi-
tration proceeding involving the
Guild’s demand to recover severance
pay and other fringe items on behalf
of its members whose employment
terminated with the suspension of
the paper’s publication, the publish-
er’s offer to arbitrate the entire con-
tract might well have been shrouded
in mystery to this very day.
During the severance-pay arbitra-
tion, where the writer appeared as
counsel for the Guild, the following
admissions were elicited from the
publisher:
{The Eagle, as a member of the
American Newspaper Publishers As-
sociation, had been carrying strike
insurance for approximately twenty
years at an annual premium cost of
close to $10,000.
]Receipt of the daily indemnity
benefits under the insurance policy.
(in this case $5,000) was condition-
ed upon a firm offer by the publish-
er to submit its dispute with the
Guild “to a fair and impartial arbi-
tration by a_ disinterested party.
That is, any agency which can be
shown to be fully disinterested, fair
and impartial in the ordinary sense
im which these words are commonly —
employed, and to abide by such arbi-
tration.” (The italicized words are
taken verbatim from the insurance
policy.)
Acceptance of the Guild’s offer to
arbitrate would. clearly have satis-
fied that condition. But this was not
what the publisher wanted. In the
first place, acceptance would have
averted a strike and there obviously
could not have been any recovery
under the strike-insurance policy.
Secondly, and this was admitted, the
Guild would have been Saticaistut’ in
so limited an arbitration.
A
*
= hin on ; | The Nati .
a din 4™ ae
’ A
_ te It=
“lee ccs “eich the Eagle, the
SS SS = - =
made the following Pesca!
~ Management is willing to submit
the settlement of this contract in its
entirety, clause by clause, to a fair
and impartial arbitration by a dis-
interested party. That is, by an
agency which can be shown to be
fully disinterested, fair and impartial
in the ordinary sense in which those
words are commonly employed, and
to abide by such arbitration.
A strike occurred; the Eagle col-
lected $250,000 in strike-insurance
-indemnities and, on March 6, 1955,
went out of business. Commenting
on the Eagle strike, Fortune, in its
April, 1957, issue, wrote:
; One reason why the Brooklyn
__. Eagle, a large community newspaper,
could afford to hold out during a
~ month-and - a - half - long Newspaper
Guild strike is strike insurance car-
ried by the paper. (“It is true that
the Pagle has strike insurance,” ad-
mits Publisher Frank B. Schroth. “I
-also have burglary and fire insur-
F ance.”) ... Almost every major daily
in New. York as well as many in
b other cities carries strike insurance.
_ The risk is spread among the Ameri-
can Newspaper Publishers Associa-
tion, Lloyds of London, and a U.S.
insurance company.
HE Airline Carriers Mutual a
sistance Pact of October, 1958,
simply another form of strike insur-
ance with a slightly different twist.
Sponsored by American, Capital,
Eastern, Pan American, United and
rans World Airlines, the agreement
provides for “mutual assistance” in
he event any Participating com-
pany’s flight operations are shut
d own by reason of:
1. A strike called to enforce de-
mands in excess of or opposed to the
: recommendations of the Board es-
_ tablished by the President of the
— United States under the Railway
Labor Act; or
2. A strike called before the em-
ployees on strike shall have exhaust-
ed the procedures of the lee
Labor Act; or
lawful.
Should any of these events occur, the
parties not affected agree to pay over
to the struck operator an amount
yt e Bas 7
3. A strike which is otherwise un-—
equal to. ata increased ae at- “majority observed: Te MAB 1
‘
tributable to the strike, less ex-
penses. Such payments are to be
monthly or more frequently, if the
parties so agree, for the duration.
The agreement obligates the struck
company to make every reasonable
effort to encourage the public to
patronize the non-affected operators
during the strike period. This sim-
ply means that if a strike should be
called against Capital Airlines, Cap-'
ital will undertake to urge its cus-
tomers to patronize its airline com-
petitors to the exclusion of rail or
bus facilities.
The Federal Aviation Act of 1958
mandates the Civil Aeronautics
Board to reject an agreement be-
tween or among airline carriers which
offends the Railway Labor Act or
the public interest. Accordingly, and
at the board’s invitation, the car-
riers and affected labor organizations
participated in oral argument on the
question as to whether the Mutual
Assistance Pact should be approved.
In its decision made public on
May 20, 1959, the board unanimous-
ly rejected that portion of the agree-
ment which dealt with the diversion
of traffic by a struck company to
other subscribing carriers, saying
that the “concerted effort to shuttle
traffic among a restricted group of
carriers is repugnant to anti-trust
principles. . . .”’ The remainder of the
agreement, howerea was qualifiedly
approved by a vote of four to one.
Rejecting the unions’ contention
that the agreement repudiates good-
faith collective bargaining as re-
quired by the Railway Labor Act
which has jurisdiction over labor re-
lations in the airline | industry, the
eye |
ek be
Crp ee
a} wearer, @ ae we PP” et *~
Pa Nee : \
saw hey ‘ee ‘
Nothing by the parties shows that
the operation of the agreement will,
in fact, induce the carriers to dis-
regard the obligations imposed by
law.... The record is devoid of any
showing that the duration of any dis-
pute was prolonged as a result of the
[agreement].
In this connection it is noteworthy
that the majority was sharply criti-
cized by the dissenting board mem-
ber, Minetti, for its failure to require
an evidentiary hearing in order to
explore the critical issues raised by
the agreement.
The board’s majority also turned
down the unions’ argument that the
pact, if allowed to stand, would bring
carriers who were not parties to a
particular controversy into a strike
situation.
To fully appreciate the unions’ po-
sition in this regard, one must under-
stand that the Railway Labor Act
prohibits multi-employer bargaining
without employee consent. A collec-
tive labor agreement in the airline
and railroad industries can be made
only with a single company. Assume,
therefore, that Airline Pilots Asso-
ciation strikes Capital Airlines to
enforce its contract demands. Under
the Airlines Mutual Assistance Pact,
the non-struck subscribing carriers
are required to marshal their eco-
a
nomic strength on behalf of Capital -
against the striking union. In these
circumstances, the Pilots Associa-
tion will necessarily be contending
against a formidable group of car-
riers instead of the one with whom
it has a dispute.
A striking union which enlists the
support of unions having collective
bargaining agreements with neutral
employers is chargeable with unlaw-
ful secondary boycott activity. Ap-
parently, so far as the CAB is con-
cerned, a group of carriers having no
immediate dispute with a union en-
gaged in a strike against another
company, may nevertheless lend eco-
nomic force to the striking com-
pany. For the time being, at least,
the secondary boycott in reverse has _
gained the imprimatur of one gov-
ernmental agency.
The unions also unsuccessfully at-—
tacked that portion of the agree-
ment which provides for mutual as-
sistance in the event a union calls
- >
ap)
hn >
ee
eae
a strike without accepting the rec-
ommendations of the Federal Emer-
gency Board. Emphasizing that Con-
gress intended such recommendations
to be free from compulsion, the
unions argued that the mere exist-
ence of the pact not only violated’
the concept of free collective bar-
gaining, but also could so reduce or
neutralize its economic potential as
to compel acceptance to the alterna-
tive of striking against the combined
economic strength of all parties to
the agreement even though the dis-
pute might be with one company.
Obviously impressed with this
argument, Mr. Minetti wrote:
. The purpose of the agreement
is to provide the combined economic
power to enforce settlement of labor
disputes on whatever terms an
Emergency Board may recommend.
The agreement thus aims at perpetu-
ation of the tendency to defer bar-
gaining until the issuance of an
Emergency Board report, since its
only effect on present bargaining
practices is to make them more at-
tractive.
This increased use of Emergency
Board recommendations as a carrier’s
first counter-offer is an unequivocal
violation of the bargaining mandate
of the Railway Labor Act, since the
statute requires good-faith bargain-
ing before the creation of an Emer-
gency Board. No carrier can know,
during the negotiating period which
precedes the establishment of an
Emergency Board, what recommen-
dations an Emergency Board will
make or even if the creation of an
Emergency Board will be recom-
mended. As a practical matter then,
the carrier cannot freely bargain in
good faith if it intends to rely on
Emergency Board recommendations,
since it would thereby risk offering
its employees more than the Emer-
gency Board will ultimately recom-
mend. The absence of good-faith bar-
gaining during this period, however,
is in flat violation of the Railway
Labor Act..
STRIKE insurance appears to have
attracted the interest of the railroad
industry as its most recent adherent.
The Wall Street Journal of July 13,
1959, reported the fact under the
following headline: “Railroads De-
vise Plan to Hedge Their Risks If
Unions Walk Out; ‘Secret’ Policy
Would Pay Fixed Costs.”
252
ae be eee
Referred to as a “service Neem
tion agreement,’ ’ the proposed policy
of insurance is scheduled to become
effective when railroad companies
accounting for 65 per cent of the in-
dustry’s gross operating revenues
agree to subscribe.
According to the Wall Street Jour-
nal, envelopes containing the pro-
posed policies have been addressed
to some 300 members of the Associa-
tion of American Railroads—marked
“Confidential.” A memorandum pre-
ceding the mailing advises officials
how to brush off the press in the
event it learns of the plan.
THE insurance provides for the
pooling of funds with benefits as
high as $600,000 per day payable to
a struck carrier. Rejected by U.S.
insurance companies, the policies are
being underwritten by a_ newly
formed Bahaman company known as
the Imperial Insurance Co., Ltd. of
Nassau, which in turn is associated
with Lloyds of London.
This is how the plan is expected
to function:
1. Each subscribing carrier, at the
very outset, will be required to de-
posit with a Nassau bank the equiv-
alent of its own fixed charges for
one day. These are defined to include
property taxes, pension and interest
charges, sinking fund payments,
equipment trust obligations and all
costs of “supervisory forces necessary
to preserve the railroad’s properties
in a stand-by position.”
2. Premium costs will be deter-
mined by the frequency and dura-
tion of strikes in each year.
3. Annual administrative costs,
presently estimated at $150,000, will
be assumed by the participating
companies.
4. In the event of a strike, the
insured carrier will be fully protected
against all of its fixed charges for
the duration of the stoppage.
These are the limitations:
1. The plan will not become oper-
ative unless at least 65 per cent of
the industry’s gross 1958 revenues
sign up.
2. Benefits will not be ali if
50 per cent of the industry partici-
pating in the plan is struck.
Other conditions are as follows:
The strike must not be in conflict
» eee ae
a ne Rinvar- Later eS anc Lit.
must ‘not be the result of the car- |
rier’s attempt to enforce demands
contrary to the recommendations of
a Presidential emergency board.
Guy L. Brown, President of the
Engineers Union, is quoted as hav-
ing said: “I think you would see
quite a few of our lawyers in court
if the companies try anything like
strike insurance.”
If current negotiations in the rail-
road industry should break down and
a strike result, it is not inconceivable
that railroad strike insurance may
well affect its scope and duration.
Insulated against fixed charge los-
ses for the duration, the struck car-
riers will be less exposed to the nor-
mal economic pressures which pro-
duce early settlements. This, of
course, will militate against the pub-
lic interest.
DEMONSTRABLY, the propriety
and legality of strike insurance is
open to serious question. It has
officially been declared to be against
public policy in New York State.
The Civil Aeronautics Board, after
rejecting a key provision .in_ the
Airline Carriers’ Mutual Assistance
Pact, qualifiedly approved the re-
mainder of the agreement.
There is little doubt but that the
railroad unions will challenge the
legality of the “service interruption
agreement” in their industry by in-
voking the Railway Labor Act and
possibly the anti-trust laws.
Following a strike against the
Ridder newspaper in St. Paul, Min-
nesota, the American Newspaper
Guild requested a Congressional in-
vestigation of strike insurance, and
the matter was referred to the Mc-
Clellan committee. So far as the
writer is able to determine, the com-
mittee never got around to this
question. Certainly no public hear-
ings were held. Evidently the com-
mittee was so preoccupied with its
concern to expose union abuses that
it never could find the time to in-
quire into the subject of employer
strike insurance.
It remains for the courts, or per-
haps another Congressional commit-
tee, to consider the effect of strike in-
surance upon the collective bargain-
ing process and the public at large. —
_ The Nar
M
ve
Si
re.
4 ‘
New Hampshire Inquisition ee by Norman Thomas di Giovanni
NEW HAMPSHIRE’s treatment of
civil liberties and political freedom,
and its hunting out of subversion —
like the tough and unpredictable
Yankee mind that has ruled in those
granite hills for over three hundred
years — defies simple accounting.
Records of subversive acts in that
region consisting “chiefly in Throw-
ing about (by an Invisible hand)
Stone, Bricks, and Brick-bats of all
Sizes, with several other things, as
Hammers, Mauls, Iron-Crows, Spits,
and other Domestick Utensils,”
come down to us from 1682 — a
full decade before any of the ex-
traordinary events that gripped
nearby Salem, Massachusetts. That
was a period of political unheaval,
and hate-filled, fear-ridden colonists
of the royal province were awaiting
the arrival of a governor appointed
to oppose them.
But during the next hundred years
the pendulum swung out, and in
1783 these same Yankees, now se-
cure and with their house in order,
drafted into the Bill of Rights of the
New Hampshire Constitution an ar-
ticle still on the books as the “Right
of revolution,” urging that “when-
ever the ends of government are
perverted, and public liberty mani-
festly endangered, and all other
‘means of redress are ineffectual, the
people may, and of right ought to
reform the old, or establish a new
government.”
In our time, with the political
order threatened as sharply as it was
in the seventeenth century, and hys-
_ teria set raging through the nation,
the pendulum took a sharp swing
back again. Near the height of the
new fever, New Hampshire adopted
its Subversive Activities Act of 1951,
making the right of revolution and
even its advocacy a crime punish-
able by imprisonment, fine, or both.
‘Then, two years later, with the rev-
olution article of the State Constitu-
tion bluntly circumvented, the state,
attorney general was authorized to
NORMAN THOMAS da GIOVAN-
NTI is a Boston writer who has made
several notable contributions to the
columns of The Nation.
March 19, 1960 :
carry out an investigation of sub-
versive activities and to prosecute
violations of the 1951 Act.
When Attorney General Louis C.
Wyman’s report of his investigation
appeared in 1955, true to purest New
England tradition it contained a
large share of old-time “Invisible
hand” excesses; in facet, what it
amounted to more than anything
else was an up-to-date version of the
old stone-throwing conspiracy. As
quaint as anything recorded in 1682,
for instance, Wyman’s report sought
to determine whether there was “a
Communist cell or Communist ac-
tivity... among pupils in the schools
of Franklin” after children “had
come home with pieces of paper on
which it was written they were Com-
munists,...”
But to move on from local his-
tory and custom, events of the past
weeks in New Hampshire go beyond
reminding us that the seed planted
by the late Senator McCarthy and
his kind is still capable of yielding
fruit. At this late date, when na-
tional jitters have calmed noticeably
almost everywhere else, Attorney
General Wyman has succeeded in
jailing one man, holds still another
in the shadow of the prison, and
gives no indication just how far he
proposes to go. in his
man inquisition.
absurd one-
Absurd because his report, which
purports to be about subversive ac-
tivities and is the bedrock on which
his recent successes rest, reveals that
the Attorney General and every
other state official he has weaseled
into his service are seriously delin-
quent in their knowledge of (1)
what subversion is, (2) what sub-
versive persons are, and (3) how a
subversive would behave.
Absurd because for all the casu-
istry of its 300 pages, somehow the
report still manages to demonstrate
the opposite of what it claims to
prove. Absurd, moreover, because
Wyman has yet to uncover one act
of subversion or eyen to come up
with one individual he could get to
subscribe to those magic words,
“overthrow of the government by
force and violence.”
But the crowning absurdity of all
— what caused the investigation to
erow to its present dangerous ex-
cesses —is that Wyman was. able
to convince the legislature, the courts
and the people of the state that
the thin, ridiculous material he had
assembled (at a cost of $31,500) was
the real thine and that it struck
at the root of a terrible conspiracy
to break New Hampshire’s constitu-
tional form of government. In 1955,
by an overwhelming vote, the gen-
eral court gave the Attorney Gen-
eral an additional $42,500 to extend
his investigation two more years.
Then in 1957, abandoning its own
powers, the legislature handed him
a blank check to proceed on his own
as a legislative committee — at any
time and at his own discretion.
WHAT material Wyman gathered
in that report bears examination.
There was the example of the school
children quoted earlier. In that same
vein of puerility, investigating Par-
ent-Teacher Associations, Wyman
found (in newspaper columns) that
an Elizabeth McKenna had_ been
appointed to the program committee
of the Brentwood PTA.
It goes without saying |writes
Wyman] that the program com-
mittee is a particularly influential
post. Elizabeth McKenna’s husband
is Rev. Warren H. McKenna, to
whom there is devoted a separate
section of this report. Rev. McKen-
na himself testified . . . that the only
meetings he had attended in New
Hampshire had been PTA meetings.
And there on that piece of nonsense,
in a highly publicized report, Eliz-
abeth McKenna is left hanging —
by a thread of a suggestion of guilt.
More serious is the long and de-
tailed section on Dartmouth profes-
sor Vilhalmur Stefansson. Among
other things, Wyman dug up Louis
Budenz’ testimony before a Senate
subcommittee in 1951 naming Stef-
ansson a member of the Communist
Party. Questioned by Wyman, Stef-
ansson said he had never been a
member of that party; confronted
with the Budenz testimony, Stefans-
son said it was “essentially incor-
rect.” Then Wyman did two things
253
7
by way of wrapping up his case: he
wrote Budenz,: asking him to back
up his statement, and-he gave Stef-
ansson’s testimony to the Justice
Department, requesting “any evi-
dence which could be made avyail-
able... indicating perjury on the
part of Mr..Stefansson. .. .” Of the
results of the former, Wyman writes:
Mr. Budenz, having monumental
demands made upon his time by his
academic and lecture commitments,
failed to respond to prior inquiries
by this office on other matters. At
the time this section of the report
was being prepared an additional re-
quest was made of Mr. Budenz to
testify regarding this matter, but
based upon his prior commitments
he informed this office he was com-
pelled to refuse the request.
And of the latter, Wyman wrote
only this: “At the time of printing
this report no reply had been re-
ceived.” But there in his pages —
and reproduced serially with added
photographs in New Hampshire’s
one Sunday newspaper for everyone
“to clip and preserve . . . in scrap-
book form” — the allegation stands.
This is one of the Attorney General’s
most diligently employed flagrancies,
the Scotch verdict of “not proven.”
Then there is another of Wyman’s
favorite tricks: heavily italicizing a
quoted text to bring out the em-
phasis he wishes to give it. The fol-
lowing is quoted exactly as Wyman
used it. It is from the nearly fifty
pages of his report devoted to Wil-
lard Uphaus’ World Fellowship
camp.
George Abbe was listed as di-
recting another “workshop” on “crea-
tive writing,’ August 10-19, 1953.
According to a release by World
Fellowship, Mr. Abbe described the
purpose of the seminar, noting that,
“Liberal movements fail at many
points because they * rely upon
clichés . . . like ‘freedom,’ ‘equality,’
‘the masses’ . . . ‘fascist,’ etc. The
progressive needs to study semantics
to broaden and enrich his means of
putting across truth, of depicting
the actual world of injustice so col-
orfully, freshly, and convincingly, that
whole marginal areas of people now
offended by propaganda slogans like
‘the liberation of the working class,’
and “public ownership,’ will be won
to forward-moving programs.” . . .
One of the texts was to be Paul
hw
wr ee Ae
_ em i> -
M. Sweezy’s “Monthly. Review.” |
On the face of World Fellowship’s
own description of this so-called
“workshop” it appears to have. been
nothing but a training ground for
more effective propaganda techniques
so that “the liberation of the
working class” and- “public owner-
ship” will be fed us in a new, less
easily recognizable form. “Liberation
of the working class” is strict Com-
munist line derived from the Marxist
doctrine of the class struggle... .
Wyman does credit himself for
the added emphasis, but the dis-
torted interpretation he passes off
as unadulterated “facts.”
Even the famed Sweezy case that
reached the U.S. Supreme Court
looks foolish when quoted from At-
torney General Wyman’s report. As
a guest lecturer at the state univer-
sity, Sweezy stated that “socialism
is coming everywhere whether we
like it or not.”
Communism [he said further]- is
one form of socialism, the form that
socialism takes in countries that are
ruled by despotic tyrannies and are
torn by social crises or war. It can-
not be wiped out by force... . It
follows that all hope of developing a
more free and humane form of
socialism depends on maintaining
peace, recognizing the necessity of
coexistence. . .
In his comments on this excerpt,
the Attorney General asks whether
Sweezy’s statement is true or false
and “(b) Whether, if untrue, it is in
fact objective teaching to an adoles-
cent class at a State University or
subtle advocacy. (c) Whether, if
untrue, it approaches or constitutes
the formula for subversion. e
Well, it’s a full six years since Sweezy
uttered his “subversive” remarks,
and no students have yet stormed
the state capitol with red flags.
Wyman also investigated the ac-
tivities of individuals — _ twenty-
three of them, of which four families
account for more than half the num-
ber. About one of these families the
Attorney General disclosed that four
of its five members had signed 1952
Progressive Party nomination pa-
pers; he further revealed that all
five “as late as 1953,” according to
“reliable” and “unimpeachable”
sources, held insurance policies in
the International Workers Order,
hed
a ,
Enough illustrations. If dissolu-
tion: of the constitutional form of
government is the subversive’s plot,
as Wyman holds, then certainly as
the state’s chief law-enforcement of-
ficial he should know that anyone
really intent upon overthrowing a
government is not likely to be out
signing open letters or petitions, or
circulating nomination papers for the
Progressive or any other party, or
operating a nationally advertised
public camp, or doing any of the
other legitimate acts he has cited in
his report as questionable behavior.
BUT NO one has yet discovered
the existence of these revolutionists.
Even former Governor Hugh Gregg,
at the height of the hysteria, admit-
ted: “We have not produced evi-
dence that saboteurs are wiring our
bridges for demolition; nor plotting
destruction of power dams and power
plants; nor threatening our municipal
drinking supplies. . . .” Indeed, an
esteemed and much-feted Nashua
housewife, who spied for the FBI
as a member of the Communist
Party and who therefore should be
the supreme authority on any rev-
olutionary conspiracy in the state,
reports no more than this:
The [Communist Party] meetings
would invariably be held at private
homes. The gatherings . . . range be-
tween five and fifteen in attendance.
I never knew of any mass meet-
16s sta
After the collection of dues, the
guest speaker is introduced. He usual-
ly starts talking about the latest is-
sues of the day, labor disputes,
economic recessions, and so forth. He
would then deliver any directives
from the higher-ups — things to be
accomplished, money to be raised and
similar projects.
Ordinarily, the guest member would
then distribute pamphlets or fliers to
be circulated in the area. Sometimes
these were given out at factory gates.
Other times they are circulated house-
to-house. The speaker would then
touch upon specific security measures
and conduct to be followed by the
members. And he would probably
close with announcements of party
business being conducted elsewhere.
Following the talk a special col-
lection is usually taken. The purpose
might be for a comrade who has been
arrested or for a member who is sick
or fighting deportation,
The Nati
Then the meeting is closed, maybe
\ ‘
* an hour or so after it began... .
If that’s the kind of gathering
that has New Hampshire residents
wn such a state of nerves they’re
willing to shell out a good $74,000
to be cured, they'd be better off in-
Vesting in some form of mass ther-
apy. If otherwise, it begins to be ob-
Wvious that Wyman can’t really be
interested in subversion after all.
In a modern, monolithic state such
‘as ours, and in the face of current
rosperity, revolution stands about
he chances of a Model-T Ford at
he Indianapolis races. No one, least
f all New Hampshire’s half-dozen
ona fide Commiunists, is going to
ull off a coup anywhere in America.
ut dying orders—and New Hamp-
shire old-guard Republicans today
re certainly at the end of something
will clutch desperately at some
ssue for survival. And best of all for
he makers of New Hampshire’s
urrent phenomenon, the issue—then
f not now—had national impetus.
When a few years ago Governor
regg, who appointed Wyman to
office, said that the nation’s Re-
publicans had done “a vastly superi-
pr job than the Truman regime” in
footing out subversion, and that the
tate Republican Party could seek
otes on this one program alone, it
as an indication that the revolu-
ion New Hampshire Republicans
ear most is not Red revolution, but
“revolution” by the Democratic
arty — the sort of thing that hap-
ened to neighboring Republican
Maine when it elected and re-elected
Democratic governor, and that
lappened to next-door Republican
Vermont when it sent a Quaker
acifist Democrat to Congress.
NYMAN’S career as inquisitor is
ot only founded on excesses of ab-
urdity, but in its execution he is
uilty of having conducted an in-
estigation entirely on the one-man,
rivate level. Initial authority was
ranted him in 1953. He was to
ake an investigation with respect
9 violation of the 1951 Subversive
ctivities Act, and to determine
hether any subversives were locat-
in the state. He was “authorized
) act upon his own motion and
pon such information as in_ his
Warch 19, 1960
ze Ee eee eee ee ee
>
judgment may be reasonable or re-
liable.” At the same time, the sec-
tion of the 1951 Act requiring all
information to be kept confidential
was changed in favor of allowing the
Attorney General to make public any
of his findings and even testimony.
If he found evidence of a violation,
he was to proceed with criminal
prose@utions. In addition, rules of
procedure granted that:
Being a fact-finding investigation
in aid of the legislative process,
judicial rules of evidence will not
7 &
A)
Leabo
Attorney General Wyman
apply. . . . Relevancy, pertinency of
questions, and admissibility of evi-
dence, shall be determined by the
Attorney General.
First of all, this extraordinary
latitude made Wyman at once judge,
jury and prosecutor. Yet at the same
time he had to. keep up no pretense
of being impartial, for as a public
crusader against “the Red menace”
he could not very well have min-
imized his slim findings. To the
contrary, he had constantly to build
them up. Also, since he sought to
prove his own points, he could
operate — outside of established
American ways — under an assump-
tion of guilt. And since he alone, un-
der the procedural rules, was judge
of what, were “facts,” he could
admit opinion and hearsay as prop-.
er testimony.
Second, with the choice of throw-
ing out privacy in favor of issuing
publicity, the Attorney General em-
barked down the road of exposure
for the sake of exposure, in spite of
the fact that such an object serves
no requisite legislative purpose and
-has been cited as impermissible by
a number of high court justices.
Third,. no one was ever found to
have violated the law, so there has
never been a criminal prosecution.
Many declined to answer Wyman’s
questions, invoking valid Constitu-
tional grounds. Yet among all these
witnesses, civil court action was 1n-
itiated and pursued against just
three: Paul Sweezy and Willard
Uphaus, both of whom invoked the
First Amendment, and Hugo De
Gregory, who invoked the Fifth.
Fourth, except in one instance —
a standard of proof of membership
in subversive organizations — every
piece of legislation prepared on Wy-
man’s initiative and urged by him
on the legslature has only extended
and enlarged his investigative powers
and has done nothing to strengthen
any anti-subversive laws. The first
important new legislation Wyman
sought was an act permitting him,
at his own discretion, to grant a
recalcitrant witness immunity. But
the bill was temporarily defeated.
Several weeks later, Wyman pre-
pared another version — this time
the Attorney General was to make
an application for immunity to a
superior court justice — and ap-
parently this version satisfied Wy-
man’s critics, for it was overwhelm-
ingly passed. Under this accepted
version, the Attorney General could
still strip a witness of his Constitu-
tional rights merely upon a state-
ment to the judge that an immunity
grant was in the public interest,
without the witness having an oppor-
tunity to challenge the proceedings.
SO SURE had Wyman been of the
acceptance of the early version of
his immunity bill that, well in ad-
vance of the legislature’s action on
it, he subpoenaed one witness, Hugo
De Gregory, to be available to an-
swer a mandate of the legislature
when that mandate was not yet law.
Again, before the revised bill was
passed, Wyman issued De Gregory
a subpoena to appear after the new
bill’s passage. Not only was Wyman
sull premature with regard to the
legislature’s mandate, but this time
he was also leaping ahead of the
courts, since no court yet had au-
thority to grant the immunity. Even
when the law was finally passed and
Wyman made his private appearance
255
ang:
grant of immunity, he was not con-
tent just to file his petition. “For
the convenience of the Court,” he
attached to the petition his own
proposed immunity grant.
Late last summer, Wyman must
have realized that the immunity
law he had invoked against De
Gregory had expired two years be-
fore, in June, 1957. Suddenly, dur-
ing the final days of the 1959 legis-
Jature, the House Judiciary Commit-
tee reported favorably on a bill au-
thorizing school-district treasurers
to use facsimile signatures on checks.
Passage was recommended with two
amendments. The first substituted a
new. title: it was to be “An
act relative to immunity of
witnesses.” The second substituted
an entirely new text, which turned
out to be an extension of the 1955
immunity law. For eight months
previous to this, no such bill had
been before the legislature and no
public notice given of its existence.
It was adopted by a_ perfunctory
voice vote, and the next day the
Manchester Umion-Leader credited
Attorney General Wyman with rec-
ommendation of the bill’s new ver-
sion.
now
THUS DOES Wyman exhibit his
omnipré essence. The legislature passes
an immunity law, but only after the
Attorney Ganeral asks for it, drafts
it and rescues it from defeat. The
court hands down a grant of im-
munity, but it is Wyman who com-
mands it and even supplies a writ-
ten text for the judge’s convenience.
And since the separation of powers
presumed to exist among the three
branches of government appears to °
have been abandoned in New Hamp-
shire to suit the Attorney General,
when a witness declines to answer
questions Wyman can summon up
his other, legislative, self, or inter-
pose the courts at will, so that a
_. stubborn witness is never in contempt
of the Attorney General, but of
those other bodies, Consequently,
rather than his being their instru-
Ah ment, as one should expect the law ship
es provide, the court and th
legis-
ae
before the judge to apply for the
lature become the instrume its of has hinted he n
P _ the Attorney General, | 3
A it :
tt Raibaites fall into two clases, igh ric se
i ASAT}
An out-an aon
the plain dissenters and the real
radicals — either locked up or
executed as traitors; and a second,
slightly higher type, the solid citi-
zen who recognizes the “menace”
and wants the “Reds” punished ef-
fectively, yet lawfully and within
the scope of the federal Constitu-
tion. Uniquely, Attorney General
Wyman has at once managed to
satisty both types.
On the one hand, he has had the
backing of New Hampshire’s only
state-wide newspaper, the Man-
chester Union-Leader, whose -pub-
lisher, William Loeb, is a Red-baiter
of the first category. Satisfying the
second class, Wyman has his busi-
nessman’s manner — an appearance
of quiet diligence and suave deter-
mination. He has been neither of-
fensively crude nor offensively loud
in the way of the late Senator Mc-
Carthy, and it is said that the At-
torney General even opposed Mc-
Carthy’s methods as undignified. In
fact, Wyman presents such a facade
of equanimity that even those who
mildly oppose him praise his “dedi-
cation.”
What is really behind the At-
torney General’s character?
Wyman has strong ambitions
and yet can’t be written off as a
simple political opportunist. True,
with New Hampshire as his labor-
atory, he has gone ahead and pro-
jected himself nationally. As one of
the heads of an association of at-
torneys general, he argued before the
U.S. Supreme Court in the im-
portant case of Pennsylvania v, Nel-
son, favoring the states’ right to
hold their own investigations into
alleged subversion rather than leave
the field solely to federal jurisdic-
tion. While the decision went against
Wyman’s side, none the less he won
some admirers in the Southern
states. But the six or seven years
Wyman’ has served as New Hamp-
shire’s Attorney General appear to
be an overlong apprenticeship if he
“were ey out for ee governor-
r a seat
nae have clai ae
n t li
A nd Wyman
i rOW ‘ a pol
rabid type who i
would have all ae liberals,
Court finding that sought to protect
JS. Senate, |
al ment, wees ent or rewar¢ ”
— is not to be Wyman’s choice | -
alone.
BUT: aside from: whatever political
motives may have inaugurated the
inquisition — either for Wyman
personally or for Styles Bridges’ gang
of New Hampshire Republicans ‘
holding the power — Wyman is in
it for additional deep reasons. He D
believes himself a representative and | ,
upholder of a way of life. Out of his }
record as criminal. prosecutor, a | ()
consistency in his outlook, a point | ©
of view, emerges. Briefly it is this: |!
the btreqpthenine of law enforce- $F"
ment at the expense of individual |
rights; semi-police-state control; a
firm crackdown rather than a com-
passionate hand. He has expressed
this attitude in his adherence to a
plan for a kind of concentration } j,
camp for delinquent youths; he ex- § |
pressed it in the frame of mind he J yp:
brings to his law-enforcement manu- f (ii
al, wherein he outlined “When a Jw
Search Warrant is Not Necessary”; | &
he expressed it when he recently J“
spoke out against a U.S. Supreme .
suspected persons against summary f ,
arrest and detention. He has con-— 7
sistently viewed the guarantees of ey
the Bill of Rights — that stone wall me
against police invasion — with suspi- tlle
cion wherever they have’ gone con- Jay
trary to his will. Last summer, when J wi
U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the fi
Uphaus and De Gregory cases. bol- J
stered Wyman’s inquisition, he hn
crowed that “These decisions break J"
the back of the Fifth Amendment as *
far as we are concerned,” 4 re
val
Which brings us to these aspects: the
of Wyman’s make-up: his egotism, fi)
bordering on megalomania, that fy
doesn’t allow him to accept either Ber
criticism or defeat or to admit er- fiw
ror; his self-righteousness, which al- J %
lows him to take bold shortcuts bt
with the law or to go against orf’
around it entirely when he finds it] ™
in his way. What sort of Attorney WT
General, sworn to uphold the Con-| ¥
stitution, could evant to break the lune
back of any of the Bill of Rights "
~Amendh atl es ats ort of | )
could hold ontempt forfh"
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~~ BOOKS an
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ARTS
Lucky Jim and the Martians
NEW MAPS OF HELL. A Survey of
Science Fiction. By Kingsley Amis.
Harcourt Brace and Co. 161 pp. $3.95.
Robert Hatch
DURING the spring of 1959, when he
was a visiting lecturer at Princeton,
Kingsley Amis devoted one of the
Christian Gauss Seminars in Criticism
to a series of lectures on science fiction.
The topic recalls so forcefully those
projects dreamed up by his scapegrace
hero, Lucky Jim, as crusades against
entrenched dignity that it is only pru-
dent to suspect Mr. Amis of being
whimsical at the expense of seminars,
visiting intellects, display scholarship
and the solemnity of collegiate
diences.
But Mr. Amis is a wit as well as a
practical joker, and the flavor of the
joke here is that, having taken a theme
for reasons his audience was almost cer-
tain to suspect as frivolous, he made
something impressively substantial of it.
His lectures, now published, are a
thoughtfully enticing introduction to a
literature officially considered sub-liter-
ary and unavailable to cultivated minds.
Mr. Amis’ platform methods are ex-
emplary. He defines: “science fiction
presents with verisimilitude the human
effects of spectacular changes in our
environment, changes either deliberately
willed or involuntarily suffered”; he
discriminates: science fiction is not to
au-
_ be confused on the one hand with
f
p
\
ea
}
fantasy (elves and centaurs) or on the
other with space-opera (galactic pirates
and death-ray pistols). And he seeks
origins, looking back first to Lucian of
Samosata, but more fruitfully to Swift,
the utopias of More and Bacon, Mary
» Shelley’ s Frankenstein and obviously to
Verne and Wells. After weighing what
each of these, and a number of lesser
contributors, gave to the modern era of
science fiction, Mr. Amis offers a precise
date for the opening of that era —
1926, the year when Hugo Gernsback
founded the magazine, Amazing Stories.
BUT all this, though carried out in
fine scholarly style, could be mere play-
fulness. The lecturer, however, takes on
an appealing tone of heightened earnest-
ness when he comes up to the con-
temporary work. Mr. Amis moves rapid-
ly, thoroughly and with sparkling dexter-
ity through the magazines, the anthol-
geW19 1960.
a
es
Science Fiction
A Bibliography
for Beginners
Magaznes
Amazing Stories
Fiction
Fiction
Astounding Science
Galaxy Science
Novels
The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter
Miller, Jr.
The Case Against Tomorrow
(anthology) by Frederik Pohl
Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
No Blade of Grass by John
Christopher
The Demolished Man
Bester
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
The Puppet Masters by Robert A.
Heinlein
The Space Merchants by. Frederik
Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth
by Alfred
ogies and the novels that contain his
subject (he acknowledges an interest in
the field dating back to childhood). .He
employs various distinctions (e. g.,
economic, social and political utopias)
for segmenting the literature, and this
was probably a courtesy to the listeners
seated before him with their notebooks
poised. But he is rather impatient with
the categories he sets up, and I am not
going to reconstruct them here. At the
end of his excursion he sums up: “One
is grateful for the presence of science
fiction as a medium in which our society
can criticize itself, and sharply,’ and
“one is grateful that we have a form of
writing which is interested in the future,
which is ready ... to treat as variables
what are usually taken to be constants,
which is set on tackling those large, gen-
eral, speculative questions that ordinary
fiction so often avoids.” The pressure of
his thesis is to engender in others this
regard for a form of writing that is
commonly viewed as disreputable mer- |
chandise even by its steady purchasers.
Mr. Amis does not deny that science
fiction is popular entertainment, but he
says firmly that it is not mass enter-
_tainment. He supports this partly by
producing figures to show that the total
public for science fiction in the United
States i is about half a million, or three-
tenths of 1 per cent of the population,
and partly by citing themes and quoting
passages of such political or social so-
phistication and heterodoxy as to make
the notion of a mass following improb-
able. I have read some of the works
cited, and I do not think they are quite
as forbidding to the simple or flaccid
mind as Mr. Amis makes out. The
“think” passages can usually be skipped
with no damage to the narrative, the
implications can be allowed to he quietly
beneath the heady action, and as for the
heterodox urgings, Mr. Amis himself ob-
serves in another place that the challenge
to authority or custom is almost always
phrased in terms of a return to values
and practices of a saner past — heaven
in most science fiction bears a marked
resemblance to Boone country. Never-
theless, Mr. Amis is right that the ideas,
the warnings, are there, and can set an
active mind into roads of speculation
that other forms of contemporary fic-
tion rarely offer.
IT IS as a means, then, of “dramatiz-
ing social inquiry,” of “providing a fic-
tional mode in which cultural tendencies
can be isolated and judged,” that Mr.
Amis admires the form. It tests the
human organism by placing it in ex-
treme and unprecedented situations (sci-
ence fiction is plausible within its own
presuppositions; no matter how bizarre
the environment, the characters work
with believable tools and normal facul-
ties — super weapons and super men
belong to fantasy fiction). It derives
excitement by materializing the fears
that are now widespread and often un-
acknowledged. Prominent among these
are the dread of finding that one is
being used and the fear of uncontrolled
technological advance. World after
world of the most spectacular. novelty
and malignant terror has been en-
gendered by projecting these almost
universal worries to logical extremes.
Odd-looking monsters are losing their
position as villains in science fiction,
though they often show up as object
lessons in the live-and-let-live philosophy
that has become almost the religion of
these writers. Their place as the motivat-
ing menace has been taken in large part
by the omnipotent administrators of the
status quo. Hell is implied in a society
where “the economic system has swal-
lowed the political”; the devil as man-—
ager aims to reduce humanity to its
function as consumer and he operates
by offering a “pleasure so overmastering
that it can break down the sense of
reality.” This is not, as you might jump
to the conclusion, the pleasure of sex;
it is more often than not some variety
of escape from activity: four-walled
television, a melody mathematically de-
signed to be irresistible, a chewing gum
loaded with a tranquilizer, or fine wires
connected directly to the pleasure centers
of the brain (this experiment, if you are
skeptical, has recently been performed
with alarming rats). Mr.
Amis makes the point that, whereas the
so-called business deplore ad-
vertising and the attendant commercial
excesses as degrading the people who
engage in them, science fiction denounces
them as potentially destructive of hu-
manity at large.
All of this has little to do with space
and the atom, two subjects generally
thought to dominate science fiction.
They are not, Mr. Amis shows, as im-
portant as they once were, and they are
called upon now for different purposes.
Science fiction that goes voyaging among
the stars now takes the navigation it-
self pretty much for granted (it is in
space-opera that galactic technology is
still a subject for amazement) and the in-
terest centers on the intelligent beings
who wait at journey’s end. These usual-
ly compare very favorably with man—
they typically lack one or more of our
most corrosive drives — and the strug-
gles kindled by contact are predominant-
ly ethical. Science fiction writers are
anti-colonial and anti-missionary; they
strongly advise against messing around
with the customs and values found on
other planets.
success On
novels
When the atom figures, it is largely
in the context of a world that has nar-
rowly escaped extinction in a nuclear
war. Such stories exercise a good deal of
ingenuity in describing how man, often
a severely mutated man, takes up again
at the tribal, flint and stone level. The
atom clears away most of the existing
furniture and lets the writer isolate just
what things man does find indispensable.
IN THESE lectures, Amis acts more as
an advocate than as a critic. He tends
to overlook or to forgive the shortcom-
ings of his writers. Thus, to the pre-
dictable objection that the characters in
these works are two-dimensional, he an-
swers that in most science fiction the
real protagonist is an idea — less po-
litely, a gimmick — and that to flesh
out the characters would be to introduce
a confusion of emphasis, He acknowl-
edges that the imaginative craftsmen of
these novels are more deft at setting up
desperate predicaments than they are at
solving them — they almost always do
‘test of his personal authority.
solve them (this is popular fiction) bie
often in arbitrary or fortuitous ways. He
admits, bur will endure, the bad lyricisrh,
the heavy totalizing, the flat humor,
the clichés and the botrowings. These
are outweighed, he would hold, by the
imaginative curiosity, the concern for
man’s future, the satiric bite and the in-
sistence on moral independence of this
literature in an otherwise dim, discour-
aged and_ self-preoccupied time. He
makes a case, and he should become
the hero of those of us who have felt
constrained until now to buy and read
our science fiction in places where we
were not known.
My only serious reservation about
from something. said to me recently, and
coincidentally, by ahather lecturer visit-
ing at Princeton. Today’s young scholars
troubled him, he said, because they
seemed to be hunting for portable areas
of scholarship. The ideal subject for
concentration has become one in which
the literature is compact, the authorities
few, and a demonstration of mastery
comparatively easy. The search for neat,
autonomous packages of knowledge, he
feared, would produce a generation of
complacently shallow experts. Quite
without meaning to, Mr. Amis demon-
strated to his Princeton audience just
how such a package should be wrapped.
The de Gaulle Era
FRANCE, TROUBLED ALLY. By
Edgar S. Furniss, Jr. Harper & Bros.
(Council on Foreign Relations). 512
pp. $5.75.
THE FIFTH REPUBLIC: France’s
New Political System. By Nicholas
Wahl. Random House. 95¢ paper.
FRANCE: THE NEW. REPUBLIC.
By Raymond Aron, Oceana (Fund for
the Republic). 114 pp. $2.95 cloth;
$1.25 paper.
William G. Andrews
A FRENCH army major in 1932 de-
scribed the decline of traditional au-
thority in his day. All respect, he said,
“that was formerly accorded on a basis
of function or birth now is paid only
to those who know how to establish
their personal authority.”*
It is not the least of the ironies en-
shrouding the mystical figure of Charles
de Gaulle that he dedicated those lines
to his erstwhile commander, Marshal
Pétain, against whose functional au-
thority he would successfully assert his
own commanding personality eight years
later. And today, after twenty more
years, he is engaged in another supreme
Having
surmounted a crucial showdown with
the bombastic but chicken-hearted pieds
noirs of Algiers and their feckless friends
in uniform, he knows, nevertheless, that
his battle to re-establish French order
and civic discipline is far from won.
In a sense, this effort to rally the
united obedience of the French gains
“Le Fil del’ péc, p. 67 (1944 edition).
WILLIAM G. ANDREWS, author of |
Pierre Mendes-France: A Study of Po-
Ketoal ena in Ace teaches Govern-
momentum from his simultaneous drive
to restore the “grandeur” of Ja Patric.
From Stalin and Hitler to Nasser and
Sukarno, nationalism has served as a
prime instrument for submerging in-
_ternal discord. But such a route is not
without its pitfalls. The cumbersome,
antiquated Saharan A-bomb that is sift-
ing psychological strontium-90 through-
out the Afro-Asian bloc may, in the
end, provide less “bang for the Nouveau
Franc” than a united NATO, Or unful-
filled expectations of resurrected gran-
deur may sink the French even deeper
into the old morass of incivisme, cyni-
cism and national lassitude. Or again, if
the cost of refurbishing de Gaulle’s fa-
mous “madonnas of the frescoes”* is
levied inequitably, he may sow seeds of
dissension that will bear bitter fruit
when nationalist fervor subsides.
These pitfalls loom large in the view
of Princeton’s Edgar S$. Furniss, Jr. In
perhaps the most comprehensive, evx-
tensive and significant study of postwar
French politics and diplomacy yet pro-
duced by an American, Professor lur-
niss describes with sympathy but cruel
insight the dilemma that has confronted
the Quai d’Orsay since 1945.
In the earliest postwar years lrance
sought to bridge the widening gap be-
tween the U.S. and the USSR. But as
the cold war developed, she found her-
self too weak either to bind Kast to
West or to stand alone between them,
She then sought to hitch her star to a
unified, French-dominated Europe. only
to be confronted by the fearsome pros-
pect of a Europe dominated by the
phoenixlike Germans, She retreated in--
to “indecision and procrastination” une
til the whirlwind qleéngaitarpart inter |
"Call to. Honour, Dp i.
tr. 4 mis’ Prele part canine now omes
rs
Te
bat
Mh
tere
Mus
final, mortal phase of “immobilisme.”
Profesor Furniss believes that “French
foreign policy cannot be understood ex-
cept in the light of the political, econom-
ic, and social setting in which it is
shaped.” Consequently, in addition to a
well-written and perceptive account of
the evolution of postwar French diplom-
acy, he supplies an informative analysis
of the societal foundation on which it
rested during the last four years of the
Fourth Republic. Unfortunately, little
of his data is drawn from the years after
§ 1955:
It is also unfortunate that he seems
to suggest that “tmmobilisme” did not
appear until after the Mendés-France
government. In fact, it may be traced
back through the Vichy regime into the
- Third Republic. Henri Queuille, René
Mayer and Joseph Laniel, who best
typify the immobiliste premiers, all held
office before Mendés-France. It may be
"argued that the Algerian war which
_ erupted in November, 1954, brought on
_ the final paralysis. But it did not pro-
; duce immobilisme and an Algerian set-
ee will not, by itself, end it.
_ Turning to the Fifth Republic in the
pis third of the book, Professor Furniss
doubts that the Gaullist regime has. al-
tered significantly the foundations on
which French foreign policy inevitably
must rest. De Gaulle’s objectives and
_ strategy are essentially the same as those
of “the ephemeral statesmen of the
Fourth Republic.” “The major differ-
ence,” as Furniss sees it, is that de
Gaulle believes he can unite behind his
policies a country that was never united
in support of his predecessors’. The au-
thor feels that de Gaulle will fail and
assembles persuasive data and argu-
ments to show that he is creating the
danger of even greater disunity by
heaping the main burden of his “auster-
ity” program on those elements . of
French society which are least able to
support it.
eT
NICHOLAS WAHL of Harvard shares
the view that de Gaulle must avoid ex-
acerbating social discord. Unlike Profes-
sor Furniss, he makes no evaluation of
the regime’s performance so far in this
respect, but he views the Gaullist move-
ent as reformist and obviously is
much more favorably inclined toward
the new regime than is Furniss.
_ Whereas Professor Furniss emphasizes
the continuity between the Fourth and
the Fifth Republics, especially in respect
to foreign policy and its socio-economic
base, Professor Wahl stresses the dif-
ences. “From a country resi
J second-rank status,” he says, —
RANE 214th Oe es
i 1960 ae Mas
7 ay ee,
{ f ate
hide. of Mendes-France, and thereafter.
the Fourth Republic lapsed into its
ance
-
eae Bat st E
“has become a nation that demands
equal voice among the great powers.”
He describes the “considerably altered
. .. expression of traditional French po-
litical opinion,” calls the new constitu-
tional structure “a radical departure
from all past French experience” and
says that the policy-making process has
been “radically altered.”
Professor Wahl, having blocked out a
much narrower field for examination,
has treated his subject accurately, suc-
cinctly and lucidly. His interpretations
are usually judicious, if sometimes tinged
with an optimism that may not stand
up in the light of the long-run implica-
tions to French democracy of concen-
trating so much power in the hands of
a “providential man.”
PROFESSOR RAYMOND ARON of
the University of Paris is very brillliant
and very French, a highly explosive mix-
ture any time, but especially when it is
combined with a most singular amalgam
of liberal and conservative tendencies.
In October, 1958, Aron discussed the
new French constitution for some Fund
for the Republic consultants who be-
lieved his views “would contribute to
their own examination of the American
Threnody on the Demise
of As and Now
Forgive me
while I drop
a gentle tear.
Presently,
now is dying.
So is as.
(Not dying,
but obsolescent,
like we say
in all thé ‘
leading papers
presently.)
Proximately
soon will be
extinct
like a door-
nail, like as ~
and now
sure are i
gonna be dodos | J
proximately.
Parm me
pliz while _
T exude
‘
a modicum of —
lachrymal
. ‘secretion. aay ns
_ Constitution.”
Divs Laing
, m ye oes X »
Robert M. Hutchins
rather smugly observes that “their belief
was justified” and the discussions have
now been published. .
| did not find Professor Aron’s com-
ments particularly useful in understand-
ing American constitutional problems,
but his provocative insights into politics,
both French and general, and his in-
furiating factual errors, non sequiturs
and inconsistencies rather surprisingly
blend into an effervescent and stimulat-
ing broth. For instance, he transforms
American’ political parties into “strong”
parties, introduces “separation of pow-
ers” into the British system for the first
time since Montesquieu, and transports
North Africa out of the “Moslem world.”
Also, he disposes of the Communist
problem in France @ la Soustelle by the
simple expedient of electoral-law leger-
demain and considers the Suez contro-
versy “the only big political battle in
Britain” since the war, completely dis-
regarding the fact that nationalization
of industry was the central issue in at
least four general elections.
On the other hand, his arguments
that the “logic of industrialization is that
you have to have consensus in order to
make this very interdependent economic
system work” and his descriptions of the
inclination of the French for “benevolent
oligarchy,” of the place of “crisis gov-
ernment” in modern society, and of the
dilemmas facing de Gaulle are excellent.
Perhaps because of its structure as a
largely spontaneous discussion, the book
is a bit discursive and one does not read
Professor Aron at his brilliant best.
Nevertheless, his somewhat random
thought is well worth the attention of
those interested in French affairs and
he has also dropped a few tempting nug-
gets drawn from his major study on
Industrial Society and War, which was
published recently in France.
When all is said and done, these three
books discuss the emperor’s clothes, his
palace, his ancestors and his problems,
but none of them tackles the main point
of interest directly. They all give con-
siderable attention to de Gaulle because
he simply cannot be ignored, but we
still lack in English a full-length study
of him.* Yet, like his leader of 1932, both
he and his regime derive their authority
primarily from his personal qualities. I
understand that Professor Wahl has been _
working for several years on a political
biography of de Gaulle and that it is
scheduled for fall publication, It may —
finally provide the keystone for an un-
derstanding of the new French regime.
*As this review went to press, notice _
was received of Stanley Clark’s The
Man Who Is France, announced for _
March publication (Dodd Mead). /
‘
i » 7
Me f . gos?
Wiles: maids tales be 2).
4 t@
2597 4
r
ee
— 260
LETTER from ITALY
William
ONE EVENING last month, as the
film director Federico Fellini was com-
ing out of the Milanese theatre where his
new picture La dolce. vita (The Soft
Life) had just had its premiere, an
elegantly dressed man stepped up from
the crowd and shouted at him: “You
are dragging Italy in the mud!” With
that, the stranger spat on the director,
while other shouts arose, attacking Fel-
lint or defending him. The next day he
received something like 400 telegrams,
the majority of which accused him of
being a traitor, a Communist, an atheist,
or things unprintable.*
The film (which will no doubt open
in New York shortly) is a series of long
episodes, giving a rather grotesque view
of the corruption of the Roman idle
classes, from the film world to the
aristocracy, mixed with sensation-seek-
ing journalists and defeated intellectu-
als, actors and café society. Many
starchy Milanesi, after witnessing the
picture, said in effect that, though such
things may very well go on in Rome,
they could never happen in_ serious-
minded, hard-working Milan. The an-
swer to this came the next day, when
the Milanese police announced that they
had finally broken up a huge call-girl
organization, which had been furnishing
relaxation to tired industrialists of the
city (at upwards of 100,000 lire a night).
In Rome itself, audience reaction to
the picture was calmer, and so far no
Roman has spat on Fellini, though he
has been denounced in the local press,
or at least in its right wing. And the
Vatican organ, L’Osservatore romano,
devoted a long editorial to the film, un-
hesitatingly calling it “obscene” and
“disgusting,” and demanding that the
authorities withdraw it from circulation
at once.
As this is written, La dolce vita is
still playing at two Roman first-run
houses, standing room only, four shows
a day. And observers believe that it will
survive even the Vatican’s pummeling,
especially because the director has some
ecclesiastical authority on his side. When
his preceding film, Cabiria, was about to
appear, Fellini and his producer were
afraid that its touchy subject matter
(prostitution) might arouse Italy’s cen-
sors. So Fellini took a print to Genoa
and there had a private showing for
*Two Fellini films, Lo Strada and -
Cabiria, have been widely shown in
America.
ha es 1s oe
W eaver
Cardinal Siri (one of the church’s smart-
est prelates and a Papal candidate at
the last consistory). The cardinal gave
the film his approval. He has also seen
La dolce vita and has apparently ex-
pressed satisfaction at the work’s moral
viewpoint.
La dolce vita’s troubles began long
before it opened. The producer originally
scheduled to make it took one look at
the long, rambling script (much of
which was left in the cutting-room) and
turned Fellini down. Several other pro-
ducers flirted with the idea, then backed
out. When at last a producer was found
and the shooting began, it took weeks
longer than planned.
Those were entertaining weeks for the
Romans. Rome really is a small town
(far more provincial than La dolce wita
might lead you to believe), and every-
body knows or knows about everybody
else. Last summer, while the film was
being shot, half the city turned out to
watch Anita Ekberg wading in the Trevi
fountain or Lex (former Tarzan) Bark-
er slouching around outside the Excelsior
Hotel. And what seemed like the other
half of the population played bit parts
in the picture: members of aristocratic
families played aristocrats (a Ruspoli,
for example, and a Rodd), abstract
painters played abstract painters, Miss
Iris Tree, actress and poet, played a
poet and read one of her poems. La dolce
vita was a godsend for foreign actors
passing through the city, and in need
of a little cash.
“I’m in La dolce vita this week. .. .”
was a commonplace remark at the out-
door cafés of the Via Veneto last July.
“What scene?”
“The orgy.”
“Oh, I’m in the night club. . .”.”
So Fellini has made a kind of family
album of Rome (with some of the por-
traits touched up and brightly colored,
as they often are in albums), and the
Romans are flocking to look at it.
Though not all of them come away in-
dignant, few come away without some
kind of opinion. And in reply to the
Osservatore’s attack, the left-wing papers
are devoting columns and columns to
Fellini’s defense. Long interviews have
appeared in La voce repubblicana (of
the center Republican party) and in all
the illustrated weeklies, while Paese Sera
(more or less Communist) has twice
in the last three days dedicated its en-
tire back page to quotes from leading
Roman literary and as pares:
ee
Mee |
4 *% ~ gre 3
- H j 7?
Unie ‘(out and out Communist) has
had a front-page editorial attacking Fel- -
lini’s detractors. And while an associa-
tion of Rome’s parish priests demanded
the film’s withdrawal, a public meeting
of writers and film-makers (presided
over by Alberto Moravia) was called
to discuss the work and express solidarity
with the director.
THE UPROAR of the Fellini opening —
has shadowed another event of last week,
also concerned with Rome and the film
world. This was the publication of
little volume entitled The State as Film-
maker by the economist Ernesto Rossi,
a leader of Italy’s small, intellectual and
pugnacious Radical Party.
Rossi has written in the past some
fierce and acutely documented works
on Fascist economy and government and
its hangovers in the Italy of today. In
the new study he discusses the in-
credible amount of state support given
the film industry in Italy and, at the
same time, the marked reluctance of
official or quasi-official organizations to
discuss or itemize the amounts of these
pump- -priming contributions, now that
the pump is flowing merrily.
The Fascist regime heavily supported
the budding Italian film industry through
its infamous Ministry of Popular Cul-
ture, and the industry repaid the sup-
port by making films like Scipio Afri-
canus to glorify the dictator; or else
the old “white telephone” comedies, to
stultify the movie-going masses.
Immediately after the war, in the
glorious period of Open City and Shoe-
shine, the film-makers of Italy were on
their own. But the producers—and witli
them, the directors and actors—were
soon pestering the new republic for
handouts. At a mass meeting in Rome’s
Piazza del popolo, Miss Anna Magnani
put her hands on her chest and shouted:
“Save the Italian film” to an applauding
public.
The Italian film was saved, and has
been ever since—handsomely, The goy-
ernment took steps to protect it against
the invasion from Hollywood (in those
days, Italian films were not popular
with the Italian public), and at the
same time instituted a system of “prizes”
to be given to locally made pictures. As
Dr. Rossi points out, the prizes have
got larger and larger, as the industry
has grown and prospered; but while
government censorship exists, there is
no control of the artistic worth of the
films to which money is given, Obscenity
is condemned, but not vulgarity, So that:
films like 7'he Labors of Hercules, which
took in 630 million lire at the box
office in its first year, was given 101
h Nes i ivi rts ks ;
illion by re governme t. And this
’ ince’ the gover nment’s largest con-
ribution nor, alas, the worst film of
that year.
Movie-making in Italy is booming.
hady characters in small offices specu-
tite on big names, counting on the prize
money. They plan super-colossal pro-
duictions; some of them are really made,
bthers end only in a rain of unpaid
bills and drawn-out Italian law suits.
The Hercules films have been a huge
nancial success in Italy and (to our
hame ) in America. Dozens of imita-
t ions now glut the Italian market, and
dozens more are being prepared, on
Biblical or classical themes: The Battle
bf Marathon, Sappho, The Venus of Les-
bos, Constantine the Great, Sodom and
Gomorrah, Carthage in Flames — these
are the titles of films recently released
or currently being cast. Producers gloom-
ily predict that the classical craze can’t
last but all of them are desperately try-
ing to slip in under the wire.
Meanwhile, the government’s generos-
ity continues. Directors, like Rossellini
and Fellini, chafe at government censor-
ship, but few of them (and still fewer
producers) want to give up government
money.
Rossi compares the film industry in
Italy to a kept woman. “If she wants
to make love where she likes, then she
will have to give up her allowance.”
Or, she can always go out and work.
The box office success of La dolce
for one example, indicates that, if she
once tried it, the kept woman could do
very well on her own.
vita,
THEATRE
Harold Clurman
ALLIAN HELLMAN’S new play Toys
nm the Attic (Hudson) adumbrates a
Inumber of themes. There is first the
theme of the havoc that a sudden ac-
ess of money may cause in the lives
' those who have always dreamed of
money but never got any. When the
e’er-do-well Julian Berniers comes home
to New Orleans, his two doting and in-
ligent sisters are thunder-struck by the
nfts he pours on them with a trium-
hant ery that he has become rich. The
ifts are showy clothes for which they
ave no taste—and disproportionate to
that they desire.
This leads to the second theme. The
isters have always spoken of a trip to
turope and the eventual purchase of
he old house in which they have lived
or many years. But these benefits rep-
esent fancies, not appetites. What the
isters need—especially the younger one
tho is incestuously attached to. her
oS the feeling that he depends
n them. This theme is related to the
more fully (and convincingly)
ed in Miss Hellman’s The Autwmn
arden: one’s destiny is fashioned by
shat one does, and the dream of a goal
ther than that toward which one’s ha-
al acts lead is mere self-deception.
he sisters are upset by their brother’s
idden affluence because it threatens to
B ike him independent of them. Their
ankering for Europe and the ownership
e house are toys in the attic—
things that are useful only as psy-
ogical ornament.
again the play saiehee that
Pp acne cannot “use money. Te is
not a reality to them; it is the mirage
of their suppressed yearnings. Their
actual mode of living precludes them
from employing money rationally as an
instrument to attain ends for which their
behavior has prepared them.
There are still other strands of mean-
ing in the play: persons denied love
grow batty; children whose parents were
prevented from giving them love be-
come warped. Others whose need for
love is frustrated are rendered demon-
lacally possessive.
All this is interesting and valid. But
the actual conduct of the play’s narra-
tive jumbles and confuses the various
themes. The play is congested by ir-
relevantly melodramatic turns of plot,
implausibilities and jabs of lurid vio-
lence. What begins as a fascinating reve-
lation of humble characters in a modest
environment turns into a series of hys-
terical spasms too diverse in motivation
wholly to satisfy our aesthetic, or to
persuade our moral, sensibilities.
The play is signally well written with
that combination of selective realism
and subtly rhetorical phrasing which
gives Miss Hellman’s dialogue a distinc-
tion approaching nobility. One’s atten-
tion is held for at least two acts, but the
third act, with its exasperating burst of
fireworks, creates the perhaps erroneous
impression that we have been craftily
deceived.
An admirable. cast—Jason Robards,
Jr, Anne Revere, Maureen Stapleton,
Irene Worth—plays with point and pre-
cision. Yet I was gnawed by a suspicion
that if the direction Aegis a a
Pik
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‘ ‘ie
little less tightly tidy, if there had been
a shade more naturalness or ease of
breath, the play might have seemed
more truthful.
HENRY IV (Part 1) is a history lavish
in language. The tapestry is richly
woven with full-bodied characters: Fal-
staff is in every way so immense that
one feels that his substance holds the
play together and makes the internecine
war which supplies the play’s plot sec-
ondary to the rank humanity he per-
sonifies. I have never failed to enjoy
this play, and have always envied the
English for having produced a dramatist
who could make the world believe that
their medieval kings and courtiers spoke
with the tongue of genius.
Everything in the Phoenix Theatre
production is lucid, sensible, digestible.
Eric Berry’s Falstaff is very likable, and
John Heffernan as a yokel servant and
as a rebellious knight plays with a mark-
ed instinct for characterization. There
is one weak performance, no really bad
ones, most are sympathetically earnest.
In brief, a meritorious presentation of a
masterpiece.
I HAVE conscientiously refrained from
reviewing several plays which have
opened on Broadway and which have
had, or may have, runs of some length.
To me they are rotten eggs and it
would afford me no pleasure, and the
reader little profit, to condemn them.
But a play that I might ordinarily con-
sider to belong to this category, Félicien
Marceau’s The Good Soup (Plymouth),
shall be made an exception to this rule.
The Good Soup was an enormous suc-
cess in Paris where I first saw it—and
probably, like Marceau’s earlier play,
The Egg, elsewhere in Europe. The au-
thor has recently explained that Marie-
Paule, the central figure of The Good
Soup, illustrates what degradation peo-
ple will subject themselves to if they
fear “not having.” Marie-Paule is a
trollop who finally makes good: she
cashes in on the gravy, the “good soup.”
~The Egg was about a man who learns
that the way to win in this world is to
¥ cheat: he literally gets away with mur-
der. There were witty touches in The
6. Legg and the racy French slang of The
Good Soup gave it a certain unpleasant
, but arresting tang of the Paris ae
But both plays—the latter in p
_ composed of scenes little |
i ne house blackouts, —
~ when ities in }
t, pen
rattle actors—Ruth Reorder: heme
Cilento, Mildred Natwick—demean their
talents in such an exhibition.
JEAN GENET’S The Balcony (Circle-
in-the-Square),
rous verbiage and imagery, is a literary
and theatric phenomenon requiring
more explanation than space this week
permits. I shall return to it. Let it suf-
fice for the moment to say that it can-
not be written off as an example either
of decadence or of aggressive avant-
gardism, even though Genét—like sev-
eral of his contemporaries in France—
might have adapted as his slogan Prince
Hal’s boast (in Henry IV) “Tl so of-
fend, to make offence a skill.”
ART
Fairfield Porter
EVER SINCE the academicians associ-
ated beauty with that which is respect-
able and ‘unchallenging, artists have
hesitated to use the word. But abstract
artists, consistent with their Platonic
ideals, associaté beauty, an abstract
word, with simplicity and coherence.
Robert Engman, head of the sculpture
department at Yale, exhibits at the
Stable Gallery abstract metal construc-
tions, cut, bent ‘and polished from
squares of brass, that are baffling in di-
rect proportion to their simplicity and
logic. Leather shaped into a shoe is not
baffling, for one can imagine its flat or-
igin, and perceive what it has become.
But it is hard to follow in Engman’s
constructions the transition from origi-
nal flatness to a volume suggesting a sur-
face again. There is a twisted thing that
partly rolls. and partly rocks on its
corners; having a constant diameter, it
could do the work of a ball bearing.
There is a smooth bent square with two
obvious clear holes in “it; and these
holes are bounded by only one circum-
ference. Constructivist sculpture began
a long time ago, but I am aware of
none so radically inventive as’ [ng-
man’s. He is neither mathematician,
scientist, nor philpsgpiens what he does
_ witho lout flowers p:
-
Marriage Song
womanliness i is a vas
its
.
which abounds in scab- -
Lary
ake things | up.
eens out of whole aot Sonat
roughness to catch the burrs of senti- |
ment. In leaving nothing to conjecture,
he stimulates your imagination. He is at
once completely matter-of-fact and ut-
terly mystifying.
Engman speaks of beauty as an ab-
stract quality, but for Jasper Johns, who
exhibits at the Castelli Gallery, beauty is _
how you do it. He used to try to force | '
your awareness of process by applying it
to subjects of such ordinary or exhausted
symbolism as the flag or lower-case let-
ters, with the contrary result that he [
forced you to look at the subject. His
ability to animate the vapid was more
distinguished than the paint texture. It
was as though he printed doggerel in
order to make you look at the type face,
but succeeded only in giving - new life
to stale verse. Now he is beginning to
give up the subject, and though he
fastens window shades and thermometers
to the canvas, what one appreciates is
iit
ok
the irregularly starry surface of red, yel-
low and blue strokes. He has been ab-
sorbing a great deal from New York f —
style non-objective painting. \
WHEREAS Johns opposes subject and
performance, finally isolating the per-
formance as a thing in itself, the subject
of Jane Freilicher’s -paintings (at the
Tibor de Nagy Gallery) is partly im-
plicit in the performance. Her paintings
deseribe nature, what Blake called the
vegetable world of Wordsworth. Their
non-objective form sometimes inhibits:
her sensibility. The subject is the out-
doors, the country and the weather.
There is a characteristic vertical-diagon-
al shear across the canvases like a visible
cold front. Except for one landscape,
dominated by the horizon between dark
ground and pinkish sky, presenting the
essential structure of landscape, nature
is not structure to her, but rather a
sensuous experience. As a whole, nature
is irregular and it is partly i in. its specif=
ic irregularity that it reveals its pres
ence. Being tied to no place, except near
the sea, the irregularity looks abstract.
So beauty does not mean for her clarity
and logic, but the total fact that nature |
is naturally specific and never the same,
For Paul Georges, who exhibits fifteen:
self-por traits at the Great Jones Gallery,
beauty is to be found in reality, off
which art is the mirror, And for Georges fy
logic is subordinate to ring th | .
is stronger than thought, feeli rd
means | 33 its achieve ne
] SSS Sa] 22 2 255 2-
eS
wee
thick and juicy. In the large painting
facing the door, divided into the painter
on one side and the wide brown back of
the canvas on the other, there is a rapid
linear indication of the feet. All these
means, any means at all, and the variety
of individualities in one single model,
impress on you the reality of the per-
son looking out at you. Realist painters
often complain that the human figure
should be the chief concern of ‘art, and
that it is missing from current styles.
But most of these artists seem to sce
only some arbitrary, even abstract con-
cept of the way man should look. They
see a lay figure or a caricature; they do
not see without prejudice. Because
Georges gets an unprecedented and al-
ways different individuality, he can be
called one of the few true realists paint-
ing in New York,
RECORDS
Lester Trimble
A NUMBER of contemporary American
works which have found their way to
the recording studio recently are suf-
ficiently distinguished to encourage any-
one looking hopefully for signs of the
cultural explosion the United States is
supposed to be undergoing.
Perhaps the most interesting record
of the group I have before me is the
one made. under’ the auspices of the
American International Music Fund, an
organization founded by the late Serge
Koussevitsky to aid live composers. To
mark its tenth anniversary, the fund’s
directors instituted in 1958 a recording
guarantee project. This provided that
leading’ symphony orchestras in the
United, States and Canada should per-
form a number of works new to their
repertories, and record the performances
on tape. Copies of these tapes were then
placed in the Library of Congress, ‘the
Philadelphia Free Library and the pub-
lic libraries of New York, Los Angeles,
Minneapolis, Cincinnati and Dallas, for
audition by persons who might promote
their future performance. From the
group of fifty-two works taped in the
first year, two were selected for record-
ing under commercial auspices. The jury
for selection consisted of Nadia Bou-
langer (France), Carlos Chavez (Mex-
ico) and Alfred Frankenstein (U.S.),
~ and the works they chose were the Sym-
phony No. I by Easly Blackwood and
the Symphony No. 2 by Alexei Haieff.
4 Judging by their quality, I would say the
. jury must have done, its. work with
d iscernment.
March (19, 1960 —
ae
: a is)
EASLY Blackwood’s Symphony No. 1
was written when he was twenty-two
years old (he is twenty-seven now), and
there is no mistaking the mark of ex-
traordinary talent upon it. It has a tech-
nical. fluency which composers some-
times labor a lifetime to achieve; it not
only uses the orchestra with the kind of
virtuosity that seems to be second. na-
ture to recent generations of Americans,
but goes beyond this to pose arresting
ideas. The first movement is as stimu-
lating and convincing a pronouncement
as I have heard in a long time.
The work often reflects the style of
Shostakovitch, has passages openly de-
voted to the Hindemith of Mathis der
Maler and a movement stemming from
the oom-pa-pa waltzes of the late, late
Viennese, but these influences do” not
much disturb me. Echoes of other peo-
ple’s styles are to be expected in a com-
poser of such facility and youth. They
are cause for concern only if they show
the hand of an absorptive academic
type, and on the. evidence of this sym-
phony, Blackwood is not one of these.
He speaks from an individual mind.
There aré spots in the Symphony No. 1
where the composer’s gestures, though
well executed, do not: mean: very much.
That is the work’s only major flaw, and
on balance I. find it a piece that I will
want to hear often again.
Alexei Haieff’s Symphony. No. 2,
which shares the disk, is a more mature
work and an admirable one. According
to the program notes, it is a transcrip-
tion of an earlier piano sonata; that. is
surprising, for the symphony sounds in-
nately orchestral.
Haieff is one of. those composers to
whom Stravinsky. is obviously God;
a number of crucial points he Cesclan in-
to the language of his master, and at
such moments his work loses thrust.
Nevertheless, he is capable of strong,
original statements, and large portions
of this. symphony .are utterly conyinc-
ing by virtue beth of their economy and
their elegance. (RCA: Victor LM-2352).
COMPOSERS RECORDINGS, INC.,
has issued a splendid performance of
Miriam Gideon’s Symphonia Brevis,
conducted by Jacques Monod, with the
Radio Orchestra of Zurich. On the same
disk are Charles Mills’s Prelude and
Dithyramb, Paul Schwartz’s Concertino
for Chamber Orchestra and Paul Pisk’s
Passacaglia. These last three works are
all of professional caliber, and attractive,
but the Symphonia Brevis is clearly
ahead of them in authority and pun-
gency. Miss Gideon seems to have ab-
sorbed some of the technical principles
which underline the music of Stravinsky
and, perhaps, Schoenberg. But her mes-
sage and manner are her own, and her
craft is as lovely and meticulous as
Vermeer’s. Her Symphonia should be
picked up by the major orchestras
(CRI-128).
JOHN CAGE’s 25-Year Retrospective
Concert, reviewed in these columns on
May 31, 1958, was recorded on the
spot, at Town Hall, and pressings are
now available from George Avakian,
Box 374, Radio City Station, New
York 19. Mr. Awakian’s wife, the
violinist Anahid Ajemian, is one of the
performers on the disk, and it is ap-
pealingly evident that both husband
and wife put great faith in Mr. Cage’s
music. Listening to these records, I
find that my opinion of the music is
exactly what it was when I heard it the
first time. In the process of recording,
a couple of the works have been en-
hanced by the recorded hall resonance,
and one, which looked and sounded silly
in performance (the composer patting
the wood of the piano), now only sounds
silly. Otherwise, the records are a faith-
ful reproduction of the event.
These records are a valuable docu-
“Head and Shoulders Above the Season!”
—ATKINSON, N. Y. Times
JASON MAUREEN IRENE
ROBARDS sr: STAPLETON “WORTH
LILLIAN HELLMAN’S sew oiey
"TOYS IN THE ATTIC
with ANNE REVERE
Directed by ARTHUR PENN
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$6.90, 5.75, 4.80; Balc. $3.60, 2.90. Mats. Wed. & Sat.:
Orch. $4.80; Mezz. $4.05, 3.60; Balc, $2.30. Enclose
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“BEST PLAY «ii. i0c5
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incl. Enclose ‘stamped, self-addressed env.
BELASCO THEATRE, 111 W. 44 St. N. Y. C.
RSE RIE EE ETE
263
ment, because Cupe has been’ a center
of disputatious activity for a long time,
and is a clearly profiled figure in con-
temporary American musical life. Some
of the individual pieces are more win-
ning than is the Retrospective as a
This supports my suspicion that
the worst idea in the world is a long,
retrospective program of one composer’s
There is not time in a_ single
evening to give the kind of overview
provided by
whole.
music.
a retrospective showing of
And, with music, there is no
possibility of withdrawing attention, as
one can do at a gallery. The audience
iS captive; it must listen. I find that the
music’s irritation potential takes over
at the same point on the records as it
did in the hall. For a comparison with
the original effect, purchasers of these
disks might, just once, lhsten to them
straight through.
paintings.
INQUISITION
(Continued from page 241)
the applicant, cross-examine him, or
otherwise harass him, it will fail of
its purpose. Few Negroes will be
willing to submit to such an ordeal.
‘The original Attorney General’s
bill was later modified to preclude
such tactics in the proceeding betore
the Voting Referee. But it still allows
state officials to contest the Referee’s
recommendation before the court.
Such a proceeding is restricted to
consideration of any “genuine issue
of material fact” and the applicant’s
“literacy and understanding of other
subjects” must be determined only
on the basis of his answers made to
the Referee. Yet there remains op-
RESORTS
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264
portunity for questioning and other-
wise harassing the applicant on other
issues, particularly as to whether he
has exhausted his remedies before
state officials.
The Hennings bill is perhaps the
best on this score. It allows a chal-
lenge only at the time a federally
registered voter casts his ballot, and
the challenge must be made by suit
in a federal court. Such a challenged
vote must be counted, subject to
the later determination of its valid-
ity in the court proceeding. The
Douglas-Javits bill is similar, but
permits a challenge prior to the
actual casting of a ballot. The pro-
cedure under both bills affords some
opportunity for harassment. But the
postponement of challenges until the
voter has cast his vote (or been cer-
tified as eligible), and the require-
ment that a new suit be instituted
in federal court to raise the issue,
lessen the likelihood that the right
to challenge will be abused.
4. Enforcement of the Right to
Vote. Enforcement of the right of the
federally registered voter to cast his
vote and have it honestly counted
is, of course, vital to the whole
scheme. In this respect the Attorney
General’s bill offers an advantage by
permitting summary contempt pro-
ceedings in the litigation already in
progress. The Hennings bill relies for
enforcement upon newly instituted
injunction or criminal proceedings.
The Douglas-Javits bill is similar,
except where the Attorney General’s
procedure has been employed.
The latter two bills have been
criticized for the inadequacy of their
enforcement procedures. But this
problem, which occurs at the termi-
nal stage of the procedure, may not
turn out to be as difficult as pre-
dicted.
The failure of state officials to al-
low a federally registered voter to
vote would produce a clear-cut and
readily proven issue. If enforcement
bogs down at this stage the only
recourse, as the South is presumably
aware, is full control of the election
process by the federal government.
IN SUMMARY, our analysis indi-
cates that the Attorney General’s
bill is crucially inadequate in its
treatment of three of the four major
stages in a federal registrar system.
w ’
1a ee
. Z ry p
Ld
Por et 0 f aT
Ith requires ‘t full-scale judici at pro-
ceeding in each election district be-
fore the system can be put into, op-
eration; it severely restricts the class
of persons eligible to apply for fed-
eral registration; and it opens sub-
stantial possibilities of harassment
and delay in the procedure of regis-
tration itself. The advantage it of-
fers in readier use of contempt en-
forcement is more than offset by
these deficiencies.
The Hennings bill is eanals de-
fective only at the first stage. But
this is crucial. Like the Attorney
General’s plan, it could be put into
operation only in a relatively few
election districts over the course of
years.
The Douglas-Javits bill, which has .
received little attention, offers the
best possibilities of success. If vigor-
ously administered, it should prove
effective in permitting substantial
numbers of Negroes to vote in fed-
eral clections.
stances the franchise is likely to be
extended, at least in many localities,
to state elections also. If this does
not occur, the alternative provisions
incorporating the court-appointed
referees at least are no worse than
the Attorney General’s bill.
EVENTS may prove that no system
of federal registrars or referees can
be made to work. All such plans’
rest ultimately upon the judicial
process to force recalcitrant, ingen-
jous and committed state officials to
do what they are resolved not to do.
All plans, in providing for federal
registration of Negro voters only,
contain elements of Jim Crowism.
None of the plans deals directly with
the underlying problems of physical
intimidation and economic coercion
which keep many thousands of Ne-
groes away from the polls.
But it is vital that those genuinely
concerned with equality in voting,
both in the legislature and out, in-
sist that Congress do the best it can
within the framework now accepted.
It is unlikely there will be another
favorable opportunity within the
next few years. And the failure of
Congress to devise legal techniques |
adequate to solve the voting prob-
lem can have the most dangerous:
repercussions in the whole struggle
for ae through Ane :
\
Under such circum-.
10
ual
12
13
14
16
19
20
22
25
26
27
Eaaene se
eet || lo) tL |
aes ee e
Crossword Puzzle No. $59
By FRANK W. LEWIS
24
ACROSS:
Interesting meeting place when com-
ing through the Rye! (8,5)
They might be beat on a sailor’s
chest. (7)
Care grand in the first business.
Copper meeting, as the English-
man’s castle isn’t likely to be heat-
ed (9)
Back at what Markham’s man was
with at the lake, (5)
See 22 down
Rather a grim sort prior to ancient
Calendula. (8)
Shake the devil out of what Grant
did to Lee. (8)
What one probably does without
any honor. (6)
Look over the state of the line ,
formed in a ball, perhaps. (5)
Repeaters might be. (9)
Frank might have this privilege. (7)
Light vessel of old, yet made of
iron. (7)
ey in a dull background.
3
DOWN:
Prometheus was one. (5)
4 It doesn’t help when put on top of
Trauma. (6)
5 Certainly not a bad time for the in-
ventor. (8)
6 He might be happy if part of his
client is fat. (10, 5)
7 The sort of horse Bing found near-
by. (9)
8 A crazy cat’s coat should be short.
(8)
9 An arch sort of disappointed re-
mark! (4)
15 The ability to remember, or enter
into an arrangement. (9)
17 After dinner, they may be wrongly
emphasized. (8)
18 Part of the Summer in Guernsey is
spent in getting one of those 17.
(8)
21 Save things
table? (6)
22 and 14 Pay for what the Pilgrims
did? (4, 6)
24 Ghosts play by him. (5)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 858
ACROSS: 1 Obligatory; 6 Area; 10
Embroil; 13 Diminuendo; 15 Endowed;
16 Hand-set; 17 Instead; 20 Best man;
22 Lactic acid; 23 Onus; 25 Avenges;
26 Limpopo; 27 Dust; 28 Bridegroom.
DOWN: 1 and 11 Over the Hills and
Far Away; 2 Labored; 3 and 12 Good
turn; 4 Tallied; 5 Raffish; 7 Rewinds;
to stick on the gaming
The art of keeping up with- -yester- 8 Any port in a storm; 9 Proudness; The NATION
day, according to the maxims of 14 Sweepings; 18 Secrets; 19 Dear sir; rT 2 Pn eee oe
archy. (15) 20 Bridled; 21 Mindoro; 24 Smug.
ee”
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A Federal narcotics official disclosed yesterday
that ... the secret purpose of the 1957 Apalachin
conference . . . was to give up the lucrative but
dangerous narcotics traffic.
The Federal agent’s disclosures provide the
_ first gleam of official light on the puzzling get-
together. ..
New York Herald Tribune, Feb. 28.
Readers of The Nation, we are happy to say, got their
“eleam of light” in this instance quite a bit earlier than
the readers of the Herald Tribune. Here’s the proof:
While all the matters up for final decision at
Apalachin are not known, government investi-
gators feel positive that one of the most im-
Mafia mob out of narcotics smuggling.
Fred J. Cook, The Nation, Feb. 6.
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M
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So a game of musical chairs is played. Over-anxious,
the Northern Democrats offer excellent proposals which
the well-disciplined Dixiecrats support with tongue-in-
cheek, knowing that, in the full House, the Republi-
cans can be relied upon to vote against any proposal
which does not carry the GOP label. Then, in their
turn, the Republicans offer still another watered-down
variant of the original tricky Rogers proposal which
the Northern Democrats find unacceptable. The North-
ern Democrats are unable to halt this process of attri-
tion and yet, as the debate is reported, the public gets
the impression that Republicans are for civil rights
and Democrats are not.
There is a very real danger that Congress will even-
tually enact a Republican-sponsored “voting” measure
which, although about as useful as a nine-dollar bill,
the Northern Democrats may feel compelled to sup-
port as a tactic of desperation. If a hoax of this kind
is perpetrated, it may so disillusion Southern Negroes
in the possibility of political action as to give massive
momentum to direct action sit-ins and similar demon-
strations which can easily lead to violence. Should this
happen, the primary responsibility will fall on the Re-
publicans who, with Northern Democratic support, have
the power to pass an honest civil-rights bill.
Tinguely’s Contraption
We feel great sympatiny for Jean Tinguely, a Swiss
_ artist who belongs to that noble company of missionary-
aesthetes whose lives are dedicated to outraging conven-
tion, Spiritual son of Marcel Duchamp, he has seized
on the nihilism of Dada and added motors to it—his
work is mockery in motion. Out of scrap and delinquent
technology, M. Tinguely has built machines that wheeze
and jangle, flay their arms and shake their innards and
plunge furiously into the exhausting work of doing
nothing. He also produces devices which, a coin being
dropped in the slot, will draw your own abstract for
you, suitable for framing.
Most recently, M. Tinguely constructed a work of
art that destroyed itself—or almost: certain details of
timing were off and at one point a fireman stepped
in with an extinguisher. This machine, 23 feet long
a i ae
a
by 27 feet high, contained, among other cast-off ob-
jects, eighty bicycle wheels, a piano, a child’s go-cart,
a bathtub, an addressograph machine, a meteorological
balloon, saws, hammers, flames, a radio and rolls of
paper. It was called Cota to New York.” Powered
by fifteen motors controlled by eight timers, the edifice
reduced itself to a shambles in half an hour.
Now this is outrageous
Serb: should” be ae
not to ie Play ade
0 you would exe
= i ial ia ie lS la
ee * > . ve mm " . ;
‘
uy gies cover many pages of fre eet pe ohat deed
modeled stable, and that it went through its rites amid
the guttering of candles and the reciting of Beat poetry.
You would be wrong. The “occasion” took place in the
sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art and :
was attended by an invited audience o: the museum’s
most cherished friends and patrons. Alfred H. Barr, Jr.,
Director of Museum Collections, welcomed M. Tingue-
ly with a few appreciative words, endorsements of other
curators and critics were distributed, the performance
was thoroughly official.
This is what protest has fallen to
garden party. Can any champion of irreverence think
of a gesture M. Tinguely might make that would turn
Mr. Barr gray with rage and send the museum’s bene-
factors twittering in consternation back to their pent-
houses?
The Graveyard itt
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Tucson, Arizona, is a
where old airplanes go. At present, 3,000 of them, origi- ye i)
nally valued at $2 billion, are lined up in silent rows
awaiting their fate and furnishing pathos for the visit-
ing journalist. Some will be reprieved and fly again, %,
probably not for the Air Force but for less exacting it
federal agencies. The aircraft in storage include F-100 a
Super Sabres, F-101 Voodoos, F-102 Delta Daggers, Mm
F-104 Starfighters, F-105 Thunderchiefs. Besides the ht
fighters there are transports, helicopters and bombers
(including the B-36, never in combat, which cost the
taxpayers $3.5 million apiece and would have made
Grade A flying coffins if they had ever been sent into .
action). Technological obsolescence has overtaken these
machines, and after they are stripped of usable parts,
most of them—in the words of the journalist—will be
“dragged like a protesting monster to the guillotine”—
an eight-ton blade which is hoisted some fifty feet above
the doomed aircraft and crash! chops off a wing, a nose,
a tail section, which then goes to the melting furnace.
The journalist failed to mention one consolation. With
every drop of the guillotine, the Air Force writes a con-
tract for a replacement aircraft or missile, and the tax-
payer will shell out anew.
Death of a Prophet
Youthful Senator Richard Neuberger died sudde
vig the ae filibuster was in full swings |
March 9. The Senate is always gracious on such/o
s, of course, but this time the speeches c con
sens of bereavement the more narkable i
Mr. | oe Gs was a freshm ni;
naturally were of particular interest.
It was. in the late summer of 1933 [Mr. Gruening said]
that Dick ‘dropped into the office of The Nation, of which
I was then one-of the editors, to report on what he had
seen on his visit to Germany, from which he had just re-
turned. Hitler had come into power only a few months
before... .
T asked Dick to write of {his visit] for The Nation, and
an article entitled “The New Ger-
many,” which was published in the issue of October 4,
‘ he did so. He wrote
TEN TW CL Ree pana faye 0) + POY
ing (D., Alaska), a former editor of this publication,
‘reporting that the horrors attributed to Nazism were
)
much exaggerated—among them were Mayor James fy,
Curley of Boston and Dean Henry Wyman Holmes of
the Harvard Graduate School of Education—Mr. Neu-
berger poked around in the murky corners of Hitler’s
New Germany and found out that the worst and cruelest J
reports were only too true. What’s more, he foresaw
then that Hitler’s advent must inevitably bring on war.
We think it worth while to reprint here the first two
sentences of Mr. Neuberger’s article:
Ru
1933. It was the first realistic, first-hand revelation in any “Visit the New Germany,” the American tourist reads get
American magazine of what was taking place in Nazi in the advertising columns. . . . Embellished with photo- Xe
Germany. . . . It was Dick’s first literary contribution to graphs of picturesque scenery and stately cathedrals, the (i
any magazine of national circulation. . . . advertisements strive to persuade the tourist that Hitler’s si
This early venture into print proved, for Mr. Neu- new Germany is virtually identical with the old Germany he
berger, the beginning of a writing career which prepared of charm and Gemuetlchkeit. . . . i,
the way for his ultimate election to the Senate. Yet it Well, there is again a New Germany, and its Gemuet- i
is doubtful whether, in the course of a quarter-century — /ichkeit is again spread over the advertising columns of il
of unremitting labor over his typewriter, he ever wrote | newspapers and magazines. We at The Nation mourn de
anything quite as important, or which did him more Mr. Neuberger’s death for personal reasons—and for ij
credit as humanist, than this first piece for The Nation. professional reasons as well. One wonders what he fix
At a time when many noted American tourists were | would have written about the New Germany circa 1960. wh
Wa
af
eae Tk
‘CHALLENGE’ on the CAMPUS : |
Pe CH on the « « by Dan Wakefield (y
a de
my . New Haven, Conn. terpreters of the American Dream _ ed, or hope to start, Challenge pro- ms
r i AT THE tables down at George and as A. Philip Randolph, Barry Gold- grams on their own campuses.
# Harry’s restaurant-bar in New water, Harold Taylor and Thurgood
i: Haven, a handful of Yale under- Marshall. The first colloquium, held THIS SPRING’S program began
“a graduates who suspected that neither last December, presented “The Chal- with some words by William C. De-
ha the Whiffenpoof Song nor the Howl lenge of the Nuclear Age,” with in- vane, Dean of Yale College, who
Fb of the Beats provided the ultimate terpretations by Hubert Humphrey, explained that when several students
answer to the young generation in
America, conceived and initiated an
idea called “Challenge.” Now, a year
later, the Challenge idea has not only
become a primary topic of talk and
activity at Yale, but has stirred more
interest in dozens of college cam-
puses throughout the country than
anything since Gus Dorais and
_ Knute Rockne invented the forward
pass. Its aim is to “confront indi-
viduals with the crucial issues of to-
-day’s world” and challenge American
_ college students to stand up and take
a part in dealing with them.
_. Last week, Challenge held its sec-
ond colloquium at Yale on the topic
of “American Democracy: Myth or
Reality?”, featuring such varied in-
DAN WAKEFIELD, author of Is-
~fand in the City, is a frequent con-
Carlos Romulo, Gen. James Gavin
and geneticist Dr. James Crow. The
featured participants not only act
as lecturers, but attend “coffee sem-
inars” with the students to answer
questions and present their views in
a manner more informal than is pos-
sible from a platform.
The colloquiums are the feature
each semester of a program that be-
gins with evening gadfests, down
at George and Harry’s, meetings and
discussions among students of each
of Yale’s ten colleges, discussions
with campus professors on the se-
mester’s Challenge theme, and “lead-
up” speakers to provide background
information. The full-house audiences
of last week’s colloquium were made
up not only of Yale students, but of
more than 500 visiting undergrad-
uates, from forty or so colleges
around the country, who have start-_
came to him last year with the idea
of Challenge, he told them he didn’t
think it would work, and he was
glad to see now that he had been
wrong. So much for the inspirational
stimulus of the older generation. The
three students who conceived the
Challenge idea—Sam Bowles, Ralph
Bryant and Richard Celeste—even-
tually got backing from Dean De-
vane and leading Yale faculty mem-
bers, as well as important Yale
alumni and New Haven civic lead-
ers; but originally they were greeted
by friendly skepticism on the part
of their elders.
The students seem to have been
far ahead of their adult advisers,
both in desire and imagination. The
Rev. William §. Coffin, Yale chap-
lain and one of the first faculty peo- —
ple to whom the students went for —
help, recalled recently that when
is : + i
ts Na
-
ihe al brag fl
ill
: P " he a
ee
hey contacted him, , “These fellows
had thought of everything. They
wanted to get the best people for
the first colloquium, and they weren’t
_ kidding when they said the best.
| When they started out they wanted
Camus, Schweitzer and Bertrand
Russell. They were asking me last
spring about how to go about get-
_ ting Camus—they’d already written
- letters and had friends of his write
letters—and I suggested that they
get in touch with Germaine Brée, in
New York, who wrote the book on
Camus’ work. One of the fellows
said ‘Oh yes, I’m having lunch with
her tomorrow.’ ’
The three Challenge originators
finally called a meeting with some
of the faculty members to “pool
ideas.” Ralph Bryant, one of the stu-
dent trio, explained that “We bought
a jug of sherry and got eight or ten
faculty members in and told them
what we wanted to do. The faculty
Was pessimistic — because of a lack
of funds.”
]
THE students refused to share the
pessimism. One of them, Richard
Celeste, had won a $1,000 Yale un-
dergraduate prize, and he contrib-
uted $700 of it to get the Challenge
movement under way. That summer
all three worked to raise funds, and
through contributions from the New
Haven Foundation and the Danforth
Foundation, plus interested Yale
alumni, they had $7,000 by Novem-
ber. They also had a list of spon-
sors, including Connecticut Governor
Abraham Ribicoff, Rep. Chester
Bowles (his son, Sam, was one of
the movement’s Ganmators), New
Haven Mayor Richard Lee, faculty
members such as Henri Peyre and
i jarold Lasswell, and alumni includ-
ing Arthur Watson! president of
1.B.M., and Henry J. Heinz II, pres-
‘ident of H. J. Heinz Company.
~The Challenge originators were
also far ahead of their elders in con-
ceiving the operational aspect of the
movement. The most obvious thing,
of ‘course, would have been to name
a dda Hine wheal ty Whites
cople get ogether. But tl th udents
e ) foamy the ane
tracting from the real purpose. The
three originators weren't looking for
campus prestige—their records at
Yale had already won them offers of
Rhodes scholarships—and they de-
cided to work on an informal basis,
without official titles or offices, in
nightly sessions’ at George and
Harry’s which anyone interested was
welcome to attend. The maturity of
the students involved can best be
measured by the fact that this has
worked.
Stephen Kass, a Yale junior who
was one of the organizers of the Chal-
lenge spring colloquium, explained
to a visitor that “We didn’t want
an ‘Empire.’ Everyone’s welcome to
our meetings, and the guys who come
most often and take the most in-
terest take the jobs that have to be
done. But nobody has a title, and
the work is passed around, The guys
who organized the winter colloquium
were mostly seniors, and they’ve
stepped aside now and mostly jun-
iors have done the work on this one.
There are freshmen, sophomores and
grad students, too. A graduate art
student designed our literature and
stationery. The fellow who’s intro-
ducing A. Philip Randolph today
is a freshman.”
THE common ground on which these
students of different ages, educa-
tional interests and_ political ideas
have met is best summed up in the
words of Challenge’s own statement
of origins and goals:
As university students we are con-
cerned with understanding the world
in which we live. Yet we find that
our environment is narrowing and
fragmenting our awareness of the
contemporary challenges. Our concern
and sensitivity have become intellec-
tualized and sophisticated to the point
where we are unable to respond cre-
atively to those crucial issues which
are so complex that they often seem
remote.
This sense of remoteness that so
often hangs, like Fitzgerald’s ro-—
mantic mist, around the spires and
towers of college campuses was vig-
orously dispelled ng Yale’s
spring ae ’ . Although
tu recited from.
shee ac to. al
Pe Mee tea PTE ast
thing shen Ww
exts oe Nteohe ‘
Pe es a
Phi Beta Kappa luncheon, they
were brought down off their orator-
ical heights in the coffee seminars—
one of the most important aspects
of the weekend colloquiums. In a 1
quick stop-in tour at some of these x
student-speaker sessions, a_ visitor
heard a Yale undergraduate question
Philip Randolph on how a_ white
college student could help bring
about the integration of the segre-
gated musicians’ union locals in New
Haven; Harold Taylor, the Leonard
Bernstein of progressive education
and former president of Sarah Law-
rence College, was asked if he didn’t
think most American college students
had to be forced into learning any-
thing; Barry Goldwater, who, in his
formal speech, had recommended the
breakup of unions into autonomous
local units, was asked if he would
recommend the same program for
General Motors.
ON THE Sunday of the Challenge
weekend, more than fifty visiting
students got together with some of
the Yale men to discuss the prob-
lems and prospects of organizing a
Challenge program on their own
campuses. They were there from An-
tioch, Columbia, Smith, the Univer-
sity of Texas, Sarah Lawrence, Ober-
lin, Russell Sage and other schools
of all types and sizes now involved
In one stage or other with starting
a Challenge program. Some wondered
how such a program could be made
successful on a small campus not
as well known as Yale. Ralph Bryant
commented:
“The most expensive thing is the
colloquium, with outside speakers,
but that isn’t necessary, and we ~
don’t feel it’s the most important —
thing we've done. Most colleges ©
aren’t able to throw a big colloqui-
um, but they can get seminars and
discussions going with professors on—
their own campus. We decided th tt
at
our success shouldn’t be measured
in how many big names we got for
colloquiums, or how many people
attended, but how many indiv idua
ate Vala radically | changed their
lives—like deciding | to go to work
in Africa, or acti tually oe som -
at’s going on in tl
ae aren Ye
er ae have already
ij
270
THE HOFFMAN PLAN .. by Jane siotte
TWO distinguished travelers returned
from opposite corners of the world
recently with the same words ring-
ing in their ears: “We want aid—
but on our own terms.”
President Eisenhower listened to
the Latin Americans and took note.
Paul Hoffman, director of the U.N.’s
Special Fund, took steps—had taken
some even before he left for his re-
cent swing through Asia.
As head of the branch of the U.N.’s
Technical Assistance program con-
centrating on research and develop-
ment projects which will pave the way
for fruitful investment in underdevel-
oped countries, Hoffman hears the
“aid-without-strings” plea daily. For-
mer colonies, small countries no longer
content to subsist at a starvation
level on a one-crop economy, medi-
um-sized countries tired of big-
country hegemony —all are asking
for one thing which, at the present
time, the U.N. is unable to give
them: massive, multilateral aid.
Hoffman, in a recent pamphlet,
One Hundred Countries —One and
One-Quarter Billion People, has some
concrete proposals to make on how
to get it to them. Businessmen will
be interested in the subtitle: How to
Speed Their Economic Growth —
and Ours. He emphasizes eight
points:
I, “Economic assistance is not
charity, and it must not be so con-
sidered.” The “have”-nation govern-
ments feel — rightly, Hoffman thinks
—that tax money should not be
used for give-away. Appositely, the
“have-nots” lose their self-reliance
and self-respect when they are chari-
ty cases.
2. “Economic assistance should be
divorced from international politics.”
The attempt to buy good will with
power-tainted money is neither efh-
cacious nor welcome.
3. “It is urgent to speed and ex-
pand programs of technical assist-
ance, especially work such as that of
the U.N. Special Fund in surveying
natural resources and training peo-
ple” to make use of them.
4. “A steadily expanding world
economy will be necessary.” Hoff-
man, a true U.N. statesman, is
troubled by the effect that common
JANE STOLLE is The Nation’s
U.N. correspondent.
markets— whether Middle Sixes or
Outer Sevens— may have upon the
developing economies of underde-
veloped countries. “Liberal trade
policies must be maintained so that
the developing countries may earn
their way as far as possible through
their own exports and savings. .. .”
5. “Greater initiative and effort
on the part of leaders and people of
underdeveloped countries themselves
will be necessary.”
6. “Greatly expanded use should
be made of the services of the U.N.
and its specialized agencies operating
in the development field.” Not only
is such multilateral aid more accept-
able because it is “stringless,” but
the U.N. can be “tough” — when
“toughness” is called for — without
being accused of seeking any politi-
cal or commercial advantage.
7. “There will have to be an in-
crease in the flow of public and pri-
vate investment capital from the in-
dustrialized countries to the less-
developed countries from the present
level of about $4 billion a year to an
average of $7 billion a year, over the
decade 1961-70.” Of the $3 billion
additional needed annually, increased
private investment and easier-terms
public bank loans could supply $1
billion; the rest must be supplied
from other sources. “This will have
to be public money supplied for in-
vestment in. . . highways, schools,
training institutes, community sery-
ices, communications, and so on—
facilities which are not immediately
revenue-producing, but which yield
large returns in the generally in-
creasing output of a developing
economy.” Though these may not be
“bankable” loans, they are the best
investments that far-seeing, industri-
alized countries can make. They are
the means for speeding their eco-
nomic growth — and ours. They are
the trails leading to “a great new
economic frontier’—as Hoffman puts
it, a market of $320 billion over the
next decade for the exports of all
developed countries, of which $14
billion would end up in American
pockets. This will be possible pro-
vided the one and one-quarter bil-
lion peoples of the underdeveloped
countries are enabled to raise their
per capita income by $25 in ten
years — from $100 yearly, as it is
now, to $125.
8. “The proposed International
Development Association,” Hoffman
believes, “is admirably suited to
make loans of this kind, but its pro-
posed capitalization of $1 billion to
be spread over five years is far too
small.” Ten billion dollars would
come nearer to meeting the needs,
and if and when the I.D.A. becomes
a reality, as President Eisenhower
has urged, its capitalization will
either have to be expanded, or an-
other institution set up to do the
job that must be done, Hoffman
says.
HOFFMAN is in the vanguard of
men who are actually planning mas-
sive aid to underdeveloped countries.
The trickle of technical and financial
assistance that has flowed to those
areas from private investment, the
World Bank and other national or
multi-national sources is dangerously
small. Guinea, stripped of adminis-
trative and technical personnel and
capital when she voted “no” to
de Gaulle, appears to’ be flirting
with East Germany. Soviet money
and Czech technicians are helping
her build up the underpinnings of a
developing economy. All of Africa is
on the move toward the twentieth
century, and most of Africa is poten-
tially rich. But it will take time to
turn her forests and her minerals and
her fields into negotiable securities.
Will she become a pawn in the East-
West struggle—and have to choose
up sides, as Guinea seems to be do-
ing?
Mr. Hoffman says, no, not neces-
sarily,
ne
th
at
Ne
lu
th
de
wl
la
fr
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|
‘o the challenge they have been
presented with. Twelve undergradu-
ates are going to Africa this sum-
mer to build schools; a half-dozen
have applied to teach in Nigeria
next year; eight Yale students were
the first Northern collegians to initi-
ate a sympathy picketing for the
Negro sit-in strikers at Southern
lunch counters. On the weekend of
the Challenge colloquium, Yale stu-
dent Al Lowenstein spoke at a rally
which raised several hundred dol-
lars for the Negro students expelled
from Alabama State College.
There is, according to the student
leaders, a marked increase in politi-
cal activity on all sides. “Before,”
one of them said, “it was just a
small clique that took part in po-
litical activities. All the political
groups have come to life this year,
both on the Right and the Left.
We got Bill Buckley for a Challenge
speech before the student Conserva-
tive Society did, and they had to
get on the ball. The same kind of
thing has happened with the liberal
_ groups.”
The aim of Challenge has not been
to build up any particular partisan
group, but to destroy what it calls
—“privatism” — the withdrawal into
one’s personal affairs to the neglect
of the world around them. In a ré-
sumé for other colleges called “Or-
ganizing a Challenge-Type Pro-
gram,” the Yale students explained
that one of the basic problems is
ACCORDING to most observers
today, suburbia is a great American
dream come true — or, at any rate,
partially true. A yearning for grass-
roots living pulls city-dwellers to the
countryside, persuades them to in-
vest their higher incomes in ranch
houses, barbecue ao grass seed
ad septic tanks. A vision of a a pas-
_ people
dente “whether che program will
advocate openly a particular politi-
cal point of view or will remain
aloof from expressing a preference
for one side or other of the politi-
cal spectrum.” Although “all of us
have strong political ideas,” the
Yale students decided to keep the
movement non-partisan, in order to
appeal to a wider group of students
and sponsors. “By seeming to rise
above purely political issues, the
program will influence many peo-
ple who consider politics somewhat
unworthy of their attention. ... It
will be somewhat frustrating not
being able to advocate your own
political feelings, since you will have
to try to present both sides. Also,
the group will not be able to take
political action as a group, but only
as individuals. . . .”
THIS is the course that the Yale
students decided on, and it has al-
ready proved its success. Editorials
in many college newspapers have
praised it as the answer to the way
up from apathy, and _ institutions
which have not yet begun similar
programs have sounded notes of
guilt and hope. Perhaps the most
eloquent came from The Sophian,
the Smith College newspaper, which
announced plans for a Challenge
program at Northampton beginning
next fall. Speaking of the vital need
for it. The Sophian said:
So, sometimes we write home to
toral scene turns potato fields into
mass developments, transforms sleepy
half-rural towns into commuter bed-
rooms, gives a whole generation of
children a first-hand knowledge of
green grass and fresh air, and chang-
es the family habits of the nation.
Underwritten by unparalleled pros-
perity, supported by ingenious tech-
nology, accentuated | by economic
trends which push
into
dream is reality for
¥
lion Americans.
; ists watch
in le cre bites, transit oper=
ne er - oe 1 Loe 2 Pee,
{ 3
mummy and daddy about the World
Situation, and occasionally we men-
tion it to dear ol’ Joe. Dear Joe smiles
and asks us to dance.
We think of the money America
spends on beer and cigarettes and we
worry about the economy, and de-
mocracy, and things, when we see
another TV antenna go up across the
street. We remember “The News of
the Week in Review” as we re-read
Vogue. We frown about our culture
and its values as we tip the Negro
waiters, and we promise we'll talk
about the image of America sometime
to somebody when we tour Europe
this summer.
We muse, and shake our well-brush-
ed heads, and say America’s challenge
is Soviet communism, and we can’t
fight that, can we? When we get out
of school, maybe. In the meantime it
can all slide off our shiny heads, our
feminine shoulders, our manicured
hands. Bravely we can look to the fu-
ture, stars in our eyes, thinking that
someday we too shall do great things.
We’re the very picture of American
Youth. We gaze at the wide horizons
of the world before us, with a ques-
tioning mind, filled with faith, hope
and charity. We forget that challenge,
like charity, begins at home.
“stlent
from
The best critique of this
generation” has come not
Kenneth Rexroth or the editors of
Time, but from one of its own
undergraduate observers; the best
challenge to its role in the future
has come not from parents or pro-
fessors, but from its own campus
leaders.
The Impotent Suburban Vote . . by Robert ¢. Wood
dream is often the realization of
another’s nightmare. The tip-toe-_
back-to-nature movement may de-_
light the souls of real-estate brokers
arehieaehey bankers, contractors and_
the makeraiof Home appliances. But
it spells trouble for suburban school
superintendents wrestling with —
influx of new families, fic
gineers | juggling new
commuter movements, ‘conservat on n-
land being chewed u
en: +
with — d
orth ephec “of 4
from family counselors concerned
with the disappearance of grand-
mothers from the fireside circle and
from experts in local finance caught
in a web of spiraling tax rates.
And it comes close to striking terror
in the hearts of professional poli-
ticians.
THE REASONS for the politicians’
concern are not hard to understand.
For one thing, the rise of the sub-
urb means change — physical, eco-
nomic and social transformations on
a massive scale and at a rapid pace.
Twelve million Americans do not
move in ten years without provok-
ing dislocations in the status quo;
and though the words “explosion”
and “revolution” are overworked de-
scriptions of the suburban migration,
they are not inaccurate. Second, the
experts are not all unanimous in
their explanations of the origins of
the dream. It may be simply an-
other token of the drive toward
middle-class respectability, taking
its place alongside of the new car
and the dishwasher as evidence that
another status-seeking family has
“arrived.” Or it may spring from a
simple, basic instinct to escape the
tumult of the man-made city and
return to the soil. Each of these in-
terpretations carries quite different
political implications: whether the
inner drive toward recognition takes
precedence over the pulling power
of the “little place in the country”
3 is an issue vital to a campaigner.
ee Thus, the politician is faced with
i his worst enemy: a big change ob-
ia 7 scurely understood. Like the faith-
ful college alumnus, he is instinct-
ively predisposed against any
change; it makes his professional job
of maintaining stability more dif-
ficult and carries personal occupa-
tional hazards. From local alderman
to Presidential candidate, every man
who runs for public office necessar-
ily works on a set of assumptions
about the nature of his electorate.
To see his constituency not only
move between elections, but be re-
shuffled, upset in its living habits
_and beliefs, and not to be sure why,
shakes his operating strategy to its
-— foundations.
Further, the size of the shift means
_ that more than local elections are
involved. Although there are as
many definitions of suburbs as there
are shades of blondes, the 50 million
who can be classified as suburbanites
today by the Census Bureau, com-
pare to 61 million who live in the
central city and urban fringes of
metropolitan areas, about 25 mil-
lion in smaller urban places and
about 42 million in rural areas. Con-
servatively, then, one out of four
Americans are suburbanites. If the
present trends continue, by 1975
the total number of suburban resi-
dents can easily exceed 85 million
— representing about 80 per cent
of the new population growth. To
this factor of sheer numbers should
be added the propensity of eligible
suburban voters to exercise their
legal prerogatives. According to
figures compiled by G. E. Janosik,
89 per cent of the registered voters
in 33 suburban counties turned out
in the 1952 Presidential elections.
Under these circumstances, a sub-
urban “bloc” — if it exists — is the
decisive voice in national elections,
and the fortunes of national public
figures and national parties are at
stake.
THE politician’s natural distaste for
change has been intensified, in the
case of suburbia, by postwar folk-
lore about the suburban man. Some
of the earliest — and most plausible
— interpretations have argued that
the suburbanite is not just an Amer-
ican who moved. He is a new Amer-
ican, his personality transformed by
his exposure to the half-open spaces,
his attitudes dramatically altered
by the acquisition of a mortgage and
a power lawn mower. The man es-
caping from the city is a man freed
from party loyalties of the past, a
man with a new outlook on political
5
issues, 1a
To the candidate, this possibility u
has implied a new set of complica- | y
tions. The suburban voter is often "
believed to have “a politically im- T
dependent state of mind.” He is dt
thought to respond to a, different 4
approach, as Mr. Harriman under-
took in his well-publicized shirt-
sleeve visit to a Long Island cook- 0
out. The dilemma is pinpointed by Ms
a Massachusetts state senator, n
whose district included both city ‘
and suburban wards. “I’m a split q
personality now,” the senator con- a
fided recently. “You can’t wear a D
sports shirt and a stiff collar on the N
same TV program. But it’s not just "
the campaigning that is different — d
speeches in one place and coffee fi
hours in another. It’s deeper than th
that. My city people still know who n
they’re against and what they want. t
My suburbanites seem to love every- fy
body and want everything.” és
Disruptive as the new image of hi
the suburbanite has been to all pol- bi
iticlans, it had at least until 1958 th
brought joy to Republican circles. n
The “conversion” theory not only é
makes suburban residents ready con- a
verts to the small-town style of pol- li
itics, substituting symbols of home- |
ownership and community duty for iW
class and sectional loyalties: since W
the small town is typically the well-
spring of conservative sentiment, it
also presumably enhances the ap-
peal of the GOP.
Thus, in 1952, leaders in both
parties tended to read the rise of the
suburbs as a powerful factor in the
Eisenhower victory. Suburban plu-
ralities for Eisenhower in. six key
states outweighed Stevenson’s city
pluralities by 243,000, enough to be
decisive in the outcome for each. In
New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania,
nearly half of the Republican plu- ff
rality was provided by the suburban —
ee
'
ar ~
e
ae
ia ee oe
March 26, 1960
counties. Seventeen out of twenty-
four suburban Congressional dis-
tricts around the twenty largest
metropolitan areas chose Republi-
can Representatives that year. Be-
tween 1948 and 1952, the suburbs in
the fifteen largest metropolitan
areas increased their Republican
plurality from 773,000 to 1,688,000.
On a first reading of the record,
Robert Taft could claim exultantly
that “The Democratic Party will
never win another national election
until it solves the problem of the
suburbs.” Jacob Arvey could sourly
agree that “The suburbs beat us.”
The new man, it seemed, to the
degree he was a partisan at all, was
a Republican man.
EVENTS since 1952 have been dis-
couraging to the advocates of the
“conversion” theory and to the Re-
publican Party. A closer reading of
suburban ballots cast since 1948
shows that the size of the Republi-
can pluralities was the result of
Democratic defections in the cities,
not Republican gains in the sub-
urbs. Between the 1948 and the 1952
elections, the central cities in the
fifteen largest metropolitan areas
showed a greater shift to the Re-
publicans than did the suburbs. If
the ranks of the Democrats had held
fast in the five largest of the key
cities in 1952, Stevenson would have
had a majority of the total subur-
ban-city vote in these areas. In 1956,
the same trend continued, the Re-
publicans making greater inroads in
each major city than in the sur-
rounding suburbs (exceptions were
Los Angeles and San Francisco).
Obviously, it was not just sub-
urbanites in these elections which
led to the Democratic crack-up. In
Ss
Am
Ne rn
=
eS
A WR
ge eae
his 1952 and 1956 post-mortem clec-
tion interviews, Samuel Lubell
found that the neighborhoods from
which suburbanites had moved
showed a heavier Republican shift
than the new election districts they
now inhabited. And in the non-
Presidential year of 1958, votes in
the suburbs surrounding central
cities tended to move again in the
same direction as the cities them-
selves.
These parallel shifts of city res-
idents and their suburban neighbors
suggest that the voter 1s not “con-
verted” so much as he is_ trans-
planted. Social and economic stand-
ing, ethnic background, religious af-
fiiation and family political tradi-
tion remain the major factors in-
fluencing the vote regardless of
where the voter is found.
THE “transplantation” theory does
not leave the national political game
where it was before the Model T,
however. As an individual, the for-
mer city resident may be politically
unaffected by his move, but the pat-
tern of the total migration has had
some important effects on party for-
tunes. The loss of population in the
central city and corresponding in-
crease in the suburbs means that in
Congressional and state legislative
elections, suburbanites tend to be
under-represented. Between 1952
and 1956, in the nine largest metro-
politan areas, the total vote cast in
city Congressional districts declined
by more, than 400,000. For the
twenty-six suburban seats, the total
vote rose by more than 400,000.
Not only are all suburbanites losing
political influence in relation to
their numbers, but Republicans are
placed at a particular disadvantage.
With higher-income families mov-
ing out, city and inner suburbs are
left with more Democrats among
their smaller populations. Moreover,
Republicans tend to move into al-
ready solidly Republican suburbs,
while Democrats are most likely to
settle in contested districts. ‘Thus,
in non-local legislative contests, city
districts automatically to the
Democrats, and in the suburbs,
when two-party races develop, each
Democratic vote counts for more.
It is this combination of trans-
planted people in compartmentalized
voting districts that led Lubell to
wonder if “the Republicans can ever
hope to capture control of Congress
again.” And it is this combination,
taken together with the importance
of personality in Presidential cam-
paigns, that raises the prospect of
a national government divided be-
tween a Democratic Congress. and
Republican President not just as a
rare event, but as standard opera-
ting procedure.
go
QUITE apart from the almost ac-
cidental disruptions of the new politi-
cal arithmetic, there may be an even
deeper impact. Observers in a num-
ber of suburbs report not so much
a shift between parties, as a de-
emphasis on all politics, especially
party politics. While the suburban
voter may not change his colors, he’s
wearing them more casually and, es-
pecially at the local level, he seems
inclined to disavow partisanship as
an effective means of conducting the
public business. For those philosoph-
ical believers in party government
and the role of parties per se in a
democratic society, this “do-it-your-
self” tendency is disturbing. Party
regulars can continue business as
Pamela sain <= = = °
usual — but their business becomes
less and less important.
In many suburbs, of course, this
new style simply reflects the fact
that a good two-party fight is no
longer feasible. As the clustering ef-
fect of “like seeking like” continues
in the migration, each suburban vot-
ing district tends to become pre-
dominantly one party or another.
The smaller the district, the less
likely it is that a respectable mui-
nority exists to contest any election.
Each community retires behind
own political barricades, secure from
any real challenge by the other.
But an even deeper antagonism
against the party appears to be at
work. With memories or legends of
the old city boss engraved on his
mind, the suburbanite tends to dep-
recate the usefulness of the party
politician. He partakes of an in-
dependence, in Janosik’s words, “so
fierce that the extent of political ac-
tivity on election day is the distribu-
tion of small sample ballots at the
polls and occasionally bringing an
elderly lady by automobile to vote.”
He indulges in a new cult of urban
localism, described by an_ Illinois
study commission as “a devotion to
the history, traditions, folkways,
politics, housing arrangements, zon-
ing laws and a hundred other things
individually associated with each of
the communities.” In these circum-
stances, in place of outright poli-
ticlans, the suburbanite looks to
“wheels” to spark civic affairs, “goes
it alone” in deciding public issues,
reaches for a consensus among right-
thinking citizens to replace com-
promise among partisan-thinking
~men. When he discovers that cliques,
factions and elites still operate un-
der the cloak of neighborliness, he
retreats into political apathy.
IT IS of course even more difficult
_ to gauge the importance of the no-
_ party trend in suburbia, the erosion
of customary American _ political
practices, than it 1s to ferret out the
_ motivations for the suburban dream,
; or to calculate the effect of popula-
tion shifts on the two major parties.
But it is at least clear that one re-
sult of more people moving into
smaller towns has been to reduce
the likelihood of vigorous political
x Pa i
activity, party or othialerise’ we
er or not the drive for. middle-class
acceptability or the search for green
utopias is the major force behind
the suburbs, their existence as polit-
ical entities means an increase in
political insularity and parochialism.
The separate social clusters we are
developing, the new localism we are
establishing, the abandonment of
the city as a melting pot in which
unlike people learn some tolerance,
the ghettos we now enclose in
boundary lines, all speak for the
weakening of the political instru-
ments required to conduct common
affairs. As we strive, on the Jocal
basis, to get the right industry in
town, or to keep the wrong people
out, as we scramble to evade local
taxes and to put the state hospital
or juven e ‘delinquent fiome in some-
one else’s backyard, we are unlikely
to solve the domestic problems
which, in: fact, may be the key
political issues of the day. Under
present arrangements, there is no
chance for suburbanites to vote di-
rectly on what kind of commuter
transportation they desire, where
they wish parks to be within the
region, or how they propose to de-
velop the open spaces which are
left. With no real mechanism for
expressing their collective opinions,
suburbanites have, in effect, dis-
enfranchised themselves. The sub-
urban vote is important not be-
cause it is different from the national
vote at large. It is important because
it is stubbornly divided against it-
self.
Hofta in the Garden o- N. E. Parmentel, Jr.
JOLTING Jimmy Hoffa, the most
battle-scarred Young Lochinvar out
of the West since Stan Ketchel came
out of Hamtramck, was the main
eventer at Madison Square Garden
one night last week. At this latter-
day Michigan Assassin’s Garden de-
but, Jimmy dazzled ringsiders with
some fancy footwork and his surprise
secret punch — a stiff Left hook.
Host at the clambake was New
York Teamster’s Joint Council,
claiming over 150,000 members in
“everything that moves,” as prexy
Johnny O’Rourke likes to say. That
night, however, only about 9,000 of
the faithful showed to honor Hoffa,
the brotherhood’s beleaguered inter-
national president. Unorganized New
York cab drivers were urged to at-
tend, but O’Rourke’s gravelly plea
fell on deaf hackie ears.
The Garden was bedecked with
bunting, huge pictures of Hoffa and
banners blaring a “WELCOME
JIMMY.” The O’Rourke boys had
assembled a show emceed by Phil
Foster, a bellowing Henny Youngman.
First act was a pair of jugglers, late
NOEL E, PARMENTEL, Jr. has
contributed articles on politics and
labor to several national magazines.
tak
"/
the maestro,
of the Ed Sullivan show. They were
replaced by some Latin Quarter
tumblers who cavorted while Foster
gave us some humor-cum-wisdom
on life. After a while this jokester
introduced The Mariners, who ob-
liged with some songs with no
discernible resemblance to — sea
chanteys.
Foster leaped back onstage, whis-
tling and urging a “real Teamster
welcome” for Alan Dale, who would
look good booked into Chez Joey.
Dale, who was accompanied by three
female violinists in cerise-pink, sang
some stock Italianate numbers,
while Teamsters greeted him with
“sing some Irish songs.” This act
was followed by a band _ playing
Paso Dobles while some Spanish
dancers looked sultry. The Team-
sters all cried “Ole!”
Phil reclaimed our attention with
the Teamster Theme, to the tune of
The Caissons Go Rolling Along —
and “if you ain’t got the words make
“em up.” After two false starts, we
were rolling merrily along with
“Drivers, clerks, canners too/Is to
mention but a few” and “Organized,
one and all/We may trip but never
fall” at the fever pitch demanded by
ud.
~The
N, re
This concluded the —
rim
-
ros
,
Still, he knows the country a lot bet-
ter than a number of fly-by-nights who
later settle and hatch tomes. Limited
though he is, Maraini makes a number
of just observations (among them:
“There is still something degrading as-
sociated with money in Japan, and this
olten leads to hypocritical behavior of
the kind which with us is
with sex.) which is more than either
Sacheverell Sitwell or Cecil Beaton does.
In Maraini we have the international-
modern attitude, the way John Gunther
would probably write if he stayed Jong
enough in one place to do so, With the
latter two, however, move back-
ward: with Sacheverell Sitwell we are
back in the “beautiful land of enchant-
ment” phase, and in Cecil Beaton we
are almost returned to our “strange, wee
land” beginnings.
associated
we
THE SITWELL book unhappily con-
firms what one has always uncomfort-
ably suspected: that he is splendid when
handling the past, the timeless, the
safely dead; but that the living leaves
him cold. Admirers of his work, and un-
til now I was among them, will be dis-
appointed. The Bridge of the Brocade
Sash is written, perhaps necessarily, al-
most without reference to that great
knowledge of arts, aesthetics and esoter-
ic curiosa which is his; he simply doesn’t
know enough to write a book of “travels
and observations in Japan.” Yet, com-
pletely outside his milieu, he has refused
to desert what he already knows and,
rather than attempt to approach the
country on its own terms, he writes as
he always does. The results represent a
triumph of the invidious.
Among the meaningless comparisons
which stud the book we learn that there
Aba Des
“are some points ‘of similarity
_ tween Todaiji and the abbey church of
_ the Geronimos”
and, one feels, for that
matter, St. Patrick’s on Fifth Avenue;
in speaking of the cryptomerias, he
says that we have “nothing like this in
the West for it is of no use to compare
the fir trees of the Black Forest.” Of no
use at all, yet compare he does. The
book is crammed with meaningless place-_
name-droppings like this.
_ There are other indications that he is
unsure of himself. In all these compar-
isons Japan wins hands down: Granada
is as nothing compared to Kyoto. He
feels, apparently, that nothing less than
blanket approval will suffice, that he
can no longer trust the judgment which,
until now, has never been shown as any-
thing but infallible. This lends an- addly
eoslous tone to the book.
“7.
oe ashi about the. moss in ‘the
ince he is not sure, he begins to
ee, | eel ee
Kokedera, is it “accidental,” might it
not have “rioted and got the upper
hand”? and what about Gagaku, is it
really untouched, and would the com-
posers “ever recognize their tunes”? and
the rock garden at Ryuanji, is it “a
triumph of genius; or is it an accident’?
and are the rocks really in their original
positions? has the sand “really been
raked that same way for four centuries”?
These and like questions (all supremely
beside the point of the objects them-
selves) vex him; completely unsure’ of
his aesthetic judgment he falls upon
that tourist favorite: Is this authentic,
are we seeing the real thing?
It is typical of his approach, and of
his despair, that in defining the rock
garden he should be thrown back upon
a description he wrote of it in 1945, long
before he saw the’ real thing. It is a fine
description, the best thing in the book,
but it has blessed little to do with Ryu-
anji. And directly after the rock-garden
set-pieces comes: “But it is time now
for the evening meal... . We take off
our shoes, are given slippers that are
much too small, and led by a posse of
neisans upstairs. ” One notices the
difference. The moment he attempts to
give the flavor of something alive he
becomes Auntie Sachie, someone’s much
beloved nanny, writing, back to her
charges from the extreme Orient.
Since he kills off anything living (us-
ing such formidable weapons as_ the
downright cliché, the wishful misunder-
standing and the utter error) and,
the same time, is not equipped to handle
major Japanese works of art, it is not
surprising that he is at his best on Jap-
anese dolls, fabrics, kimono, geisha, inro,
match-box designs, and those other dec-
orations through which the Japanese at-
tempt to make life beautiful. And it is
not surprising that this single excellence,
so completely divorced from anything
human, should make the book read like
those 1910 volumes which tell all about
the wonders of Kyoto but fail to men-
tion that anyone is living in the place.
CECIL BEATON, on the other hand,
sees the people all right, but mainly be-
cause they fit so admirably into the
compositions created by a fluent camera
and a facile pen. His geisha are elegant
pieces of furniture placed just so; that
little dwarf on the temple steps stepped
straight from the pages of Vogwe. It was
in fact “people” that originally brought
Beaton to Japan. He came on assign-
ment from Harper's azaar and one of
his duties was to photograph * “society”
for those exclusive and glossy pages.
One can imagine his, and ‘their, chagrin
at’; discovering that — ist no “society”
except that represented by a distant roy-
alty and by the dumpy wives of current
zaibatsu, surrounded by fringed velour,
cast ormolu and other indications of
Edwardian high life.
The disappointment shows: the pic-
tures are pedestrian, poorly
reproduced for a volume as expensive as
even
post-
and very
in some cases they are
The text is
but it does give a
indication of can
learn about Japan in just one short
month. One can learn that Haneda Air-
the world’s most hectic, contains
this one;
visibly retouched.
Henry Adams gush,
wondertul
what one
port,
“an atmosphere of tranquillity and im-
“today, every
Japanese dabbles in the art” of flower
maculate precision’; that
arranging; that in the elegant Osaka
Bunrakuza there are “simple, peasant
audiences”; that Madame Azuma, who
is to Kabuki as Cyd Charisse is to bal-
let, has “the dignity and assurance of
Sarah Bernhardt”; and (my _ favorite)
that “one reason for the perennial youth
of these people is that there is never a
frown or look of anxiety on their faces.”
It will be noticed that the attitude,
whether one loves the country or hates
it, is emotional. What one rarely finds
among travelers to Japan is that meas-
ured quality so admirable in Doughty
in Arabia, Kinglake in Persia; what one
sees of Tocqueville in America, Borrow
in Spain and Gide in Africa. The two
extremes of Lafcadio Hearn encompass
it, the letters of Chamberlain suggest it,
Fenollosa hints at it; Kipling’s letters
show that he knew what he was talking
about; Cocteau, though adopting super-
cillousness as a. style, saw the country
full and whole; later, Roger Poidatz,
under the name of Thomas Raucat,
wrote The Honorable Picnic, far and
away the best novel about the country;
and, still later, D. J. Enright published
a very just evaluation in The World of
Dew. This, though comprised entirely
of very near-hits, is a select company
indeed and to it one must now add
Donald Keene and his admirable Living
Japan.
THE TITLE indicates the author’s at-
titude: he is interested in Japan as it is,
not as it was, nor as he wants it to be.
In the introduction he writes how he
initially recoiled from the “modern liy- ‘ae
ing” aspect of the country, how he —
“might have remained buried in...
studies of old literature and ont... Eee
. . fw ‘
But he did not, and this near-escape has
given him an_ inestimable advantage —
over those who merely enthuse or merely |
despise: it has given him a sane and —
level-headed | view of the country.
He is the precise opposite of “the
,
i
he Te
279
v
F
ui
—
( WILLIAM CAUDILL is a lecturer on
be so affected by
the Land
tourist [who] may
legends that he has read of
ol the Gods that he may wonder, when
he sees farmers spraying their fields
with insecticides, what magical rites are
being celebrated.” Rather, he knows the
abyss between public and private be-
havior; he knows how and why Japanese
politics are so utterly corrupt; he knows
that “the guest bears the responsibility
for entertaining the geisha.”
Yer, he has avoided the extreme of
\gain and again the tempered
attitude reconciles ap-
parent opposites. He observes that “the
men who today make transistor
have the dexterity of the craftsmen who
cynicism.
justness of his
radios.
carved sword ornaments a hundred years
the old apprentice
system is often cruel and wasteful, still
“the apprentice who is... determined
. will develop greater perfection than
another
ago”; that, though
to whom |it] is just an-
other job”; that the tea ceremony may
appear “about as spiritually challenging
as afternoon tea poured by a London
matron,” yet, “even if the Japanese girl
has Iearend by rote, with no comprehen-
OT Pa Se th neh
sion of . the who
observer cannot but be struck by mo-
mentary glimmerings of a beauty which
has the marks of long tradition.”
Keene, resisting expression of an emo-
tional attachment, has written with
studied fairness, and in so doing has
created what will undoubtedly become
the standard text on the country. His
approach is one pre-eminently suited to
this second half of the century. It is
sober, impeccably informed and
extremely well expressed; it also shares
much more with Benedict, Reischauer
and Dore than it does with any past
or present Marainis or Sitwells.
Yet, if one misses something in this
book (and it is scareely fair to complain
something that the author
never intended including), it 1s the per-
sonal view, that which 1s so irritatingly
evident in Maraint. Perhaps, indeed, it
is Keene’s measured sanity which makes
his book so bland. This does not mean
that one would trade Keene for Maraini,
but it does mean that Japan has not
yet found its Doughty, its Kinglake, its
Borrow.
just,
of missing
Class and Sanity
SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY & MEN-
TAL DISORDER. By H. Warren
Dunham. Wayne State University
Press. 298 pp. $5.50.
MY NAME IS LEGION: Foundations
for a Theory of Man in Reiation to
Culture. By Alexander H.
Basic Books. 452 pp. $7.50.
Leighton.
William Caudill
BOTH of these books attempt to im-
prove understanding of the relation be-
tween psychiatric illnesses and the so-
cial settings in which they océur. Both
authors ask essentially the same ques-
tions, but Dunham looks back at. re-
search accomplished over the past
twenty years, while Leighton looks to
the future, particularly to the two forth-
coming volumes of research results for
which his present book provides the
framework. Together, these books pro-
vide a good introduction to this field
of study, but the reader will have to
work at his task because, while the
Social Anthropology in the Department
of Social Relations, Harvard University,
and a research associate in the Depart-
» Moent of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical
School, He is the author of The Psychi-
atric Hospital As a Small Sosieta: Har-
> vard University. Prers),
} a BY
Je ao
language is fairly straightforward, the
arguments are presented for a_profes-
sional audience.
Dunham's book is a_ collection of
papers, some of them now classic in the
field, published in various American and
British journals during the past twenty
years. In addition, three studies are
presented here for the first time. They
are organized according to the three
central problems with which Dunham is
concerned: “(1) Does the incidence of
mental disorder and its various types
show any significant variations by so-
cial class, ecological space or time pe-
riods in a given society? (2) Can any
relationship be established between the
type of pre-morbid personality structure
and the kind of mental disturbance or
mental symptoms that a person deyel-
ops? And (3) Is the cultural organiza-
tion of society primarily selective or
causative with respeet to the differential
incidence of mental disorder within a
given buman society or between dif-
ferent human societies?”
The findings for which Dunham tie
work carried out with R, E. L. Faris)
is best known come from analyses of
the ecological distribution of first ad-
missions to state and- private hospitals
in Chicago. Dunham's principal ftind-
ings were that, taken as a whole, mental
disorder shows Nighi inerden en
" eremony, the
areas MeoUAR ee "the
central business district, with the rate
falling off in all directions toward the
more. prospetous periphery; that the
schizophrenic rates follow this same
pattern; but that the pattern for manic-
depression is much more scattered and
with a tendency for increase in areas
of relatively high social and economic
status.
As Dunham points out, the discussion
of these, and other similar, findings
raises many questions. “Are statistically
significant rate differentials between lo-
cal districts . . . actually caused by dif-
ferences in the very texture of social
life or are such rate differentials caused
merely by the selection of cases, by the
mobility of cases, by statistical manipu-
lations of the data, or by a combination
of these elements? This is a real sixty-
four-dollar question.” Dunham also men-
tions that a careful study by Hollings-
head and Redlich of cases under treat-
ment in New Haven shows that the un-
even distribution of such cases in the
social class structure is not a chance
matter. However, the Hollingshead and
Redlich study does not discover what
factors within the class structure ac-
count for the differential distribution,
and that is the crucial question. All of
this points to the need for studies of
communities that will count all cases of
psychiatric illness (not just those under
treatment) and will look for the rela-
tions between such illness and patterns
of socio-cultural integration or disinte-
gration.
LEIGHTON’S volume (and _ those
scheduled to follow it) is the report of
just such an attempt, and Leighton is
under no illusion that the relationship
is of a simple one-to-one character —
rather the entire book is a sophisticated
discussion of the problems inherent in
visualizing such relationships. His book
reports the findings of the Stirling
County Study of Psychiatrie Disorder
and Socio-Cultural Environment — an
intensive, ten-year project carried out
in several communities in Nova Scotia,
The project is conducted by Cornell
University in collaboration with the De-
partment of Public Health of the Prov-
ince of Noya Scotia.
Since the study as a whole was con-
cerned not only with research but also
with the treatment of psychiatric dis-
order, and ultimately with preventive
psychiatry, the title for the first volume
was chosen, appropriately enough, from
the text of St. Mark (5; 5,9):
“And ale |
ways, night and day, he was in the
mountains, and ‘in the tombs, crying ,
und suiting fem it ne .
bh
int
100
im
a 7 s
And [Jesus] asked him, What is thy
And he answered, saying, My
name is Legion: for we are many.”
name?
This volume is divided into. three
parts. In the first, Leighton defines
psychiatric disorder in terms of three
probable origins: psychological experi-
ence, physiological imbalances and hered-
ity. In the second part, he traces pos-
sible connections between psychiatric
disorder, viewed -as a process, and the
socio-cultural environment, also viewed
in terms of process. Out of this discus-
sion, social disintegration is suggested as
a major influence on the development of
psychiatric illnesses in the community.
The third part of the book outlines the
FS
WINTER shows few northern cities at
their best and Dublin is no exception.
For days it has been very cold and
bleak, with snow and consequent haz-
ards, but if one has recently returned
from Liverpool, as I have, Dublin seems
fair, unsullied and full of delights to the
eye and ear. Perhaps one should go to
Liverpool first in order to receive the
‘stimulus at the full. When I have the
" courage, on a fair day, I walk the couple
_of miles or so from my house in Donny-
brook to Trinity College, in the very
heart of the city, and there is always
“something new or some new effect in
the familiar. Perhaps Joyce knew what
she was about when he set himself to
effecting total recall.
Dublin is a wonderful combination of
the cosmopolitan and the provincial.
One can get about on foot very readily;
from any point of vantage you can see
the Dublin hills. Fifteen minutes’. drive
from the city and you are in rural Ire-
land, and indeed it is no novelty to see
donkey carts and pony carts trotting in-
to town from the hills to the west and
south, nor to see cattle being driven
down the sidewalk in front of a line of
semi-detached villas, most of which
sprout TV antennas. The variety, the
pageantry of a muted sort, strike one
forcibly after the uniformity of most
American cities, and Trinity College it-
self is in a sense a summation of many
LOUIS O. COXE, poet and critic, is
on the English faculty of Boredoin Col-
lege. He is the co-author of the stage
adaptation of Billy Budd. His The Mid-
dle Passage, a narrative poem of the
lave t
ey of Chicago). i
3 Ux bd
2
Ad
Dah tis «
LETTER from DUBLIN
Louis O. Coxe
rade, is published this month.
Me ae
research plan followed in the study.
It is impossible in a short review to
go into the logical development of
Leighton’s argument. Since he is. strik-
ing out mm original directions, he may
well draw fire from’ some social sci-
entists and dynamic psychiatrists. Leigh-
prove to be a
thought is
ton should, however,
worthy
sophisticated and > provocative. In ad-
dition, throughout the text, there is a
beautiful interweaving of clinical ma-
discussion. The
adversary as his
terial and conceptual
book is to be recommended in. itself,
and because it whets the appetite for
the more substantive findings that are
to be presented in later volumes.
of these contrasts. An Anglican and
Anglo-Irish enclave in this Roman Cath-
olic country, it yet includes students
from all parts of the world, from Ni-
geria to Sweden; I would guess that
there are more students from foreign
parts than native Irish; most of whom,
of course, go to the National University.
Such a quantity of students gives to
central Dublin an air of youth and
gaiety. And the Irish girls one
sees on Grafton Street! 1 read recently
a snide account of a visit to Dublin in
some English magazine. The author was
rather sniffy on the beauty of Irish
girls: it was, he pointed out, a mere
matter of hair, complexion, eyes and |
expression. As the Beats say, let’s sell
this cheap hotel, man.
BUT (a_ representative of American
Culture like myself cannot properly go
about admiring the girls, so I shall
admire an extraordinary occasion I as-
sisted at (in the French sense) a couple |
of Sunday nights ago: a poetry-reading, |
by Padraic Colum, Donagh MacDonagh
and Thomas Kinsella, at the Busarus
Theatre (capy. ca. 175). It was packed,
and the audience left reluctantly after
three solid hours of poetry and songs
played on the harp and sung by Mrs.
Yeats, the poet’s daughter-in-law. I
must confess it struck me as something
of a Tribal Rite. .Monsignor Paddy
Brown, recently retired from University.
College, Galway, introduced the poets
and in the case of Kinsella, the young-
est, provoked a round of applause when
he thanked God that another poet had
been born to Ireland. Certainly one had —
to join in the applause, for every reason, |
not the least of which is that Kinsella .
if :
io
i
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AN ANTHOLOGY
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Prose and poetry from Gorki and Tolstoy
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THE ANALECTS OF
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TOTEM AND TABOO
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THE ART OF
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By W. I. B. Beverince. “A free and uni-
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THE SONG OF
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NEW YORK
is certainly a poet, and a good one.
Donagh MacDonagh, the son of one of
the patriots of 716 whose name is im-
mortalized in Yeats’s, “Easter 1916” and
in Oliver Sheppard’s magnificent me-
morial sculpture in the General Post
Office, had a few harsh words for the
British, as one might expect of a man
whose father had been executed by
them. Padraic Colum was received with
great affection by the whole crowd,
young and old. Altogether, such an eve-
ning is so remote from American ex-
perience that only the English language,
on the ear more musical than normally,
seemed a known thing. Even at my own
lectures on American literature there has
been a good and on the whole faithful
crowd; they seem to come because they
like literature and think it worth while
to listen to talk about it. There is no
question of credits or degrees or even
of improving something, apparently.
And so the readings at the Busarus
showed me, I think, how seriously yet
how easily the Irish cherish their cul-
ture. It belongs to them, lke their
church and their past and their dead.
ONE disappointment has been theatre.
I have seen little Irish drama, new or
old, that I would call really good. This
month the universities of Ireland, in-
cluding Queens Belfast as well as, oddly,
Cardiff, are giving a drama festival at
the large Olympia Theatre — five plays
in five nights, and not one Irish, I be-
lieve. The Abbey’s season has been dull;
the only bright spot is the apparently
settled decision to commence the build-
ing of the new theatre on the site of the
old, burnt out in 1952. The Gas Com-
pany Theatre in Dun Laoghaire has
somehow managed to get the permission
of O’Casey to do one of his plays, so
perhaps one may get to see them all when
the new theatre is built, provided
O’Casey and the hierarchy don’t have
another falling-out. And John B. Keane,
the author of Sive, another kitchen
tragedy out of Kerry, has a new play
which is headed for Dublin. Perhaps
it will get beyond the stereotypes of
Sive, though I delighted in that play if
only for the talk, rare enough on the
stage these days. The students who are
interested in drama, and they are many,
seem greatly concerned for the future of
the Irish stage, and though they lust
after Adamoy and Jonesco, many seem
consciously to want to revive a national
drama that shall be both native and
yet aware of what the French and the
“Americans are doing. They get a_ bit
_ discouraged when they put on The Rose
Tattoo only to have it banned, or when
they buy tickets to see in Dublin the
eo) 4) a ae
English production of The Ginger
Man and read in the paper on_ the
morning after the opening that The
Powers have intervened and sent pornog-
raphy packing. I suppose someone has
to pay to keep Ireland pure, but the
price sometimes seems exorbitant.
Despite such drawbacks, one certainly
does not have the feeling of living in a
theocracy or a land of bigots. Nearly
anyone I meet seems to me to express
himself with ease, humor and in the
most supple of vocabularies. The Eng-
lish would call this the mere gift of gab,
but it is a gift indeed and one which
the American enured to World Basic
Grunt, can only covet. And their coun-
try and countryside seem to fit them
perfectly, as well it might with what
they have gone through to possess it.
THEATRE
Harold Clurman
IN Friedrich Duerrenmatt’s brilliantly
synthetic play The Visit (City Center)
the lady who is its prime mover says
“The world made a whore of me, so I
am turning the world into a brothel.”
Jean Genét’s brothel in The Balcony
(Cirele-in-the-Square) is a house of mir-
rors, a temple of illusion, one might say
art itself, where things are truer than
life. In this brothel—where there is more
obscenity than sex—acts turn in on
themselves (as in art) and thus achieve
a certain purity. They have no practical
consequence. What the brothel does is
give men a presentment of their dreams
in their essential meaning. The patron
who impersonates a bishop realizes and
enjoys the cruelty which is at the root
of his absolution, the “judge” his kin-
ship with the criminal, the “general” his
taste for command.
The ambitious of the world also aspire
toward the glorification or perfection of
image which is the service the brothel
performs. The workers of the world are
in revolt. The brothel alone seems pro-
tected. The revolution is drowned in
blood. When its leader comes to the
brothel it is to become the glorified
simulacrum of his captors and rulers—
and he castrates himself in doing so, The
dictator (the chief of police) becomes
the new Hero—dominating even legiti-
mate royalty and the lords of religion,
justice, war. This Hero—vulgarian with-
cout aceredited linage—who has always
yearned to become a great figure in the
brothel’s galaxy—need no longer ‘do the
work which has rai sed im to power,
Having established hin sell fan A diy
a
people’s faces in the mud with their or-
gastic consent, he will now rule by his
legend alone—the aura of grandeur
which the art-institution of the brothel
has given him. Some people still remem-
ber their moment of revolt, secretly
murmuring “the rebellion was wonder-
ful’—so that despite their defeat they
may some day rise again.
Is this confused? Not very. Genét’s
construction is nightmarish, perverse
and chaotic as are the creations of our
fantasies, but like them it has its own
illuminating vividness, its lurid clarity
and a language—as intensely solid as a
classic—which gives the play a substance
that cuts through the darkness. Since
Genét has lived his nightmare and. has
withal a certain artistic grip on it, he is
genuine poet, whereas Duerrenmatt who
is only terribly clever is not.
The Visit is clearer—an anti-capital-
ist parable without real commitment
because it is without real identification
—a work of shrewd manipulation of
materials other writers have originated.
The Balcony has its obscurities—no ex-
planatory gloss will elucidate its every
metaphorical twist—but in this it re-
sembles every true work of art; true art
always retains a certain elusiveness be-
cause the emanations of the artist’s un-
conscious project beyond the control of
his will.
ALL this does not mean either that I
“agree” with Genét or that I consider
him a great dramatist. It means that I
recognize that he exists in a creative
sphere which the more practicable Duer-
renmatt does not enter. I suspect that
Genét belongs to a category of artists
who, while marginal to the mainstream
of major work (that which possesses
great duration and broad applicability),
retain a certain symbolic significance for
their time. Such artists act as a ferment,
giving rise to what may be described as
a salutary disease—through which we
recognize what is happening in and
troubling the epoch. These artists do
not reveal the world as it is or we as we
truly are: they isolate and bring. into
view the symptoms which threaten us,
They are portents and protests. Hence
their value—for in art everything must
be said, everyone must be heard. To feel
and understand what is ailing us is
more curative than the balm of the
bland entertainers or the engaged propa-
gandists.
France has produced more such art+
ists perhaps than any other modern |
nation. De Sade, Huysmans, Lautréa-
mont, Jarry, Laforgue, Artaud, maybe,
even Rimbaud, not to mention ce
other of our contemporaries in’ P ris
«
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i
nol
fro
the
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fi
pa
req
bet
= £-pB
Sf > BSB Bs S&B S88 2 SS
, eer. ae rie.
_ novelists, playwrights, poets, painters—
_ belong to this special artistic manifesta-
_ tion. America is too young for important
artists of this sort to emerge. When they
appear here they usually seem imitative
or phony—bad boys aping mythical
monsters. It is true that we are begin-
ning to be so infected, but the circum-
stances which make a Genét authentic
are still a bit remote. So The Balcony
is mostly an oddity with us, a side-show
novelty.
If José Quintero’s production is far
from being an organic embodiment of
the play, one must at least credit it with
earnestness of effort in a supremely dif-
ficult task. Resources beyond the ca-
pacity of any American management are
required. (I have heard that there have
been some excellent productions in Ger-
many.) The present production is dis-
tinctly superior to the one I saw in Lon-
don in 1957. Nancy Marchand here
plays with authority and _ intelligence.
_ Salomé Jens is attractive with the am-
_ biguous glow needed for the occasion,
; and David Hays as designer is appro-
priately inventive within the limited
means available. The cast as a whole
plays arduously. But one regrets the
_ Opportunity missed to make the pro-
?
_ duction as hauntingly alluring and
gravely demoniac as it might be.
IN THE meantime on Broadway Frank
Loesser with Greenwillow (Alvin The-
_ atre) offers some pleasant tunes, nice
sets, cute choreography and an agreeable
cast (Anthony Perkins, Cecil Kellaway)
in the kind of pseudo-idyllic Americana
_ to which I fear I am congenitally allergic.
ART
Z
Maurice Grosser
UNDER the title 4 Change of Sky,
the American Academy of Arts and
Letters is showing through April 3 —
along with a similar literary exhibition
‘— some seventy-five American pictures
chosen for having been painted abroad.
The works range in time and kind from
a sentimental Savoyard Boy, done in
he Hague by Eastman Johnson in
1853, to an abstract Forms on a Table
by Patrick Henry Bruce, painted in Paris
in 1930 in the primary colored Dutch-
style cubism that was so fashionable
that year. cya
_As is normal enough in any exposi-
a
tion on a theme, the qual
pictures varies enormously
credit side, there is one of the
1e Ma ts, on loan
i
+.
est
Theodore Robinson "te
m Bos- ley cae stem
ton; a charming Maurice Stern of 1903
of ladies and merrymakers on Bastille
Day in Paris without any of Stern’s
later linear hardness; fine landscapes by
Twachtman, Charles A. Platt and In-
ness; some masterful Duvenecks; an un-
expectedly excellent Eilshemius from
Samoa; two brilliantly colored Haitian
scenes by Gifford Beal; an even more
brilliant Cubist still life by Alfred
Maurer; the least conventionalized
Arthur B. Davies I have seen — a wide
angle landscape of Italian hill-town and
valley; an enchanting John La Farge of
lagoon and palm-covered atoll with
wading fisherman; and a beautiful water
color by Maurice Prendergast of the
Piazza San Marco, with flags, in a rep-
resentational style quite different from
the work of his I know. On the debit
side are several of the less interesting
early Winslow Homer English seacoast
water colors; a painted, gilded and in-
cised decorative gesso panel by Charles
(not Maurice) Prendergast, quite with-
out quality; a vulgar, if entertaining,
Elihu Vedder of Roman Maidens in pre-
Raphaelite Greek draperies, bathing and
cavorting on a strand; and an equally
vulgar but just as diverting work by
Robert F. Blum — a Japanese street
scene with candy vendor and children,
painted in picayune detail and framed
in a filagree of gold lacework — the
show’s one example of the 1880 French
salon style.
AS this array of pictures painted
abroad serves to demonstrate, there are
two distinct reasons why painters travel:
Either they go to Europe as students,
to learn the trade; or, as mature ar-
tists, they travel the world in search of
the picturesque. The first reason is the
more decisive. The early training a
painter receives determines both his
stylistic advantages and the level of his
professional competence. Perhaps the
most revealing thing to know about any
painter is where he went to school.
Take Duveneck for an example. His
training in a Munich that specialized
in old-master technique (of glazes, var-
nish medium, with rich, brown, trans-
parent shadows on a tinted ground) for-
ever formed his painting manner. In-
ness’ work as a young man in the school
of Daubigny was responsible for his
pre-Impressionist, atmospheric _ style.
Whistler’s Japanese and Manet influ-
ences were acquired is student days
in France where als ;
oung people,
| Mary Cassatt
became real Impressi on and Alfred
Maurer a real Cubist. ‘And Marsden
of Hartley’s bright tones and massive
from the |
7
Ree ee
ys
Be oat apie
Paes ee ee aes
Fauvism and Expressionism he encoun-
tered as a young man in France and j
Germany. Whereas Elihu Vedder would oe
probably not have undertaken his high-
ly literary allegories, nor would he have
executed them in so stringy and linear
a style, had he not studied in Italy — ;
in his day, as far as painting went, the oh
most provincial of the major European
countries.
Traveling for subject matter has much
less influence on the painter. When John m.
La Farge went to Samoa, it was for sit
subject matter alone. He was already a
formed painter with a water-color man-
ner acquired at home by making sketch- na
es for stained glass windows. But this a
training was provincial and insufficient.
And despite his pictures’ extraordinary el
charm, they are sadly lacking in pro-
fessional quality, and the one oil on dis-
play here is quite inept. Maurice Stern
II-N.Y. Drama
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went for exotic subject matter to Bali,
Italy, and elsewhere. But being Paris-
trained, he painted it all in the char-
acteristic manner of the Cézanne-influ-
enced Ecole de Paris of the twenties.
In the same way, Guy Peéne du Bois
But the man-
nerisms of figure drawing in_his_ pic-
tures here shown demonstrate that the
painter was really New York-trained.
His ball-headed and_ cylinder-bodied
personages derive from a literal interpre-
tation of Cézanne’s dictum that all
forms can be analyzed into combinations
of cylinder, cube and sphere — a limited
view which formed the basis of a man-
nerism much in favor in New York
when du Bois was a student.
went to paint in France.
Perhaps it matters less today where
a painter goes to school, since every-
where in the world the student has
available to him identical instruction in
modern art. But I suspect that this in-
struction is itself a course in mannerism.
At any rate, though the basic patterns
originated in Paris some fifty years ago,
it is now from everywhere but Paris
that they are coming back to take us
all by storm. And, as the pictures in
this exposition illustrate, there is a
fundamental difference between the
professional traditions handed down in
the great painting centers, and the
rather narrow range of mannerisms
taught and cherished elsewhere. If 1]
were a young painter intent on learning
my trade, I would
where the most pictures were being made
and sold and where the greatest variety
of techniques and traditions were avail-
able — in Paris, or in New York per-
haps, but not in Rome or Venice or Ann
Arbor.
prefer to study it
THE MUSEUM OF PRIMITIVE ART
is holding until May 8 an exhibition of
African sculpture — masks and figures
from Bambara in the Western Sudan.
There are seated personages, here called
Queens on account of their very real
dignity, masks worn in initiation so-
cicties, wooden headdresses carved in
variations on antelope motifs, and cer-
emonial objects covered with thick but
now deodorized crusts of what the
catalogue terms a “sacrificial patena,”
composed in all probability of the three
basic magical substances — semen, blood
and spit. It is a fine show and well
worth visiting. The objects themselves
are impressive examples of primitive
art. And, unlike what I have remarked
in other exhibits here, the pieces seem
to be shown more for their ethnological
and human interest, than for their more
questionable value as naive prototypes
of the contemporary abstract styles,
284
D2 wary ba Dak bs
FILMS
Robert Hatch
BY FAR the most successful of the
Japanese films that have been shown
in series in New York this winter is
Akira Kurosawa’s [kirw (variously trans-
lated as “To Live!” and “Doomed’’).
The last in the sequence of films offered,
it has settled down. to one of those
very profitable art theatre runs.
The reasons for this are clear. First,
insofar as any Japanese director has a
“name” in America, Kurosawa has one
— for Rashomon and The Seven Samu-
rai. Second, /kirw is a powerful, beauti-
fully conceived and constructed. film.
And third, it raises no barrier of culture
or tradition to baffle our audience.
An aging government clerk, who has
wasted his adult life in the paper-passing
of bureaucratic inaction, learns that he
will die in six months. Death is an idea
he can bear, but the realization that he
has never lived overwhelms him. He
sets out, ill, timid, without experience,
to make good that lack in the time left.
A raffish but hamane bohemian hack
initiates him into the commercial fun
of Tokyo’s night life. The old man en-
joys himself, but dissipation is not what
he seeks. He attaches himself to the
young warmth of a girl who offers
initial puppy amiability but is soon con-
fused and bored. Finally, he recalls a
petition for a small playground in a
bleak slum that has for months been
shuttling hopelessly through the bureaus.
He determines to get that project built
in the weeks left to him.
In a postscript, a long postscript, the
old man’s associates gather ‘at his wake
and recall his. startling, his appalling
persistence in the face of official indil-
ference and in defiance of hieratic proto-
col. They say he shamed them, but as
they grow drunker they say also that
he was a hero. They become excited,
reborn. in wine; the playground he
achieved shall be their symbol in a great
revolution of public service. But in the
morning they are sober and nothing will
change. Only a dying man would take
the giddy chances involved in action.
This is not only a moving and under-
standable tale, it is even a familiar one
— Emil Jannings is the key allusion
and Kurosawa’s picture recalls power-
fully the German social films of post-
World War I. The cringing courage of
the old man, the cold impatience of his
up-and-coming son, the Beanslc friend
as though drawn. by Beardsley, the
strident vulgarity of fee night world,
the fast cutting for bi ‘ts pat the
symbolic realism, the pitiful details of
the hero’s personal habits, the eyeglass-
glinting arrogance of authority, the
retching: drunken heroics — they all “
the ghosts of UFA. Jkirw is no copy:
1S cee too vibrant and individual to
be so: demeaned. But it 1s, by a curious
trick of historical parallels, a major work
in an impressive school that disbanded
forty years ago.
JAPANESE picture making is going to
play an increasing part in the world’s
screen art, and we need to know some-
thing of its background. The Japanese
Film, by Joseph Anderson and Donald
Richie (Tuttle), is a history as valuable
as Paul Rotha’s The Film Till Now. It
shares with that famous book the virtue
that, whereas one turns to it most often
for facts, one is trapped time and again
into reading it for pleasure.
I DON’T KNOW how long ago Ingmar
Bergman made A Lesson in Love, but he
has come quite a distance since then.
Not that the picture is a bad example of
its type, but it is almost ludicrously an
example. The faintly naughty comedy
which is really quite proper because the
two erotically belligerent principals are
married all the time is an early and en-
during. device to keep expensive studio
space profitably employed. Bergman
serves it up with enough knockabout
brawls, funny coincidences, — amorous
susceptibilities, prat laughs and moist
sentiment to obscure the fact that the
characters come, not from life, but from
comic valentines. Being Bergman, he
also serves it up in flashbacks. These
serve to show what responsibilities pull
on the adulterous couple, and what
shared memories of dalhance trick their
warring bodies into concessions of affee-
tion. Some of the recollections — par-
ticularly those giving prominence to an
endearingly miserable tomboy daughter
(Harriet Andersson) are charming,
but the cut and jump technique damps
the excitement of the pell-mell obstacle
race to the bed of reconciliation,
It is a little startling to find Eva Dahl-
beck and Gunnar Bjornstrand, who have
since become important vehicles of the
great man’s brooding talent, employed
in this extravagent romping, and in
truth they look as though they knew
they were marked for loftier work
a little tight around the mouth, a little
stiff at the kicking up of heels. However,
A Lesson in Love will pass the time cheer-
fully, though I advise a quick exit dur-
ing the last scene, Bergman signs the
piece with a bit of symbolism — a small
child dressed in cupid wings and carry-
ing a bow—=that monstrously foretells
his infatuation with visual me
Crossword Puzzle No. 860 |
By FRANK W. LEWIS
10
11
13
14
16
17
19
20
(22
23
=?
o
E
2
ACROSS:
Not the author of “Genevieve” or
“Parnassus on Wheels”—one is self-
limned. (14)
Husbands might quarrel with their
wives so! (It’s no way to maintain
your balance.) (12)
With a broken pencil or so, it might
have grave implications. (10)
Not in order to get a portion of
vanilla ice cream! (4)
Perhaps a Louisville Slugger is used
in self-defense. (6)
This rice is associated with Roger
Ackroyd. (8)
The condescending manner of
French with a double gin flip? (8)
Central vein. (6)
Carol brings his head in. (4)
Acting this confused, the conclu-
sion could be ironic. (10)
Did Tennyson to the 600, invoking
a certain amount of interest. (6,6)
Blue feathers mixed with the trash?
(4, 2, 3, 5)
DOWN:
Near the match, in part and in toto?
(6, 3, 5)
Not an 11 control of govemmient,
but it might make a catcher toil.
(12)
h 20 ad
3 Brahmins might confuse the coun-
try with the head man traveling
around. (10)
4 It seems to be a badly tailored robe
that finally goes on the king! (6)
5 Cars usually don’t go on it. (3,5)
6 Such vessels might be easily shot
up. (4)
7 Early settlers gathered at the bot-
tom. (14)
9 One might be used to pound cake
mixture in very light form. (9, 3
12 Did his mine have a reduced out-
put? (10)
15 This certainly isn’t called for! (8)
18 Unpleasant sensation the
might be responsible for. (6)
21 Press club, perhaps. (4)
sewer
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 859
ACROSS: 1 Stepping stone; 10 Tat-
toos; 11 Opening; 12 (Centrally; 13
Tahoe; 16 Marigold; 19 Outlived; 20
Passes; 22 Conga; 23 Iterative; 25
Mailing; 26 Cresset; 27 Uninteresting.
DOWN: 2 Titan; 3 Procrastination; 4
Insult; 5 Goodyear; 6 Theatrical agent;
7 Neighbors; 8 Staccato; 9 Ogee; 15
Retention; 17 Desserts; 18 Meringue;
2 Rescue; 22 and 14 Come across; 24
Ibsen,
=
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TRAINING THE “=~ |
NUCLEAR WARRIOR 8
A Manual for ‘Level 7’
Mordecai Roshwald
CAN YOUR COPILOT FLY?
Karl M. Ruppenthal
DIME STORES and DIGNITY
A Southerner Views the Sit-Ins
«
James McBride Dabbs
LETTERS
Gov. Williams on Peace
Dear Sirs: Your editorial, “The Candi-
dates and a Politics of Peace,” (The
Nation, February 6) should be on the
Required Reading List of every aspirant
for public office in 1960.
Peace is indeed the number one prob-
lem of our time. The politics of the
atomic age demand frank debate of the
peace issue in the context of specific
proposals: Increased aid for India, a
disarmament plan, an immediate A-
bomb ban, recognition of Communist
China—these are the stuff of a realistic
program for peace.
The great political challenge of the
months ahead is the dramatization of
the peace issue. People say, “But peace
should be bipartisan.” Well, I believe
that while the dramatization of peace
as an imperative should be bipartisan,
the peace proposals themselves should
not and cannot be bipartisan. The open-
air thrashing out of alternatives is
democracy’s formula for coping with the
complexities of the peace problem. We
should welcome rather than fear honest
advocacy of alternative routes to the
abolition of force as an instrument of
world order.
G. Mennen WILLIAMS
Governor, Michigan
Lansing, Mich.
Patient Lecturer or...
Dear Sirs: Mr. Trimble’s review |Feb.
20| of Morton Feldman’s Atlantis, re-
cently performed at the Music in Our
Time series, may be well taken. At any
rate I am in no position to take issue
with it. His account of the forum that
followed, however, struck me as rather
curious. According to him, a “deeply
serious and interested audience” display-
ed its eagerness to learn about con-
temporary music from the lips of the
composers. Mr. Feldman, he complains,
wanted only to “play with the audience
like a cat with a mouse,” “to confuse
and obfuscate” his listeners. ...
Having been present at the forum,
I must evince my surprisé at this
description. The group of people as-
sembled were emotional and even hys-
terical at having heard something they
did not understand. Their questions be-
came increasingly angry and _ personal,
verging at times on insult. The com-
poser’s answers, on the other hand, re-
mained calm, precise and to the point.
Kare NickERSON
New York City
ad UALS ass se
..- Patient Audience?
Dear Sirs: Does Miss Nickerson recall a
middle-aged couple who spent seven
minutes trying to find out how per-
formers in another city could know what
Mr. Feldman wanted them to do about
some aspects of his semi-accidental mu-
sic if he was not there to instruct them?
Finally the answer did come: directions
were written in the score. Does taking
seven minutes to give such a simple
answer constitute speaking precisely and
to the point? And before this answer
came, a number of conflicting ideas, in-
cluding the opposite of the final answer,
went ’round and ’round.
As for the composer’s calm demeanor,
I submit that in such cases, it is always
more effective to whisper than to shout.
Lester TRIMBLE
New York City
Helping the Sit-Ins
Dear Sirs: As a French student attend-
ing school in Nashville, Tennessee, I
have followed the lunch-counter demon-
strations and trials with great interest.
All of us ought to ask ourselves: “How
can I help these young courageous
Christians?” The following are some
suggestions:
I. We can talk to everyone with
whom we come in contact regarding
the goals at stake.
2. We can write or telegraph to
friends; to the district and main offices
of the chain stores involved; to editors;
to city, state and national officials, in-
cluding the 1960 candidates. In con-
junction with these letters, we can ap-
peal for financial assistance for the
students (checks and money orders
should be made out ‘to: Nashville
Christian Leadership Council, First
Baptist Church, 319 8th Ave. No.,
Nashville, Tenn.).
3. We can urge everyone to vote for
candidates who will actively support the
democratic ideals for which the student
sit-ins are fighting.
Micurer W. Kitpare
Nashville, Tenn.
See article by James McBride Dabbs
on page 289 of this isswe. — Eb.
In Defense of Dr. King
Dear Sirs: In the course of the wave of
student sit-ins inspired by Dr. Martin
Luther King’s philosophy of non-violent
direct action, the state of Alabama has
indicted the well-known Negro leader on
tax charges. The indictment, be it noted,
came shortly after the Southern Chris-
‘
i
a @
e : if “—_ ,
At
tian Leadership Conference, of which Dr.
King is president, and the NAACP had
announced a crusade to bring a million
new Negro voters to the polls for the
1960 Presidential elections. Thus the
indictment appears fortuitously timed
not to demoralize the student protest
_ movement, but to wreck the Southern
Negro voting drive.
In the conviction that the defense of
(Continued on page 297)
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
285 @
ARTICLES
287 @® Training the Nuclear Warrior:
A Manual for “Level 7”
by MORDECAL ROSHWALD
289 @ Dime Stores and Dignity
by JAMES McBRIDE DABBS
291 '® Can Your Copilot Fly?
by KARL M. RUPPENTHAL
293 '@ Seas, Poles and Outer Space
by HOWARD J. TAUBENFELD
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
298 @ The Sins of Biography
by VIVIAN MERCINR
298 '® Sun and Shadows (poem)
by HILARY CORKE
When We Were Young and Poor
by BENJAMIN DeMOTT
Perpetuum Mobile (poem)
by ROBERT BLY and
CHRISTINA BRATT DUPFY
The Near-Sighted Maverick
by GEORGE A, SILVER, M.D.
Art
by FAIRFIELD PORTER
Architecture
by WALTER McQUADE
Music
by LESTER TRIMBLE
Where the Man Most Was
(poem)
by ALEXANDER LAING
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 304)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
AON
= George G. Kirstein, Publisher
e
=
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2
;
299 ®
300 '@
301 @
301 @
302 @
303 ®@
304 @
Carey McWilliams, Wditor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Editor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Music
Alexander Werth, Wuropean
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, Apr. 2, 1960. Vol, 190, No, 14
The Nation published weekly (except for omis-
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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 14
THE
NATION
EDITORIALS
The Peace Gap
Most of the talk about nuclear defense and survival
is nonsense, for the simple reason that the speakers
have been unable to adjust to the enormity of nuclear
weapons and, while spicing their discourse with kilotons
this and megatons that, are really thinking and feeling
in terms of the TNT bombs of World War II (which
were quite bad enough). Now and then, however, one
of our publicists does some hard thinking before he gets
up to talk, and what he says shows it. This was the case
with Governor Robert B. Meyner of New Jersey when
he addressed a Democratic Juncheon at Los Angeles on
March 18. The speech almost synchronized with the
abandonment by Governor Rockefeller of his proposal
for the compulsory building of fallout shelters in New
York. It followed by a few days the disclosure of the
plunge of an aberrant Matador missile into the Formosa
Strait. The missile could just as well have fallen on the
‘China mainland; in that case, Governor Meyner’s ob-
_ servations might have come too late.
_. How would you feel, the Governor asked his West
‘Coast audience, if you learned that Communist China
had gained possession of the ultimate weapon? The
policy of the nuclear deterrent has holes in it already,
the said, but it loses all meaning when applied to a
“country which, though the most populous in the world,
is far less Guibstable to nuclear attack than we are.
If there is any way of forestalling the development of
uclear weapons by the Chinese, it is in the American
interest to act on it. This we have not done.
Governor Meyner believes that the Soviet Union is
no more eager to see nuclear weapons in Chinese hands
than we are. This might account, in part, for the fact
that the Soviet leaders have been so active in seeking
an agreement to ban tests. The United States has not
taken advantage of this opportunity. The Governor
pointed out that at the London arms-control talks in
1957, at which Governor Stassen represented the United
States, such an agreement could have been reached.
‘“At London,” Mr. Meyner ae “Governor Stassen
n lade ERO ae progress. .. . But as soon as he was
paver of paclieliie pa could have been an
t
a
historic agreement, he was pulled out... and given a
new set of instructions . . . to attach other conditions
which it was certain the Russians would not accept.
The size of that blunder is incalculable.” In Meyner’s
estimation, the blunder may be repeated: “Now that
the Russians are coming around, now that they have
withdrawn their objections to many of our proposals
for inspection, we are shifting our ground. It is begin-
ning to sound like the London talks again. And I
wonder whether Mr. Wadsworth is being Stassenized.”
Senator Symington and other panel alarmists
have popularized the “missile gap.” Gaps are created
by missed opportunities. In effect, Governor Meyner is
calling attention to the If the Governor
will keep on doing this, and Americans have retained
their political sense, it will be easier to bridge the peace
gap than the missile gap, and more ‘rewarding by far.
“peace gap.”
Shufflin’ Sam and Ole’ Doc Teller
Like the Midwest vagrant whose conviction was re-
versed by the Supreme Court, the disarmament confer-
ence is merely shuffling along. And yet, though the pace
must be disappointing to those who expected a dis-
armament agreement before the delegates had quite
hung up their hats, the present shuffling in Geneva is
decidedly less tedious than on earlier occasions of the
sort. Where last year the foreign ministers locked horns
for a week over the shape of the table and the order
of seating, Messrs. Fredrick M. Jaton and Valerian A.
Zorin and their respective advocates and protocol ex-
perts simply sat themselves down at a rectangular table
in alphabetical order, using, without Soviet protest, the
English names of their countries. Each day the delega-
tions move around by one space as the chair rotates.
The Canadians sit placidly between the Bulgarians and
Czechs. They are all going to sit for a long time and
they know it: Mr. Eaton is reported to be looking for
a Swiss school for his children. With a ten-minute limit
on speeches, there were no harangues at the opening
and there have been few since; apparently there is a
correlation between vitriol and length. Each side has a
three-phase plan and the initial discussion was whether
wwoae ~*~ sn Hit
Camo
Bm)
.
ee ee ee
“c
“general and complete” was the same as “general and
comprehensive.” Mr. Zorin abandoned “general and
complete” and the conference went on.
The nuclear-test suspension conference, likewise sited
at Geneva, went on also and Dr. Edward Teller, the
proud father of the hydrogen bomb and eminent foot-
dragger on international agreement, was at the old stand.
He called a press conference in San Francisco and de-
clared that for the first time he was departing from
scientific tradition by stating his conclusions before
revealing his data. “Our present methods of underground
detection,” Dr. Teller told the reporters, “looks really
inadequate now.” Such blasts could be muffled—‘“de-
coupled”—by setting them off in a nice round hole a
few hundred feet in diameter, and seismic techniques
could not detect them. Dr. Teller pointed with alarm
to the 200-, 300-, perhaps even 500-foot holes that must
exist in the Soviet Union and the resulting peril to the
United States which, week after week, postpones the
tests so urgently needed for its survival and Dr. Teller’s
continued eminence as a savant and statesman. But,
strangely, even in his own ball park the San Francisco
Chronicle gave Doc only a modest play, and the rest
of the press handed him about as much space as the
groundhog gets when he comes out to look for his
shadow. Apparently Doc has finally decoupled himself.
Meanwhile, in Geneva, the conferees in both conferences
continued to confer, shuffling along slowly but, it would
seem, ineluctably.
Something of Value
Approximately 160 undergraduate newspapers are
currently publishing a weekly column called, variously,
“Lynn Swann Speaks About LIFE,” “Frank Deford
Looks at LIFE,” “Through LIFE With John Moore,”
“Chuck Klopf Looks at LIFE,” “Russel Clem Looks at
LIFE,” etc. The person named in each case is a campus
“Journalist” who, from now until the end of the school
year, will get $20 a week from the Luce organization
for reading the current Life and putting his by-line — in
large type — over a column in which he tells his fellow-
students how great an issue it is. Lynn Swann, a work-
man worthy of her hire, puts it this way: “Get the most
out of LIFE. Not only is the weekly magazine enter-
taining, but it can be helpful in studies as well. You'll
find that quotes and facts from LIFE will add ‘life’ to
the otherwise dull reports. Besides, reading LIFE is
- fun.” Miss Swann’s column, which goes on to say what
_ a dandy issue Life got out under date of March 21, ap-
pears in the Texas Christian Skiff next to a story that
- announces in the headline that the university’s New
_ Philosophy will “Endorse High Ideals, Broaden Goals.”
A few of the institutions whose student papers are
lending their pages to this campaign are Rochester,
Princeton, Tulane, Arkansas, Virginia, Iowa Bike,
a
Smith,
; Ages vse
na ere ray Piro, ae ae
*
Cs
spending a lot on it — some $3,200 a week for editorial
fees, plus advertising space rates in the papers. But then
it is buying a lot of fresh, young enthusiasm. What this
campaign teaches (in addition to the message that Life
is great fun and good for your grades) is that the criti-
cal judgment of some youth may be bought for twenty
bucks.
It is a lesson that should be driven home as early as
possible, before the personality has had time to freeze
into an attitude of self-respect. Recently, the Old Crow
whiskey people offered McKinley Kantor $2,500 (that’s
125 times $20) to sign a paragraph praising their
liquor. Mr. Kantor replied that he sure liked the
whiskey, but had a prejudice against signing his name
to another man’s words (Robert Ruark, author of
Something of Value, took the pen from Mr. Kantor’s
squeamish fingers and signed with a flourish).
The boys and girls whom Life has hooked are not apt
to pass up that kind of easy money from any feeling
of jealousy for their good names. They will graduate
from writing endorsements for Life to signing encomia
for beauty creams, salad dressings, automobiles, winter
resorts, mattresses and toilet paper (many of which
statements will appear in the advertising pages of Life,
so that eventually that foxy publication will get its
money back a hundredfold). As these boys and girls
grow older and fatter, the rental fees for their names
will become larger and larger. Any girl in Times Square
will tell you that in her trade it works just the other
way around,
*
The Chilean ‘Note’
The following news item has not yet appeared in the
world press — but it may, and soon:
Late yesterday the State Department released the full
text of the recent Chilean note. It reads: “Chile deplores
violence in all its forms and hopes that the Negro people
of Alabama will be able to obtain redress of their legiti-
mate grievances by peaceful means. While the Republic
of Chile, as a matter of practice, does not ordinarily com-
ment on the internal affairs of governments with which it
enjoys normal relations, it cannot help but regret the
tragic loss of life resulting from the measures taken against
the demonstrators in Montgomery, Alabama.”
If the text sounds vaguely familiar to the reader, it
is because it is a paraphrase of the statement recently
issued by the State Department concerning recent
events in South Africa.
No similar events have yet occurred in Montgomery,
Alabama — and there is still time to see that they don’t.
i they could easily occur, and the same obloquy will |
descend! upon us that the Afrikaners of South
in the deep South -— whiob is: di ihe 4 im: til
wnt tan fl if
ni ,
’
Wisconsin, Pendieglvan'a, OkGinema: ee is
=;
live with. Unless there is an early | s
— or the federal government can assert its authority,
bloodshed will occur and the United States will receive
remonstrations, not utter them. American Negroes are
no longer willing to remain second-class, voteless, segre-
gated citizens. Their protest is peaceable, but that will
not avail them. Governor John Patterson of Alabama
warned, “If they keep this up, they’re going to find
what they are looking for — which is trouble. . . . If
they keep on, somebody will be getting killed. And it is
our sworn duty to prevent this.”
His idea of his sworn duty is to allow the Montgomery
police to deputize armed horsemen who, the Governor
says, are
the wealthy cattlemen living in this area.” He offered
this inside view of the gubernatorial mind to Robert
S. Bird of the New York Herald Tribune, whose con-
clusion was that “Montgomery is now under hard police
control . . . but incidents will continue, for neither side
can back down... and eventually, most white citizens
believe, sporadic violence will break out.” The violence
may not be sporadic, and “eventually” may be all too
soon, [See “Dime Stores and Dignity,” by James
McBride Dabbs, on page 289 of this issue. |
“men of very fine reputation, most of them
A Passion for Legality
If all laws governing campaign contributions were
strictly enforced, most candidates for office would have
to organize pencil-selling brigades. This is a fact —
however unacceptable — of American political life that
everyone, unfortunately, accepts; so rarely does a
prosecution arise under the laws that when it does, there
| _—_ is legitimate room for speculation as to why somebody
f has been seized so suddenly with a passion for legality.
One of the laws in question is a provision of the Taft-
_ Hartley Act under which unions may contribute to local
| and state candidates, but not to federal. The device
employed by most unions to get around the provision
is to contribute to a local candidate with the under-
standing that a portion will be relayed to a federal
aspirant. But Harold J. Gibbons, who besides being
vice president of the Teamsters is head of Teamster
Locals 688 and 405 in St. Louis, disdained such sub-
terfuges. Instead, he got 60 per cent of his membership
voluntarily to pledge 35 cents a month each to a special
political fund out of which — it is now alleged — cer-
tain monies were paid to Congressional candidates. The
plan is not new. A federal grand jury looked into it in
1954 and saw nothing wrong. Even the McClellan
committee which, with tongue sharper than a serpent’s
tooth, commented at great length upon the iniquities
of Hoffa and the Teamsters, failed to say anything
about the practice.
Now, at long last, the Department of Justice has
gotten around to indicting Gibbons for violation of the
provision. Has Gibbons become a bigger target since
1954 and 1958 — or merely a more useful one? After
all, we are on the eve of a national election, and what
better way for the Administration to warn labor to
walk warily during the campaign than to crack down on
a union which is in public disrepute anyway? The
temptation for the conservative Administration must
have been all the greater considering some of the al-
leged beneficiaries of Gibbons’ donations: Senators
Morse and Hennings and Congressmen Roosevelt and
Reuss — all Democrats and all liberals. What a way
for a rackets-ridden, anti-social union to act!
It’s all very embarrassing, and especially for the AFL-
CIO, which up to now has been taking the position
that anything that hurts the Teamsters benefits labor.
Perhaps its leadership will see a little more clearly now
what some of us have been saying for a long time: the
harassment of the Teamsters has been motivated not
by a passion for purity, but by a spleen against labor.
A MANUAL FOR ‘LEVEL 7’
Training the Nuclear Warrior . . Mordecai Roshwald
- « ‘ 2
FROM Plato’s Republic:
Don’t you think then, said I, that,
for the purpose of keeping guard, a
young man should have much the
same temperament and qualities as
a well-bred watch-dog? I mean, for
- MORDECAI ROSH WALD, \anthor
of the recently published Taeal 7
se Sut ill), teaches at the Uni-
Minnesota. Petia
‘ It is not z
instance, that both must have quick
senses to detect an enemy, swiftness
in pursuing him, and strength, if they
have to fight when they have caught
him. ‘
Wes... -
Then, Glaucon, — ow are men of
thatinatural or, to be kept
Eaciusly to one
y
— from behaving |
another and_
countrymen?
C all
Cr
a
hae
And yet they must be gentle to
their own people and dangerous only
to enemies; otherwise they will de
stroy themselves without waiting |
others destroy them. ,
True. Ff
What are we to do, then? If gentle-,
ness and high temper are contraries
where shall we find a character to
combine them? Both are necessary t
make a good Guardian, but it seems
they are incompatible... . :
Tt looks like it.
oo *k k
. They are to be found in ani-
mals, and not least in the kind we
compared to our Guardian. Well-bred
dogs, as you know, are by instinct
perfectly gentle to people whom they
know and are accustomed to, and
fierce to strangers. So the combina-
tion of qualities we require for our
Guardian is, after all, possible and
not against nature.
These passages could serve as the
guiding principles for a present-day
trainer of commandos, marines and
shock-troops of sorts. It is doubtful
whether they are of much use for the
training of military personnel in the
age of nuclear push-button war.
LET’S have a closer look at the
military personnel of the present and
the near future. Whether manning
an airplane with an H-bomb, or a
ballistic-missile base, or a nuclear
submarine with sixteen Polaris mis-
siles, the men have hardly any
chance of seeing the enemy, still less
of baring their teeth and barking at
: him. Our modern Guardians are
ai well enclosed in kennels — whether
stationary, floating or flying.
Of course, one can visualize the
enemy without seeing him. As a mat-
ter of fact, it may be easier (in the
case of human beings, if not of dogs)
a to arouse hatred of an_ invisible
cs enemy than of a tangible one. One
ie can always depict the other side as
ey consisting of one-eyed Cyclopses,
baby-eaters, devil’s disciples, not to
speak of atheists and nihilists (or
tyrants of Wall Street, as the case
may be). Yet, I contend that in the
dawning age (or maybe it is already
late in the morning) of nuclear push-
button war, such conditioning would
be quite dangerous.
For, if the enemy is so fiercely
hated, some energetic airmen, or sub-
marine crew, are likely to’ want to
_ do away with him. With the perfec-
- tion of the means of delivery of the
~ nuclear bombs, this is bound to be-
come increasingly easy. A few angry
-men might start off an atomic world
disaster. To prevent such a devel-
opment, the psychologists respon-
sible for the training — or, as they
put it, conditioning — of today’s
Guardians must bear this in mind
and refrain from making the de-
is nf
a a Oe ae 8
fense personnel hostile to the enemy.
Yet, if the personnel is not hostile
to the enemy, how is it going to be
ready to destroy him by the mil-
lions? If there is any logic in the
emotional make-up of normal human
beings, an act of unprecedented de-
struction must be based on a great
amount of hostility.
Moreover, this hostility must not
be limited to the enemy: it must in-
clude one’s own country as well! For
the nuclear personnel must be ready
to retaliate not only after the total
destruction of their own country, or
after an all-out attack on it; they
may have to retaliate to a limited
attack say, an attack confined
to the overseas bases of their coun-
try. In retaliating to a limited at-
tack, however, the defense person-
nel are inviting a total re-retalia-
tion, that is to say, the destruction
of their own country, home, family.
Thus, the military man must, at
times, be insensitive, if not hostile,
to his own people — another devia-
tion from Plato’s military manual.
SO THE watch-dog model no longer
serves. No more old-fashioned patri-
otism for soldiers! The Guardians of
the nuclear age must be prepared to
be friendly or hostile both to friend
and enemy — at the will of the com-
mand! (The psychological make-up
of the commanders is another trouble-
some subject.) Is it possible to con-
dition men to change suddenly from
a universal friendliness to a wniver-
sal hatred (or indifference)? It is
possible to have such a mixture of
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Of angels
and devils (or imbeciles)?
Perhaps not impossible! After all,
human emotions do not spring from
logic, and ambivalent attitudes are
a familiar notion among psycholo-
gists. And yet ambivalent feelings,
_changes of mood, emotional incon-
sistencies are one thing; an opera-
tional use of these tendencies — a
split-second change from Jekyll to
Hyde — may be another matter.
It is up to the psychologists tosolve
this question. As a layman, I dare
to interfere only because, as a poten-
tial victim of a psychological mis-
take, I cannot but urge the psychol-
ogists to be extremely cautious, They
must choose, as our Gu
vee
pr clins peo-
ra
ple of emotional stability, yet at the
same time of emotional convertibil-
ity (from love to hatred). The
psychologist must be careful to de-
prive the button-pushers of the last
rudiments of humanity and con-
science — but only at the right mo-
ment! Our Guardians must be made
patient, for possibly the moment of
pushing the buttons will never come;
and yet impatient once the moment
of button-pushing arrives. They
must be made humble — actors re-
hearsing for a drama which they may
never have an opportunity to enact.
(Or is it possible that the prob-
lem I raise can be dismissed, and
the nuclear-defense personnel trained
for total annihilation simply as a
military duty, or as a technical job,
or both a thing to be accepted,
yet not to be thought about during
non-working hours devoted to wife,
children and Sunday chinch-aqiae
Still, a problem remains: where can
one tnd technically competent peo-
ple whose general level of intelligence
and imagination are so low? )
The difficulties of the psycholo-
gists’ task may persuade the archi-
tects of defense to rely less on human
factors and to concentrate on me-
chanical devices. In the age of au-
tomation, it is not inconceivable
that rockets might be made to re-
taliate automatically. If a trigger-
pulling apparatus could be developed
which would register and react to a
nuclear bomb exploding within a
certain radius, but which would re-
main insensitive to ordinary explo-
sions and earthquakes, not to speak
of nuclear mishaps on a neighboring
firing-site (are there more qualifica-
tions needed?), the human factor
could be eliminated altogether.
Or, one could think of a trigger-
pulling device which would react to
a radar warning. The radar, register-
ing a flying missile (but not a civil
airplane or a_ scientific satellite),
would — automatically — pull the
triggers of the missile fleet at its
command. The President, the gen-
erals and the ordinary Guardians
could continue to lead the lives of
normal, or even abnormal — but
normally abnormal, not abnormally
normal — citizens.
Or could they? I doubt itl For — i
even ni n the
mm ud’!
focclanieal devices, —
}
i
27 age of automation — are not infal-
lible. Rockets may escape their
electronic controls (this has already
happened), radar can mistake me-
teorites for an enemy attack (this
also happened); and what about a
single nuclear bomb fired by a mad-
man from a small country and trig-
gering the automatic retaliatory
power of a big nation? There are
bound to be still other mechanical
and quasi-mechanical heels of Achil-
les in such automatic systems — no-
body can now predict how many.
How then can we assure our sur-
vival in this splendid age of Progress?
DIME STORES and DIGNITY e ec by James McBride Dabbs
Mayesville, South Carolina
THE “SIT-IN” actions of South-
ern students, mainly Negro, have al-
ready done one thing: they have
given the lie to the usual defense
put up by the white South that
“everybody is satisfied down here.”
Of course, it will still be main-
tained by many whites that every-
body is satisfied, and that these
t student demonstrations are solely
_ the result of outside interference.
_ But they won’t be as sure as they
once were.
f As a matter of fact, there probably
has been some help from outside.
The Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE) has been doing some work
in the South for several years —
mainly, however, on Negro regis-
tration for voting. But the speedy,
South-wide spread of the sit-ins in-
dicates spontaneous activity. And
even though some of this activity
may have been suggested by out-
siders, it would not have occurred
unless the will to action had been
present.
As for the objection to outside
interference, the white South will
just have to accept the fact that in
the world today it’s hard to tell
_ what’s outside and what’s inside. The
_ lives of Negro students, like the lives
dA
MES McBRIDE DABBS, South
olina farmer, is author of The
leritage (Knopf).
Surely, we cannot put our trust in
dog psychology, whether Platonic or
Pavlovian. Nor can we trust in a
mechanical device: to suspend the
lives of millions of people on a screw
is to demand too much even from
the greatest enthusiast of modern
engineering.
What then? Well, there are some
people who think that controlled dis-
armament, followed eventually by
a world authority, is the best and
simplest way out (see, for example,
Bertrand Russell’s lucid essay on
Common Sense and Nuclear War-
fare, 1959). Admittedly, some prob-
of all of us, are daily influenced by
world-encircling ideas. The sugges-
tion for the sit-in came from Martin
Luther King, of Montgomery, who
got it from Mohandas Gandhi, of
India, who got it from H. D. Thoreau,
of Massachusetts. The Southern but-
terfly can never return to its provin-
cial cocoon; it is adrift now on the
winds of the world.
As to the immediate cause of this
movement, the Southern Regional
Council, which has made the most
thorough study of it to date, says
this: a
The movement began in North
Carolina, the state most commonly
identified with so-called token in-
tegration. There is sufficient evidence
to conclude that one irritant which
motivated the students was resent-
ment over the pace of school de-
“segregation. As such, the lunch count-
er demonstrations are a sign of the
hollow inadequacy of a desegregation
scheme designed simply to skirt the
law.
It’s rather interesting that, so far
as I know, nobody has yet blamed
the NAACP for the sit-ins. This is
remarkable, since all other “non-
Southern” actions of the last half-
dozen years have been blamed on
the NAACP (ani the “nine old
men”). The failure thus to place the
blame may be due t
realization in tl
‘e South that
a few personal
“+t
? .
a
pie AO
yA oe
) Cais
i mr
irk |
le to a dawning
funds, is a logical
Pome i yee TS Lt on eee ee
lems arise in this connection, too;
but at least human survival is not
subjected to the reliability of dog
psychology, or to the infallibility of
technological devices. ee
But these people are called im- KS
practical idealists! Anybody who iv
thinks about present-day realities
in terms of preventing a nuclear
Armageddon, rather than preparing
for it, is an incurable idealist. On
the other hand, generals, rocketeers,
nuclear scientists working for the
military, and military psychologists
are the realists.
Requescant in pace.
devils is responsible for the changes
we are involved in. a
BUT THE white South is ignorant hy
not only of causes; it is ignorant
also of the present situation. I am
sure that many a white Southerner
has become aware only within the
last month that Negroes are not
served at the lunch counters of ten-
cent stores. An outsider may ask,
How is such ignorance possible?
It is not only possible, it is human.
Excluding the rather large number
of whites who rarely, if ever, eat in
ten-cent stores, and who therefore
would have no experience of the ex-
clusive nature of these lunch count-
ers, the whites who do eat there ac-
cept without question the custom.
Very few people question long-es-
tablished customs; they live by them
without being aware of them. There
is therefore at least this gain in the —
present situation: many a white has —
been made aware of a privilege he
didn’t realize he had, and he may
begin to question his right to it.
In two or three instances, the sit-
in demonstrations have been made
in public libraries; and some fri
of the students haye raised -
question as to whether the public —
library should not have been the en-
tire focus of the challenge. It is true
that the public library, being s
ported at least in part by pub
_ point of a
|
rac
vy
v4
a
Under the caption “An Appeal for Human Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution. Said
Rights,” this ad, drawn up and paid for by students Georgia’s Governor: “This | left-wing statement
of six Negro colleges, appeared March 9 in the does not read like it was written in this country.
ADVT.
We, the students of the six affiliated institutions ferming the
Atlanta University Center — Clark, Morehouse, Morris Brown, and
Spelman Colleges, Atlanta University, and the Interdenominational
Theological Center—have joined our hearts, minds, and bodies in
the cause of gaining those rights which are inherently ours as members
of the human race and as citizens of these United States.
We pledge our unqualified support to those students in this
nation who have recently been engaged in the significant movement
to secure certain long-awaited rights and privileges. This protest,
like the bus boycott in Montgomery, has shocked many people through-
out the world, Why? Because they had not quite realized the unanimity
of spirit and purpose which motivates the thinking and action of the
great majority of the Negro people. The students who instigate and
participate in these sit-down protests are dissatisfied, not only with
the existing conditions, but with the snail-like speed at which they
are being ameliorated. Every normal human being wants to walk the
earth with dignity and abhors any and all proscriptions placed upon
him because of race or color. In essence, this is the meaning of the
sit-down protests that are sweeping this nation today.
We do not intend to wait placidly for those rights which are
already legally and morally ours to be meted out to us one at a time.
Today’s youth will not sit by submissively, while being denied all of
the rights, privileges, and joys of life. We want to state clearly and
unequivocally that we cannot tolerate, in a nation professing democ-
racy and among people professing Christianity, the discriminatory
conditions under which the Negro is living today in Atlanta, Georgia—
supposedly one of the most progressive cities in the South.
Among the inequalities and injustices in Atlanta and in Georgia
against which we protest, the following are outstanding examples:
(1) Education:
In the Public School System, facilities for Negroes and
whites are separate and unequal. Double sessions con-
tinue in about half of the Negro Public Schools, and
many Negro children travel ten miles a day in order
to reach a school that will admit them.
On the university level, the state will pay a Negro to
attend a school out of state rather than admit him to
the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, the Georgia
Medical School, and other tax-supported public insti-
tutions.
According to a recent publication, in the fiscal year
1958 a total of $31,632,057.18 was spent in the State
institutions cf higher education for white only. In the
Negro State Colleges only $2,001,177.06 was spent.
The publicly supported institutions of hiaher education
are inter-racial now, except that they deny admission
to Negro Americans.
(2) Jobs:
Negroes are denied employment in the majority of city,
state, and federal governmental jobs, except in the
most menial capacities.
(3) Housing:
While Negroes constitute 32% of the population of
Atlanta, they are forced to live within 16% of the area
of the city.
Statistics also show that the bulk of the Negro popula-
tion is still:
a, .locked into the more undesirable and overcrowded
areas of the city;
b. paying a proportionally higher percentage of income
for rental and purchase of generally lower quality
property;
c. blocked by political and direct or indirect racial
restrictions in its efforts to secure better housing.
(4) Voting:
Contrary to statements made in Congress recently by
several Southern Senators, we know that in many coun-
ties in Georgia and other southern states, Negro college
graduates are declared unqualified to yote and are not
permitted to register.
—eae toe sa 2 a we hat a ee ya
si
It
ADVT. ADVT. Bde
nn) 2
wo
(5) Hospitals:
Compared with facilities for other people in Atlanta and i
Georgia, those for Negroes are unequal and totally sel
inadequate. the
Ue
Reports show that Atlanta’s 14 general hospitals and vel
9 related institutions provide some 4,000 beds. Except {
for some 430: beds at Grady Hospital, Negroes are stu
limited to the 250 beds in three private Negro hospitals. t0
Some of the hospitals barring Negroes were built with
federal funds. on
)
(6) Movies, Concerts, Restaurants: E
l
Negroes are barred from most downtown movies and
segregated in the rest. are
Negroes must even sit in a segregated section of the
Municipal Auditorium. |
If a Negro is hungry, his hunger must wait until he de
comes to a “colored” restaurant, and even his thirst
must await its quenching at a “colored” water fountain.
(7) Law Enforcement:
There are grave inequalities in the area of law enforce-
ment. Too often, Negroes are maltreated by officers nis
of the law. An insufficient number of Negroes is em- J 7
ployed in the law-enforcing agencies. They are seldom,
if ever promoted. Of 830 policemen in Atlanta only 35
are Negroes.
We have briefly mentioned only a few situations in which we are
discriminated against. We have understated rather than overstated
the problems. These social evils are seriously plaguing Georgia, the
South, the nation, and the world. A
ow
We hold that:
(1) The practice of racial segregation is not in keep-
ing with the ideals of Democracy and Christianity.
(2) Racial segregation is robbing not only the segre-
gated but the segregator of his human dignity. Val
Furthermore, the propagation of racial prejudice
is unfair to the generations yet unborn.
(3) In times of war, the Negro has fought and died for
his country; yet he still has not been accorded first- ‘
class citizenship. pn
(4) In spite of the fact that the Negro pays his share Ik
of. taxes, he does not enjoy participation in city,
county and state government at the level where
laws are enacted. ;
(5) The social, economic, and political progress of
Georgia is retarded by segregation and prejudices.
(6) America is fast losing the respect of other nations
by the poor example which she sets in the area of
race relations.
act
It is unfortunate that the Negro is being forced to fight, in any
way, for what is due him and is freely accorded other Americans. It is
unfortunate that even today some people should hold to the erroneous
idea of racial superiority, despite the fact that the world is fast moving
toward an integrated humanity.
The time has come for the people of Atlanta and Georgia to take
a good look at what is really happening in this country, and to stop
believing those who tell us that everything is fine and equal, and that
the Negro is happy and satisfied.
It is to be regretted that there are those who still refuse to recog-
nize the over-riding supremacy of the Federal Law.
Our churches which are ordained by God and claim to be the
houses of all people, foster segregation of the races to the point of
making Sunday the most segregated day of the week.
We, the students of the Atlanta University Center, are driven by
past and present events to assert our feelings to the citizens of Atlanta
and to the world.
We, therefore, call upon all people in authority—State, County,
and City officials; all leaders in civic life—ministers, teachers, and
business men; and all pager of good will to assert themselves and
abolish these injustices. We must say in all candor that we plan to
use every legal and non-violent means at our disposal to secure full
citizenship rights as members of this great Democracy of ours.
The Na TION,
Pr
for citizens challenging their exclu-
sion from the use of public services;
it is true also that a demand like
this, apparently motivated by the
desire for intellectual advancement,
would seem to most people more
praiseworthy — though they them-
selves might not practice it — than
the desire to eat at a cheap and con-
venient place. But probably most
students could more easily be moved
to challenge their exclusion from
one store counter among fifty than
from an entire building devoted to
intellectual advancement. Students
are also human.
The appeal of the variety-store
demonstrations lies just here: that
while Negroes are cordially invited
to trade at forty-nine counters, they
are forbidden to trade at the fiftieth,
just across the aisle. This is both in-
jury and insult. In making their
challenge here, however, the students
have aroused a deep, though shad-
OWY, Opposition among the whites:
eating together, the two races will
be indulging in almost the ultimate
intimacy. It may be absurd that the
ghost of the tribe should hover over
the lunch counter of a modern
variety store; it may be a matter
for scornful laughter that whites
should expect to buy aristocratic
privileges for a dime. But people are
like that. We need a modern Cer-
vantes to laugh us out of our ab-
surdity.
THOUGH the police of the cities
involved have not in every instance
acted professionally, there is much
to commend in their handling of a
new and difficult situation. As to
a ee
the legal rights of the students in
these demonstrations, this is a mat-
ter that will have to be settled by
the courts. The white South, how-
ever — that is, the Southern power
structure — faces a complex prob-
lem in handling this new kind of
protest. Police forces are interested
in the maintenance of law and
order. For historical reasons, this
means in the South primarily the
maintenance of order — an order
more customary than legal. Further-
more, Southern order rests generally
upon one assumption: the Negre on
the bottom, the white on top. This
was the settlement made during the
last quarter of the nineteenth cen-
tury; as regards the position of
whites and Negroes relative to one
another, it was the same as the
slavery settlement. Whatever is
done to shake the order based upon
this assumption is by definition dis-
orderly. In a region where words
are powerful, even to protest against
it is disorderly. Such a protest, the
Southern authorities will continual-
ly inform the people, may cause the
reaction of violence — may develop
into violence, they say — as the
threatened whites attempt en masse
to restore the old order (of course,
they don’t explain it just this way).
Since 1954, the white South has
been trying to reconstruct its image
of Negro-white relations. Except for
the more backward areas, we have
quit talking about white supremacy,
or the white-on-top, the Negro-on-
the-bottom, and have begun to
talk about equal-but-separate. We’ve
finally got around to the Plessy vs.
Ferguson decision of 1896. I fear
we’re too late; we held out too long
on Plessy vs. Ferguson; now we're
up against Brown vs. Board of Edu-
cation; and the Negroes aren’t go-
ing to be satisfied with the earlier
ruling.
But even the advance to Plessy
vs. Ferguson would not solve the
problem of order, though it would
make it easier of solution. Order
would simply change from the white-
on-top, the Negro-on-the-bottom,
to the white-and-the-Negro-side-by-
side-but-separate; and anything that
challenged this order would be con-
sidered disorderly. The Negroes
must challenge this order. There-
fore the Negroes are disorderly.
HOW will the Negroes handle this
problem? They don’t want real dis-
order any more than the whites do;
but they know that, second to the
law, their strongest force is the rec-
ognition by the white South and,
indeed, by the nation, that they are
not satisfied. But how shall the
South and the nation realize this un-
less they continue to protest? And
how shall they protest without being
considered and even being treated
as. disorderly? Furthermore, how
shall they maintain the spirit of
protest unless they express it? How
shall they keep “the edge of depriva-
tion sharp” unless they continually
recall their deprivations?
They will find a way. They have
too much on their side to stop now;
they hold the winning hand. Per-
haps their greatest resource is that
they know pretty well the whites
they have to deal with. They will
help us to defeat ourselves.
CAN YOUR COPILOT FLY? e e by Karl M. Ruppenthal
“NORTH PLATTE Tower,” called
the copilot excitedly. “This is Flight
36. We're en route to Chicago, but
e’ve got an emergency, and we’re
coming in. Call a doctor and an am-
bulance. Looks like the captain had
| a heart attack, so I’m going to bring
Vher in.”
_ He signaled an emergency on the
| hostess call, and both girls hurried
pril aa 1960
a)
to the cockpit. With the aid of the
engineer, they lifted the captain and
wrapped him in blankets on the
floor. The copilot trimmed the plane,
engaged the autopilot momentarily,
then shifted to the captain’s seat. He
handled the plane smoothly, like a
veteran; an observer would not have
known that he was nervous.
When the plane came to a stop in
front of the terminal, the copilot
had a moment to think of his pas-
sengers. Over the public-address
system, he told them that the cap-
KARL M. RUPPENTHAL, an air-
line pilot since 1942, is a lecturer in
Transportation and Management at
the Graduate School of Business at
Stanford University.
291
tain had fallen ill. He expressed hope
that the unscheduled landing would
not inconvenience them unduly.
At the hospital in North Platte,
Captain Hale was pronounced dead
on arrival. “Quite sudden,” said the
doctor. “One of those unexpected
coronaries. He looked like a man in
perfect. health. Took two regular
physical examinations each year.
Just one of those things impossible
to predict.”
Flight 36 then completed its trip
uneventfully.
OF COURSE, the mathematical
chances that an airline captain will
suffer a heart attack in mid-air are
small. But the possibilities of his
being stricken with food poisoning
or diarrhea are not. Many times
pilots have become so debilitated
by such “minor ailments” that the
copilot had to complete the flight.
Today most airlines are well aware
of the importance of thorough pilot
training. Well-equipped classrooms
provide schooling in meteorology,
Navigation, airline operations and a
host of other subjects. A cut-away
engine demonstrates the internal
workings of the latest jet turbines.
A cockpit mock-up allows student
pilots to practice starting jet engines
while monitoring the instruments.
Nearby an instructor at a console
can simulate a flooded engine, or one
with faulty ignition.
Expensive simulations can teach
pilots on the ground many of the
things they should know in the air.
These amazing devices, some cost-
ing as much as $1 million, incor-
porate a completely instrumented
cockpit. Here also the instructor may
simulate emergencies which a _ pilot
may encounter, but which are too
expensive or too dangerous to prac-
tice in the air: engine fires, ruptured
windows, a landing with but one
engine. All airline captains, and most
copilots, receive such training. Co-
pilots on the better lines are thor-
oughly qualified for the jobs which,
in an emergency, they may be called
upon to perform.
But this is not true on all lines.
More than one chief pilot has been
asked to justify a training plan for
copilots whose costs can easily be
computed, but whose benefits can-—
not. There have been tugs of war
between conscientious chief pilots
and cost-conscious controllers. The
surprising truth is that nowhere in
the Civil Air Regulations is extensive
copilot training required!
For captains the regulations are
clear. No pilot may command a
commercial transport plane without
first being thoroughly qualified. He
must have a commercial license, an
instrument rating, an air-transport
rating, and he must pass a_profi-
ciency test on each type of plane that
he flies. Once rated on a plane, he
must take periodic checks to prove
that his proficiency is maintained.
But for the copilot, the regulations
require no more than that he take
off and land the plane three times.
How does this work out? Let’s
imagine the chief pilot of an airline
looking over the file of a new em-
ployee, shortly due to arrive. The
boy’s recommendations sound good.
“One of the best insurance sales-
men I’ve ever known, friendly, per-
sonable,’ said his last employer.
“Able, conscientious, should go
places,” said his college dean. But
the boy hasn’t been near a plane for
two years. Probably he’s never even
seen a DC-3.
IN DUE time, the new pilot arrives.
He fills out forms, checks out manu-
als, and is measured for his uniform.
Next he goes with a check pilot to
be introduced to the airplane. Cargo
handlers remove the last of the bag-
gage from an incoming flight, and
the two pilots climb in. “Not much
time,” says the check pilot. “We’ve
got to get her back for the after-
noon schedule.”
The check pilot taxies the plane
into position and opens the throttles.
Five hundred feet down the runway
he yells to the new pilot, “It’s all
yours. You get her.” The new copilot
completes the take-off. They follow
the traffic pattern around the field
and come in to land. The check
pilot handles the power and keeps
one hand on the wheel. He coaches
the new boy on the landing, overrid-
ing him occasionally on the con-
trols. Before the plane comes to a
stop, the check pilot yells, “Touch
and go!” and applies take-off power.
Thifty seconds later they are again
“i
|) i i oe
in the air, starting on their second
circuit of the field. The third time
around the copilot makes the land-
ing himself. “Not bad, not bad at
all,” says the check pilot. “Of course,’
with a load of passengers, you'll need
to be a bit smoother. But you'll get
on to it all right. All you need is a
little time in the airplane.”
Thirty-five minutes after his first
introduction to the plane, the co-
pilot is qualified — or at least that
is what the forms say. He has made
three take-offs and landings. In the
normal course of events, some cap-
tains with whom he will fly may
take a personal interest in him and
teach him the finer points about air-
line flying. After a year or two of
informal on-the-job training, he may
become fairly proficient. Or he may
not.
WITH THE advent of. the jets,
proper training programs become
of even greater importance. Two
years before the first commercial jet
flights in this country, the Air Line
Pilots Association began a study of
military jet experience. The conclu-
sion seemed clear: Jet operation was
so complex that two pilots were re-
quired full time; at times, in con-
gested areas, three would be needed.
The third man could also provide
relief to the others when they re-
laxed or made necessary trips to the
cabin.
Most of the airlines agreed, man-
ning cockpits accordingly. But there
was a vast difference in the man-
ner in which they trained their men.
The better lines recognized the re-
sponsibility borne by each crew
member. Captains and first officers
(copilots) alike were qualified to fly
the plane. Second officers were
trained not only for their regular
duties, but also to relieve the first
officer in an emergency.
On other lines, however, a dif-
ferent philosophy prevailed. Co-
pilots were given but two hours of
flight training — hardly enough to
enable them to handle the plane!
Some second officers were scheduled
on flights without any training at
all. Some were given a manual to
read, but no training in the plane;
others were not even furnished a_
manual. Even today, on one airline,
.
CSO eS
aoe a) Oe C14. Be >
ay gee hee,
i
half of the second officers are not
qualified to man the controls. A
federal aviation official has notified
this company that on its planes, the
second officer “. . . is not considered
qualified to provide relief of any
other flight crew member as _ re-
quired by routine or emergency con-
ditions. Therefore [he] is only to be
used to serve as a lookout... [and]
is not to operate any controls... .”
Although this airline carries three
pilots on its jets, it is little more
than coincidence if the first and
second officers are fully qualified.
Concerned about lines with faulty
training programs, the Federal Avia-
tion Administrator proposed a new
regulation which would require all
first officers to hold a type-rating on
the aircraft they fly, and that every
six months they be given a _ profi-
ciency check. The Airline -Pilots As-
sociation hailed the proposal, sug-
gesting that it be extended also to
cover second officers on jets. In-
dustry reaction was mixed. Some
well-managed carriers regarded it as
just another government regulation
designed to force them to continue
the things they were already doing.
But the loudest complaints came
from lines whose pocketbooks would
be hit. They argued that the regula-
tion was both unnecessary and too
expensive.
It is no secret that good training
costs money. One major airline es-
timates its training costs for jet
flight crews at nearly $2 million to
date. Experienced airline captains
training on jets have required from
twelve to forty-five hours of train-
ing — at a cost of something like
$1,000 an hour. Average cost of
qualifying a jet captain on this line
is about $20,000 — the profit on sev-
eral thousand air-line tickets!
Copilot training, too, costs money
— about $50 per hour on a DC-3,
$200 per hour on a DC-7 or Con-
stellation, and as much as $1,000
per hour on a jet. On lines where
myopic keepers of the purse speak
louder than the pilot-training de-
partments, training costs have been
kept to a minimum — and copilot
competency as well.
IN THE past, the situation was not
critical. Most newly hired copilots
were reasonably well qualified to fly
a DC-3. It could be maneuvered at
slow speeds and could be flown by
one man. In an emergency, almost
any copilot could manage to land it
in a nearby field. The “workhorse
of the air” was tolerant of mistakes
and variations in flying techniques.
Its sturdy landing gear could with-
stand a terrific bounce.
But all this has changed. Instead
of twenty-one passengers potentially
dependent on the copilot’s ability to
pilot a DC-3 at 160 miles per hour,
there are eighty passengers on a DC-7
(cruising speed 275), or 120 pas-
sengers on a jet (cruising speed
about 600). While the mathematical
chances of the captain’s taking ill are
probably not much increased, the
contingent responsibility of the co-
pilot has gone up. Clearly he may
have the responsibility of many
more lives, and the operation he may
direct is much more complex.
Should the copilot be called upon
to fill the captain’s shoes, the second
officer would take his seat on the
right. So adequate second-officer
training can spell the difference be-
tween a marginal operation and one
that is perfectly safe.
But the FAA’s proposed regula-
tion was not enacted. Substituted
was a requirement that all airlines
submit their pilot-training programs
to the FAA for approval. There is
no doubt that this regulation can
accomplish the same ends. But will
it? Will the standards set in Wash-
ington be sufficiently high? Since
standards are open to interpretation
by dozens of FAA agents throughout
the land, what assurance will there
be of uniformity of interpretation?
Is there still a possibility that “pa-
per” qualifications may be substitut-
ed for real flight training?
Today when a passenger climbs
aboard a plane, he has no guarantee
of the qualifications of several mem-
bers of the crew. Riding an airplane
soon? Next time you fly, ring the
bell for the hostess. Ask her if she
knows whether the copilot can really
fly.
Seas, Poles and Outer Space e « Howard J. Taubenfeld
SINCE October 4, 1957, when the
space age began in earnest with the
launching of the first sputnik, inter-
national politics have been marked
by two contrasting tendencies: one,
the typical, frightening, noisy pat-
tern of cold-war crises—Hungary,
HOWARD J. TAUBENFELD, a
_ practicing attorney who teaches law
at Golden Gate College, San Fran-
cisco, is the author, with Philip C.
Jessup, of Controls for Outer Space
and the Antarctic Analogy (Col-
om bia ee Press, ee
Berlin, Suez, Quemoy, Laos, the
India-China border; the other a
quieter, less publicized drawing to-
gether of the great powers to meet
the challenge of man’s new and lim-
itless potentials. Some statesmen
have evidenced 1 increasing awareness
of the dangers inherent in national
rather than international approaches
to such vast arenas of potential con-
flict—or progress—as the seas, the
Antarctic and, of course, the limit-
less reaches of outer ‘space. From
the international ‘point of view, it
has been a time ¢ : t, but
also a period of by-passed opportuni-
ties, particularly with respect to
outer space.
The recent Soviet closure of a por-
tion of the Pacific for missile testing
has forcibly reminded us that there
are space-age problems even in con- —
trol of the high seas—the three-
fourths of the globe which has |
served as man’s high road for over
two thousand years. These prob-
lems are difficult, but we must bear
in mind that the great principle of
“freedom of the seas” is really om of
comparatively recent origin and, in
application, has always been highly
qualified. Until the seventeenth cen-
tury, nations claimed whole seas as
their own; today, one still hears an
occasional Soviet claim to dominion
over the Arctic Sea.
Even after the emergence of Eng-
lish sea power helped convince the
world that the high seas were too
vast for monopoly by any one state,
nations maintained their claims to
absolute sovereignty or control over
their surrounding coastal waters.
These claims now extend from a
commonly accepted minimum of
three miles to as much as 250 miles,
as the second Conference on the Law
of the Sea, now in session at Geneva,
attests. Moreover, even without as-
serting sovereignty, nations have al-
ways claimed the right to extend their
jurisdictions outward for fiscal, cus-
toms and security purposes. The
United States, which has traditional-
ly opposed any extension of the
three-mile rule, nevertheless claims
the unilateral right to exploitation
of its oil-rich continental shelf at
any distance from its coasts. And,
perhaps most important, in wartime
the concept of freedom of the seas
has been honored more in the breach
than in the observance; the seas be-
come as unfree as the stronger navy
can make them (though the United
States has fought wars over pre-
cisely this issue). Even in peace-
time, nations holding war games
commonly close off parts of the
ocean for brief periods.
But it is the changing technology
of the space age which has caused
the recent increase in peacetime in-
cursions into the freedom principle.
The speed of approach of a missile
or jet plane, for example, has made
it necessary for the United States
and Canada (and other countries,
no doubt) to extend air-defense
identification zones, in which in-
bound craft must identify them-
selves, for hundreds of miles out over
the seas. Part of this system involves
the use of “Texas towers,” them-
selves permanent structures in the
seas at substantial distances from
the coasts. Missile testing has also
brought its inroads: the Russians
recently closed off several thousand
square miles of the Pacific; the
United States has likewise partly
closed off, for similar purposes, a
294
i‘, ’ _-
5,000-mile corridor over the Atlan-
tic. The United States has also shut
off as much as 40,000 square miles
of the Pacific around Eniwetok for
nuclear tests.
DESPITE THE battering given the
principle by these technological exer-
cises, there is still general agreement
that the high seas are free for legit-
imate use by all. Long ago it was
recognized that nations have a com-
mon interest in preventing interfer-
ence with lawful ocean traffic by
pirates, slave traders and other “com-
mon enemies” of mankind; indeed,
these evils were stamped out farecly
by common efforts. Cooperation con-
tinues in keeping the seas safe. Thus
there are widely accepted “rules of
the road” for operation of vessels;
jointly supported iceberg patrols,
rescue services, navigational facili-
ties and research programs exist and
often perform self-sacrificing services.
Even in the more difficult eco-
nomic sphere, international programs
attempt to guarantee sharing of the
exhaustible resources of the deep.
Rights in fur sealing in the Pacific,
in fishing for several types of marine
life in both major oceans, and in
whaling, particularly in Antarctic
waters, have been regulated by mul-
tinational pacts. (Unfortunately,
greed has continually reduced the
stock of whales in southern waters. )
In general, one must conclude that
continuous international cooperation
on the seas is historic, useful and
civilizing—a testimony to the fact
that men of different nations can
unite in cooperating against the blind
forces of nature. It is noteworthy
that the new challenges to man’s
continued cooperative use of the
ocean highways arise not from na-
ture, but from man,
Two recent series of events fur-
ther emphasize both the community
of interest in the seas and the diffi-
culties that old-fashioned national-
ism and new-style weaponry are
posing. From mid-1957 through 1958,
scientists from sixty-six nations par-
ticipated in the International Geo-
physical Year (IGY), a vast pro-
gram of co-ordinated scientific re-
search which had as three of its
special concerns the seas, the Ant-
arctic and outer space. At IGY’s
close, an international spreatoh pro-
ihe. ore iin
gram designed to continue: to: paiva
ah
oceanic mysteries was organized
under a _ Special Committee on
Oceanographic Research. The com-
mittee is now preparing a multina-
tional study of the Indian Ocean.
On the political side, developments
were also promising—but only in
part. A first Conference on the Law
of the Sea was held under U. N.
auspices in 1958, and the dele-
gates from the eighty-six participat-
ing states succeeded in codifying,
and making additions to, many of
the rules of international law ap-
plicable to the seas. But the counter-
point of political disagreement and
economic rivalry was also present.
The conference was totally unable
to agree on any change in the three-
mile limit to national sovereignty
over coastal seas. Three miles, six
miles, twelve miles, 200 miles and
other distances were proposed by
different states, each proposal being
differently motivated.
Iceland, for example, insisted on
twelve miles because of valuable off-
coast fishing banks over which she
wanted exclusive fishing rights (she
has since attempted to arrest British
fishermen within this limit; Britain,
in turn, has sent warships to defend
her citizens). The Chinese Commu-
nists likewise now claim twelve miles
for the obvious purpose of bringing
certain disputed offshore islands
within her coastal waters. The Soviet
Union also claims a twelve-mile belt,
as do many other nations, both to
obtain additional fishing preserves
and perhaps for political reasons as
well. If generally accepted, a twelve-
mile rule would shrink the high seas
by some three million square miles.
Opposition of the United States to
any large extension of territorial
waters is based on the fact that
these waters are officially neutral in
time of war, giving the submarine
powers —the Germans in the last
war—inviolable bases of operations.
In the light of these conflicting eco-
nomic, political and strategic inter-
ests, the conference could come to
no generally agreeable compromise.
NOW LET us look briefly at several
missed opportunities for harmoniz-
ing international programs for the
sea frontiers—programs that could
“aN 2} rT JON:
i (ANA
get necessary jobs done without
creating fears or unnecessary rival-
ries. On the scientific side, for ex-
ample, Soviet oceanographers appear
to be far ahead of all others in map-
ping the ocean deeps. This informa-
tion is of great interest to scientists,
and also, unfortunately, to subma-
rine commanders. The Soviets have
made only part of their knowledge
available to the world scientific com-
munity. How many fewer fears would
be aroused if such information were
gathered by an impartial interna-
tional scientific group and made
generally available?
Another example: it has been dis-
covered that some portions of the
ocean floor bear quantities of valu-
able minerals. (It has already been
noted, above, that continental
shelves have been opened to petro-
leum operations.) What will be the
status of claims to “mining” these
floors when it becomes possible to
do so? Will nations stake out claims,
or will they support claims made by
their nationals? Who will own or
control the vast quantities of mi-
nute ocean life, the plankton, which
we may some day learn to use as
food for humans? Does any nation
have the right to interfere with the
ocean currents and perhaps alter
weather conditions around the world?
The possibilities for bitter rivalries
are obvious. Might not the creation
of an international research and de-
velopment agency prevent most of
these problems from becoming
sources of future conflict?
IT MAY be hoped that the current
Conference on the Law of the Sea
will continue the codification and
extension of sea law begun in 1958.
It is doubtful that easy agreement
will be reached on such problems as
the width of the territorial sea. And
it is certain that the creation of new
international organs, designed to seek
out scientific knowledge and to de-
velop resources, will not be consid-
ered. The tendency to think in
terms of international solutions, even
when they offer the best chance of
general gain, has always been weak
in national statesmen.
There has been a similar mixture
of success and failure with regard to
reaching international solutions of
problems posed by the Antarctic
and by outer space.
Antarctica is the coldest, highest,
windiest, least accessible, least
known, least hospitable of the con-
tinents, lying almost entirely under
an ice sheet up to four miles thick.
Its very existence was in dispute
until the early nineteenth century.
Yet, since 1908, seven countries—
Britain, Australia, New Zealand,
France, Argentina, Chile and Nor-
way—have made extensive territorial
claims there. The United States and,
more recently, the Soviet Union,
have also been active in Antarctica;
but both, while rejecting the claims
of other nations as not based on ef-
fective occupation, have thus far re-
frained from making formal claims
in their own behalf, though they
have reserved the right to do so.
Strangely enough, this desolate
area has aroused strong emotions in
several nations. Indeed, Argentina
and Chile have made their claimed
Antarctic territories (which partly
overlap) officially part of their re-
spective national homelands. British
claims, in turn, overlap both of the
Latin American claims. The very
name of the disputed area reflects
the bitter dispute: it is the Palmer
Peninsula to cartographers in the
United States, it is Graham Land to
the British, Tierra O’Higgins on
Chilean maps, and Tierra San Mar-
tin to Argentina.
Why the rivalries over these in-
hospitable lands? The usual congerie
of reasons in international politics
comes to: mind—economic potential,
prestige, strategic considerations.
What does the Antarctic offer on
these scores?
Strategy. To Australia, New Zea-
land and Latin America, Antarctica
is a southern neighbor, though 700
to 1,000 miles away across storm-
tossed seas. None would want it in
“unfriendly” hands—the legitimate
flying of a Soviet flag over a Russian
scientific base within the Australian
claim caused consternation in Aus-
tralia during the IGY. The British,
recalling the use of Antarctic waters
by German raiders in two world
wars, are also averse to “unfriendly”
control. United States Congressmen,
in particular, think both of the long
record of American Antarctic ex-
ploration and of the potential prob-
lem if the Panama Canal were de-
stroyed and all shipping forced round
the Horn. On the other hand, Amer-
ican naval officers, aware of the
logistic difficulties involved in any
use of the Antarctic as a base, and
of the capabilities of long-range nu-
clear submarines, now tend privately
yp
RGENTINE
NORWEGIAN
CLAIM
AUSTRALIAN
cLAIM
| Seven nations lay claim to territory in the
_ Antarctic. (Map source: The New York Times.)
3 a
to downgrade the strategic impor-
tance of the area. Nevertheless,
rightly or wrongly, the countries
ringing the Antarctic do not discount
this importance to themselves.
Economics. The Norwegians, for
example, are interested in Antarctica
expressly because they wish to pro-
tect their whaling industry. The pos-
sibility that great mineral wealth
exists there is doubtless significant
in keeping alive the active hopes of
several nations. Vast amounts of
very low-grade coal have been
found, as well as traces of over a
hundred minerals, including ura-
nium. Hewever, so far no commer-
cially usable discoveries have been
made, and the ice sheet over much
of the continent, combined with the
problems of transport, represent fan-
tastic difficulties in the path of min-
eral exploitation. Mining the seas is
probably a far more practical al-
ternative. Nevertheless, the “untold
wealth” which may prove to lie in
the Antarctica remains a block to
the renunciation of national claims.
Prestige and politics. The prestige
of adding vast areas, however empty,
to the national territory, the in-
ternal political importance the claims
develop in countries like Argentina
and Chile — these are real enough
factors to political leaders. Indeed,
disputed territorial claims can even
be a political convenience in such
countries, serving as a distraction
from difficult domestic problems.
WHATEVER the status of national
claims, science has a broad interest
in the Antarctic as a vast unexplored
region, for what can be learned there
that affects the world at large, and
for the area’s useful location for
making celestial observations. In the
space age, the South Pole is uniquely
situated (the North Pole is located
not on land, but in the Arctic Sea)
to permit the establishment of a sta-
tion for receiving transmissions from
weather satellites which—in polar
orbits—would pass over it on each
ninety-minute tour of the earth; and
also for tracking many flights into
deep space. The Antartic is already
of great concern to meteorologists,
since it is the world’s ice-box and
has a direct. effect on all weather,
particularly in the Southern hemis-
phere.
(296
ewe, P
A massive, cooperative scientific
Antarctic program was undertaken
during the IGY by the seven terri-
tory-claiming states, plus South
Africa (which claims some sub-
Antarctic islands), the United States,
the Soviet Union, Belgium and
Japan. There was an understanding
that operations would not constitute
grounds for further territorial claims.
Much new geological, meteorological
and similar data were gathered; sci-
entists of different nationalities
worked in each other’s stations; and
a Special Committee on Antarctic
Research (SCAR), with membership
open to any nation whose scientists
winter-over in Antarctica, has been
formed to continue the work. Most
important, in May, 1958, the United
States Government invited the
eleven other IGY Antarctic partici-
pants to create a treaty which would
maintain an 1GY-type of non-polit-
ical cooperation. After more than a
year of painful, secret negotiations,
the treaty conference met in Octo-
ber, 1959.
THE resulting document, signed
last December, is a useful though
limited approach to creating condi-
tions conducive to international co-
operation. For at least a thirty-year
period, political claims to territory
are “frozen” at their present status.
Antarctica is to be open to peace-
ful scientific exploration by all, and
military operations are barred. In
addition, the world’s first ban on
nuclear testing has been agreed upon,
and a novel observer-inspection sys-
tem is provided. The treaty has al-
ready been hailed as a monument to
American diplomacy. But it. still
must be ratified by all twelve signa-
tories to become effective. Since the
citizens of Chile and Argentina have
been taught to regard parts of the
Antarctic as their “national patri-
mony,” ratification in those coun-
tries may prove difficult. Indeed,
the no-nuclear-testing provision was
apparently inserted largely to make
the treaty more attractive to the
people of those two countries.
So long as the Antarctic remains
relatively worthless to man for stra-
tegic and economic purposes, such a
limited arrangement may well serve
man’s needs. But a bolder attempt
might have been made to settle the
Antarctic issues definitively and per-
manently, while the area is still of
uncertain real value, while there are
as yet no clashes of major power in-
terests—and therefore some real hope
of success existed. The time was ripe
for the establishment of some kind
of internationalization of the area.
Of course, Argentina and Chile
would have been in opposition; the
British and New Zealand Prime Min-
isters, however, are already on rec-
ord in favor. It is therefore difficult
to understand our own reluctance to
support the British and New Zealand
viewpoint, and to give up our right
—under proper safeguards—to make
any territorial claims. Surely this
would have been worth while even
at the risk of losing some as yet un-
known advantage, or of rousing the
ire of some Congressman or Latin °
American ally. An opportunity to
try an experiment in political inter-
nationalization and control under
quite favorable circumstances, which
might have served as a_ proving
ground for similar controls in more
critical areas, such as outer space,
has been missed.
THE ANTARCTIC and outer space
are similar in that (1) there is no
present ability to exploit the natural
resources of either; (2) in both
cases, national claims to sovereignty
have either not been made or have
not received general recognition. The
two areas differ significantly, how-
ever, in that the Antarctic has only
limited strategic value, while the
military dangers implied in national
rivalries over outer space are all too
real.
Since October 4, 1957, when the
Soviet Union electrified the world
with its successful launching of Sput-
nik I, almost two dozen satellites
have been placed in orbit; the moon
has been impacted and photographs
made of its dark side; animals have
been recovered alive from rocket
nose-cones, indicating that men will
fairly soon be able to make the trip;
and plans have been formulated
which will see men on the moon and
the planets within a few decades—
if nations are willing to devote
enough of their resources to these
projects, Soon, we are assured, globe-
circling satellites will make accurate
world-wide weather forecasts - :pos-
as
such explosions had significant ef-
earth). Both countries
ie = we and all ao
sible. And soon, satellites will be
able to serve, for defense or aggres-
sion, to keep the world under con-
stant surveillance. While technology
tockets forward, no programs for po-
litical controls to avoid conflict in
space, or to assure that technology
is used only for peaceful purposes,
are now under discussion.
In a very real sense, space, like
the seas, will ultimately serve as a
great highway. The difficulty arises
from the speed of the vehicles which
use it. The danger from rapidly mov-
ing aircraft has already led all na-
tions to assert an absolute right in
the air space above their territories,
and has prevented that space from
becoming even as “free” as the high
seas. The incredible speed of rockets
complicates the problem. Clearly, all
nations have an interest in seeing
that man’s space capabilities are re-
stricted to peaceful pursuits, and
that earth’s rivalries are not project-
ed outward into a new and limitless
arena of conflict.
NOW and for some time to come,
space problems are actually earth-
oriented problems. Some of them—
interference with radio communica-
tions on earth by satellite radios,
the allocation of radio channels for
tadio astronomy and for space-
vehicle use, liability for damage
caused to persons or property on
earth by a space vehicle, methods of
identifying the nationality of space-
craft, etc.—are either already under
consideration by appropriate inter-
national agencies like the Interna-
tional Telecommunications Union,
or probably soon will be. Solutions
to these problems are likely and will
be very welcome, but the most fun-
damental issue—that of the peaceful
use of space—will remain.
Both the Soviet Union and the
United States have publicly assert-
ed that space should be reserved for
peaceful use only, yet both repeat-
edly test missiles which reach 600
miles in height; and the United
States performed a major scientific
experiment in exploding nuclear de-
vices at very high altitudes (the
tests indicated, incidentally, that
fects on radio and radar sets on
en
ites laufich-
ed through 1958 — with the ex-
ception of the American SCORE
communications satellite — were an-
nounced as IGY, i.e., international,
experiments. Even so, the Russians,
who considered the launchings as
part of their ballistics-missile pro-
gram, have refused to furnish types
of data which other participants
have readily exchanged. Both sides
agree that space should be free for
scientific experiments by all, but the
Soviet Union refused to cooperate
in the. IGY’s space — successor,
COSPAR, for almost a year until
Communist countries were given
“parity”’—the first such purely po-
litical demand advanced in any of
the cooperative scientific programs
undertaken to date.
Both sides have brought space is-
sues to the U.N., but both have op-
posed the concept of international
political control over outer space:
the USSR has demanded “parity”
as a condition to participation even
in U.N. study groups, while the
United States has insisted that the
U.N. be given no more than a
modest “co-ordinating” role in space
problems. Following policies very
much like those followed toward the
Antarctic, neither nation has made
any claims, but neither has been
willing to give up its right to make
them. This seems a_ short-sighted
and dangerous attitude.
Limitation of the use of space to
peaceful purposes is at best a tricky
problem. A hundred or so satellites
circling the globe on purely peace-
ful missions, it has been estimated,
would cause great confusion on
radar defense screens. With only a
half-hour between the launching of
an intercontinental missile and _ its
impact halfway round the world,
any confusion enhances the danger
of accidental nuclear war. The defi-
nition of “peaceful” is itself not easy
—a weather satellite containing a
television camera will pick up not
only cloud formations, but also
ground objects—perhaps for target
use. And_ without internationally
controlled launchings, or interna-
tional inspections at the launching
sites, or capture in space when that
becomes possible, how will anyone
know that a Satellite on an osten-
peaceful mission does not ac-
nl
tually contain a weapon?
New York City
As our experience with atomic
weapons, the Antarctic and the
problem of territorial waters indi-
cates, it is always difficult to secure
agreements for international con-
trols once national positions harden.
We have the current lessons of rival-
ries in the Antarctic to remind us
again of the inglorious history of
earlier colonial rivalries. Already
technological developments have far
outdistanced political controls. In
the past, President Eisenhower urged
that enforceable agreements for outer
space should be reached “in time”
but the United States has been fol-
lowing a hesitant, step-by-step policy
in this regard, while the Soviet
Union has been running away not
only with the propaganda laurels,
but also with a fair share of the tech-
nological laurels. What has the
United States to lose in urging that
there should be evolved “in time”—
as the President suggested—a broad
international program for the de-
velopment of outer space for the
benefit of all the peoples of the
world? The generous, sincere espous-
al of such a program might arouse
among the uncommitted nations a
feeling of general involvement in
space activities. Would it imperil na-
tional security? No one has yet
shown that it would. And failure of
the Soviets to cooperate would mean
a serious propaganda defeat for
them. Without international controls,
outer space could prove to be not a
high road for the free commerce of
all nations, but an avenue to world
disaster.
LETTERS
(Continued from inside front cover)
Dr. King is a defense of the fight for
freedom in the South, a group of dis-
tinguished Americans—they include Dr.
Harry Emerson Fosdick, Harry Bela-
fonte, Dr.
Thomas, the Rey. Donald Harrington—
have formed a Committee to Defend —
Martin Luther King, Jr., with headquar- —
ters at 312 West 125th Street. The com-
mittee needs funds. It is to be hoped —
that Nation readers, who constitute a
opinion, will contribute generously. ‘
Bayarp Rustin
Algernon Black, Norman
a
significant section of American liberal
\e
|
. 7 "7
Executive Secretary |
> he
The Sins of Biography
; IN SEARCH OF SWIFT. By Denis
iy Johnston. Barnes & Noble. 240 pp.
Mu $7.50.
ri Vivian Mercier
THIS BOOK, its subject and its author
are all astonishing. Swift the writer can
always startle us, no matter how often
we read Gulliver or “A Modest Pro-
an posal” or any of those other man-traps
i he contrived; Swift the man has been
a the subject of so many posthumous
i clinical studies since Oscar Wilde’s
father started the fashion that a book
My which proclaims Swift normal, as Denis
v Johnston’s does, is by that very fact
remarkable; and the epithet “astonish-
_ ing” can also justly be applied to the
4 author of this new piece of Swiftiana.
Let us consider for a moment Pro-
ay fessor Denis Johnston, O.B.E., of Mount
—_ Holyoke College: no doubt that genteel
institution is well aware that it harbors
i one of the few specimens of the Renais-
sance Man now in captivity, but he is
not so well known as he should be in
the rest of the United States. Son of
a) an Irish judge and bred to the law him-
self, Mr. Johnston has had a play pro-
iM duced successfully on Broadway (The
Moon in the Yellow River), been Pro-
gramme Director of B.B.C. television, per-
_ formed, written and directed for the
stage, radio and television on both sides
of the Atlantic, and taught in drama and
English departments in the United
States. Though never a soldier, Mr.
Johnston spent three dangerous years as
a B.B.C. war correspondent, arriving at
- Tito’ s headquarters by parachute on one
occasion, if my memory does not de-
_ ceive me. Politics is about the only
field favored by Renaissance types into
which he has not yet ventured, but if
he ever does, I predict that he will dis-
play there the same impatient bril-
li nee which he has shown in every other
walk of life except, possibly, the law.
Such a man could never be content
vith writing a straightforward biog-
ay of Swift: his book is something
‘more fundamental, a critique of
eding biographers of Swift and of
lipshod or dishonest methods of
ae in general. ee
Johnston is seeking to undermine the
faith of all of us, scholars and laymen
alike, in the veracity of the printed
word.
He could hardly have chosen a better
position from which to launch his at-
tack on biography, for the life of Swift
is beclouded not only by want of in-
formation on some very important
points but also by a plethora of con-
tradictory information and misinforma-
tion, some of the latter demonstrably
supplied by Swift himself. Johnston
takes particular pleasure in showing
how, within this maze of uncertainties,
each biographer arrives at his own cer-
tainties. Often, of course, one biog-
grapher copies from another without
attempting any independent research;
in the process, the guesses of one man
become established facts for his pla-
giarizer.
For convenience sake, I should make
clear at this point that Johnston has his
own rival theory about the central rid-
dle of Swift’s life — the curious rela-
tionship with Esther Johnson or “Stel-
la” — which has inspired so much as-
sertion and speculation on the part of
the Dean’s biographers. Johnston,
lawyerlike, prefers genealogy to psycho-
analysis: Swift and Stella never mar-
ried, he believes, because they were, in
effect, uncle and niece; Swift was the
Sun and Shadows
Sun was born when Shadows was,
Born in a moment, bred and wed:
Each one wears the other’s ring
And sleeps within the selfsame bed.
I saw Sun and Shadows lying
Thigh over thigh beneath the trees;
They turned in bed at every breeze,
Yet where he goes she flies before him
To his asking still denying.
Four bare legs within a bed,
Two are hidden, two are bright,
Two are dark and two are shining,
‘To her sable he is golden
And yet she will not bear his sight.
Shadows rise and shadows fa
When he grows tall then t
small:
When he grows small then | the ey had
tall: ar ay ”
ent ae rise and f
e
illegitimate son of Sir John Temple,
whose legitimate son, Sir William, was
the natural father of Stella. Johnston
further believes that, although the re-
lationship between Swift and Stella re-
mained platonic, Swift was sexually nor-
mal, enough so to make Esther Van-
homrigh (“Vanessa”) his mistress.
Vanessa demanded marriage, but Swift
refused lest Stella be humiliated or her
secret revealed.
NATURALLY, Johnston offers all the
evidence he can find to support his
theory, but the value of his book does
not depend on our acceptance of the new
hypothesis. He devotes a majority of
his pages to demonstrating that most
statements about Swift’s descent, birth,
early years and emotional life are either
untrue or unverifiable and contradictory.
Since biographers are so often content
to pilfer from secondary sources, we
need not be surprised that Johnston
found some primary sources which had
been overlooked in previous lives of
Swift.
The most interesting of these clues are
the entries made in the Black Book of
the King’s Inns, Dublin, by Jonathan
Swift, senior, while he held the menial
office of steward of the Inns. The dates
of the entries suggest that the supposed
father of Swift probably died before
January 23, 1667, while young Jonathan
was not born until November 30 of the
same year. (If this be true, I wonder
whether Abigail Swift had any qualms
about naming her son Jonathan.) Con-
flicting identifications of the house where
Swift was born, as well as the very
curious story of his being kidnapped
by his nurse, suggest that some sort of
concealment was afoot during Swift’s
babyhood. Later, Swift received a good
education, supposedly paid for by his
uncle Godwin Swift, only two of whose
own sons were nearly as well educated;
yet Swift felt no gratitude toward God-
win, who may have been acting merely
as paymaster for someone else, Further-
more, Sir William Temple’s patronage
of Swift has never been fully explained,
either by the alleged blood relationship
between Swift's mother and Lady
Temple or by Sir John Temple’s having
been “a great friend to the family”
unless this phrase was intended by —
Swift as a euphemism,
Those primary re
vaphige have already
at
believes that Swift’s own autobiograph-
ical fragment contains some deliberate
lies as weil as accidental confusions
about dates. By the way, even John-
ston himself is not quite free from the
biographer’s tendency to transmute pos-
sibility or probability into established
fact. An important link in his chain of
evidence is an article in The Gentle-
man’s Magazine for 1757 stating that
Stella was Sir William Temple’s daugh-
ter. The anonymous author’s informant
was “most probably a Mrs. Mayne of
Farnham,” says Johnston on page 93.
Twenty pages later he is writing, “Mrs.
Mayne, who — as might be expected —
was C.M.P.’s source of information. .. .”
Probability has apparently become cer-
tainty in the intervening pages.
The reader unfamiliar with biograph-
ical scholarship may find it hard to be-
lieve how casual most ancient and some
modern biographers have been. For ex-
ample, Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s an-
cestry seems to have been quite deliber-
ately traced to a nobler branch of the
Sheridan family than the true one by
the writer in the venerated Dictionary
of National Biography; indeed, Sheri-
dan’s earlier biographers are so contra-
When We Were
1\ MY ADVENTURES AS AN ILLUS-
TRATOR. By Norman Rockwell, as
told to Thomas Rockwell. Doubleday
& Co. 436 pp. $4.95.
Benjamin DeMott
T. §. ELIOT says that a man capable
of experience finds himself living in a
different age every decade of his life;
the use of Norman Rockwell’s “as told
_ to” autobiography is, oddly, that it con-
| tributes to the definition of the different
_ age now at hand. This is not to claim
that My Adventures as an Illustrator
| is an entrancing item: it has moments
_ of power, but they tend to sink into the
text like splinters of glass in a sea of
mayonnaise. Neither is it to claim that
Rockwell’s character as constructed in
the book is an attractive sight: beam-
_ishness, timidity and Gee-Gosh-Shucks-
ism (“The public liked me!”) are even
less winning in print than in paint. It is
only to assert that, such is our chaos,
true news of the times can turn up al-
patbet anywhere, and that when a kitsch
al
—““
toate
i es
”
=
BENJAMIN DeMOTT, a young novel-
ist who teaches at Amherst College, is
t work on a travel miscellany, The Un-
ofessional Eye. His The Body’ s Cage
as lished es Little, es :
Nata
bah al
5 os
dictory that Miss E. M. Butler wrote
a book on the subject rather similar to
Johnston’s, calling it Sheridan: A Ghost-
Story. The greater the writer, the great-
accumulation of cock-and-bull
stories around him: see Sir E. K.
Chambers’ book attempting to sepa-
rate Shakespeare from his legend.
I am not myself a Swift specialist,
but a friend of mine who is regards
Johnston’s book as plausible enough,
though he thinks we can never hope to
be certain about the truth of the Swift-
Stella-Vanessa triangle. My friend par-
ticularly agrees with the insistence on
Swift’s sexual normality. There is a cur-
rent tendency to belittle Swift’s de-
nunciations of the human race as the
warped rationalizations of a neurotic or
psychotic. If Johnston’s theory could
be proved correct, we might have to
accept Swift as, in Johnston’s words,
“a perfectly normal man, of colossal pro-
portions, motivated by two of the most
universal, the most lovable, and the
most dangerous of all human emotions
— “Pride and Pity.” This would inevi-
tably change our attitude to the works
as well as to the man. We might even
have to begin taking Swift seriously.
er the
Young and Poor
book raises a key question or clarifies a
situation hitherto obscure, it had best
not be regarded as a joke.
The question that Rockwell’s book in-
directly. raises is: in the America of the
sixties what will be the most popular
substitute for thought?. The answer that
it indirectly supplies is: nostalgia for the
leanness of yesteryear. Everyone appears
to agree that America is entering upon
its bloated age, and people are already
casting about for ways of making this
event real to themselves. The ordinary
man usually has some scrap of symbolic
evidence, some detail or other about
prices or wages—as for example that cer-
tain snow-plow drivers in western Mas-
sachusetts earn $10,000 a year—which
he cites as proof of Where We Are Head-
ing. And a superb “younger” poet,
Robert Lowell, has already undertaken
to express the present as a time when
. even the man
scavenging filth in back alley trash
cans
has two children, a beach wagon, a
helpmate
and is a “young Republican.”
Stull, knowing the social facts is not ‘tie
i the answer to the
la man been cer-
M4 Se my a .
question specified.
fon
a
ott
tain at the start of the thirties, or forties,
or fifties what the prevailing substitutes
for thought in those decades would be
(they were: defeatism, then heroism,
then McCarthyism), he might not have
managed to avoid becoming a victim of
his times, but he would have been able
to stop talking like a fool. And, though
unheroic, this achievement is no proper
object for scorn.
THE social facts offered up in My
Adventures as an Illustrator, as it un-
wittingly plots the future of American
mindlessness, are drawn for the most part
from an extremely solitary and unexcit-
ing life—boyhood in the Yonkers and
Mamaroneck and upper New York of
sixty years ago, classes at the Art Stu-
dents League, early luck with George
Lorimer and the Post, a few weird trips
to Europe, a meaningless marriage, a
divorce, a good marriage, a steady in-
crease in income, a stag dinner with Ike,
a studio in Stockbridge. . . . And when-
ever these facts have direct bearing on
Rockwell’s Career or Hopes, they are set
down in the familiar idiom of The Read-
ers Digest:
I no longer believe that I’ll bring back
the golden age of illustration.
I realized a long time ago that I'll
never be as good as Rembrandt.
BUT
I think my work is improving. I start
each picture with the same high
hopes, and... I still try my darnedest.
But when Rockwell turns away from a
consideration of his own Progress or
Doggedness, his voice changes in the di-
rection of seriousness, and even gains a
measure of strength:
The ... memory is of a vacant lot
in the cold yellow light of late after-
noon, the wind rustling in the dry
grass and a scrap of newspaper roll-
ing slowly across the patches of dirty
snow. And a drunken woman in filthy
gray rags following a man and beating
him over the head with an umbrella.
The ‘man stumbling through the
coarse littered grass, his arms raised
to cover his head, and the woman
cursing and screaming, beating him
incessantly until he fell, then standing —
over him, kicking and striking him SF
again and again about the head and
belly and legs. And I remember that —
we kids watched, silent, from the
edges of the lot, until a policeman
ran up and gribbed the woman. Then
the man got slowly up and, seeing
the policeman struggling with the
woman, attacked him, swaying drunk-
enly and swearing. p
And it is by attending to this voice—the
voice of the witness rather than the actor
—that the reader arrives at an under-
standing of the meaning of the sentiment
which in Rockwell’s mind currently
passes for thought.
Defining this sentiment on the basis
of the memory just quoted is not easy:
the image of violence is hardly less plain
than the sense of bareness, and repug-
nance for both rather confuses the issue.
Elsewhere in the book, though, bareness
and Jeanness are felt in positive terms,
and are set up more or less as ideals.
Again and again Rockwell introduces
subjects for the (undeclared) purpose
of showing his reader what money Used
‘To Mean. He describes, for example, the
procedure he followed for quieting rest-
less child models in the old days when
his studio was in New Rochelle. He
would place a stack of shiny new nickels
on the table beside his easel and then:
“Every twenty-five minutes, when it
came time for the model to rest, I’d
transfer five of the nickels to the other
with a collection of mementos from a
life pitiably bare: popcorn from a bag
he had bought his wife “at the World’s
Columbian Exposition in Chicago in
1893,” “a cigar smoked and dropped by
General Ulysses S. Grant... during a
dinner given in his honor at the 7th
Regiment Armory in New York City,”
“a piece of rafter burned in the Iroquois
theatre fire in Chicago on the thirtieth
of December, 1903, in which fierce con-
flagration six hundred and two persons
lost their lives,” steel shavings from a
visit in 1909 to the Bethlehem Pitts-
burgh plant, a seashell commemorating
a weekend he spent with his wife in
Atlantic City in 1914.
In one passage there is even an at-
tempt to evoke that forgotten sensa-
tion, hunger:
Joshua Biengraber asked me one
day, “Were you ever actually hun-
gry?” “Sure,” I said. “No,” he said,
looking closely at me, “I don’t be-
cane garishly sefitisianeal series” coe
tough guys gazing in pious wonder at
little old praying ladies with which
Rockwell dressed the Post—namely, as
a kind of perpetual vision of shabbiness.
The man insists that he likes to paint
people who were “wrinkled and_ cor-
roded ... by the grubby life they led,”
and that painting “sleek” and “conven-
tional” Americans gives him no more
pleasure than “painting a slab of warm
butter.” And clearly the objects of his
eye have been, almost from the begin-
ning, worn hands, back alleys, station
restaurants, mangy cats, Dads in under-
shirts and suspenders, kids who never
saw Ivy chinos with paisley linings.
BUT seeing the subject in terms of
Rockwell’s individual career effects a
reduction of its significance which though
comfortable is wrongheaded. The author
of My Adventures as an Illustrator has
had, after all, a huge success as a pro-
ducer of absolutely mindless versions of
the country; there exists a real possi- ,
bility that he should be regarded as a fs
prophet of mindlessness, a man who :
lieve it. You haven’t got it in your
face. You don’t know what it is... .
I can remember sitting on a bench in
Central Park just after I came to this
side of the table saying, ‘Now that’s
your pile.’ The kids liked that.” Is there
a child in New Rochelle today who (for
‘. A : : t % : f . . an
five nickels and at the bidding of a com country. I didn’t know a soul; my knows as a matter of instinct, where a
mercial artist) would shut his mouth and how the national brain will next ;
pockets were empty. And I just sat
there. For days it seemed like. I was
so tired and hungry that I didn’t
even have the courage to get up. You
shut off.
This possibility gains weight when ;
it is regarded in the light of the similar-
and stand still for a half hour, or who
prefers coins to bills, or who doesn’t
know about checks? To be sure, it 1s
the reader who asks these questions, not
Rockwell: the latter “draws no conclu-
sions.”
He tells at length of his stay in a city
boarding house, and evokes a_ tough
world of kitchen slavies and young mar-
ried couples of defeated hope, without
ever remarking that Young Marrieds of
today, Influentials all, have not seen even
the outside of a boarding house. And
when, in a few warmly affectionate
pages, he describes the trolley excursions
of his youth (“From the Battery to the
far Bronx and back, an evening’s pleas-
ure, for only ten cents. | remember that
everyone | knew—grownups, kids, maid-
en aunts—had a trolley pillow which
had been made by the ladies of the
family especially for these Sunday and
evening excursions”), he does not point
a moral at the end about the sparse
integrity of the people’s former entertain-
ments, as Richard Hoggart would do:
he simply returns to his Career,
But the moral, to call it that, is there,
and as the book proceeds (the passages
nation with poverty and hard times (he
seems to’ have experienced little of either)
comes ever more clearly into sight. In
pages that blend Tennessee Williams
with Wright Morris, he tells of a wretch-
ed pensioner named James K. Van
i Brunt who lived in a dingy room filled
. _ mentioned occur early), Rockwell’s fasci-
don’t know what it’s like. You feel
all hazy inside. And weak, like when
you’ve been sitting in a hot bath for
an hour.”
It is possible to regard a preoccupa-
tion of this kind as mere embroidery
on the familiar American fable of Guilty
Success. And certainly a part of its in-
terest derives from the suggestion im-
plicit in it of a new way of viewing the
Perpetuum Mobile
(from the Swedish of Gunnar Ekelof)
The good old usual baldheadedness
The good old usual baldheadedness
The good old usual baldheadedness
The good old disgraceful usualness
The good old usual disgracefulness
The good old disgraceful kindliness
The good old kindly ramblingness
The good old drivelling secretness
The good old secret hurtfulness
The good old blessed drivellingness
The good old hurtful seurviness
The good old scurvy blessedness
Middleclassedness the old delicious
Disgracefulness the old scandalous
Baldheadedness the old fi
Raeresdedness the ol
Wu Curis’ 1 N
by A
a) vale able
ity between the direction of his senti-
mental rumination and the direction of
homely barber shop gossip. And, it be-
comes a positive likelihood when you con-
sider, apropos of the nostalgia that pre-
sently unites intellectuals and shop men,
how much easier it is to yearn for the
time when we were young and poor than
for Mont St. Michel. The optimist as-
sumes that all thinking folk understand
the relation between fat and fatuity; he is
sure that people know that abundance
is meaningless unless met with a taut
will and intellect, a genuine eagerness
to invent responsibilities and obligations;
he believes that poets and barbers alike
will eventually go forth to meet plenty
with something in mind other than a
longing for hard bellies. But faith of this
kind cannot be validated at the moment.
What is required for this purpose is evi-
dence that people are in_ process of
learning the lesson that a yearning for
leanness amounts only to a substitute
for thought, a device to quiet guilt,
Norman Rockwell’s “adventures” dem-
onstrate (all unintentionally) the im-
portance of this lesson by drawing an
image of the flaceidity of mind, the
moral limpness and silliness, to which —
a failure to learn it can lead. And for
that reason, and no other, it is just | to |
call the se that ae ee .
to. rhe. age, Ky)
f a
i
2
peat
been
Meet
Pany
lm
pany
Th
RING THE NIGHT BELL. The Au-
tobiography of a Surgeon. By Paul
B. Magnuson. Little, Brown & Co.
376 pp. $5.
George A. Silver
THE TONE of this review can only
reflect puzzled respect. The book is
hardly great literature. There is the
usual nostalgic story of a Midwestern
boy growing up at the turn of the
century, the usual experiences with snow
and horses and conflict with the turmoil
of the modern world. The flavor of the
writing is four-square Middle Western,
rather direct and dull. The book is a
series of victories for a country boy who
put one over on a hostile world. Cross-
grained and irascible, he is a nineteenth-
century hero whose greatest reward was
to practice medicine. And he did love
medicine! He loved pus from the time
he was seven years old and he loved
fixing bones and the smell of disinfectant
and most of all he loved the idea that
other people needed him.
Yet in telling of this boy’s life in
furiously changing times, in telling what
it meant to become a doctor in the
first half of this century, Dr. Magnu-
_ son is just fairly readable. Why? Well,
mostly because he is telling a private
tale. He was a participant in great so-
cial events but he lacks social insight.
The whole shoddy story of Workmen’s
Compensation, for example, the collusion
and deceit, the dreadful manifestations
of employer ruthlessness in the stock-
_ yards and on the railroads, the picture
of maimed, mangled and murdered men
_ who went through his hands, victims of
the conscienceless lack of safety pre-
_ cautions, all these things just barely ap-
f pear. The Jungle might never have
been written. As Magnuson writes, one
_ meets the president of the railroad com-
pany who was his friend, the director
_ of medical services in the packing com-
_ pany who employed him, and so on.
The workers themselves appear only
incidentally — as grateful and apprecia-
_ tive patients whom he patched together.
The enemy is not a corrupt industrial
structure:
Industrial work is a very tricky
thing for a doctor, not just because
of the medical side of it, but because
there is an awful lot of money at
__ stake, and where there is money, you
GEORGE A. SILVER, M.D., is chief
of the Division of Social Medicine at
ie tore Hospital in New York.
¢
M
’
OA
----------———_—_—_—————————
Ce Oy:
. ie)
The Near-Sighted Maverick
will find lawyers. Where there are
lawyers, you will always find some
who are less than scrupulous, and
who try to take advantage of the
poor innocent doctor.
This pretty much sets the tone. Also,
he talks a lot like a poor country boy
but he points out that when he went
to Washington for the Veterans Ad-
ministration, his first year’s salary was
one-fifth of the income tax he had paid
the previous year!
DR. MAGNUSON played two _ large
roles in American medical history. The
first was as the Assistant Medical Di-
rector of the Veterans Administration
after the Second World War, in which
post he helped to set up the high
standards of medical care of the “new”
Veterans Hospitals as opposed to the
former hospitals which had been shod-
dy tombs of corruption and graft, monu-
ments for the American Legion. He was
the designer of the “Deans’ Committees”
whereby the medical schools set stand-
ards and policies for the Veterans Ad-
ministration Hospitals. Dr. Magnuson
(along with General Paul Hawley
and General Omar Bradley) played a
large part in assuring that the vet-
erans of World War II got the first-
class medical care to which they were
entitled. He does make this point, but
most of the time he is off on a white
charger fighting bureaucracy. He is
against big government. You might
think that government represented some
abstract beast with which he had no
connection or concern, instead of the
organized social effort that created (to
name just the one immediate thing)
the Veterans Administration.
Then, Magnuson — as a maverick
and against the will and wish of the
American Medical Association — took
over at Harry Truman’s request the
direction of the President’s Commission
of the Health Needs of the Nation and
arranged for the various hearings,
studies and investigations. The eventu-
al publication of this series of reports
is an important contribution to medical
care for the American people, principal-
ly because it points in a clear direction
to the solution of those needs. Yet
Magnuson sees this as a sort of a lark
in which he rather patronizingly al-
lowed the United States to get a glimpse
of some of these things. He never sees
the social significance of this event. I
wish he had had more perspective on
his time and his ro
My
ims »
ART
Fairfield Porter
WHAT WAS revolutionary about Im-
pressionism was that color, which dis-
tinguishes painting: from the other visu-
al arts, was for the first time considered
primary in the painter’s concern with
the subjectivity of vision. Subjectivity,
being personal, is not conceptual, and
neither is it abstract. The Impressionist
was not interested what. was out
there, but in how, whatever it was, it
looked to the one who was looking. The
Impressionists used color instead of the
contour to express materiality, and since
they were realists in the sense of not
being romantic, color had to have sub-
stance. And color, which may give the
spectator a great deal of pleasure, comes
from the artist’s intellect; drawing, |
which is accessible to the spectator’s iy
intellect, comes from the artist’s emo- athe
tions.
The Armory show of 1913 was a Post- “AN
Impressionist exhibition, and it had a :
disastrous effect on American painting:
for example, the damage it did to the
in
I
takes a piercing look at
the world scene,
and at America’s
dangerous lack of
direction in it.
PUTTING
FIRST THINGS
FIRST
The recent major papers
and speeches of Adlai
Stevenson, including his
highly controversial
Foreign Affairs article. ;
$3.00 clothbound;
$1.50 paperbound
Now at your ee
bookstore
RANDOM
HOUSE
style of Bellows, Sloan and Eilshemius.
In 1913, the difficulty for American
painters was that society was anti-art;
it gave the artist the choice of making
silly and acceptable fantasies, or of ex-
pressing society’s anti-artistic _ beliefs.
Since Post-Impressionism emphasizes
concept, it can suggest that art is valid
because it “means” something. The
Armory show pointed out to American
painters an anti-artistic direction, like
that of German Expressionism. A vulgar
idea of art teachers that comes out of
the Armory show is that “modern” is
equivalent to distortion; that art is valid
if it teaches, satirizes, or propagandizes.
But the Impressionist revolution, which
implied that the value of art is intrinsic,
was much more of a revolution than
any that succeeded it.
AMERICAN painting of the present
fashion has been called “abstract-ex-
pressionist.” This means that the tex-
ture of Expressionist painting, whose
form came from social comment, was
divorced from that use in being made
non-objective. However, since non-ob-
jectivity suggests anarchy, it makes a
social comment after all. American non-
objective painting followed American
socially conscious painting; by the time
it was accepted, a social tie-in was no
longer required by the audience, and
American painters were well on the way
to painting for a public that accepted
art as intrinsically valuable. If art is
valuable for itself, then again one can
appreciate the radical originality of
Monet, whose work is being shown in a
large exhibition at the Museum of
Modern Art. This exhibition coincides
with several good shows of New York
painters who connect more closely with
Monet than with Picasso. It is not so
much a connection with the Impression-
ist theory of the primacy of light as
with the Impressionist practice of mak-
ing a distinction between color and
graphic description. Not contour, but
color gives substance. In this connec-
tion, Thomas Hess once wrote an ar-
ticle on painters as writers and writers
as artists. Writers draw well, but that
is usually all; on the other hand, paint-
ers do not have a feeling for words as
entities with their own life, but go in
for ideas. Take for example the artists’
magazine /t is, weighted with an over-
lapping sequence of one leaden sentence
on top of another; or Mallarmé’s re-
mark when Degas showed him some
sonnets he had written, “But Degas, a
sonnet is made of words.”
The paintings of Herman Rose at the
A.A. Gallery connect not only with
Monet’s primacy of color, but with Tm-
a I ane : -. ee
és a cr Sloat Oot ee oe
7 un rm" seth : ,
pressionist light as well. There is a city-
scape of the upper East Side, that is
full of such light as Monet or any other
Impressionist would have been proud
to have achieved. A _ non-objective
painter who starts from color is Esteban
Vicente at the Emmerich Gallery. That
he constructs out of color does not mean
that the color is in “good taste,” nor
that it is bright. At times it is certainly
both of these things, but much more im-
portant is the fact that whatever the
color, color relationships give the can-
vases their life. Neither line nor edge
creates the form of the color, but what
it is inside itself. The Howard Wise
Gallery (a new gallery subtly designed
by Wilder Green) exhibits 10 by 16
foot canvases by Milton Resnick that
have the superficial look of Monet’s
water lily murals. Resnick’s color is
linear, defining no clear areas smaller
than the whole. At the Peridot Gallery
still lifes and landscapes by Leon Hartl
ARCHITECTURE
Walter McQuade
THE LONG-DISCUSSED memorial to
Franklin Delano Roosevelt to be built
near the Washington and_ Jefferson
monuments in Washington, D.C., is all
at once being pushed with odd, un-
seemly speed—especially since we are
now under a Republican administration
which, if not about to decamp from
Washington, at least intends to change
the guard this fall. On March 20, came
the announcement of a formal architec-
tural competition. Programs for this
competition will go out in April; the
list of architects and offices wishing to
compete will be closed May 16; four
months later all entries must have been
submitted; from these, six will be se-
lected for the final round which will last
three months. Very fast, for monumen-
tality. All in all, the architectural evo-
cation of a wide, intricate political per-
sonality is being given less time than
the arranging of the Johansson-Patter-
son return heavyweight bout, which
should be a less contemplative: affair,
although you never can tell.
Most of the basic conditions for this
competition are very good. The site is
not only spacious and prominent, but
symbolically well located. Lying between
the Potomac and its tidal basin, the
ten-acre parcel is bounded mostly by
water, and that seems appropriate for
the last of our seagoing Presidents. ‘The
committee advising the memorial com-
- ‘ oe a
Yi) ieee |. ay A
~ creative. It could be gardens, plazas, |
are made of shimmering pinks and grays
with the generalized light of a four-
teenth-century Florentine. At the Janis
Gallery, Franz Kline’s paintings are for
the first time made of color. His forte
has always been light, but previously |
any of his colors could have been ex-
changed for any other. These paintings,
parallel to De Kooning, have a speed
and largeness that is inimitable. What
holds them in place is not so much the
up-and-downness of gravity as that they
look like part of the wall. At the Stable
Gallery, Alex Katz’s flat, representation-
al paintings combine a tightness of ad-
justment of areas with an accuracy of
color, less found in nature than created
for nature. Though Hartl and he are
realists, they are both abstractionists in
color. Rose’s color is his personal con-
vention, a habit of the palette; Resnick’s
color is the color that the Impressionists
used for nature; Vicente and Katz use :
colors like weights in a scale. |
eee ee
mission is headed by Chairman Pietro
Belluschi of the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology’ and includes Samuel
Glaser, R. Sturgis Ingersoll, Lewis
Mumford, G. Holmes Perkins, Hideo
Sasaki and Jay S. Unger — men who
obviously had the visual uses of water
in mind in selecting this land: a_ tall
tower, a wall, or a walkway cantilevered
> =e + oe
<a
-
nee en ae ey
smile?
e ies ‘ WASHINGTON
_———— MONUMENT
Wr
out over the shoreline would be mir-
rored in the quiet river. The first
of these seems unlikely, because a tower
might compete with the Washington
needle up the way; besides, the commit-
tee has already implied that it wants
something less classically formal, more —
sculptures, fountains, pools, or combina:
Sons ~ ‘ t a ae ss A
iv rh : _- t » NATIO
idl.
La Se
i . hae
ions of these. The solution wisely has
been left wide open. This means, how-
ever, that the competing architects must
gather and co-ordinate teams of artists,
landscape designers and sculptors into
their efforts, which again tightens the
timetable. In this day ‘of intense de-
mand on architectural offices by their
bread-and-butter commercial clients, it
will be difficult for some gifted archi-
tects to cut loose from their obligations
so rapidly. I can see a lot of summer
vacations going up in smoke, perhaps
taking a marriage or two with them.
THE guiding committee has picked
out three characteristic qualities of
F.D.R. for recording in bronze: “his
warm feeling for people, above abstract
causes or principles,” “The good neigh-
bor policy . . . of give and take, on the
basis of need and sympathy” and his
“Vital sense of the unity of all man-
kind.” These might seem to call for a
nobly proportioned picnic area, with
~ everyone sharing the salt.
What might also have been stressed
are the man’s courage, impulsiveness,
determination and _ confident gaiety.
When I first heard of the coming com-
petition some months ago, an undigni-
fied and inartistic image popped imme-
diately into my mind: the car is a
jaunty old Ford or Plymouth four-door
convertible, circa 1935 model, especially
equipped for a handicapped driver. The
canvas top has been folded down, al-
though the day is gray and misting
slightly. In the front sits F.D.R. with
the brim of his fedora turned upward, his
heavy jaw clenching that cigarette hold-
er, also tilted upward in the way that
so maddened my elderly Republican
friends. He is smiling broadly. He is at
the wheel.
T don’t mean to suggest a new kind of
equestrian statue. I mention this image
only to indicate how difficult it will be
to design a suitable monument to this
gigantic, real man, still so close to us.
His memorial must include a wide range
of feelings, from dignity to delight,
pathos to arrogance.
Realism is a lot to ask in a monu-
ment, just as monumentality is a lot to
ask of modern American architects. The
tone of most monuments is a temple-
like nostalgia, and perhaps it is all that
can be expected. But our official tributes
to past greatness betray too often a sen-
timental and stylish meagerness of spirit.
The Europeans, I think, show them-
selves better able to express a tragic
sense in their ceremonial architecture.
And they too are aware of the signifi-
cance of Roosevelt. That brings me to
the aspect of this competition that is
disconcerting.
The earlier printed report submitted
by the memorial commission to Congress
said that its advisory committee had
“unanimously decided that the best way
of providing a suitable memorial is to
hold an international competition.” Yet
the competition as finally announced is
open only to residents of the United
States—no Le Corbusier, no Nervi, no
Aalto, no Candela, or their young. What
kind of thing is this? Would it be too
embarrassing if a Chinese, or German,
or Cuban submitted the winning design?
Away back in 1922, when one of F.D.R.’s
least liked countrymen, the late Colonel
Robert McCormick of Chicago, spon-
sored a competition for the Tribune
Tower, now standing on Michigan Ave-
nue as his own memorial, even he, the
bitter isolationist, was broadminded
enough to make the architectural com-
petition world-wide.
MUSIC
Lester Trimble
THE MOST invigorating concert I have
heard this season came recently when
_ Fritz Reiner, in his second week as guest
conductor of the New York Philharmon-
ic, and pianist Rudolf Serkin, played the
Bartok Concerto No. 1 for Piano and
Orchestra. The Philharmonic had never
before played this work. Indeed, it
_ seems that the Concerto has had only
one or two performances in the United |
States since 1928, when Reiner intro-
duced it in New York with the Cincin-
i Symphony. and the « composer, him-
olois gE i
g eibere. § pe ii
had planned a month earlier to present
Bartok in his American debut as com-
poser-pianist, with the Concerto as a
vehicle, had decided that the Philhar-
monic could not prepare the work in
time. He substituted a solo piece,
the Rhapsody, Opus 1, written when
Bartok was twenty- ree, The composer
imagine that the
pretive problems in
been intimidat-
er, even then,
technical and inte
this music would
ing, in 1928, althe )
Pee rh A T° et 7-_ > eer es os RT
y , ;
“Head and Shoulders Above the Season!”
—ATKINSON, N. Y. Times
JASON MAUREEN IRENE
ROBARDSir: STAPLETON “WORTH
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to meet them head on. The music must
have seemed much stranger then, and
performing techniques among the rank-
and-file musicians were not what they are
today. I am surprised, however, that
even during the period of intense in-
terest in Bartok’s music, which came
immediately after his death, and sub-
sided only a bit when the music became
repertory material instead of a cause
célébre, the Piano Concerto No. I was
still permitted to languish. For it is
clearly a masterpiece.
BARTOK’S best music, it seems to me,
manages to resolve two musical at-
titudes which are usually considered
contradictory: that of the colorist, who
creates vague, blurred effects, using
color for its own sake; and of the strict
logician, who tends always toward fine-
line work. His thematic material is
etched in lines as clear and delicate as
those in a Leonardo drawing. The colors,
however, are created by means that are
almost opposed. When he is in a purely
coloristic mood, they seem to have been
put on with a delicate thumb, and cer-
tain passages in this Concerto wherein
piano sonorities are intermingled with
those of the orchestral percussion sec-
tion, just for color and mood, fall into
this category. At other times, one hears
passages which, superficially, bear signs
of this blurred, colorist approach. When
they are examined, however, one finds
that they are actually the product of
an interlocking of fine, logically formu-
lated lines so complex that they seem
to dissolve into color. It is probably
Bartok’s ability thus to operate over a
broad technical range, with pure color-
ism at one extreme; pure linear writing
minus color connotations at the other;
and a middle ground consisting of linear
techniques which incline toward either
pole, as the composer wishes — it 1s
probably this exact ability which pro-
vides his music with its stylistic co-
hesiveness.
SERKIN and Reiner, in their perform-
ance of the Concerto, chose to give it
full measure of warmth and roundness.
With this piece, as with many by Bar-
tok, the performers must choose be-
tween a strident, hammering, irascible
approach (which is stylistically correct),
and a softer, more luxuriant and sensuous
posture, which is equally valid. These, I
suspect, were contradictory qualities in
Bartok’s personal nature, and they are
present in the music as well. Because I
prefer the more opulent manner, I am
glad when musicians of the caliber and
generation of Serkin or the Budapest
String Quartet take a musi¢ in
hand.’ Invariably, they stress its bulk
and mature sensuousness, and the music
assumes deeper meanings. Sharp, nerv-
ous performances, which the younger
musicians tend to provide, can be ex-
citing but they do not give as complete
a picture.
It is for that reason that I preferred
the Serkin-Reiner performance, with its
slower tempi and mysterious moods, to
the one just recorded by the composer’s
son, Peter Bartok, with Leonid Hambro
as soloist and Robert Mann, first violin-
ist of the Juilliard String Quartet, con-
ducting the Zimbler Sinfonietta. These
latter musicians place the accent on the
work’s driving energy, and upon total
clarity. It is a beautifully engineered
recording, and so is the performance
splendid in every respect. Despite a
preference for the Serkin-Reiner ap-
proach, I am delighted to own this
disk, especially since it is the only record
ever made of the Piano Concerto No. J.
(It can be had, with the solo Rhapsody,
Opus I on the second side, by mail order
from Bartok Records, 111 West 57
Street, New York 19, N.Y. Bartok
Records No. 3131.)
ON HIS program with the Philharmonic,
Reiner also included Stravinsky’s Diver-
timento: Suite from the Ballet “Le
Baiser de la Fée,’ and the Ravel or-
chestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures
from an Exhibition. 1 have never been
particularly fond of The Fairy’s Kiss,
despite the fact that its craftsmanship
is so elegant and that there are some
portions which I find almost hilariously
amusing. Most of the music strikes me
as pale and vaguely effete. There is also
an over-strong air of eclecticism, which
could probably not have been avoided
in making an homage to another com-
poser, in this case Tchaikovsky. Reiner
gave the Suite a miraculously apt per-
formance, stressing its kgh style and
musical joking without at any point
losing subtlety or point. His reading of
the Pictures from an Exhibition was
fascinating from beginning to end. When
he finally let out the whole orchestra
in the Jast section, The Great Gate of
Kiev, my strong impulse was to stand
up and yell “Hurray!” Less sedate
spirits in the baleony did,
Where the Man Most Was
Where the man most was
water crackled
fire hardened
varth rushed
air drowned all
ALEXANDER LaInc
— &
"i
Crossword Puzzle No. 861 |
By FRANK W. LEWIS
10
11
12
13
21
22
24
25
26
wo Fe
3
ACROSS:
A pest, if penned up and put in the
proper level of society. (8)
A copy of the Dauphine with a good
finish at the factory, perhaps. (6)
Wool around the neck, or metal un-
der the body? (7)
Not so dense as to make the color
go further! (7)
Plush isn’t the word for it! (7)
Might be less than a year unless
pressed, being out on a limb. (7)
The base of the pole? (6, 7)
In the main, all is nasty, but might
only appear so. (13)
Suggests a rather primitive place
for the tribe. (7)
Did her hat have a point to it? (7)
Smoothing things over on board. (7)
If unhappy with the results of a
lead from your hand, these might
help! (7)
Greybeards might be rather loony,
with a few feet cut off. (6)
It’s the tongue in snakes that causes
slanders. (8)
DOWN:
Put a little time in the full extent
of craft. (6)
Saying “No” almost causes a fuss
in other than false circumstances.
(7) .
The sort of story that wins the
April 2, 1960
oe
‘i .)
Munchausen medal? (7)
4 Rushed the- - platform
flights? (6, 7)
6 Put a cap on the drink — it might
help you get the proper angle. (7)
You might consider this place as
being different. (7)
Another name for one who leads
ae a six to just under the ace?
10 It doesn’t have that traditionally
golden quality. (18)
14 Trying to be like something pithy,
perhaps. (8)
16 To be proper for the answer? (7)
17 It implies sharing a rather heavy
point! (7)
18 Carry a challenge with you in travel-
ing? (7)
19 men of any sort to hunt up.
between
“~]
Co
20 On the other side of matched lines,
by the sound of it. (6)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 860
ACROSS: 1 Autobiographer; 8 Over-
spending; 10 Necropolis; 11 Laic; 13
Abatis; 14 Christie; 16 Deigning; 17
Midrib; 19 Boar; 20 Histrionic; 22
Credit charge; 23 Down in the dumps.
DOWN: 1 Around and about; 2 Theo-
cratical; 8 Bostonians; 4 Oberon; 5
Red light; 6 Pans; 7 Knickerbockers;
9 Battering ram; 12 Diminished; 15
Unbidden; 18 Stiteh; 21 Iron.
ahead
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This monthly publication started out as a tabloid
newspaper called THE CALIFORNIA LIBERAL,
then grew into a full-fledged magazine of national and
international importance. Some of the articles which
; Meh appear in the APRIL issue will give you some reasons
OMA
why:
CANCER QUACKS AND CURES: CALIFORNIA'S EX-
PERIMENT — California, first state to legalize control of
cancer medicines, must come to grips with Dr. Andrew
C. Ivy and the drug Krebiozen, and with the man who
has been called America’s number one cancer quack:
Harry Hoxsey. Vital details you have not read in any other
national magazine.
THE PRIVATE POWER FALLACY — More than 100 of
the nation’s biggest power concerns, operating in unison
under the name “America’s Independent Electric Light
and Power Companies,” are currently waging one of the
costliest and most grossly misleading campaigns in the
history of American advertising.
SAM NEWHOUSE vs. THE UNIONS — America’s third
largest chain publisher is involved in an effort to turn the
tide against the trade union movement with strikebreaking
methods used in the four-month-old Portland newspaper
strike, one of the most sordid episodes in American jour-
nalism. Details about this strike you have not read before.
NAZIS YESTERDAY AND TODAY — A Nazi propagan-
da film that ran nine months in San Francisco; a list of
top ranking Nazis in control of West Germany’s govern-
ment and militia today; and some neo-Nazi hate groups
in the U.S.A.
DISSECTING THE PRESS — Newsweek, magazine of rumor; Examiner and Safeway: a cozy
relationship; The Vanity Press; “Today”; “Exclusive.”
STORIES THE DAILIES WON'T PRINT — False ads and monopolies in the world of business.
BANK vs. SOCIAL CREDIT — The Canadian dollar, under a nationalized central banking
system, has surpassed the U.S. dollar, under a privately owned central banking system, both in
value and demand on the world market.
TO PACIFIC TELEPHONE: NON-TAXABLE — The telephone company turns a trick.
To: THE CALIFORNIAN
1628 Balboa Street e¢ San Francisco 21, California
(] I enclose $3 for a one-year subscription. CO I enclose $5 for a two-year subscription.
Name eevere “ewww ew eee eer eee eee ewee Address eeeereeeoes eos eevereee sy oem Cari Zone... Btate. scescive x
8
a
ey. oa
ia
vail i
A he - a i eat
OW) ee MA ae
SURLINGAIe \
APRIL 9, 1 60 p. ie or ae
A PROGRAM FOR THE
PRESIDENCY Wayne Morse
NEO-NAZISM on the MARCH
Heinz Pol
MURDER and ONOMATOLOGY
George R. Stewart
MONITORS vs. ‘THE
TEAMSTERS | William Goffen
LETTERS
The Chessman Case
Dear Sirs: The mail has just brought
me the March 26 Nation, and I am at
once impelled to write you, and at a
loss for words.
Praise and gratitude from me, as Caryl
Chessman’s attorney since he has been
on Death Row, you would have every
right to expect. But my reactions to
your bold editorial and forthright arti-
cle go much deeper than that.
For so many years Caryl has been
waging a virtually friendless and un-
publicized battle; it is all the more
heartening, then, to know that a publica-
tion such as yours, people such as you,
care—care not only about salvaging the
life of one individual, but about hasten-
ing the oblivion of California’s shameful
“little green room” and all that it im-
plies.
Thank you for the sentiments of your
editorial and the straight reporting of
Dick Meister’s story.
Rosaiz S. ASHER
Sacramento, Calif.
Dear Sirs: For several months I have
been trying to get a fellow worker to
read The Nation’s coverage of the Caryl
Chessman case. He has consistantly re-
fused on the grounds of: lack of interest,
“he’s guilty anyway.”
However, with a recent issue of Time
concerned also with the Chessman case,
I was able to persuade him that it
might make interesting reading to get
two different points of view. This
morning my copy of The Nation was re-
turned to my desk along with the state-
ment that “this man should have a fair
re-trial. I still feel he is guilty, but it
would be unjust to execute him on the
basis of present court records.”
Matruew A. CoHEeN
Boston University
Boston, Mass.
Dear Sirs: I read with interest the
March 26 edition of The Nation with
the editorial on Chessman.
I have long been opposed to capital
punishment. The bill which I introduced
in this session of Congress (H.R. 870)
is my current legislative attempt on the
subject.
I believe the Chessman incident very
well typifies the legal adage, “Bad cases
make bad law.” Under other conditions
and circumstances, and without a Chess-
man case on the front pages of the news-
papers, I am sure the California legisla-
ture would have acted differently. I am
,
doing my best to keep the Chessman
case out of any discussion of my bill.
ABRAHAM J. MuLTER
M. C., New York
Washington, D.C.
Dear Sirs: Following is an excerpt from
a letter I have sent to the Chief Justice
of the California Supreme Court:
The death of Chessman, like the
death of Michael Servetus in John
Calvin’s day, would be not California’s
or America’s guilt especially, but the
common opprobium of the whole
civilized world... .
You, as Chief Justice of the Su-
preme Court of California, have the
rare opportunity of striking the first
blow for freedom against capital
punishment. . . . The honor and dig-
nity of world opinion demand no
other course.
I. Leo Fisusein, M.D.
Miami Beach, Fla.
New Hampshire Voice
Dear Sirs: One who has suffered since
1954 at the hands of Attorney General
Louis C. Wyman naturally finds it hard
to comment without emotion on Mr.
di Giovanni’s article, “New Hampshire’s
One-Man Inquisition,” in your March
19 issue. To me, the article is lucid,
factual, devastating. Of all the forceful
points made, the one that impressed me
most is that which shows how Mr.
Wyman satisfied the two classes of Red-
baiters. And it is in satisfying the second
class—those who want the “Reds”
punished effectively, yet lawfully, that
he has been most destructive of our
Constitutional liberties. . .
Despite the testimony of well-known
churchmen who have known me for a
quarter-century or more, Mr. Wyman
called my religion a “fake” before the
U. S. Supreme Court. When a few New
Hampshire ministers spoke in my defense,
or signed petitions for clemency, he
assailed me before a men’s club in a
Concord church. . . . Mr. di Giovanni
makes a strong point when he speaks
of Wyman’s extraordinary latitude which
has made him at once judge, jury and
prosecutor.
Through all this, | have lived in the
hope that the American people will re-
discover their heritage and stop the
inroads on their liberties.
Witrarp Uruaus
Boscawen, N. H. :
|The Rev. Uphaus is in a New Hamp-
shire jail on contempt charges arising
out of his refusal to name persons who
attended a summer camp allegedly “in-
filtrated” by Communists.—Ed.]
i
~
é
3
*
6
> -
¢
ang
Integrated Officialdom
Dear Sirs: T am an avid reader of The
Nation and particularly enjoy your la-
bor articles. I want, however, to correct
a statement in “The Negro Bids for
Union Power,” by Dick Bruner, which
appeared in your March 5 issue. Mr.
Bruner says that “only six AFL-CIO
unions have Negroes in elected positions
of leadership.” I am a member of the
Tobacco Workers International Union
(not mentioned by Mr. Bruner) and
we have two very able Negroes on our
International Executive Board. . . . I
cover five Southern states for COPE and
I believe that in all these states Negroes
have been elected to their respective
state AFL-CIO boards.
Witsur Hossy
Regional Director, COPE
Durham, N.C.
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
305 @
ARTICLES
308 '@ A Program for the Presidency
by WAYNE MORSE
310 'e Neo-Nazism on the March
by HEINZ POL
3138 @ Murder and Onomatology
by GEORGE R. STEWART
316 ‘@ Monitors vs. the Teamsters
by WILLIAM GOFIFEN
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
318 @ The Thaw and the Spider’s Web
by HAROLD J. BERMAN
319 ‘@ I Have Said Often (poem)
by HAYDEN CARRUTH
320 @ The Practice of Literature
by GENE BARO.,
321 '@ Eenie, Meenie
by KENNETH REPXROTHU
322 @ Art
by MAURICE GROSSER
323 ‘e Architecture
by WALTER McQUADE
323 @ Films
by ROBERT HATCH
Cossword Puzzle (opp. 324)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
AUN
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, Editor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Wditor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Music
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, Apr. 9, 1060, Vol, 190, No, 15
The Nation published weekly (except for omis-
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EW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1960
OLUME 190, No. 15
THE
NATION.
EDITORIALS
rikaner Dementia
Only the Afrikaners and their leaders will be surprised
the dramatic turn of events since the March 21 blood-
tting at Sharpeville. In a few short days, they have
acceeded in precipitating a debacle which has. been
wredictable for a generation. Demented to the point
jhere they could not recognize that Hitler’s racist poli-
ics had ended in disaster, they elected to rise to power
hrough the same demagoguery. Once in power, they
errymandered constituencies, undercut constitutional
uarantees, robbed both the Africans and the Cape
Jolored of even token representation, and thereby in-
ested themselves with a permanent monopoly of state
uthority. The effect was to sever every avenue of for-
nal communication not merely with native opinion,
ut with those white critics who sought to talk sense.
Then the regime proceeded to organize African and
Solored unrest by enacting, and enforcing, interrelated
hases of the crazy apartheid program. Previously, the
Africans particularly had been weak, demoralized, with-
it organization, virtually leaderless. But of recent
ears, as many as 1,250,000 Africans have been tried
ach year for trivial offenses against the apartheid
rogram, including 500,000 for so-called “pass law” of-
enses alone. No finer tonic for organization could have
en invented. Not content with this folly, the regime
hen set the stage for revolutionary demonstrations by
nactment of a “subversive control act” which made it
mpossible for the Africans’ unrest to find legitimate
litical expression. Again and again the regime has
ought to “thin out” the native leadership by mass ar-
ests; the predictable consequence has been the devel-
pment of a “hard core,” tough, militant leadership —
1 depth. At the same time the regime, by appealing to
acial fears and hatreds, has made “white” South Africa
he most heavily armed civilian population in the
vorld; the whites are armed to the teeth with rifles,
lotguns and sidearms — which could, of course, be
ken from them on some blood-red morning. To com-
the madness circuit, the regime has sought to
a ae year, some time after sh 31 when
the electorate will be asked in a referendum whether
they want the country to step out of the British Com-
monwealth and become a republic.
Then, to cap all this complicated madness, panic-
ridden police, without provocation, opened fire with
Sten guns and .303 rifles on a laughing, unarmed crowd
of 2,000 (not 20,000, as reported) demonstrators, in-
cluding women and children; many of the victims were
shot in the back, fleeing. No enemy of the Afrikaners,
living or dead; could have plotted the destruction of
their idiot regime with more scientific precision than
they themselves have done. “Whom the Gods would
destroy...” was never more applicable.
Unfortunately, there is no writ which can issue from
the World Court or the United Nations to have the
regime show cause why it should not be declared insane
and a guardian appointed. But by rallying world opin-
ion, the U.N. is doing the next best thing. Without a
friend in the world, the regime will be thoroughly
isolated if it opts for independence (as it well may do).
The danger is that it will become more authoritarian
and ruthless as the final hour approaches. In that case,
the U.N., by encouraging both white and African op-
position to the Nationalist regime, might yet create a
combination of pressures, world-wide and domestic,
which would spare the Afrikaner leaders that last mad
scene of suicide in the bunkers. The great demonstra-
tions in Johannesburg and Capetown demonstrate the
capacity of the natives for disciplined, courageous, high-
ly effective political action. The striking, almost un-
believable, suspension of the “pass” laws is a measure
of the power these demonstrations can exert. Does this
victory mean that the hallucinated patient can still
respond to “shock therapy,” or is it that he merely
wants to gain time to plot further acts of madness?
The Difference
The following colloquy occurred at the President's
press conference of March 30:
John Scali (Associated Press) — “Mr. Piscident,
after months of deadlock [over a nuclear test ban] do
you have any reason for believing that at this stage the
SS Pe
es
ae einyire ©
WR Near Te PR, Ba
Soviets are any more sincere in wanting an agreement?”
A. “Well... I can’t presume to describé with any
accuracy what are the motives of somebody else [but|
all the signs are that the Soviets do want a degree of
disarmament, and they want to stop testing. That
. they want to nego-
tiate further; no question in my mind.”
Although the President incorporated some reserva-
tions in his reply, the New York Herald Tribune head-
lined Marguerite Higgins’ report: “Eisenhower Calls
Soviets Sincere in Desire for Nuclear Test Ban.”
What a sad headline for a dedicated cold warrior to,
see on the first page of a newspaper which surely can-
a not be accused of lack of zeal in that self-same cold war!
Yet it is not a bad dream, but reality. A change has
occurred, not so much in the manners and mores of
statesmen — they still do a good deal of playing to
i“ the gallery and delight in their own small triumphs —
ff but in what they wrangle about. Before Mr. Khru-
5 shchev’s visit to the United States, each side was tire-
; lessly engaged in pouring abuse on the other, and their
ceaseless recriminations were such that agreement could
never be reached. Dirty capitalists, atheistic Com-
munists, greedy colonial exploiters, bloody murderers of
Hungarians, and so on — such was the language of
diplomacy. Now both sides pay somewhat grudging
a tribute to each other’s bona fides. They still shake
ny their heads, but no longer their fists.
And what is the gravamen of the current complaints?
Merely that the other side is not as zealous in dis-
armament, in test-banning, in yearning for peace and
constructive endeavor, as our side is. And that we have
a better plan for attaining these laudable objectives than
Bs they have. The fact that the tone is less strident, every-
one has observed; but the fact that the plane of con-
tention is infinitely more moral and rational is hardly
commented on, although no one can fail to be struck by
it if he merely lays a copy of a metropolitan journal of
April, 1959, alongside one of April, 1960.
looks to me more or less proved ..
Wave of the Future
Congressmen are getting more mail on H. R. 4700 —
_the Forand bill to provide a measure of medical care for
the aged — than on any other issue. This is not sur-
prising. Medical costs are soaring while the supply of
doctors relative to the increase in population is declin-
ing. Yet “across the ditch,” in Britain, medical care has
eS improved, the supply of doctors has gone up, and the
vehement protests of the profession to “socialized medi-
cine” have abated. Word of all this has gotten around
_ more widely than one might imagine. Opinion polls
taken in 1956 and 1957 by the University of Michigan
Survey Research Center indicate that most people
:. favor government help in providing low-cost medical
_ and hospital care. “Socialized medicine” i is still a dirty
» Y
a
ill iM aa
phrase with American doctors, but “free medical care”
is the wave of the future. Legislators who fear the | 4,
retaliatory power of the A.M.A. should take note of A
certain facts. As against the 11,000,000 oldsters who
could benefit by the Forand bill, there are about } \
200,000 doctors. Even counting the doctors’ wives, | 1
sisters, cousins and aunts, they constitute only a small
voting force nationally.
Medical care for the aged touches every family, re-
gardless of party affiliation. The appeal is not sectional,
narrow or remote; it is nearly universal. Small wonder | 5
that it has become the top bread and butter issue of
1960! And the opposition is largely restricted to a single
lobby which, although rich and noisy, is by no means
all-powerful. Belatedly, certain Republican leaders — T
specifically, Senators Cooper, Javits and Scott, who
belong to the modern or “bright” wing of the party — | )
have decided not to acquiesce in the Administration’s | ,.
opposition to medical care for the aged and are draft- tj
ing legislation similar to the Forand bill, though more t
restricted in coverage. Probably the Forand bill could ‘
be pried out of committee only by a discharge petition. (
But even the liberal Democrats who favor the bill —
and there are many of them — are reluctant to sign a
petition which they feel is unlikely to muster the req- 4
uisite 219 signatures. But the bill’s supporters ought
to make an issue of it even if there is little or no chance
for passage at this session. There may be risks in such
a course, but the bark of the A.M.A. is a great deal
worse than its bite. Medical care for the aged is an
issue with which the Democrats could badger the Re- \
publicans from coast to coast, in metropolitan areas and
in rural districts. The aged are everywhere, and most of
them need help. ,
Honest Curtis LeMay 1,
In the days when Governor Rockefeller had Presi- h
dential ambitions, his heart bled for the citizen of the ’
Republic who, in the aftermath of a nuclear attack, I
might absorb a few thousand roentgens from fallout Y
dust and so perish without a scratch on his hide. He
conceived the idea of compelling this citizen, for his ‘
own good, to knock together a shelter of concrete blocks
in which he would spend a few weeks in the company
of his loved ones, waiting for the fallout to abate, and
then stroll out into the sunshine to rebuild his com-
munity. Only 31 per cent of his intended beneficiaries
approved the Governor’s plan and it was knocked in
the head by his own Republican legislature. If there
were any politics in the Governor’s proposal, the answer
is now at hand: shelters don’t garner votes. ~~
‘But the issue, though pretty sick, is not dead. Rep- ii f
resentative Chet Holifield of California has a heare, too,
and i ‘it also bleeds, He complains that the nate ’s civil- dl
ass fe cers is in dap lorable” condition and h i
mh are
Pees” Cf. se ye
throwing his influence, such as it is, back of a “gigantic”
shelter program which is to cost $5 billion a year for
the next four years, while the Russians obligingly wait.
Apparently, though nobody builds them, everyone be-
lieves in shelters — everyone but General Curtis Le-
May. Tough LeMay ridiculed the plans of the gentle
Holifield in terms so vigorous that the committee chair-
man was startled. “Maginot-line thinking,” LeMay
called it. “You can’t fight a war with shelters.” He
wants more missiles — and more airplanes, too; the
latter may be obsolete, but after all he was weaned on
them. If his heart bleeds, that is what it bleeds for. The
citizens he leaves to the politicians.
The Uses of Barbarism
Time is running out on capital punishment in the
United States and Canada. Dr. George Gallup finds that
as recently as 1953, 68 per cent of the general public
favored capital punishment. In the latest Gallup poll,
the figure is 51 per cent — a sharp drop, in the space
of seven years, for such an intractable social issue. In
Canada, it is also running at 51 per cent, down from
71 per cent in 1953. In both countries, 7 per cent are
undecided. But the trend is clear, and in this country it
should be accelerated by last week’s barbarous execu-
tion of James W. Rodgers, a forlorn but rather gallant
uranium miner, in Utah’s state prison. Rodgers, exercis-
ing a privilege which the compassionate state extends
to those who have been given the death sentence, opted
to die by the firing squad rather than by hanging.
Asked by the warden if he had any last requests, he
said: “Warden, I done told you I want a bulletproof
vest.” Five anonymous riflemen fired four bullets into
him as he sat in Utah’s infamous wooden chair. They
shot through a slit in a burlap curtain. The rifleman
with the blank bullet may feel that he is innocent, but
he is as guilty as the rest of us; he, too, is a killer. The
wife of a night watchman in North Carolina summed
it up neatly when she said: “I don’t believe in taking
what you can’t give — life.”
Saving the Past
The world political unrest that was touched off by
the decision to build the new Aswan dam on the Nile
has overshadowed until very late in the day the realiza-
tion of what this immense irrigation project threatens
to one of the greatest art repositories on earth. The
Nile from the Third Cataract in the Sudan to Aswan
in Nubian Egypt is lined by monuments unrivaled in
beauty and historic importance. They are huge, im-
passive, enigmatic and awe-inspiring. As things now
stand, they will disappear within four or five years
under the flood waters and they will never be seen again.
Most, if not all, of them can be saved. Some can be
A
pert
moved, stone by stone, to new safe sites; some can be
preserved by dykes and ramparts (many, of course,
have not yet even been discovered; but much could
be done in three or four years of intensive archaeological
digging). All that is required is money—in this case
an estimated $30 million.
UNESCO has made this project its urgent responsi-
bility. The governments of Egypt and the Sudan, ago-
nized by the choice between the material needs of
present and future generations and the heritage of noble
monuments from their great pasts, have offered the
nations of the world rich enticements to participate in
the rescue work. Half of all future finds in the threat-
ened area may be claimed by the parties that uncover
them, excavations will be authorized in other areas,
certain temples may be removed from Nubia, and an
important collection of ancient objects will be given
up by the Egyptian government.
The amount of money needed is not large if divided
among some eighty-one nations; the time is short, but
not too short if, let us say, one-tenth of the energy
now being dedicated to moon shots were diverted to
the rescue of the priceless relics of the Nile. Space ad-
venture and the “peaceful” development of the atom
are both problematical enterprises and both can await
our convenience. Meanwhile, we know that we need
the great witnesses to our spiritual past, and we know
that those now guarding the banks of the Nile will not
await our pleasure.
Symbolic Action
In ordering a reduction in the cruising speed of
Electra turbo-prop airliners, after two recent crashes,
from the normal 400 miles per hour first to 316, and
later to 295, miles per hour, the Federal Aviation Agency
may think that it has reassured the flying public. It has
not. If the FAA had reason to believe that the planes
were dangerous, it should have grounded them im-
mediately; this is what Australia’s Civil Aviation De-
partment did on the bases of preliminary reports from
the FAA. In any case, the public was, and is, entitled
to an explanation of FAA procedures. If there are, in
fact, structural defects in the Electra, it would follow
(a) that the FAA did not set up proper standards for
certification of the planes in the first instance; or (b)
that the air lines were given special dispensation to
operate the planes despite their failure to meet these
specifications. The public is also entitled to know why
the FAA feels that the issuance of an order to reduce
cruising speed is appropriate administrative action in a
matter of this gravity. The explanation may be entirely
adequate, but on its face the FAA’s order strikes us as
another attempt to substitute publicity for the type
of vigorous action that builds public confidence in
regulatory agencies,
307
IN OREGON, a man automatically
becomes a candidate for the Demo-
cratic Presidential nomination
regardless of his own wishes — if
1,000 voters sign a petition to that
effect. When supporters accorded
me that honor, I decided to become
a serious candidate and have entered
the primaries in Maryland and in the
District of Columbia.
Perhaps it is because I am an ed-
ucator by profession that I think
something important can be accom-
plished through my candidacy. The
campaign itself is a great educational
institution; it can, if conducted with
vigor and full debate, bring victory
to needed liberal policies, if not al-
ways to a given candidate. I think
everyone who runs as a liberal, and
not merely as an office-seeker, should
conduct his campaign on that basis.
Of course, the Presidency itself
is also a great educational institu-
tion, and should be used as such. It
is not only in his official acts that
a President exerts great impact.
What he advocates, works for, and
: believes in, has effect far beyond the
‘) legislation he may sign into law or
administer.
The President is the executive
leader of the American people. If he
has no convictions about the issues
we face, our nation can have no sense
of purpose. If he has private con-
-victions, but not the courage to act
on them, the nation lacks dedication.
I believe very strongly that our
President must be a leader of public
opinion, not just a follower of it. He
must be willing to “stick his neck
> by talking about things which
may not be well understood, and
may even be unpopular at the time.
__. There are four general areas where
T think the Presidency must perform
an educational function — and soon.
i, Civil Rights
How often has it been said that
legislation to strike down segrega-
tion, or to outlaw racial discrimina-
_ tion in employment, is a waste of
time because “you can’t change the
way people feel by passing laws”?
The truth is that Constitutional
rights, and those contained in our
still-limited state fair-employment-
practice laws, can indeed be both
legislated and enforced. We need a
President who will recommend en-
actment of effective laws and fight
for their passage.
But insofar as progress in racial
and religious equality remains a mat-
ter of the attitude of individuals, the
President is also in a powerful posi-
tion. How he himself feels and acts
on these issues strongly influences
the American people’s reactions.
President Eisenhower has made it
clear that he views the struggle of
colored Americans for equal treat-
ment as a strictly legal matter. He
will enforce, where he must, the
decisions of the courts. But he holds
himself above the moral and social
implications of the fray.
In a day when the struggle of
mankind against bloody tyranny has
cost the lives of millions, bled us of
material wealth, and guided our in-
ternational policies for the last
twenty years, we need a President
who believes in doing something more
about human equality than his offi-
cial duty to enforce the law. To be
dispassionate in this regard may be
the requirement of a judicial office
(even that is questionable), but for
our Chief of State to be so is to
deprive America of a great force for
freedom, both at home and abroad.
The Urban Explosion
A second critical area where the
President must serve as an educat-
ing force is the rapidly increasing
urbanization of our country. Added
to the population explosion which
began in World War II, this increas-
ing trend to city and suburban living
is fast creating new problems and
intensifying old ones. The amalga-
mation of our cities is proceeding
along economic and geographic lines
which are no respecters of municipal,
county or state lines.
I think it safe to say that in prob-
lems of juvenile delinquency, social
insurance, slums and. urban blight,
education, mass transportation and
water supply, “we ain’t seen nothin’
yet” compared to what the next
twenty years will bring.
fr
he eee ee it rae el
.
~
A Program for the Presidency .. by Wayne Morse J,
Yet President Eisenhower has just
sent a veto message to Congress in
which he said that water supply is :
a “local problem.” p
Too often, a community handles
this “local problem” by dumping
sewage into the nearest river and
letting the folks downstream worry
about it. In the Midwest, it is a &
matter of dumping sewage into the
Great Lakes and letting the people
in another state worry about the
safety of their beaches and their
drinking water. That is the Presi- 7?
dent’s idea of a “local problem.”
The measure he vetoed would have ao
authorized the federal government |
to increase from the $50 million a
year now authorized to $90 million
a year its matching grants to cities
for construction of sewage-treatment
works. Yet I do not think it will»
be long before even $90 million will
prove inadequate. Much the same
is true of the relatively modest pro-
grams of urban renewal, delinquency
control and education for which some
of us in Congress have been fighting.
This does not mean that federal
undertakings are the sole answer to
our changing living patterns. It does
mean that existing governmental
forms and policies may well be grow-
ing obsolete, and that we had bet-
ter be thinking hard about how we
are going to cope with this increas-
ing urbanization.
America is changing as rapidly to-
day as it has in any period of his-
tory. We must have in the White
House a President who is aware of
this fact, and who is willing to talk
about it to the American people.
Labor
Much the same can be said of the
economic face of America, The char-
acter of our labor force, for example,
will change radically in the next ten
to twenty years, posing a new chal-
lenge to the role of unionism in the
American economy. ,
The rise of organized labor in
America in the thirties coincided
with a new mass-production economy
and with a depression which pro-
duced great unemployment. In dus-
trial unionism, using its | polit tical as
hy ae i
well as its economic power, achieved
a legislative framework which great-
ly expedited union organizing.
In the year 1960, the unionized
mass-production industries are de-
clining as a supplier of jobs to the
labor force. Union membership as a
percentage of the labor force has al-
ready slipped from its 1953 peak.
The Department of Labor survey
of manpower for the decade which
has just begun shows that new jobs
will come mainly in the white-collar
occupations. Yet today, only 9 per
cent of white-collar workers are or-
ganized.
The number of young workers and
women workers will greatly increase
during this decade. By 1965, workers
under twenty-five will have doubled.
By 1970, women workers will con-
stitute one-third of the entire labor
force,
The bulk of these new workers
will enter occupations not now or-
ganized to bargain collectively with
employers. Thus, in terms of or-
ganizing both industries and individ-
uals, unions have a tremendous task
ahead of them.
It was because of these facts that
I could not vote for the 1959 Ken-
nedy-Landrum-Griffin law, with its
new shackles upon union organizing.
Organized labor cannot rest on its
oars and still maintain itself when
the economy of which it is a part is
not resting.
As one who believes that collec-
tive bargaining affords the best
means of assuring that workers will
gain a fair share of the wealth they
have produced, I think we must have
a President in 1960 who will offer
more to organized labor than what
mere political expediency dictates.
Foreign Policy
Transcending even these impor-
tant domestic matters are the inter-
national issues which will be at stake
in the 1960 election. If nuclear war
occurs, it won’t matter much what
we do or fail to do at home in the
next decade. And one of the saddest
aspects of this campaign to date has
been the preoccupation by both par-
ties with the ‘ missile gap” at the ex-
pense of the “peace gap.”
No one has given stronger sup-
Port than F to the maintenance of
military supremacy by the United
States. The Soviet Union must al-
ways know that she has everything
to lose and nothing to gain by an at-
tack of any kind upon the United
States. But we seem to be forgetting
that war should always be the last,
the ultimate, means of self-preserva-
tion. Instead, proposals for the loos-
ing of nuclear missiles have become
the first and often the only answer
offered to settle our disputes with
the Communist world — even on the
part of some who lay claim to leader-
ship.
Above all, the Democratic Party
should be exposing the fraudulent
Senator Morse
“peacemaker” claims of Vice Presi-
dent Nixon. Mr. Nixon is now trying
hard to drape himself in the Eisen-
hower cloak of world traveler, yet in
fact he was part and parcel of the
Dulles policy of brinkmanship which
preceded the “new Eisenhower.”
Which of these two policies would
Mr. Nixon, as President, actually
adopt? That is the most vital ques-
tion the American people have to
consider between now and Novem-
ber. That is why it is so important
that Mr. Nixon’s record of aiding in-
ternational brinkmanship be brought
out.
The record has been pointed up
by the recent publication of Anthony
Eden’s memoirs, carrying as they
do the story of how Mr. Dulles
sought to involve this country in the
war in Indochina. History records
that it was Churchill and Eden who
prevented our involvement, who in
a Is yas
fact saved us from a slip off Mr.
Dulles’ cherished “brink of war.”
Mr. Eden tells of the presentation
made to him and the French by Mr.
Dulles, urging them to support an
American attack on Communist
centers in Indochina and — as might
prove necessary — upon the main-
land of China.
Eden states:
Dulles repeated his thesis about
the vacuum created by the collapse
of France as a world power. He ap-
peared to share my doubts as to
whether intervention by air would
be decisive, but said that if I felt able
to stand with him he was prepared
to recommend the President to ask
Congress for war powers.
At this point, Mr. Eden adds in
parenthesis:
(I am not sure that this is the right
technical phrase, but this was its ef-
fect, for it would give the President
special powers of the widest character
to move armed forces.) a
Here was an example not of open
covenants, but of very dangerous e
secret diplomacy.
It was the understanding of those
concerned in the secret sessions that
an air strike by the United States
against Communist centers would
not prove effective; it was the pros-
pect that American troops would
be sent into Asia that brought Mr.
Nixon forward.
In an address on April 16, 1954,
to the American Society of News-
paper Editors, an individual identi-
fied by The New York Times only
as “a high Administration source”
declared that the United States
should and would send troops to In-
dochina, if the French stopped fight-
ing there. The individual was identi-
fied the next day as Vice President
Nixon.
That this sequence, in which the
Vice President played a key role,
did not involve the United States i in
an Asiatic war was due to the refusal _
of the British leaders, not our own, |
to go along. Mr. Eden describes the
outcome as follows:
They [Dulles and Admiral Rad- —
ford] now recognized that this could —
no longer save Dien Bien Phu, but.
still wanted to rally French and
Vietnamese morale and to prevent
a general disintegration. Congress +
would be more likely to approve such
action if intervention were to be on
an Anglo-American basis... .
I told the Prime Minister [Sir
Winston Churchill] that I disagreed
both with the American belief that
such intervention could be effective
and with the view that it could be
limited to the use of air forces. I
doubted whether intervention would
have any substantial effect in rallying
public opinion in Indochina, and I
was certain that it would not be wel-
comed by nationalist opinion in south-
east Asia generally. Militarily, I did
not believe that the limited measures
contemplated by the United States
could achieve substantial results; no
military aid could be effective unless
it included ground troops.
Sir Winston summed up the posi-
tion by saying that what we were
being asked to do was to assist in
misleading Congress into approving
a military operation, which would in
itself be ineffective, and might well
bring the world to the verge of a
major war.
We agreed that we must therefore
decline to give any undertaking of
military assistance to the French in
Indochina.
Much the same technique was
used in obtaining the sweeping grant
of war powers from Congress to be
used in the Middle East and the
Formosa Straits. | Unfortunately,
both were passed with Democratic
votes, but mine, I am proud to say,
was not one of them [see “How Dul-
les Tricked Congress,” by Wayne
Morse, The Nation, Sept. 20, 1958].
When these resolutions were enact-
ed, it was said that we must trust in
President Eisenhower. But when
that kind of law is passed, its powers
devolve on his successors, too.
These blanket grants of authority
for a President to make war are on
the books. How they would be ex-
ercised if Mr. Nixon were in the
White House should give every
American pause, particularly in view
of the Vice President’s advocacy of
sending troops to Indochina.
THE existence of ‘these war-power
resolutions makes it imperative that
we choose a President who under-
stands that conventional war will
more than likely lead to nuclear war,
and that nuclear war will destroy us
as well as the Soviet Union.
We must have a President who
believes in the United Nations and
is ready to use it for the peaceful
settlement of international prob-
lems. We should make all the prog-
ress we can toward disarmament;
but disarmament, while desirable in
itself, is more likely to follow than to
precede the establishment of the
rule of law in world affairs.
Our Administration must take the
lead toward establishment of the
rule of law. That is why I have pro-
posed that we ask the General As-
sembly to seek a ruling from the In-
ternational Court of Justice on West-
ern rights in Berlin. Similarly, we
must make use of other U.N. pro-
cedures in the settlement of dis-
putes. I have suggested that we pro-
pose to the Soviet Union the plac-
ing of the entire city of Berlin, both
East and West, under U.N. juris-
diction. Some say the U.N. was not
set up to do this, or that the Krem-
lin would never agree in any case.
My answer is that the main purpose
of the U.N. is to save future gen-
erations from the scourge of war. Let
us use it In any way that can be de-
vised to serve that purpose. And if
the Soviet Union will not agree, let
her be the one to make that clear to
the world, not us.
No American President should
keep the peace through unilateral
concessions. But as a nation, we have
scarcely begun to examine these
other alternatives to war. Here is the
greatest education job of all for our
President to do.
The Revolutionary War slogan,
“Trust in God and keep your powder
dry,” is no policy for the nuclear
age. We must have in 1960 a Presi-
dent who understands this, and who
is equipped to devise new policies,
has the ability to present them to
the American people, and the courage
to fight for them internationally.
NEO-NAZISM on the MARCH... by Heinz Pol
IN 1958, more than 200 anti-Semitic
acts were officially recorded in the
German Federal Republic. In 1959,
the number rose to more than 350.
Since the notorious Cologne incident
last Christmas, more than 600 new
ones have occurred. And, while the
authorities in Bonn have been forced
by world opinion to publish a White
Book on anti-Semitism, they have
yet to explain the real forces which
lie behind it.
HEINZ POL is the U. S. corres-
—pondent of the Frankfurter Rund-
schau, one of the leading lberal
dailies of West Germany.
310
The truth is that, in West Ger-
many, anti-Semitism is only the
symptom of an old German sickness.
German nationalism, in the garb of
neo-Nazism, is marching again —
and is marching more arrogantly
each week. And involved are not just
a handful of misguided youths, in-
corrigible Nazis or mad extremists.
There are several hundred thousand
“activists” with friends and sponsors
almost everywhere. They have their
political parties, societies and cadres,
They seldom carry the swastika or
other emblems of the Third Reich;
their banner is the black, white and
red Imperial flag — the real symbol
of “Deutschland ueber alles,’ They
are the great ménace to the new Ger-
many, to Europe and to peace —
mainly because nobody takes them
seriously. Only those who remember
the 1920s, when small Nationalist
groups systematically undermined
the Weimar Republic (which acted
most generously toward them) can
grasp what is going on in Germany
today.
There are two reasons for this re-
surgence of nationalism, First, there
never was a real and thorough house-
cleaning in the Federal Republic.
The new Germany did not rid it-
self of the past; it left intact, in —
The Nation
Rane Of pow: behind
avis
rata
AASSOSs:
Servants and st functionaries, who
Sedemavc Litler possibl
These people, still vigorous and
; x ed and la cking
s figure to lead them, are to-
' ain behind the stirrings, of
h organizations. The
are spreading have a familiar
Im the twenties they talked of
he “infamous treaty of Versailles”
oday thev rainst the “in-
i! the middle
Rhe reactionary judges, civil
only a
slogans
shout ag
ole able NATO that puts Germany
meerthe command of foreigners.
The Second cause
is ‘wal is the remilitarization
Poe a
Mmeekcderal Republic. Mr. Ache-
‘ idea, conceived in
ys brilliant
950, rearming the Germans in
ss
of the nati
1oOn-=
to have more cannon fodder
be used against communism, was
| godser d to Nazis, nationalists and
ists who, up to that time, had
sone into hiding.
we ne
At once they be-
a ‘oes again — heroes destined
» save the West. Their enemies of
terday, who had called them the
n of the earth, were now running
a forcing weapons into
too-willing hands. No na-
the world could have taken
upt switch without turning
etely eynical — least of all the
with their militaristic tra-
OM ABOUT 1950 on, the new
Ep! nationalism Dosemes man-
was ereatly helped, witting-
Bh ittinely, by the leaders of
German regime. From the
the Bonn foreign office has
stuffed with functionaries of
r school. True, few of them
4d actually been members of the
ati Party; they had been much
© clever to commit themselves.
erved Hitler faithfully be-
I'uehrer, by and large, car-
a the Pan-German program
Iso was their own. Today,
eign- ae oan are in-
i over ron
hey ;
dof diplomats and forcign-af-
]
nN the other depart
R
i ou rPovernment
eWeitiar Be epablic
tO Hel} him | wuld
He has ne
}
i
pron
his new regime.
German Jew
return to a
eovernment.
AT asked
nenee to
Bonn
adviser on all personnel ques-
tions is the nctorious Dr. Globke, co-
uthor of the ‘Nuremberg laws.
Globke’s position, as ‘well as the
presence in the Bonn cabinet of the
Minister of Interior, Schroeder, a
f ler, and the Minister
and Expellees, Dr. Ober-
laender, who was one of the most
rabid Nazis of the Hitler period,
rage the’ nation
che pare veg os Now
s strike out
t opel Bullty of des-
But the Bonn regime
letely indifferent to-
activities of the more dan-
nationalist novement.
The evidenc« agal inst the De sche
Reichsparter as
openly
O anv
position im the
His
alve+e
alises
and
at former Na
picable
crimes.
serous
a reservoir ae every
et }
element, as well
neo-Nazi and anti-
reactionary
covertly
element, is
federal government has re-
act against if Phe party is
means insignificant. In the
Rhineland-Palatinate alone it at-
tracted 87,000 votes in the last elec-
tions; it collected some 200,000 votes
throughout the country. The partv’s
Wilhelm Meinberg who
among other things, a
director of the Hermann Goering
Werke. Today he 8 an adviser on
industrial and agrarian problems to
many leading German corporations.
Tt is not difficult to understand why
his party has ample financial means.
as every
Semitic overwhelming.
Yet the
fused to
by no
leader is
Wads ONCE,
OF MORE recent origin than the
Deutsche Reichspartet. are numerous
youth eroups which have sprung up
everywhere. Wear _ uniforms sim-
ilar to those of the bee! Helm ret o1
ganizations of — $
thirties, or of the
and
defy
old Walk
18 Which openly
ends, singing songs
shouting slovar
the official foreign policy of the Fed-
eral Republic. Their slogans are anti-
NATO, anti-alliance of any kind;
rs proclaim that they
and
will fight only for Germany
without outside help.
_ about half of the orig-
lely scattered youths have
o Torm Ee so-called Na-
ugendbewegung Deutsch-
7 ONG ational Y ae Movement of
Ce Pith, ye Tes’ leader is Hans
Schultz, a twenty-seven-year-old
employee in a chemical plant near
Frankfurt. One of the key para-
graphs of his program states:
The Allied pow ers of the last World
War who together destroyed the Ger-
man Reich are not to be regarded as
friendly powers, but as alien forces
whose aims are in direct opposition to
the vital interests of the German
people.
The National Youth Movement’s—
tendency to Pain the Nazi tradi-—
tion is onl led. an
acpi pouty
‘ ue Hilteen cee '
1 ward ar o
nationalistic activities paved the
way for Ilitlerism.
A third youth movement, catering
to students, has lately gained mo-
mentum. It is called the Bund Na-
tionaler Studenten, and has
and cadres in every university of the
Federal Republic. It has its own
newspaper (Studentenvolk), which
is violently nationalistic. Vhe Band
cells
already counts more than 2,000 stu-
dents as active members. Among
their speakers are people hke (Ulerr
Suendermann, who was second to
Goebbels in Hitlers Ministry of
Propaganda, and William Schlamm,
the former Austrian
naturalized American)
preaches the gospel of a war of ag-
gression by
eastern
(and lone-
writer who
Germany against its
neighbors. Schlamm is a
spectacular success among German
Fascist groups. He makes no bones
about being a Jew, and is acclaimed
by his followers as a new “intellectu-
al leader.” These facts indicate that
anti-Semitism 1s not always primary
in the neo-Nazi movement.
THERE “as™the~ very,
though rather involved case of the
Waffen SS. Voday’s apologists for
this Nazi organization — and one
finds them among the highest ranks
of the Clann
that it constituted a part of the
Wehrmacht and was therefore not
involved in the “police actions,” 1.e.,
interesting
3onn eovernment
murders and other crimes, commit-
ted by the regular SS.
This is far from the truth. The
Waffen SS was a conelomeration of
formations different
assiencd to
an West Germany
WA fast Germany
le
4 Pre World War Il
Germany
This map, with its flavor of trredentiyn,
appeared on the cover of a brochure put
out by the West German Mmbassy in
London, (iixplanatory symbols added.)
a2
Many of
clusively during the war years as the
principal subduing
tasks. these served ex-
Instrument for
occupied territories by means of ter-
ror and extermination. The IWVaffen
SS alone was responsible for the
Tidice, the Warsaw
Ghetto, Ouradour and many others;
35,000
siened to euard the Bereen-Belsen,
massacres of
Waffen SS troops were as-
Auschwitz con-
Ravensbrueck and
CeHtration camps =a IuchatiNAG
business, since the euards reccived,
as an olficial bonus for their services,
a large part of the valuables —
watches, jewelry, lugeaee — taken
from victims before they were shoved
into the eas chambers.
OF COURSE the organization erew
enormously later” war
years, mostly by reeruiting volun-
during the
teers and, toward the end of the war,
even by Many
units served more or less as part
of the reeular Wehrmacht. There-
fore every JWVaffen SS veteran can-
impressing them.
not now be reearded as a criminal or
fanatical Nazi. But neither can it be
said, as former SS generals and na-
tionalist @roups are saying, that all
Waffen SS veterans were innocent
of all crime. Today, under the Jead-
Walfen
SS men have joined together in a
ership of former generals,
veterans’ oreanization for the pur-
indemnities and
state and = in-
filtratine into key positions of the
pose of claiming
pensions from the
Federal Republic, and especially in-
to the new Pundeswehr.
In October, 1959, a
the Association of the Holders of the
Ritterkreuz took place in
burg, Bavaria. (The Ritterkreuz, an
invention of Tlitler, was the highest
meeting of
»
Reeens-
decoration eiven to officers and sol-
diers for outstanding services dur-
ing the war.) The association has
more than 1,009 members, mostly
eenerals, admirals and colonels, many
of them former Waffen SS. officers.
One of the euests at the Reeensbure
meeting was Sepp Dietrich, one-time
commander of Tlitler’s personal SS
guard, who was senteneed to life
imprisonment by an American. tri-
hunal for ordering: the massacre at
Malmedy, only to be released by the
Western powers a few years Tater,
Today, he is an aetive neo-Nazi and
maintains many personal link:
former comrades in and. outsjeds
Bundescochr.
‘
1
The walls of the Regensburg peer
ine hall
black, white and red flags, cvppen
sang Deutschland
speakers extolled the ereat pact ne
were decorated witj—<«
ucher alles ann |
the German army (which had jens
been really “defeated,” it a
“stabbed im thie back® ).= Mom:
ranking officers of the Bundz:
attended the
Fourth Panzer Division sent its :
to entertain the guests.
Last summer Waffen SS gene:
conclave, and ¢
sponsored, in the city of Tame
first postwar mass gathering of §
mer SS troops. The chairman, P
ger Army Commander Meyer,
ereetines from several member
the Bundestag and from the he:
of two states of the Federal Re-
lic. Among the eucsts were sold
and officers of the Bundeswehr
There are functionaries in
the Bundeswehr and in Bonn
are honestly striving to eradicat
pernicious remnants of Germa:
itarism and nationalism. Bur 7
efforts are stymied hy the re
of the Nazi traditions so dearly
ished by former members of Ils
Wehrmacht and the Wafien
And how ean one fight the SS s
in the German army when so 2
of its present leaders, and so ma
leading politicians, participat
ly in mectines designed to k
spirit alive? And how muc! fe
Chancellor Adenauer help th
cratic cause when, on Au:
1953. he said in Hanover, “T
of the Waffen SS were
all other soldiers”?
Up to now, Adenauer has not
to make any publie qualifies
this sweeping and untrue stile
But who would dare contr
Chancellor who, by his past
formanee, is anything but
Adenauer may do his utmost !
vince statesmen’ in. Wash
London and Paris that the»
man army exists only to prok
West from the Eastern ba
and must therefore be equip!
mediately with nuclear weap
may prochin in Rome de |
iA Wit
‘
the same words used |
. 7"
and Ulitler — thae Germany
f
The Naw
mission to fulfill, namely, to
the civilized world. He may
even, ten years after becoming
{ h lor, visit (for the first time in
a former concentration camp
eak (under the gentle pres-
world opinion) a few words
vegret for the unknown victims.
tall this cannot absolve him from
a pieat responsibility — the re-
sponsibility for building a new Ger-
many that will never fall back into
; a: of violent nationalism, as
as so often done in the past. In
s responsibility, the Chancellor
Restitution payments for German
a d other victims of Nazism
‘systematically obstructed by
I, state and city employees,
of them former members of
Nazi Party. At the same time,
sions and indemnities paid
dignitaries and representa-
of the Third Reich are handed
promptly and lavishly. The
ral Republic pays the sum of
| T FEBRUARY morning I was
iking of an eleven o'clock class.
; a professor of English, the last
expected was to get involved
a murder trial.
e note in my box meant noth-
me—I would have guessed, if
had stopped to guess, that it was
invitation to speak somewhere,
which I would turn down. I called
long-distance operator of the
er indicated, and was connect-
h Downieville, a small moun-
n town, 200 miles away. The name
ght memories. I had fought a
t fire near there; I had fished
treams; I had once kept the
sokout on Sierra Butte.
a man’s voice was speaking,
ducing himself as Lynn ee
RGE Re STEWART,
a Doct a.
on the
n, 1958). q
9, 1960
*
the former 1,036 Wehrmacht gen-
erals and admirals (including, of
course, officers of the Waffen SS).
With this pension, they not only
live comfortably, but are able to de-
vote their time to writing their
memoirs and organizing nationalis-
tic groups. Their social standing is as
high as ever.
IT GOES without saying that the
policy of the Western Allies, and es-
pecially Washington’s, is vastly re-
sponsible for the reawakening of Ger-
man militarism and nationalism. The
West missed its opportunity in the
first postwar years to help liberal
forces in West Germany lay a truly
new foundation. Later, the West
forced upon a reluctant majority of
the German people a _ remilitariza-
tion program that could only lead to
a revival of all that is dangerous and
destructive in the German mind and
body. This is a sad story which de-
serves more thorough study.
Have things already gone too far?
Many Americans are perfectly satis-
ton of the California Attorney Gen-
eral’s office. He was acting in the
Motherwell trial. Had I heard of it?
—Yes, I had read the papers.—Well,
an old student of mine was up here,
a reporter, who said I was the great-
est authority in the world on names.
—I accepted the compliment, not
caring to argue the claims of other
scholars on long-distance rates. —
Well, this Motherwell says he didn’t
commit the murder, but he knows
who did, and it was a man named
Darkiesaens. — How do you spell
it? — D~A-V-I-0-U-S.
I had never known the name, and
it did not even seem a likely name
to exist at all. But names are pro-
tean, and I have learned not to
jump at conclusions about them.
Mr. Compton went on. Not only
dad they been unable to find the
D’Avious, but they had not
en been able to ) find anyone of the
e. The FBI had checked its files
9,000,000 names, they claim) with
c
=?
fied with developments in Germany.
They like nothing better than the
sound of the goosestep, although only
a few years ago they swore that Ger-
man militarism would never rise
again. Recently The New York
Times published an enthusiastic ap-
praisal of the first combined Ger-
man-American maneuvers in Bavaria.
The appraisal concludes with the
following statement: “Exercise
Wintershield showed that the new
German Army still has some major
problems. But it has some extremely
capable, aggressive commanders and
non-coms, and the seeds of its past
military greatness are sprouting
again.’
The writer, Hanson W. Baldwin,
unwittingly ool the words of dae
German neo-Nazis and old-time na-
tionalists who seek to transform
the Federal Republic into a Macht-
staat — a power state. If and when
that happens, it will be interesting
to see how the Hanson Baldwins of
this country will appraise German
“military greatness.”
no results. Would I do what I could?
I agreed. He gave me a few more
details.
I am no devotee of murder trials.
But this case had already seemed
to me an unusual one. I can imagine
it turning up, a few years from now,
in one of those “true murder” col-
lections.
Larry Lord Motherwell was the
grandiloquent name under which he
was being tried, though originally
he had been Brank Eugene Caven-
ter. His first wife “testified (in con-
nection with his sentencing) that,
according to her belief, he had twice
tried to murder her Sind their two
children in 1945 and had actually
murdered a third child. His second
wife had been found, in 1953, drown-
ed in the bathtub. They had had a
defective child. In 1954, he took
this fourteen-months-old baby from
the home to which it was entrusted,
and later the body was dug up from
a grave in a pet cemetery. Mother-
BES)
fe
=. 6 | ee Aaa. =
well claimed that the baby had died
a natural death, and that in panic
he had just buried the body. A grand
jury failed to bring an indictment.
After all this, it is perhaps anti-
climactic that two women testified,
with some asperity, as to how he
had undone them with _ blandish-
ments, and, in one case at least, taken
money along with affection. In 1958,
aged forty, he became involved seri-
ously with Mrs. Putney.
Although Motherwell presents
some uncommon qualities, the really
bizarre person in the case is Pearl
Putney. Her husband had been a
rather prominent member of the
State Department in the twenties.
He died, leaving her a widow of
about forty. She devoted herself to
the care of her aged and _ ailing
mother. Thus she lived quietly in
Washington, D.C., for about thirty
years. She did not go out with men;
she was almost timid in manner; by
most people’s standards, she was a
recluse. At last her mother died, and
Mrs. Putney, at the age of seventy-
two, came under the influence of
Motherwell. She was not wealthy,
but in her infatuation she realized
cash to a sum which has been re-
ported as $50,000. She then depart-
ed with Motherwell on what the
papers have constantly called “a last
fling.” It could better have been
called “a first fling.”
IN THE summer of 1958, the two
of them drove across the country to
California, registering as man and
wife. The night of August 14 they
spent in a motel at Marysville, Cali-
fornia. On the morning of the 15th,
they checked out. There is no record
of Mrs. Putney after Marysville. On
the 16th, Motherwell bought an air-
plane ticket, for himself only, in
Reno.
One way to drive from. Marysville
to Reno is by California Highway
49, through Downieville and over
Yuba Pass, a lonely road across the
mountainous terrain of the northern
Sierra Nevada.
A year to the day after Mother-
well bought that ticket in Reno,
some human bones, a dental plate
and a few half-burned scraps of
clothing were found near a little
woods-road, a half-mile from Cali-
314
SLR OL oh ea
fornia Highway 49, just to the east
of Yuba Pass.
During that year, Mrs. Putney’s
absence had not passed unnoted. The
dental plate was soon identified as
hers. During the same year, Mother-
well had been spending money free-
ly and moving about under a num-
ber of aliases, as if supposing that
he was being watched. Apparently
he was right; only nine days after
the discovery of the bones he was
arrested in Atlanta. Denying the
murder, he said he knew, or suspect-
ed, who had done it—D’Avious.
OBVIOUSLY the case against
Motherwell was highly circumstan-
tial, and so the finer details of evi-
dence became of importance. This,
then, was why they came to me—
one who, whether or not he lived up
to his loyal student’s high appraisal,
had at least been President of the
American Names Society, had writ-
ten Names on the Land. This was
my first involvement with a trial,
but as far as the running down of
D’Avious was concerned—I was bred
and born in that briar bush. Still, the
difficulty was obvious.
What I was being asked to do was
to prove a universal negative. Gen-
erally speaking, this cannot be done,
except in mathematics or some field
approaching it for exactitude. Ac-
tually to prove that there was no
D’Avious, I would have to examine
the names of all living human be-
ings. The prosecution had come to
believe that no D’Avious existed,
and they would be happy to have
from me any possible confirmation.
On the other hand, if there was a
D’Avious, they would be happy to
find him. As far as I was concerned,
it was only another scholarly proj-
ect—hew to the line of fact, and let
the implications fall.
There is, of course, no way in
which you can set about work at
not finding a name, except to do
nothing at all. The only method of
work was to start looking for the
name. If intelligently planned efforts
should progress without finding it,
then the mathematical chance
against its existence would rise rap-
idly. This would never amount to
absolute proof. But, then, very few
things in connection with a murder
ty, BAS leet ye)
{
y Paar eA oat ' in
trial or with human life in
are susceptible to absolute
Juries usually have to be content |
with high probability. o-
I codified the information
I had received, and listed fo
of use, First, there was the |
of the name. Second, there
pronunciation. Third, D’Avious
said to have been a Latin Amer
Fourth, he had been in the Uni
States with some kind of diploi
connection. The significance of
last information was that it spe
him as a Latin American of the uf
per class, one who, for insta
would be likely to have a telep
The pronunciation (Dee-A-v
was an impossible one for e
Spanish or Portuguese. It was p
tently suspect, a primary indic 0
that Motherwell might have coine
the name himself. “
-
Pt
i
“A UNIVERSITY,” runs the |
definition, “is an association’
scholars.” Few people stop to tl
what this means practically. |
my point of view it now meant
I could muster to my help a
appalling amount of erudition
virtue of that institution eal
university, these men were m
leagues and my friends. It 1
question of making a telepho
or walking down the corridor,
Although I know something
Romance languages, I am no
in Romance philology. But the
no one sounder in that field »
Professor Yakov Malkiel, and I
ed with him. Without even ¢ons
ing a book, he could tell me tha
name was not Spanish or Portug
and even that the combinatie
could not normally exist in tho
languages. Similarly, I checked |
Catalan. Only when I got to my
friend Professor Ronald Walpe
the French Department, did I 1
someone who would give the
a theoretical hospitality. D’Avious
he said, could not be standa
French, as indeed I could
myself, but it might have arisen fr
a southern dialect of French. He
not, however, ever seen the nas
At this point I had achi
slight set-back for Mr. Com
telephoned him that the nam
be French. I also asked him v
os
ir)
fi
I
'
,
..
therwell really knew how to spell
“the mame and whether there were
any Variant spellings. It turned out
that there was a spelling D’Avios.
The existence of the variant almost
doubled my task, but it made no
great change in the linguistic situa-
tion.
AT THIS point I ended what I may
eall the theoretical approach. There
Was, now, no appreciable likelihood
that one would find the name in,
say, India or Russia. To discover
whether such a name—and, conse-
quently, such a family or such a
man—existed, one must direct at-
‘tention toward Latin America. One
should also study France, and ‘the
adjacent countries. Plainly, since the
man was said to have been in the
United States, one must study the
United States. The time for expert
opinions had passed. Now I must
' settle down to that patient and care-
ful search upon which, eventually,
most scholarship is based.
First, in the university library I
hunted for the name in general
works of reference, such as encyclo-
pedias and dictionaries of biography.
Along with these, and of even more
importance, were scholarly works on
the origin of family names. Some of
these are very large. One of them,
for instance, lists 150,000 German
family names. Since no harm ever
comes from flinging a wide net, I
checked such works for every Euro-
pean country from Greece to Nor-
way. I paid especial attention to
France, checking Chapuy’s work,
and the more recent two-volume
_ study of the late outstanding French
scholar on names, Albert Dauzat. I
looked’ both for D’Avious and
_ D’Avios, and also for Avious and
' Avios, on the chance that the name
might appear without the preposi-
tion. Total result: nothing.
‘Then I started in on telephone
books, of which the library has a
large collection. I did all this work,
I may say, myself. A scholar should
_ not take the witness stand on the
authority of hired help.
I checked Paris, and that other
great French-speaking city, Brus-
‘ I checked Geneva, and other
wicts of French-speaking Switzer-
I checked Madrid, Barcelona,
|, 1960
Lisbon, Milan and Florence. Since
the Philippines have a Spanish back-
ground, I checked Manila. I turned
to Latin America, and proceeded sys-
tematically—from Mexico City to
Santiago. I could not get anything
for Paraguay and Ecuador, but I
did not miss much else. I examined
the telephone books of about fifty
of our own largest cities, and of a
few smaller ones.
I continued to look for the name
with and without the D, and with
and without the apostrophe, and for
any name which even resembled
either of the two spellings. The work
was not unexciting; there was always
the possibility of finding what I
sought, and I was on the track of a
murderer. I noted a few similar
names. I can tell you that Davio is
found occasionally in the United
States. I also found Daviess. I can
inform you also that there is a single
Daviu in Barcelona, and a single
Daviou in Buenos Aires. But the
only name that really made me pause
was the one Davios in Manhattan—
Steve Davios.
To be sure, Davios is not D’Avios
and much less D’Avious, but I tele-
phoned to Mr. Compton. He was
immediately interested, and said that
he would have the name checked in
New York, and would try to “nega-
tive” it.
ON THE morning of March 7, I
was driving toward Downieville.
(Since I am interested in names,
I should perhaps tell you that it is
named after “Major” N. William
Downie, a Scot, who discovered gold
there in November, 1849.) There
was a heavy rain, and beautiful rib-
bon-falis were cascading down the
sides of the steep canyon.
It is a little town of fewer than
500 inhabitants, remembered in his-
tory chiefly for the hanging of
Juanita in 1851—the only woman to
be lynched in California, even dur-
ing the turbulent gold-rush period.
The incident had served as a piquant
background for a murder trial, and
my newspaper had been playing the
‘whole case as a local-color comedy.
I found nothing of this on the spot.
The little courtroom was filled with
local people, interested but hushed.
The jury was attentive; the judge,
dignified. Even the opposing lawyers
did not play to the stage unneces-
sarily. The whole atmosphere was
serious, befitting a trial which might
lead to an execution.
Most of the morning I spent in a
small room, waiting there with other
witnesses. Among them was an
FBI man who had just flown in from
New York. He had examined Steve
Davios, and had been able to “nega-
tive” him. This Davios was born on
the Greek island of Tenos. His name
may be Italian rather than Greek in
origin, since the Venetians have ex-
ercised a strong influence on many
of the Aegean islands. He had told
the FBI agent that he was, as far
as he knew, the only person by that
name in the United States. On hear-
ing this, I thought I had done my
work well, even though I had not
found the name in Greece or Italy.
Its occurrence, however, served as
another reminder of the difficulty of
spotting a name on_ theoretical
grounds. By all the rules I could find,
this name should not be borne by a
Greek, and a professor of Greek
background with whom I had check-
ed had said that he had never heard
of the name in Greece and did not
believe it to be Greek.
While I was waiting, another wit-
ness was testifying (as I was later
told) about some exhaustive but
fruitless work at ‘trying to find
D’Avious in the records in Wash-
ington, D.C. With some scorn, the
counsel for the defense had asked,
“And did you try South America?”
The situation was thus well set for
me.
After eleven o’clock I took the
stand. Mr. Compton established me
as an expert witness. I then told
about what I have told here, includ-
ing my search through Latin Amer-
ica telephone books. The jury seem-
ed attentive.
The counsel for the defense cross-
questioned. At one point he brought
his own family name into the dis-
cussion, as if a little publicity would
not be scorned. He asked me to spell
a certain name which he pronounced
somewhat like D’Avious, probably
trying to establish that a name can-
not be exactly spelled from pronun-
ciation. He asked me if I had found
many names beginning D’ (yes) and
315
te et id J
e, 2
a on Ra
many beginning D’A (not so many).
He asked me if I had not sometimes
seen the name D’Avis (I do not re-
member having seen it).
I had a good moment when he
demanded, with the suggestion of a
sneer, whether there was any par-
ticular term to designate the special-
ty which I presumed to profess. I
replied, “Onomatology.” What the
court reporter made of it, I am still
wondering. Afterwards, one of the
reporters asked me how to spell it.
On March 15, the jury rendered
a verdict of guilty of first degree
murder, and on March 24, Mother-
well was given a life sentence.
WHAT THEN is the solution to
the mystery of D’Avious? Certainly
IT have not proved the universal neg-
ative. Someone reading this article
may write me that he knows the
name, or even that he bears it. But
I believe that this chance is small.
Most likely it is a coined name. Most
people, when I say this, reply, “But
with so many names in the world,
to imagine a new one is a great and
almost impossible feat!”
This is not so. When writing a
novel, I have sometimes wished to
give an unpleasant character a name
which would not possibly reflect
MONITORS vs.
LAST WEEK’S ousting of Godfrey
P. Schmidt as attorney for the dis-
sident Teamsters, and the scheduled
trial next month of James Hoffa on
charges of misusing his union’s funds,
focus attention on what Justice
Felix Frankfurter has called “a most
unusual manifestation of the equity
powers” of a court—the monitorship
which has ruled the union since early
1958.
Shortly after the union election
of 1957, thirteen rank-and-file dis-
WILLIAM GOFFEN, co-author of
New York Criminal Law, teaches law
at the College of the City of New
York and is chairman of the New
York Friends Committee on Legis-
lation.
*
ayant. Foes
f
be 8
upon any living person. I have thus,
without great difficulty, comed sev-
eral plausible names which do not
exist, as far as I have ever de-
termined. There are an estimated
350,000 names in the United States
alone; even so, the capacities of our
language, its permutations and com-
binations, are so great that the num-
ber of possible names is nowhere
nearly exhausted.
Motherwell is, among other things,
a man of creative, though sometimes
macabre, imagination — witness his
burying a baby’s body in a pet ceme-
tery. He also has, apparently, an
interest in names. He has passed
under various aliases.
D’Avious, as seems likely, is not
a real name but a product of the
imagination; I can suggest ways in
which it may have originated. Gen-
erally speaking, a novelist or any-
one else coining a new name, starts
from something familiar, and makes
a variation on it. For instance, I once
developed the name Martiness from
the English name of Martin and the
Spanish name Martinez. (Obviously
T have a Mexican and not a Castilian
pronunciation.) Similarly, Mother-
well may have started from the com-
mon name Davis. He had to insert
only one letter to arrive at Davios,
the TEAMSTERS . .. ty wittiam Goffen
sidents, then represented by Schmidt,
instituted legal action to set the elec-
tion aside as “rigged.” After twenty-
two days of trial, the plaintiffs rested,
whereupon the defendants (the un-
ion’s elected officials), agreed to a
settlement without ever having taken
the stand in their own defense. The
terms were expressed in a consent
decree entered on January 31, 1958,
by Judge F. Dickinson Letts of the
U.S. District Court for the District
of Columbia, who had presided over
the trial.
The settlement provided for a
board of three monitors to serve un-
til a new convention for the election
of officers. One of the monitors ap-
pointed by Judge Letts Ten Schmidt.
The officials who had
j
J ie, d ss
bie.
Oe age
_py at finding that the state
een eee creating ve me
and only two letters to arriy
ee
Davious. Then, he had m
give 1t what seemed to him a F
or Spanish appearance by i
no French or Spanish, or he wo
not have pronounced it in the
that he did. > Also I remembe
some curiosity that Mot
lawyer asked me if I had 7
the name D’Avis.
start could have been the
devious, which calls for the
only one letter and a little
up. Thus its coiner could
private joke by spelling D
and thinking Devious. pe
The concern about the name,
involving the bringing of the
man from New York, is so
cation of the care and expe
which a modern murder trig
be conducted. As for my ow
ticipation, I can draw, I suppose
already often-drawn conclusil on
basic research is never to
gether despised. Onomatolog
usually to be considered a prac
study. Yet, on occasion, such
tical organization as the A
General’s Office can be rende
sity has propagated an onomatolo
at the 1957 convention were to
provisionally until the new el
which the General Executive
of the Teamsters was author
call after one year, and the Om
was to be held with such guara
of the democratic process as th
cret ballot and supervision
outside agency like the Hone
lot Association.
Had the defendants, inste
agreeing to a_ settlement,
through with the trial and then’ n
the victorious plaintiffs woulk
achieved no more than the p
calling of a new convention
election under court supe
Since Hoffa, who had been
president at the 1957 convent
*.
1 * 7”
' al 4
f
> f
- ’ ¥
te
1 7. filets ; Lae 7 ye
Pas canes
¢
to win again in a new election con-
ducted under any conditions, it is
difficult to understand why defense
counsel consented to the agreement
calling for a monitorship.
AS AUTHORIZED by the consent
decree, the Teamsters’ General Ex-
ecutive Board issued a call for a new
ention and election for March,
. At this point Schmidt, who had
d the consent decree as _ plain-
counsel, nevertheless petitioned
e Letts to postpone the ballot-
The Judge obliged by issuing a
odification order postponing the
holding of any new election until
such time as recommended by the
Board of Monitors.
hmidt’s opposition to a new bal-
- (which under the terms of the
eement would have dissolved the
mitorship and terminated the law-
is understandable for reasons
than his professed concern for
welfare of the rank-and-file
amsters he represented. Since Feb-
ry, 1958, the Board of Monitors
aken more than $350,000 in
out of the dues of the rank-and-
his co-counsel have so far claim-
sums amounting to $210,000,
expenditures exceeding $17,000,
services as plaintiffs’ attorneys.
dge Letts’s modification order,
e from postponing the election
hich the Teamsters’ membership
entitled, granted to the monitors
uted authority to investigate
iternational union and its locals,
even to institute disciplinary
edings leading to expulsion of
y elected officials. The court
1 that the’ plaintiffs had
that the 1957 convention was
7” even though the case had
voluntarily settled without a
word of testimony on behalf
defendants.
a and his fellow union offi-
ealed the modification order
the Court of Appeals sus-
1 the power to prohibit an elec-
although at the discretion of
2 Letts rather than of the moni-
this determination is a sound
precedent, it would appear that any
- lawsuit, but should always. fight his
case. ntil final, judgment.
a _ While
aembership. In addition, Schmidt |
.. litigant is ill-advised to settle his’
seurally, up 1 a Judge
Letts, the Court of Appeals did find
that Schmidt had been guilty of con-
flict of interest, in that while serving
as a monitor, he further profited by
representing numerous employers in
their negotiations with the Team-
sters. Forced to resign as monitor, he
was permitted by Judge Letts to ap-
point Lawrence T. Smith, a member
of his own law firm, as his successor.
And until last week, he continued as
plaintiffs’ counsel. [Judge Letts has
now also dismissed Smith, and the
original three-man monitorship has
been reduced to one.—Eb. |
Despite the extraordinary national
and legal importance of a case in-
volving denial of due process through
judicial deprivation of the right of
1,600,000 union members to a free
election, the United States Supreme
Court has refused review. Attorneys
for the plaintiffs have argued per-
sistently that a democratic election
was impossible without a prior, un-
defined “housecleaning” of the union.
This aspect has been given wide-
spread coverage by the press. Yet,
according to the Election Institute
(specialists in the conduct of honest
labor elections), and the Honest Bal-
lot Association, a free and democratic
election could have been arranged
for the Teamsters in three months,
let alone the long-expired one-year
minimum set by the consent decree.
The refusal of the Supreme Court
to act has apparently been construed
by Judge Letts and the monitors as
a warrant for wide-ranging interven-
tion in the internal affairs of the
union. Judge Letts has granted sub-
poena power to the monitors, despite
the absence of statutory authority
for its exercise. The monitors, for
their part, are presently Sanaa in
an attempt to oust Hoffa as-presi-
dent and as a member of the Team-
sters. Their chief ground—it is the
issue involved in the Hoffa trial
scheduled for next month—is that
Hoffa was guilty of a conflict of in-
terest in connection with a project
in Sun Valley, Florida, for the con-
struction of homes for aged Team-
ster members. At one point in the
course of complicated realty and
bank negotiations, Hoffa had an
option to purch: 4 stock i in the firm
which was to construct the homes.
gt is ironic that Joffa and Schmidt,
have been battling
t
ose, 8
aes
years, to erode labor’s rights.
each other in and out of the courts,
should both stand accused of con-
flicts of interest. The trial, of course,
will fix Hoffa’s legal responsibility BNA
in the Sun Valley affair. But it seems y
reasonable to draw a distinction, on
moral grounds at least, between the
acts charged to Hoffa and those of
Schmidt’s which resulted in the lat-
ter’s dismissal as a monitor. What-
ever profit Hoffa may _ personally
have stood to gain in the Sun Valley
project, his union would have gained
an old people’s home—certainly a
worthy plan. But Schmidt’s activi-
ties, while of profit to himself and
perhaps to the employers in whose
behalf he negotiated with the union,
can in no way be construed as hav-
ing profited the Teamsters, whose
membership, as a monitor, he was
supposed to protect.
THE TEAMSTERS’ membership ]
has expressed its opposition to the
monitorship through the following
petition to Judge Letts:
We, the undersigned members of
the International Brotherhood of e
Teamsters, want an election of of- ;
ficers of the I.B.T. now. We do not ow
want the monitorship which is eroding 4
the foundations of our union by a
maligning our membership, generating
an atmosphere of fear, weakening our
organizational functions and deplet-
ing our treasury.
There can be no question of a (am
Hoffa victory if a new election were
to be held. The union, as a matter
of fact, has “never had it so good.”
While other unions—notably the
Auto Workers, Steelworkers and Ma-
chinists — have been losing member-
ship, the Teamsters gained more than
20,000 new members last year.
The truth is that to deprive union
members of the right to vote for
their international officers is no
more defensible, legally, than to de- —
prive stackholders of their right to
elect the officers of U.S. Steel. \
It would seem that if the Team- —
sters’ monitors sincerely believed that —
a union “housecleaning” was desir-
able, they would willingly withdrav
their opposition to an election, see
democratic way for pelea
of any group. Their continued oBRee
sition can be regarded as consiste
with a general tendency, in recent |
31 .
BOOKS and the ARTS
.
The Thaw and the Spider’s Web
KHRUSHCHEV’S RUSSIA. By Ed-
ward Crankshaw. Penguin Books.
175 pp. Original paperback. 85e.
Harold J. Berman
FOR MANY YEARS Western thought
concerning the Soviet Union was strong-
ly influenced by the theory that to-
talitarianism inevitably results in the
ever-increasing dehumanization and im-
poverishment of the people living under
it and an ever-increasing use of police
terror against them. That theory has
now been disproved. A Communist sys-
tem does not inevitably get worse and
worse. ‘The experience of seven years
since Stalin’s death demonstrates that
there can be a fairly long period, at
least, of relaxation of pressure and of
increased freedom and _ prosperity.
Today another theory has become
popular—that the industrialization and
urbanization of Soviet society inevitably
result in a progressive stabilization of
social relations, the emergence of a
strong managerial class, an emphasis
upon consumer satisfaction, and the
loosening of political and ideological con-
‘trols. In Khrushchev’s words, quoted
on the title page of Edward Crank-
shaw’s book, “We are getting richer
and when a person has more to eat he
gets more democratic.”
The trouble with both theories lies
in the word “inevitably,” for both “to-
talitarianism” and “industrialization”
are abstract concepts from which nothing
follows “inevitably.”
Crankshaw is too good a journalist,
and he knows Russia too intimately, to
allow abstractions to obscure human
realities; in Khrushchev’s Russia he
writes not of communism but of Russia
living under a Communist system, not
of industrialization but of Russia living
in an era of industrialization. He writes
of Khrushchev, of the Soviet peasant,
of the writer’s struggle for freedom. He
therefore adds human and _ historical
variables to the analysis. Nevertheless,
his vivid portrayal is conceived largely
in terms of the current theory—the
result being a very “up-to-date” and
HAROLD J. BERMAN is Professor of
Law at the Harvard Law School and a
Research Associate, the Russian Re-
search Institute, Harvard University.
Among his books are Justice in Russia
and The Russians in Focus,
318
informative book, which must be taken
seriously in terms of how things look
now, but which is subject to important
qualifications in long-range perspective.
THE THEME of the book is that
Stalin’s policies after World War II
were an aberration, and that the liberal-
ization which followed his death in
1953 is a more or less permanent feature
of Soviet life, inherent in the increased
economic complexity of the society.
Thus Crankshaw compares the pre-war
period of forced labor, of a regimented
unskilled proletariat, amd of an op-
pressed peasantry, with the early days
of the English industrial revolution, al-
beit the Russian experience was “far
more violent and condensed.” “Then
there comes a time,’ he writes, “when
the machines have multiplied and skill
is at a premium: now the workers have
to be cared for. It was this stage which
the Soviet industrial revolution was
approaching when Germany invaded
Russia in 1941 and threw everything
back.” After the war the Russian people
expected a new and milder type of
government, “but Stalin thought other-
wise.” “There was to be no let-up at
all.” In order to build Soviet military
might, “everything else was neglected:
housing, clothes, consumer goods, trans-
port, food production. The people were
worked to a standstill or to apathy.”
Thus “Stalin was a Frankenstein to
the Soviet Union”; he did not under-
stand the society which he had conjured
into being by his industrial program
and which, toward the end, he was slow-
ly strangling. Increasingly paranoiac in
his last years, he “died in the nick of
time to prevent a new Terror.” His
successors understand their society much
better; their reforms have been a re-
sponse to ‘its inherent requirements.
Crankshaw sums this up:
The important thing to grasp is
that the Thaw, of which we heard
so much some years ago, is still in
being. That is to say, the atmosphere,
the mood, and the physical conditions
of life in the Soviet Union today are
all very strikingly different from
what they were under Stalin—so
much so that it is impossible to be-
lieve that they can ever revert to
their old state. Life in every con-
ceivable way has changed very much
for the better, and it continues to
change for the better, regardless of
intermittent checks here and there
which have been especially noticeable
in the sphere of literature and drama:
it is not merely better in degree; it
is different in kind.
IT IS welcome to have the myth
dispelled “that there was a steady de-
velopment of the great Thaw from
March, 1953, to October, 1956, fol-
lowed, after Budapest, by a Freeze which
has grown steadily more rigorous.” As
Crankshaw points out, there have been
ups and downs from 1953 on, but the
general direction has been one of con-
tinuing reform and continuing relaxation
of political and ideological pressures.
It is also welcome to have the myth
dispelled that Khrushchev “is a doc-"
trinaire Leninist who is trying to emu-
late Stalin—in any case a _ self-contra-
dictory conception.” Khrushchev’s po-
sition is, as Crankshaw stresses, very
different from Stalin’s, and his policies
have little to do with Marxist dogma.
In any event, the current moyement
of liberalization has a momentum of its
own which does not depend on the per-
sonalities of the individual leaders,
Nevertheless, it is at least paradoxi-
cal to explain the period from May,
1945, to March, 1953, as the product
of Stalin’s idiosyncrocies and then to
explain the period from March, 1953,
to the present as the inevitable conse-
quence of a mature industrial system.
The very sharp contrast which is
drawn between Stalin’s Russia and
Khrushchev’s is not borne out by faets
which Crankshaw himself presents, The
whole society did not change over-
night! For a foreigner, it is true, the
difference is as between black and white;
for many Russians—especially those
whom foreigners are apt to meet—it is
nearly as great. But on the whole, things
are not as good under Khrushchev
many would have it—nor were they
bad under Stalin.
To defend Stalin at this late date
is not a pleasant task. Yet we cannot
simply accept the judgment of his sue-
cessors that the credit for recent Soviet
achievements is all theirs. (Their deni-
gration of him is by no means an ad-
mission against interest, as many in the
West assume.) It is true that Stalin re-
fused to give the people freedom after —
the war, for fear—as Crankshaw indi-
cates—of losing Eastern Europe and
failing to catch up with the United
States in atomic weapons. Stalin had
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the nerve to re-mobilize his people,
despite the loss of probably thirty mil-
lion lives during the war, for military
and industrial production—and to make
sure that none would openly criticize
him for doing so. This was not neces-
sarily a policy based on paranoia, and
it is doubtful that his successors—who
were then his associates—would have
done otherwise.
Nor is it fair to Stalin to say that
“everything else was neglected”—when,
as appears on other pages, “By 1951
there was marked improvement |in con-
sumer goods and food production]|,” and
“in 1950-1951 conditions became a little
easier,’ and “it has to be remembered
that life in the Soviet Union was be-
ginning to improve even before Stalin’s
death.”
Finally, and most important, it is
exaggerated to say that in Stalin’s last
years the whole country “was effectively
ed by Beria’s political police, which
ade the development of initiative
1 sense of responsibility, while en-
wing apathy, column-dodging and
stion.” By the mid-1930s Stalin
stablished a system of social and
ic relations which gave full play
ividual initiative and_responsi-
n many areas. Equal educational
nities, strong economic incen-
anagerial responsibility, family
bility, rights of personal property
inheritance, legality in matters not
connected with politics—these
much a part of the post-1936
nist system as political purges and
ult of personality.”
IG CHANGE since 1953 and
e difference in kind, is the sharp
of police terror and the broad-
9m to criticize. But as Crankshaw
makes clear, the freedom to
is still always subject to the
t by the leadership, which has
for a moment renounced its
and its intention—to bring the
ck if it should prove necessary.
almost every Russian will assert,
error cannot return—it is gone
; but if one replies, “You do
mean that it cannot return—you
_ mean that you think it wll not return,”
_ some will frankly say, “That’s right.”
“The problem of government in the
Soviet Union today,” Crankshaw writes,
“is how to use these very necessary
forces [of initiative, freedom to criticize,
sense of personal responsibility | without
letting them quite get out of control.”
Stalin also understood this as “the prob-
lem of government,” and he encouraged
‘initiative and a sense of responsibility
i ark wa r
CoP
ater degree than i es Bead ‘2
—where his own authority was not at
stake. Crankshaw quotes an unpublished
statement of Khrushchev to the writers
of Moscow to the effect that the Hungar-
ian government could have avoided rev-
olution if it had shot some of the Hun-
garian writers in time, and that if a
similar situation ever arose in the USSR,
“my hand will not tremble.”
The long-range problem of govern-
ment in the Soviet Union is whether
the Soviet leaders are willing to establish
not merely a mood, or a policy, of free-
dom and initiative but also an insti-
tutional framework which will make
freedom and initiative secure from their
own intervention. There are signs that
they recognize the need for such an
institutional framework. The renewed
emphasis upon law, and the substantial
reforms in law which have already been
effected, are such a sign. The develop-
ment of a committee system in the
Supreme Soviet is another such sign.
The strengthening of the role of the
Central Committee of the Communist
Party—symbolized most strikingly in
the use of its veto power over the
Presidium on the occasion of the at-
tempted ouster of Khrushchev in June,
1957—is still another such sign. The
decentralization of industrial organiza-
tion is perhaps another—for the oppo-
site reason from that which Crankshaw
suggests: not because through it “at
a single blow Khrushchev took control
I Have Said Often
T have said often how one word
(As clappers in huge bells will toss)
Can writhe and tumble in my skull.
Listen: Loss, loss, loss.
Never to walk down Franklin Street
In night’s and autumn’s fine, fine rain,
Two in the shoplights warm and sweet,
Gingerbread for a brain;
Never to see December’s eve
Array snow crystals in your hair
For weddings no one would believe,
Practically then and there;
Never, never to force June hours
In sport of beechwood—why say more?
Never to live. An old man cowers
In my bones grown so poor.
Fingers must feed. Their nourishment
Is touch whereof flesh understands
The shape of presence, fit and full.
See these dear starving hands.
I talk in reason; reason fails
With Joss, loss crying when I speak.
I write, and not one word avails.
Pity me: I am weak,
_Haypen CarruTH
a]
’
of industry away from the new mana-
gerial class,” but because it may have
strengthened the hand of the managers
at the intermediate and lower ele
against the central bureaucracy in
Moscow.
IT IS not clear how much importance
Khrushchev himself attaches to such
legal and institutional changes. Crank-
shaw, in any case, pays almost no atten-
tion to them, He interprets Khrush-
chev’s program primarily as an effort
to revitalize the Communist Party,
rather than as the establishment of a
more rational political, economic and
legal structure which would have a life
of its own. He stresses Khrushchev’s
“passion for organization,” and rightly
sees him as “a supreme politician, a
first-class manager of men and a human
dynamo,” but neglects his role as a
legislator.
Seen in this light, Khrushchev’s great
contribution to Soviet politics is his
belief that terror is inefficient and un-
necessary and that, by a common effort
of will and enthusiasm, the Soviet people
can lift their society to new heights.
So far he has been enormously success-
ful. But the doubt remains as to how
he will respond to setbacks and crises,
whether at home or abroad. Moreover,
as the memories of war-time and im-
mediate postwar hardships recede, the
Russian people are becoming increasing-
ly dissatisfied with the pace of their
progress. As Crankshaw well says, “the
Russians are the most patient people
in the world when there is nothing to
hope for, but once hope enters the room
they become very impatient indeed.”
Khrushchev’s boundless energy for re-
organizing everything feeds this impa-
tience at the same time that it attempts
to overcome it.
Thus one cannot avoid the conclusion
that Khrushchev’s Russia is a_ stage
in the transition from Stalin’s Russia
to something else. If it is to lead to
a stable Russia, a Russia capable of
organic growth and not subject to re-
current spells of feverish tension, it
must create enduring forms of relation-
ship among people, and between people
and government. In this sense, the
principal key to Khrushchev’s Russia
is not Khrushchev’s dynamic personality,
not the new intellectual climate, not
the increase in consumer goods, not the
progress of Soviet industry and agricul-
ture—as important as all these are—
but rather the underlying institutional
structure which is being spun, like a_
spider’s web, as Stalin’s successors seek
to adapt the system which he created
to new tasks.
\
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1
The Practice
THE THIRD ROSE: GERTRUDE
STEIN AND HER WORLD. By
Jchn Malcolm Brinnin. Little, Brown.
& Co. 427 pp. $6.
Gene Baro
GERTRUDE STEIN was a_ totemic
figure, frequently inspiring extremes of
religious awe or damning irreverence.
Her utterances were delphic, sybilline.
Her artistic and literary friendships
were ritualized: Miss Stein was painted
and expounded; in turn, she purchased
paintings and memorialized in prose
portraits. Would-be acquaintances made
a pilgrimage to Miss Stein in the Rue
de Fleurus, or elsewhere. If they ap-
peared to. have a vocation, they were
accepted as acolytes. In time, even an
initially casual visitor might hope to ad-
dress Miss Stein and her vicar as Ger-
trude and Alice.
There is no point in dwelling upon par-
ticular saints or apostates. Nothing
much is to be gained by detailing, for
instance, the substitution of Miss Tok-
las for Leo Stein. Of more importance
is the process whereby Gertrude Stein,
an American Jewess of the middle class,
became, first, a literary cult and, finally,
with the cooperation of such as Life
magazine, Random House and the Unit-
ed States Army, an American cultural
religion, the super-literary mother of
us all.
She was willing, and the times were
right. Miss Stein appears on the Ameri-
can scene as the Brahmin culture of
New England declines, as the frontier
closes, as urbanization and_ industrial-
ization take another leap forward. There
is a vast new native population ready for
culture, able to afford it, eager to be
directed to good taste, to sound values,
to the contemporary best.
This very desire for a better life of
deeper significance created a vulgariza-
tion of existing standards. The decade
before the First World War was stuffed
to bursting with expanding materialism
and cultural platitudes; it was the dec-
ade whose excesses, coupled with those
of the war, promoted the disillusion and
moral anarchy we know as the modern
temper and prepared the religion of cul-
ture as we know it.
In fact, Gertrude Stein is a precursor,
a veritable primitive. More sophisticated
wind and Other Poems,” published by
Scribner's in Poets of Today VI, Mr.
Baro is on the English faculty of Ben-
k f eer ator College. 7 Th
CO ree es aa
GENE BARO is the author of “North-—
unfamiliar
: s
of Literature
literary religions came shortly to be
founded in the names of T. S. Eliot,
Ezra Pound, Wyndham Lewis and
James Joyce, supported by a numerous
evangelical discipleship of New Critics.
Conventional morality was defunct; dur-
ing the twenties, the notion was estab-
lished for succeeding generations of
young Americans that moral excellence
lay in the study and practice of the
arts. Of course, greater excellence lay in
right discrimination and right emula-
tion. Too often, cultural salvation
seemed merely a matter of admiring
selected works, of reading particular
poets or dramatists (though, as Ezra
Pound typically put it, “I should never
try to stop a man’s reading Aeschylus
or Sophocles’’).
The hunger to have arrived, financially
and culturally, is a striking aspect of
American aspiration in the first half of
the twentieth century. Presently, even
these criteria of esteem and self-esteem
are giving way, under the mounting
pressure of mass communication, to a
more exacting and measurable standard,
popularity. It is no cultural accident
that Gertrude Stein wound up publish-
ing in the pages of Life, that T. S. Eliot
has essayed the Broadway theatre and
the University lecture platform, that
William Faulkner has written for Holly-
wood, that Igor Stravinsky makes a TV
debut.
Admittedly, any kind of public success
demands singular qualities of temper-
ament. These Gertrude Stein had in
abundance; they were a _ necessary,
though perhaps ultimately an invidious,
adjunct to her literary talent. She was
ambitious, and she courted a following.
Moreover, she was somewhat ruthless to
those who did not favor her. Did she
desire public fame chiefly in order to
bring her serious work before the pub-
lic? Alas, it seems likely that she en-
joyed fame for its own sake, though she
recognized a threat to her identity in
popular acclaim.
THE public Miss Stein obscured the
artist. However, that she was an artist
goes without saying. She was engaged,
most of her adult life, in what was a
perfectly valid literary undertaking. Her
studies in psychology and physiology,
her. experiences with the theory and
practice of the cubist painters, led her
to attempt a literature of disassociation,
of the fragmentation of syntax and the
rhythmic reordering. of words to cone
f.
meanings — de
ns. She was in rere
yi *
"FP ,
_ Joyce was concerned to make t
; of the satisfacti i
je! 1g
reader to them by maintaining for him
a sense of the continuous present; the
meaning of many of her works is the ]**
reading of them.
However, she made the mistake of ex- yt!
plaining her practices in the language of
her method. Her literary theories, given i
in Steinese, are her most cryptic pro- Je"
nouncements; they seem willfully ec- | I
centric and obscurantist. and
Yet another difficulty arose because
readers commonly associate and do not
easily disassociate. Miss Stein came often
to be read in a way directly contrary to
her intention, that is, for the ideas, —
images and relationships that her strange i"
combinations suggested. It is likely that —
she never had even a small audience al
wholly concerned with what she was |
actually attempting to accomplish; and, |
for that matter, only a devoted special-
ist would perhaps be interested to dis-
cover her degree of success, even sup-
posing an adequate measure could be
devised.
Even her more sympathetic eae
Sherwood Anderson among them, read /
Gertrude Stein for what her me
cidentally implied for the wr
In fairness, it might be sai
contribution is a fundamental
that her method has limited in
practical applicability.
Hl
&
JOHN MALCOLM_BRINNIN
intelligent and excellently hor
study of Miss Stein, points out that
was, in a sense, fhe culmination
tradition, a kind of last ninetee
tury Romantic in the more co
tional world of twentieth-centur
Indeed, she contrasts vividly with
Joyce, that other great conter
experimenter with language
methods were so opposite to h
being constructivist and asso
Where Miss Stein was out te
the non-rational functions of
he knew into a synthetic lang
example, concealing in an intel
orderly way the names of five hundred —
rivers, where intelligent and orderly
minds could rediscover them.
But if James Joyce earned public
prominence through his severe devotion
to his writings, Gertrude Stein earned 4
hers with a similar, unflagging devotion
to the practice of literature. After all,
her emphasis was always upon process,
and she, too, had the sober respect for
culture that her background pee
And her role gradually came to be tha
of the spokesman, the oracle, if you v
and sacrifices of t
couraged with large impartiality; but
her physical availability, her delight in
society, her susceptibility to the young
and talented and, finally, to the merely
young, the GI’s of the Second World
War, gave her popularity. What her life
work was, few. troubled to care. She had
succumbed to her public self.
This image of Miss Stein fascinates,
and one wishes that Mr. Brinnin’s study,
valuable as it is, had gone somewhat
deeper into the exceptional factors of
personality that allowed Miss Stein to
function in the contexts that she did.
Possibly, it is too early for this kind of
investigation. Still, the bland discretion
of these pages seems something of a
fault. I suppose one longs for a Boswel-
lian version of this remarkable woman.
Kenie, Meenie
uy
S7THE LORE AND LANGUAGE OF
_ SCHOOLCHILDREN. By Iona and
Peter Opie. Oxford University Press.
‘417 pp. $8.
‘ _ Kenneth Rexroth
NE BY ONE, all the books I wish I
time to write get written. Some-
ter they come out, I still wish
e them myself, but not this one.
model of folklore collecting and
9 much of the best folklorism in
intries, it seems to have been done
ouple with no great scholarly
ing—at least previously—and with
holarships, Fellowships, Funds or
‘If the Fords or the Rocke-
the Bollingens or the Guggen-
financed this they’d be pass-
nd the office right now and
be as proud and happy as
$s not a collection of material of
ther Goose type — folk poetry
lults teach children. It is all
ig Biated culture — the skip rope
ounting out rhymes, parodies,
verses, superstitions, of chil-
mselyes. There is nothing like
lish that comes close to being
xt e. The work of Dorothy
ard and Patricia Evans in America
is more intensive, but so far they have
not equaled the Opies in bulk, or in
geographic range. Sixty-three elemen-
rary schools, scattered evenly across the
British Isles from Northern Scotland
to Land’s End, contributed material
steadily for several years. The Opies
eu extensively with ~ both
self has been greatly
students and teachers and visited a
large number of the schools. Besides
this, their acknowledgment pages list
hundreds of individual informants and
secondary sources.
It might be thought that most of
these jingles and jokes and customs
would be specially and peculiarly Brit-
ish. Indeed they are not. The hidden
civilization of childhood is close to be-
ing at least Pan-European. The specific
customs and poems are spread through-
out the English-speaking world. Not
only are they spread, they do spread
right now. Parodies of the Davy
Crockett song not only jump the At-
lantic from Maryland to Shropshire,
they leap the Pacific and appear in
Australia within a couple of months.
THE child world is a coherent primi-
tive culture lying right at our door. I
do not accept the Levy-Bruhl hypothe-
sis. I know primitive people are not
childlike —but children are cultural
primitives. Some aspects of their ways
find parallel in barbaric cultures, some
in hunting and gathering peoples, others
appear as traces in our own Neolithic.
Irrespective of their values for culture
history, they have a far greater value
for us as being the immediate roots of
contemporary culture. Moreover, since
the activities of children are confined for
the most part to very small ranges
of age—sixth graders despise the games
and jingles of fourth graders—many
culture processes are greatly accelerated,
and can be studied as we study heredity
with fruit flies. On the other hand,
children seem extraordinarily conserva-
tive: stale jokes, trick conundrums, bits
of doggerel, can be traced back with
little change to Elizabethan times. Also,
childhood holiday activities preserve
some of the most ancient rites and cus-
toms of the European peoples.
A discussion of the poetic virtues of:
these jingles would have to be complex
and subtle; it would run to many pages.
Sufficient to say that they embody not
only psychological and historical sources
of poetry, but in many instances ex-
hibit the fundamentals of poetic stimu-
lus and response. One of the best collec-
tions of this type is Claude Roy, 7'resor
de la Poésie Populaire, published by
Seghers, which also includes the bulk of |
French Mother Goose poetry. Roy him-
poetry, but so has a
French poet of importa
vielle. ta Yves Bonnefo
ost every other
ance from Super-
We know the
| we say,
uenced by such.
z of course |
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out rhyme? W. H. Auden introduced
the mode into contemporary English
poetry, but it never seems to have prop-
erly caught on. Possibly American
poets do not care to use this material,
but even so they should know it thor-
oughly. And so should children. There
are a couple of scandalous chapters on
pranks and jokes which my two little
girls devoured with glee.
As a concluding note, I mention that
the Opies are also the authors of The
Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes
and The Oxford Nursery Rhyme Book.
I would say that these three books are
an essential part of the library for every
student of culture, anthropologist or
other, and for every serious student or
practitioner of the art of letters.
ART
Maurice Grosser
MORE than a hundred landscapes of
Claude Monet are on view through May
15 at the Museum of Modern Art. The
paintings range from a Beach at Sainte-
Adresse, done in 1865 when the artist
was twenty-five, down to the waterlilies
and flower improvisations left unsigned
in the studio at his death in 1926.
Monet was a prodigious worker. He
must have turned out in his life some
two to three thousand canvases. Any
collection now got together, however
large, can present only a sampling of
this monumental production. The present
show somewhat neglects the earlier pic-
tures done under the influence of Boudin,
with their gentle contrasts of warms and
cools (though there is a wonderful
Gare Saint Lazare with sooty locomo-
tives steaming under the station’s shed-
like roof, all in grays and blacks). Em-
phasis is rather placed on the more char-
acteristic and brighter-colored works of
the middle and later years. Particularly
memorable are a dark Waterloo Bridge,
heavy with the traffic of a foggy eve-
ning; Mount Kolsaas in Norway, half
visible through the mist; the Palazzo
da Mula in Venice, in a dark blue dusk
and the Palazzo Contarimi on a dark
winter afternoon; and perhaps most
splendid of all, the Metropolitan’s Rouen
Cathedral in the searing, blinding white
of high noon.
There have been large Monet shows
before, but this apparently is the first
to reassemble some of the scattered
members of Monet’s famous “series”
since they were first exhibited. Here
shown together are nine pictures from
the Haystack series, seven from the
322
ware ee Th
4
— :
} * a 8 sg
oy » hie. 18 5 pe RTS hs wy wig
; ea pear
series of Poplars on the River Epte, six
of Rowen Cathedral and six of the Jap-
anese Footbridge which spanned the lily
pond in his garden in Giverny. These
series one has always heard about but
never seen — how Monet, to capture
particular effects of light, would paint
the same subject, day after day, for two
or three years on end, using a series of
canvases, and working on each of them
as long as each particular effect would
last — until, for example, the morning
mist had lifted, or the rising sun had
touched a certain leaf. This, after the
age of fifty, became Monet’s standard
practice. There were fifteen of the Hay-
stacks in his exposition of 1891. The
poplars themselves on the Epte he was
forced to buy to prevent their being
cut down in the middle of his painting
them. And there exist some thirty
Rouen Cathedrals, all different but all
painted from the same second-story
window.
TO MAKE possible such complex pro-
cedure, Monet adopted a radical simpli-
fication of the problems of composition.
He ceased to compose in the classical
sense. He did not arrange. Instead, like
a photographer concentrating the em-
phasis of a print, he cropped. In all
probability he used a small rectangular
frame of the same proportions as his
canvas — like the finder of a camera —
to view his subject and determine just
where the edges of his canvas should
cut it off.
The Impressionist system of color he
employed is fairly common knowledge
— how colors could be mixed, not as
pigments blended on the palette, but
as spots of colored light blending in the
beholder’s eye. The extension of the sys-
tem employed by Monet in the later
pictures is less generally known. In this
development, the landscape to be paint-
ed was thought of as if lighted on a
stage — with the sun as a yellow spot-
light, the sky as a bank of blue floods.
Objects in shadow from the sun, but lit
by the blue light of the sky, are colored
blue by it. Things in shadow from both
sun and sky are lit by the footlights
made by sunlight on the ground, foot-
lights which are red or orange if the
ground is earth or clay, and green if
there is grass. Distance is handled by
treating the air itself as a tangible en-
tity, and adding to the color of the
distant objects the color of the inter-
vening air — even on the clearest day
never completely transparent. Further-
more, to compensate for the relative
dullness of the indoor light by which the
finished picture will be viewed, every
tone put down is arbitrarily. raised to
: in a
tr “ae
the highest point of color saturation. Its
chroma — that is to say its position
on the color circle, its identity as a
green-blue or orange-red — is preserved.
But it is painted without any dulling, in | ;
paint as bright as possible. Thus a tan
— which is considered as a dulled yel- :
low — is transcribed as a bright golden
yellow, a brown as a burnt orange, and
a gray as a blue-violet or a bright pale
blue.
ALL THIS together made up a system
of painting that could be done by ob-
servation alone. It freed the painter from
endless dilemmas of judgment and inde- ‘| =
cisions about taste. It rendered possible
all sorts of hitherto impossible subject
matters. And on account of the simplici-
ties it provided, it was in large part re-
sponsible for the enormous productivity
Monet was able to maintain in his later.
years. we
This system is also what adi
work at the same time so good
uneven. The technical side of
tures is always extraordinary
and supple and varied. Cézanne
ported as saying that Monet “
most prodigious eye since there
been painters.” But the taste and
ject are sometimes considerably
satisfactory. A garish sunset in_
is a garish sunset still. And t
of Haystacks, with all their exaetit
of light and air and time of da
lumpy as compositions, and tri
pictures, simply because of the
bitrary triviality of subject
Monet himself must have realized
danger of such excessive simplif
of motif, for in the subsequent seri
as the Poplars, the Cathedrals ar
Waterlilies, the subjects used are
intricate and much more present
The pictures in the exhibition
during the last years of the artist
are on the whole inferior. Those
Japanese Footbridge series, paintec
he was almost blind from double ¢
are harsh and gaudy in color, and
disquieting in their melting, d
forms. After an eye operation, hi
vision rectified itself, and the p
regain their serene and opulent
But though some of them are qu
interesting in their large and virtuoso
manner as the earlier work, most of
them seem to me singularly thin and
empty — the work of a very old man.
I suspect that they are admired be-.
cause their principal merit is that their
elaborate surface and thinness of image
seem to prefigure one of the more form-
less modes of present-day abstraction, :
Be this as it may, a great pi ainter I
- pat a not to please us |
- oa st ah
Ss mw Sa >>
wishes. And Monet was a very great
painter indeed, a painter who remade
all of painting, who exercised an even
more profound influence on his con-
temporaries than Cézanne has exercised
on the painters of our time. This exhibi-
tion, done with the Modern Museum’s
usual studious historical presentation, is
the largest and finest we are likely soon
to see. It should not be missed.
ARCHITECTURE
Walter McQuade
LIKE political candidates and other
television performers, buildings seem to
need TV makeup if they are to come
through the camera into the living room
and seem at all genuine. This was in-
dicated last month when N.B.C. brave-
ly attempted, on a valuable Saturday
evening, to present a television guide to
ure, entitled “The Shape of
Woo Because few of the buildings
did wear TV makeup, or compensating
camera technique, the program failed to
come up to expectations. Most of the
‘structures shown looked vaguely like the
backgrounds of newsreels about revolu-
tions. It would have been better to use
architectural photographs (a very spec-
- ialized craft) in series of stills, than to
_ attempt this aimless kind of motion.
_ As the guide, or usher, the program
employed a popular announcer named
Downs, who has risen through
re _ sheer pleasantness of presence to the
_ top of his business. An imperturbable
~ man with mouse-bright eyes and a jovial
_ Way of delivering commercials, Downs’s
winning quality actually is restraint, an
_ Unconventional virtue on TV. But his
r did not serve him well on this
_ oceasion. It was depressing to see how
lany images could be shown in the
ise of an hour, with so few ideas
aeteyed. But perhaps ideas, even ar-
chitectural ideas, cannot be shown
by simply panning a camera impassively
over them and talking pleasantly the
while. Ideas imply combat, argument.
It is true that at initieyvals on “The
Shape of Things,” voices of architects
— usually Philip Johnson’s voice or the
late Frank Lloyd Wright’s — were heard
_expostulating on the soundtrack in the
background. But the program should
really have been an out-and-out debate,
with searching illustrations, between
_ someone like Johnson (a valedictorian of
Mies van der Rohe’s industrial style)
and someone as close to Wright as pos-
sible, a Tobust romantic — each to chal-
lenge and explore the other. Men of
ideas, opposed, quick, articulate and
physically vehement, should have
clashed.
A few days before seeing this TV
program I had watched a rerun of Mike
Wallace’s famous TV_ inquisition of
Wright (“How do you feel about sex,
Mr. Wright?”). It was gripping. -In
Wallace, the aggressive reporter, Wright
had a spinning stone from which to
strike sparks (“It never bothered me”),
and the air was filled. But on the re-
cent N.B.C. hour Wright’s voice merely
dropped portentous phrases down the
well of Downs’s amiability, while John-
son, in the absence of argument, came
through as a verbal embroiderer. For
example, early in the hour Johnson’s
voice was heard darting on the sound-
track: “Architecture is not for peo-
ple...,” trying to start an argument
with himself, or with Downs, or with
the listeners. But Downs smiled and
the possibility passed. You can’t strike
sparks from a delicious turnip.
TO GET back to photography, there
were just enough briefly emphatic shots
of buildings among the hour’s filmed
murk to suggest that this is not an im-
possible medium for presenting the sub-
ject of architecture. For one thing, of
course, a camera is a wonderful traveler.
The best footage was of one of the tall
new London County Council apartment
houses. Also shown were the rows of
Victorian hovels they are replacing.
There were people too in this footage
(a mute reply to Johnson’s earlier sally,
incidentally )—stubborn looking, dumpy,
self-respecting English single-storey indi-
viduals who will certainly be changed
by living in the new apartments in the
sky. The cameras warmed again to their
work in showing other buildings, in
which tenants merely were implied, as in
photography of the Beverly Hills man-
sions of the late Douglas Fairbanks and
Wallace Beery. In general, however, the
cameramen must have assumed that
their job of photographing buildings
was either too easy or impossible. Peo-
ple don’t see buildings the way these
cameras did, staring fixedly or swiveling
on tripods, or slanting the structures
against the sky. People usually walk
into buildings, or by them, apprehend-
ing them in motion—a dificult view to
reproduce by camera work, but not im-
possible.
This TV bite of architecture isn’t the
last one, I hope. With more care_in pho-
tography, and with a smaller subject
than the whole of architecture, and with
a few illuminating arguments, it might
yet focus.
FILMS
Robert Hatch
[tT HAS BEEN some time since we last
saw the Indians attack the settlers’
cabin and I am grateful to John Huston
for reviving this cherished vignette of
American folklore in The Unforgiven.
Also for the bit about the girl baby
stolen from her cradle — only this time
it was the palefaces who stole the little
squaw. That, in fact, is what the beating
of war drums is all about: the Indians
want their daughter home and_ the
young rancher finds that the girl he has
always cherished as a sister means more
than life itself to him when the ragged
cavalry soldier with the archaic saber
rides up to untangle the facts of her
birth,
Huston spreads this boldly across the
largest possible screen. The acting is
minimal, but the action is electric, the
country is bizarre and beautiful, the
horses are spirited and’ the cast is as
good as a certified check: Burt Lancaster,
Audrey Hepburn, Lillian Gish, Audie
Murphy and John Saxton. I doubt that
such competition with television does
Huston’s reputation much good, but it
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to strong and weak, noble and mean,
is a reputable example of an American
entertainment as indigenous and disarm-
ing as baseball.
And yet — we really cannot take In-
dian shooting with the innocent relish
it once roused in us. Race, color, the
dignity of peoples, the sanctity of exotic
cultures are the guilt materials of our
age. Huston knows this and does not
quite treat the tribesmen as big game.
He shows you their eyes behind the war
paint, he stresses the settlers’ paranoid
hatred of the “red niggers.” Therefore,
when the war party attacks the ranch-
ers’ piano under the illsién that it con-
tains the white man’s “medicine,” the
scene 1s poignant; and when the young
chief pours out his blood at the feet of
his lost sister, the death is fratricide, not
varmint killing.
Huston, in short, let@tragedy imply
its presence in his range opera, but he
seems also under pressure not to ac-
knowledge it to the point of spoiling the
fun. As a result, The Unforgiven tastes
a little dubious in retrospect.
AS PART OF the cultural exchange
program, the Russians have sent us
their film, The Cranes Are Flying. 1
have the feeling that it was made with
cultural exchange in mind — partly
I feel this because it takes such pains
to show us that the piano being played
in one scene is a Steinway, more im-
portantly because it struck me as being,
not a Russian film, but a “foreign film.”
Except for the language, it could have
passed for adequate work by some
French, Italian, or German company.
The Cranes Are Flying feels like an in-
telligent approximation of the sort of
film that has been well received for years
now in American art theatres.
There is certainly no reason why the
Russians should not make a film they
hope will “reach” us — particularly when
they take a valid theme and treat it
with some rigor. But my guess, if it is
right, may explain why the picture
seems cold, lacking in personality. The
story is real and has a beautiful sim-
plicity: an engaged couple is parted
when he must go to war; the girl moves
in with his family when her parents are
killed in an air raid; his brother, exempt
from the army by chicanery, seduces her
at a moment when she is distraught by
enemy bombing; she marries him in
numb guilt, breaks from him in hatred
and at the end is seen distributing
flowers from a bouquet she has carried
to the depot to welcome her true, dead
love.
The couple is charming, the girl’s
faithlessness is compassionately under-
stood, the tragedy that war serves out |
with ironic ‘impartiality is cleanly
stated, the acting is direct and sug-
gestive of character. The planning and
the directing are what blur the effect.
The allegory is shopworn (the couple
unable to find each other in the crowd
at the mustering depot); the atmosphere
is obvious (the piano sonata prelude to
seduction); the characters are stock
(the sternly humane father, the self-
effacing, understanding grandmother,
the contemptuous older sister, the en-
gaging, weak brother); the bitterness is
calculated (the soldier in a swampy no-
man’s-land striking out at a comrade’
who has leered at a photograph of the
faithless sweetheart). This is all material
in the public domain; when it is used as
the scaffolding of a picture,-the viewer
draws back and begins to study the
proceedings for echoes.
The Cranes Are Flying says that the
Russians hate and fear war. Almost more
important, it says that the Russians un-
derstand tragedy. in terms of individual
experience and not as class dialee
This is the most welcome sort of in
mation, but the quality of the pie
such that its assertions lack the
thority of evidence: it seems mac
our acceptance.
Winter Issue -
SHEN ANDOAH
Randall Stewart
“The Importance of Literature—
at the Present Time”
A new short story by George Garre a
Articles @ Poetry @ Reviews
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QUEEN'S QUARTERLY
Queen’s University,
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
is
Crossword Puzzle No. 862
By FRANK W. LEWIS
ACROSS:
1 Mr. Kane and Tommy overseas used
to meet a national emergency. (7, 7)
9 Worn out in play. (38, 4) f
10 Some performances are given with
a chivalrous sound. (7)
11 See 13 down
12 Going along with a word of conclu-
sion can make it. (8)
14 Justify something not so simple as
it used to be? (7)
15 Sharp sort of pair? (5)
17 “Midnight shout and revelry, —
dance and jollity.” (Milton) (5)
19 One who hangs on to things could
create nothing in more difficult
circumstances. (7)
21 See 26
23 Chances are about like more than
one accompaniment to Beauty. (6)
25 What one might get changing thus,
to perform an exclusive action.
when a star is presented? (7,
27 While making almost unnecessary
imprecations, might be able to ad-
just the rent. (7, 7)
DOWN:
This sort of cross went on top of
the mast. (5, 4)
Water this drop by drop. (7)
Writing about 23?
4 What the Hubbard dog had at first.
)
26 and 21 What goes on at first sights
8)
wre
4)
= 5 Late Norman Heurative device. (10)
prt 9, 1960 i
gs Al
6 Strangely enough, what troops
might do when told to stand. (3, 2)
7 Hot dogs should be found in a glance
at a bleacherite’s holdings. (7)
8 Is there a suggestion that one
shouldn’t trust this bird? (4)
13 and 11 Certainly not beat in the
capital, but one hears a certain
amount of public speaking here.
(10, 6)
15 The logical person to get the post!
9
(
16 Water isn’t so hard to find with
this. (One might even smell it!)
(4, 5)
18 Doesn’t have a certain air with a
lump turned over in the garden. (7)
20 Might cause somewhat of a fluster,
ch is more likely to remain quiet.
7)
21 Pro this, one might still get to ob-
ject. (It’s quite a trial.) (4)
22 Understood in the work now neces-
sary. (5)
24 Sibelius’ was of Tuonela. (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 861
ACROSS: 1 Stratify;:5 Carbon; 9
Muffler; 10 Thinner; 11 Austere; 12
Leafage; 13 Little America; 15 Sub-
stantially; 21 Ashanti; 22 Eugenie; 23
Ironing; 24 Erasers; 25 Grebes; 26
Asperses. DOWN: 1 Sampan; 2 Refusal;
3 Tallest; 4 Forced landing; 6 Alidade;
a Bengasi; 8 Norseman; 10 Talkative-
ness; 14 Assaying; 16 Behoove; 17
Tontine; 18 Luggage; 19 Yankees; 20
Versus.
—S*
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—
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An entirely new kind of guide for married lovers...
Ty OO MANY husbands and wives whose
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HERE IS A DIGEST OF THE MANY HELPFUL CHAPTERS:
Sexual Pleasure: The Neglected Art.
Fruits of the sex revolution . . . Kinsey
and confusion . . . the inconsiderate
Courtship in Marriage. Setting the scene
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erotic responses . . . learning from India
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you will find an intelligent way to deepen stimulates his desire . . . measuring chological barriers . learning to
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THE KEY TO LASTING SEXUAL DELIGHT
This book shows you how to keep boredom
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The Responsive Wife. Her sexual sophis-
tication . . . myths of feminine passivity
. what stimulates her desire . . . de-
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Myths and Facts About Sexual Compati-
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emotional conflicts . . . variations in
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Can Pleasure Lead to Perversion? What
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Postural Variations. History of generally
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Balance of Terror (Junior Grade)
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LETTERS
Latter-Day Lewis
Dear Sirs: “Hoffa in the Garden,” by
N. E. Parmentel, Jr., is another example
of your fair and objective coverage... .
Mr. Parmentei’s comparison of Hoffa to
Lewis is very much in order. We who
are old enough should remember that
Lewis . . . was called a “traitor” and-a
“murderer of our sons” in his heyday.
But what made Mr. Parmentel say
that Hoffa’s ideas have “corporate-state
implications”? Norman Thomas recently
said of Hoffa: “He has an instinctive
affinity for the little man.”
Wituiam Z. CoHEN
New York. City
[Mr. Cohen is president of the Mer-
chandising and distribution Employees
Union Local 210, affiliated with the
Teamsters.|
Who Is the Murderer?
Dear Sirs: Your timely editorial of
March 26, “Must Chessman Die?”,
should help awaken America’s conscience
to the facts surrounding killing and the
moral values in modern life. . . . The
act of the murderer is not an isolated
performance. It is the culmination of
factors for which he is not responsible:
the character and education of his
parents, their financial situation, his en-
vironment, his possible frustrations in
attempting to live a normal convention-
al life. . . . Actually, does not the state
take the line of least resistance, the
easiest way, in imposing execution?
Organized society — the state — must
share the responsibility for permitting
conditions that spawn crime. If it rec-
ognized this responsibility, it would not
only abolish capital punishment, but
throw its energies into the rehabilitation
of the criminal, treating him as the sick
victim of a society he never made... .
Jutian Fany
Washington, D.C.
Wrong Address
Dear Sirs: Your editorial, “Must Chess-
man Die?”, is in the highest traditions
of liberalism and of The Nation.
We must recognize that there is one
man who can wield the most influence
on the California State Supreme Court to
reverse its 4-3 recommendation of Feb-
ruary 18 against clemency: Governor
Brown. Never in the history of California
has the State Supreme Court refused to
re
*
concur in a governor’s decision to com-
mute. Wouldn’t we (in the letter-writ-
ing campaign you urge our consciences
to foster) be better advised to com-
municate directly with the Governor
than to write to the Justices, who are
much less responsive to public pressure?
It sometimes seems to me that liberals
want to protect Governor Brown from
the controversy raging around Chess-
man. But I am convinced that we are
not doing the Governor a favor when,
by relieving him of immediate pressure,
we lead him to believe that public re-
vulsion following Chessman’s execution
will be centered on the Supreme Court
as the responsible body, and not on him.
IsaporeE ZirErstTEIn, M.D.
Los Angeles, Calif.
Was There a ‘Leak’?
Dear Sirs: I was interested to read the
following on page 218 of your issue of
March 12: “Now here is what is not
generally realized on this side of the
water. General Norstad had no author-
ity to order Herr Strauss to desist”
(from arranging West German military
bases in Spain). “AJl that he could do
was leak the story to The New York
Times.”
This (italicized above) is a facile
but unwarranted misstatement of fact,
and I am astonished that you should
print it without, it would seem, the
slightest effort at verification. Since the
story of Spanish-West German negotia-
tions was “broken” in my column in
The New York Times of February 22,
I feel qualified to call to your attention
the following:
The Spanish press announced, as posi-
tively as your magazine, that this was
the result of a deliberate “leak” from
M. Spaak, NATO’s Secretary General.
The German press announced that the
British had “leaked” the news for delib-
erate political reasons. French publica-
tions have gone to great pains to ex-
plain how and why United States diplo-
mats “leaked” the news.
Obviously, someone is wrong, includ-
ing The Nation. Normally, however,
The Nation takes greater pains to check
its information than does Arriba in
Madrid,
C. L. SuLzpercer
Paris”
Mr. Sulaberger reached his present
eminence among foreign correspondents
not only because of his ability, but be-
cause diplomats a learned that he
will always protect his sources. To have
checked with Mr, Sulaberger, in this
instance, could only have drawn a
thoroughly understandable demal. As
for checking with General Norstad, the
NATO chef would have even more
reason, if possible, than Mr. Sulzberger
to deny or to refuse comment; even if
the General were in a position to with-
stand the wrath of Herrn Strauss and
Adenauer, the prospect of facing an ex-
tremely articulate band of Mr. Sulzberg-
er’s indignant fellow-journalists would
surely give him pause.
In any case, Mr. Sulzberger is to be
congratulated for having broken one of
the big stories of 1960. — Ep.
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
325 'e@
ARTICLES
327 @ South Africa’s Rubicon
by GWENDOLEN M. CARTER
330 @ The Young Tycoons
by MALCOLM ROSS
332 @ Small-Arms Race
by STANLEY MBISLUR
385 ‘@ Those Pretty Little Pills
by DAVID L. COWDN
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
339 @ Plea for a New Reformation
by GABRIEL VAHANIAN
340 'e Ignorant, Soulless and Amateur
by DAVID CORT
341 @ A Work of Conscience
by CHARLES H. FOSTER
341 '@ Second Impressions
by ROBERT M, WALLACE
342 @ As I Forget (poem)
4 by 'T. WEISS
343 '@ Theatre
by HAROLD CLURMAN
344 @ Music
by LESTER TRIMBLE
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 344)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
OQ
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, Editor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Wditor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Musie
Alexander Werth, Huropean
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, Apr. 16, 1960. Vol, 190, No. 16
The Nation published weekly (except for omls-
sion of four summer issues) by The Nation
Company and copyright 1960, in the U.S.A. by
the Nation Associates, Inc., 333 Sixth Avenue,
New York 14, N. ¥. Second class postage paid
at New York, N. Y¥.
Subscription Price Domes: e year $8, Two
years $14, Three Years $20, Additional postage
per year, Foreign $1.
Change of ess: Three weeks’ notice ts re-
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in Readers Guide to Periodical Literature, Book
Review Digest, Index to Labor Articles, a
Affairs, Information Bervice, Dramatio
ST
Ka at,
‘ ad bu Sty Sle
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 16
THE
NATION
EDITORIALS
The Catholic Dilemma
“Wisconsin Vote Showed Kennedy’s Strength Cen-
tered in Catholic Areas,” the headline reads. The New
York Herald Tribune surely cannot be accused of anti-
Catholicism, or even of undue emphasis on the ques-
tion of religion in politics. Nor did either Senator Ken-
nedy or Senator Humphrey try to gain political
advantage from the fact that one happens to be a
Catholic, the other a Protestant. Yet the issue obtrudes
itself. The normal processes of democracy involve
pressure groupings: whatever the ideal, no one gets
anything in a democracy without asking for it. Catholic
_ voters cannot be blamed for voting for a Catholic pri-
_ marily because he is a Catholic, as long as the tradition
_ persists, that a Catholic cannot be elected President.
It makes them, if not second-class citizens, not quite
_ first-class ones either, They would not be human if they
did not resent it, and they would not be Americans if
they didn’t try to do something about it. If they once
did elect a President, the divisions among them would
become evident and more articulate for, even as Protes-
_ tants and Jews, they are rich and poor, enlightened and
-benighted, small-business-minded or __ big-business-
~ minded, and so on.
That one Catholic group can attack another the his-
tory of Tammany Hall amply attests. In that organiza-
tion, and in others, Catholics of different races and
backgrounds live together in uneasy and not necessarily
enduring alliances. But it is equally certain that there
will be a “Catholic vote” on a national scale until the
first Catholic President is elected — which can be only
with massive non-Catholic support. Until then, the
Catholic contender — and the rest of us as well — must
cope as best we can with the inevitable enthusiasm of
the candidate’s co-religionists and the counter-pressures
Bhat their enthusiasm is bound to generate. It may be
unfortunate, but that is the way by which a democracy
learns to overcome the ancient, intractable divisions of
ace and religion,
RT
glican archbishop, Jooste de Blank, being still at liberty,
was asked about reports of growing anti-Christian feel-
ing among Africans. he said.
“Stanley and promised commerce and
Christianity to the Africans. They’ve got commerce,
but they’ve not seen Christianity.” Dr. Ambrose Reeves,
the Anglican bishop of Johannesburg, another opponent
of South Africa’s frenetic segregationist policies, was no
longer around to be interviewed. Advised by senior
diocese members that he was about to be arrested, he
fled to the British protectorate of Swaziland, where he
is no doubt working up some communistic deviltry
against Prime Minister Hendrik F. Verwoerd and his
machine gunners. If this sounds strange to the outside
world, it is perfectly reasonable to the leaders of the
Afrikaner master race. It is their official doctrine
(echoed among their counterparts in our own South)
that resistance to apartheid is one of the protean forms
of communism.
‘The Afrikaners may finally get what they are look-)
ing for — revolution. “Is this.the revolution which peo-
ple have been expecting in South Africa?” Colin Legum
asks in the London Observer. He concludes that it is
1905 (in Russian terms), the forerunner to 1917. But
1917 is coming, unless the Alan Patons and the de
Blanks, the Reeves and the Luthulis can avert it, and
the time for that is growing short. For Chief Luthuli —
a moderate and a Christian and a most distinguished
human being — is losing his following; the counter-
Afrikaners among the Africans are taking over. Racism
1S colliding with racism. Luthuli, once a lay preacher
“Ym not surprised,”
Livingston
himself, is in jail, and so is John Haak! a white Liberal’
leader in whose home he was arrested. Neratit Phillips
of the Toronto Star had a talk with Luthuli before the
arrest. “Have you ever met Prime Minister Verwoerd?”
Phillips asked. “No,” said Luthuli. “Nor have I ever
had the privilege of meeting any Member of Parliament
from his Nationalist Party or the opposition United
ey ” “And what do you and the African National
€ government to negotiate with us.”
jan to ae and the cominerce that Arch.
JUL 27
Congress want?” Phillips asked. “A stake in the gov- —
Winner of our country, the vote on a universal fran-
chise, civil rights, all democracy has to give... . We :
will not do at all, of course. It is much easier iar" ‘
\
Ait ene ©
ee aN
bishop de Blank mentioned, based on African slave
labor, leather whips and native townships unfit for dogs
to live in — that commerce must be defended at all
costs. But there are guns elsewhere in Africa, and the
Union has borders, a seacoast, and airspace. The
Christians and their allies, seeking a Christian solution,
have their work cut out for them. (See “South Africa’s
Rubicon,” page 327, this issue.)
Shut Up, Please
It has become a national habit to hold a White House
Conference on Children and Youth in the first year of
each decade. Their history is not too encouraging, since
the problems which enfevered the 1930, 1940 and 1950
conferences are still with us. Perhaps, however, the grand
confabulation of 1960 will be found to have accom-
plished a useful purpose, namely, the establishment of
the principle (which might well be incorporated in a
Constitutional amendment) that age in itself does not
confer the right to give advice. This latest conference
was attended by over 7,500 delegates, of whom perhaps
1,500 were young. Among the others, an undetermined
but probably large percentage shared the common de-
lusion that age, because it brings experience, also brings
wisdom; further, that this wisdom must imperatively
be imparted to the less experienced; and still further,
that the inexperienced must be exhorted, corrected and
badgered for their own good. Thus the President, striv-
ing to contribute his meed of sagacity, bewailed the
softness of young Americans in the “affluent society”
(since Marie Antoinette, the affluent have assumed
de, that everyone must be affluent) and the fact that they
“4g don’t ride bicycles as much as Europeans and go to
school by bus if they have to walk more than four or
five blocks. A delegate said this all began when “a vocal
group of physical education specialists got close to the
President.” And he added, “I wish the social workers
and the educators could get as close.”
The first lesson for youth, then, is how easy it is to
promote something at a Presidential conference. An-
other lesson was contributed by a seventeen-year-old
girl who protested, “Most of us are healthy. Our teeth ,
aren’t falling out. Our health isn’t bad. If we’re soft,
we’re not suffering. I don’t think this is the basic prob-
lem of youth.” The basic problem of youth is the older
generation. Let youth take courage: it may not do any
. better, but it certainly need not be overawed by the
political and social accomplishments of the years since
_ the Conference on Children and Youth began.
What Price Manuals?
When the Air Force found the National Council of —
Churches to be “Red infiltrated,” the faux pas was
covered up by the announcement that the Air Force
ote Ped
Fi ain j CAD Liab ' Lee al
and to exhorting their contemporaries, by the ex
‘ ‘ 7 ; qin hy “ae
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1 wot % j
ye 0 RE le
lated instructional guides” in 1959, The innocent tax-
payer may have rejoiced: could it be that the Air Force
was economizing at last? Unfortunately this particular
genre is only a minute fraction of a truly colossal out-
put. According to testimony released on March 29 by
the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee, the
Air Force spent $89,200,000 on manuals last year. The
subcommittee chairman, Rep. George H. Mahon (Dem.,
Texas) expressed shock: “. . . to spend 30 or 50 or 100
million dollars on manuals would seem almost beyond
comprehension.” But credulity may be strained even
farther. In its issue of November 10, 1959, Planes-
Aerospace, the organ of the aircraft-missiles-spacecraft
industry and not given to biting the hand that feeds it,
said editorially, “The Air Force alone spends $250,000,-
000 a year for technical manuals.” If this is true and
if we assume that the combined literature requirements
of the Army and Navy—poor relations though they
be—equal those of the Air Force, then we get into real
money—something around $500,000,000, far exceeding
the entire commercial book publishing business.
Is it really possible that the services run up half a
billion a year for instruction in radar, sonar, missiles
and other technical intricacies, with a bit of political
vilification thrown in now and then? How do they do
it? It is simple, actually. For one thing, by lack of
standardization which, to its credit, the aerospace in-
dustry is trying to help the Department of Defense to
remedy. And the second point Representative Mahon’s
subcommittee might look into is that the literature
agencies of the services, with a single exception, require
a standard of art work more suitable for Remembrance
of Things Past than ephemeral instructional material
for a captive audience. The Signal Corps makes it clear
in SIG 730-1, Part Two (Illustrations): “The work-
manship and materials used in the preparation of re-
producible illustrations must be of the highest quality”
(Signal Corps italics). In contrast, the Navy (BuShips,
Code 993) says, in effect, that any clear and legible
illustrations will be acceptable: “. . . keep the book’s
cost to a minimum.” If the Air Force and the Army
could bring themselves to follow the Navy’s injunction
they would have a nice piece of change to spend on
possibly more urgent concerns, and the Air Force might
be induced to lay off the National Council of Churches.
Gore Vidal: Politician
What Congress needs is a leavening of artists in the
great loaf of lawyers, bankers and businessmen that now
fills its chambers. More specifically, it needs novelists,
poets, playwrights. The business of such men is the so-
ciety in which they live; they devote their working lives —
to defining the relationships of individuals and groups
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of their imaginative models, to forsake folly and love
truth. Good writers are public servants by instinct; it
is time that some of them were made so by election.
For this reason, we endorse the candidacy of Gore
Vidal, now seeking Democratic nomination for Rep-
resentative from the 29th Congressional District, N.Y.
Mr. Vidal says that he would be “independent in pol-
itics, inclined always to take those positions which seem
to me of most benefit to this district and to the country,
whether or not politically expedient.” From many men
this would not mean much, but Mr. Vidal is already
committed by his writings. We know that he scorns
venality, is impatient with stupidity and applies imagi-
nation to the unresilient status quo. He also expresses
himself with vigor and clarity, and the success of his
plays and television dramas seems to prove that he en-
joys that essential political gift, the “common touch.”
His grandfather was Senator Thomas Gore of Oklahoma,
his father is a businessman who served as director of
the Bureau of Air Commerce under President Roose-
velt. By heritage and experience, Mr. Vidal would seem
qualified to serve his constituents and the nation; it is
only a question of whether he can overcome the tradi-
tion that an aesthete, like a felon, is disqualified from
holding public office.
Five Years of Desegregation
As was right and proper, the national capital was the
first large city with a segregated school system to
hearken to the voice of the Supreme Court in 1954.
Now comes an invaluable booklet, Addendum: a Five-
Year Report on Desegregation in the Washington, D.C.,
Schools, prepared by the city’s Superintendent of
Schools, Carl F. Hansen, and published by the Anti-
_ Defamation League of B’nai B'rith. Segregationists will
find no joy in it; but it also contains some needful, if
2
SOUTH AFRICA’S
racial policy
cil calling on South Africa to aban-
uncomfortable, reminders that the ills of our society
cannot be painted in black and white alone. Indeed, the’
chief value of Dr. Hansen’s lean, fact-filled text is the
manner in which it punctures myths on both sides.
Will desegregation inevitably lower school standards?
Nonsense. Dr. Hansen shows that in 1955-56—the sec-
ond year of integration—the sixth grade, which was
then 62.2 per cent Negro, scored .5 to 1.2 lower than
the national norm in six standard tests. Three years
later the same grade, which by then had become 71.6
per cent Negro, was at or above the national norm in
five of the six tests, and was only .4 below norm in
the sixth. All grades have shown steady improvement
in standards, although the advance was somewhat un-
even (as might be expected in any school system, white,
black, yellow or mixed).
Will desegregation increase racial tensions and juven-
ile delinquency? Again, “Serious incidents
that seem:to be primarily racial in origin are relatively
infrequent,” writes Dr. Hansen. And delinquency has
declined, among non-whites, from 37.1 cases per thou-
sand in 1954 to 21.2 cases in 1958; and, among whites,
from 15.3 tq 15.2.
But is desegregation the whole answer to the prob-
lem of the education of the Negro child? The answer
is no. School drop-outs are higher among Negroes than
whites; delinquency remains higher; vandalism and
pregnancies are more frequent. “Children who come
to school without adequate nourishment,” writes Dr.
Hansen, “are not in a state of readiness to learn. They
may not only be unresponsive to their opportunities,
but aggressive, rebellious and negative in their reac-
tions. The conflict, disorder and deficiencies in their
homes do, in fact, condition their behavior in the class-
room.”
Poverty, and the Jim Crow who roams the streets,
are no respecters of Supreme Court decisions.
nonsense,
SOUTH AFRICA’S RUBICON e e by Gwendolen M. Carter
Africa only in the degree of solidarity
e has long outraged American, British
and the handful of South African
liberals; it has now been termed an
issue affecting international peace.
| The resolution of the Security Coun-
GWENDOLEN M. CARTER, au-
thor of The Politics of Inequality
South Africa Since 1948 (Praeger)
and of the forthcoming Independence
i oe (Praeger), teaches govern-
don the apartheid policy defined by ©
its ruling Afrikaner Nationalist Gov-
ernment and embodied in the laws
of the country turns racial discrimi-
nation, at least of this type, into an
international offense. This
most: ‘far-reaching decision on human
rights in the history -of the United
Nations, and one which Americans
will do well to pond
is the.
which the Africans have shown in
their demonstrations, the severity of
the police action against the anti-
pass demonstrators at Sharpeville
and elsewhere, and the internation-
al repercussions following the death
of some seventy-five African demon-
strators and the wounding of many
_more. The pass laws, whereby Af-
ricans are controlled in their move-
ments outside the native reserve
areas, have always been the most
‘ 327
hated of the restrictions placed on
this majority group within the Union.
They formed the focus of the eight
months’ passive-resistance campaign
in 1952 against “unjust laws” in
which Africans also courted arrest to
publicize their grievances and appeal
to the conscience of those who con-
trol them. Moreover clashes between
the police and Africans in the native
townships are not uncommon and
have often led to violence. Many
more Africans were killed at the time
of the 1952 riots in Port Elizabeth,
East London and Kimberley than in
the past two weeks.
But if the circumstances have a
dismal air of familiarity, there is a
decisive change in the setting. In
1952, there were only two independ-
ent states under African control:
Liberia and Ethiopia. By the end of
1960, virtually all of West and Equa-
torial Africa to the southern borders
of the Belgian Congo will be ruled
by Africans. Moreover, in what used
to be called the multiracial states of
Tanganyika and Kenya (the former
with only 8,000 but the latter with
65,000 white residents), Africans are
Raa
becoming the dominant political
force. The impact on South Africa
is twofold: its 9,500,000 Africans,
who include a good proportion of the
most advanced on the whole conti-
nent, are inevitably stirred to de-
mand rights and even a share of
power; at the same time, most of the
3,000,000 long-established white res-
idents—in particular, the Afrikaners
— are shaken by the rapidity of the
success of African nationalism and
fearful that if they relax their con-
trol within their country they will
be overwhelmed by the force they
have unleashed.
THE interaction of these two at- .
titudes produced a rapid series of
moves and countermoves. The group
which. spearheaded the demonstra-
tions on March 21 calls itself the
Pan-Africanist Congress. Its intellec-
tual young leaders had worked un-
easily for many years within the Af-
rican National Congress, the estab-
lished organ of African nationalism,
but broke away in April, 1959, de-
claring that Africans must find their
own solution to their problems and
Herblock: St. Louis Post-Dispateh
“Don't sit there looking for me like that.”
' ae
bole
Ps x cao ; ' TZ
' ) ae ee od
c. 7 * ‘ es Vi gt ly
FR 7. jude ‘Aiea Ry TN Sal
not work with the South African In-
dian Congress and the white, left-
wing Congress of Democrats, as does
the A.N.C. Using an old, though
never successful technique, the Pan-
Africanists hoped to swamp the jails
by demanding arrests for not carry-
ing passes.
The National government, headed
by Prime Minister Hendrik F. Ver-
woerd, countered not only with force,
but also by suspending the applica-
tion of the pass laws. Burning of
passes followed and, still more signif-
icant, a work stoppage called by the
A.N.C. in protest against the shoot-
ings at Sharpeville, proved almost 90
per cent successful in Johannesburg
and Capetown and nearly as much
so in every other city. The govern-
ment has banned meetings until June
30, and has declared a state of
emergency under which intimida-
tion, to which it ascribed the success
of the work stoppage, incurs greatly
intensified penalties. It also rushed
through Parliament, with the sup-
port of the opposition United Party,
a measure banning the A.N.C. and
the Pan-Africanist group. It has ar-
rested some 300 persons, including
not only the head of the Pan-Af-
ricanists, Robert Sobukwe, lecturer
in Bantu languages at Witwaters-
rand University, but also ex-chief
Albert Luthuli, the moderate leader
of the A.N.C., and several whites.
AS THIS is written, the situation in
South Africa is somewhat quieter.
The repressive measures, the massive
mobilization of the police and army,
the difficulty of maintaining an or-
ganized program of demonstrations
with leaders in jail and heavy penal-
ties at hand, have had their effect at
least temporarily. But nothing is
settled. Administrators have reim-
posed the pass laws, although appar-
ently with certain modifications in
enforcement procedures. The op-
position is demanding a change of
government and the perennial ru-
mors of a coalition of moderate Af-
rikaners and conservative English
are once more current, What is sure
is that nothing can ever be quite
the same again. Africans have felt
their strength, particularly through
the work boycott. The whites must
move either to maintain their con-
oe. : T
™ =
Haale he N W
OIF.
LRT
trol more rigorously, as the most re-
cent moves seem to suggest, or to
establish contacts with moderate
Africans on the basis of which a
healthier situation can be built.
ALREADY for some time there has
been evidence that among both Af-
rikaners and English-speaking whites
there is recognition of the necessity
of making contacts with non-Eu-
ropeans. Most obvious has been the
establishment of two new political
parties affirming the need for better
English-Afrikaner and European-
non-European relations: the Pro-
gressives, who broke away from the
United Party last August, and the
National Union, organized by a for-
mer Nationalist from South West
Africa, Japie Basson, and led by
former Chief Justice Fagan (author
of the noted 1948 report from which
South Africans first learned that,
at any given time, more than half
the country’s Africans are outside
their reserves, working in the so-
called European areas). Beyond
this, there has been a growing ques-
tioning of policies by clerics of all
denominations (including the dom-
inant Dutch Reformed Church), by
university professors and even by
businessmen. This may well be in-
tensified by recent events, particu-
larly after the first shock of fear is
overcome.
But that the ruling National Party
remains in command of the Afrikaner
community can hardly be doubted.
All the agencies of Afrikaner life
combine to reinforce its position.
Moreover, the memory of the twen-
ties, when over 60 per cent of the
Afrikaner people were threatened
with “poor whitism” as they stream-
ed off increasingly unproductive
farms, and managed to secure a
privileged and protected position in
the economy only through the action
of government and the white trade
unions, remains a powerful rallying
force easily exploited by Afrikaner
leaders. Also, however illusory to the
outside world appears the transfor-
mation of the present native reserves
into “Bantustans” with ultimate
self-government, the program does
provide a rationalization for exclud-
ing Africans from rights within the
European areas.
In the face of the resulting solidar-
ity of the Afrikaners, who form 60
per cent of the white group which
possesses a monopoly of _ political
power, can the questionings, doubts
and fears within South Africa be
stimulated by external pressure into
supporting new lines of racial policy?
THE MAJOR form of outside pres-
sure on South Africa in recent months
has been the boycott. Started by Af-
ricans within the Union against Af-
rikaner concerns, a general boycott
against South African exports has
been strongly endorsed by African-
controlled states, and more recently
as a gesture of dislike of apartheid
by the British Labour Party and trade
unions and by some comparable
bodies on the continent. That the
boycott will noticeably affect total
South African exports seems unlike-
ly, but its propaganda effect has
been considerable both in South Af-
rica and abroad. The sharp drop of
prices on the Johannesburg stock
exchange following the recent shoot-
ings and work stoppage is another
type of warning to which South Af-
ricans are vulnerable.
In the two international bodies of
which South Africa is a member, the
Commonwealth and the U.N., the
pressures being exerted upon it are
moral. The Commonwealth has al-
ways scrupulously avoided interfer-
ing in the internal affairs of its mem-
bers; this fact, and a genuine fear
that the U.N. will overextend itself
to the point of becoming ineffective,
lie behind the British abstention on
the Security Council resolution on
South Africa. But apartheid seems
almost certain to be discussed at the
Prime Minister Verwoerd
May meeting of the Commonwealth
Prime Ministers in London — though
perhaps informally and _ certainly
without publicity. So, too — and on
South African initiative — is the
Verwoerd regime’s plan to establish
a republic. Already before the Un-
ion’s legislators is the proposal for
a referendum aimed at empowering
Parliament to declare the country a
republic. Republics are nothing new
for the Commonwealth: India has
held that status since 1949. Many
English-speaking South Africans,
however, are concerned not only
over losing the link with the Crown,
but also lest the Nationalists should
combine republican status with
withdrawal from the Commonwealth.
This is not likely unless the other
Commonwealth Prime Ministers
adopt an unprecedented attitude of
censure towards South Africa. In the
recent past, they have encouraged
continued South African membership
in the hope of modifying its policies
by making it feel less insecure.
In contrast to the private nature
of Commonwealth discussions has
been the recent action in the U.N.
Though South Africa has been ar-
raigned by that body for its racial
policies almost incessantly since the
U.N. came into being, heretofore
the General Assembly has always
been the forum. Now the Security
Council has taken a hand; and, for
the first time, the indefatigable Sec-
retary General, from whom one be-
gins to expect miracles, has - been
asked to discuss matters with the
South African Government.
What develops from these con-
versations will be of the greatest im-
portance to the development of the
whole of southern Africa. With the
attitude of Southern Rhodesia’s
white residents hardening against
329
ee
the British Government’s efforts to
make the Federation a genuine bi-
racial working partnership, a refusal
by South Africa to consider more
moderate racial policies will tend to
create a white-dominated bloc at the
southern tip of the continent, in-
creasingly out of step with the rest
of the world and destined to devote
an increasing proportion of its re-
sources to repression instead of
economic expansion. But if, as un-
fortunately seems less likely, South
Africa responds to the request of the
Security Council and of Luthuli to
give Africans a chance for human
dignity and a share of political pow-
er, the industrial potential of this
well-developed country could raise
the African standard of living with-
out sacrificing that of the whites,
and make South Africa a source of
goods and even skills throughout the
continent. The answer lies in the
hands of South Africa’s whites.
For the United States, the events
of the last three weeks have a signifi-
cance which may hardly yet have
been realized. By openly deploring
the shootings at Sharpeville, the
State Department put itself on rec-
ord as opposing the use of force to
maintain racial discrimination. By
voting for the Security Council’s
resolution, the United States has
endorsed the right of small and weak
countries to criticize those internal
policies of stronger nations which
contribute to international tension.
In other words, we have internation-
alized our policy of removing racial
discrimination. Henceforth, any hesi-
tation in our efforts to eliminate it
within our own borders can only be
termed hypocrisy.
THE YOUNG TYCOONS. e by Malcolm Ross
Miami Beach
THEY ALREADY have what the
status-seekers seek. Each member of
the Young Presidents Organization
is boss man of a company with no
less than fifty employees and a min-
imum annual gross income of $1
million. He averages thirty-nine
years of age, takes home $41,000 a
year before taxes, tucks $5,000 of it
into savings, and has twenty years to
go before retirement. He carries $112,-
000 in life insurance. He is (with few
exceptions) a college graduate with
one year postgraduate study. He
dresses well, and so does his’ wife,
who strives with correct coiffures,
good manners and amiable entertain-
ment to live her role as First Lady
of the Corapany. She has three chil-
dren and a husband who spends ten
hours a day at business and many
weeks a year on trips, usually in his
own plane. Status is no easier to
maintain than to gain.
There are 1,500 Young Presidents
(three of them women). The organi-
zation this year celebrates its first
decade under the rule that to be a
member one must have become a
president before forty, and must—if
control is sold or lost—beg, borrow
or steal another company in order to
retain membership; and is willy-nilly
MALCOLM ROSS, author of Death
of a Yale Man and All Manner of
Men, is chairman of the University
of Miami Press. '
330
no longer a Young President at
forty-nine.
Regional meetings in _ forty-six
states and six foreign countries cul-
minate in the annual convention and
University for Presidents. This year’s
University was held recently in
the Fontainebleau Hotel, occupy-
ing four ocean-front blocks at Miami
Beach, Florida. Four hundred and
twenty married couples of YPO spent
$60,000 on tuition for the five Uni-
versity days; I, a day student from
Coconut Grove, had them for free.
I entered my first class (Profes-
sor Clifton Fadiman on Arts and the
Humanities) in skeptical mood that
840 well-heeled and fun-loving del-
egates seriously intended to convert
this pleasure dome into a workshop.
In succeeding days I beheld them
show up for 9 A.M. classes, bright-
eyed, pencils alert over scratch pads,
in hushed attention to lectures on
Religions of the World, Understand-
ing Foreign Cultures, The President’s
Job, Conflicting Ideologies, Being a
President’s Wife, Geopolitics, ete.
Ten thousand classroom man-
hours later, while waiting to buy my
car back from the doorman, my five
University days jelled into a surmise
which bears consideration. ‘These
veterans of World War II, riding the
prosperous years to control of medi-
um-size American industries, have
arrived at independent success a full
generation earlier than the tycoons
of today’s Big Companies. The pres-
\
idents of the Goliath corporations
arrive at the top at average age fifty-
two and have eight years before re-
tirement. But little David is still un-
der forty, with a score of years in
which to flex his powers in fields be-
yond his office window. That he
wants to do so was apparent in the
Fontainebleau classrooms, a_ phe-
nomenon which leads to my surmise
that the 1,500 Young Presidents may
well be the pitch pipe to which in-
dustry will be tuned during the next
generation.
How goes the tune? It is Nixon
Republicanism in the bass, with a
treble Stevenson obbligato. There is
an overtone acceptance that unions
are here to stay, with a nostalgic
strain of company unionism. There
is a symphonic Free Enterprise; and
yet this ensemble creates a far dif-
ferent effect from that of Jay Gould,
Jim Fisk and Henry Clay Frick
(who also became presidents under
forty) or even from the Free Enter-
prise of the N.A.M., to which a few
YPOers belong.
I asked several to interpret the
YPO tenet, “Aggressive action to
further the free-enterprise system,”
and had these answers: “I want the
chance to do it myself”; “The crea-
tive individual must stay on top of
technology”; “We can’t compete
across the. board with big corpora-
tions, but we ean survive by being
superior in a narrow range.”
So Big Business is the slave-trad-
; 7 Ve N 1 ION
: Y Se ey ;
er to avoid, and the aggressive ac-
tion is to capture the minds of col-
lege seniors. Last year, 10,000 of
these listened at sixty colleges to
YPO missionaries crying the danger
of choosing careers on the basis of
pension plans, urging the seniors to
get out on their own and not join a
monopolistic group. Junior Achieve-
ment, which encourages youngsters
in pint-size manufacturing and sell-
ing enterprises, is another reaching
out of YPOers toward final invasion
of the cradle.
FORTY-FOUR per cent of YPO
_ businesses are family-owned; these
presidents are the traditionalists,
plagued with concern to preserve
family assets while still satisfying
the desire of relatives for higher
dividends. About 28 per cent started
their own firms — compulsive types,
they are a shade less formally edu-
_ cated, but the ablest; 3 per cent mar-
ried the boss’s daughter, and don’t
make the easy assumption that they
never had it so good — frequently
the boss, looking around for a succes-
sor, invited the bright young plant
manager to dinner.
The other 25 per cent got control
through purchase or mergers, or were
spotted as comers by management.
_ They are lawyers, M.I.T. and Har-
vard Business School graduates, en-
gineers, good trouble-shooters, and
likely to be on the technical fron-
tiers — helicopters, computers, elec-
tronic components.
Sixty-two per cent of YPOers are
manufacturers, 34 per cent in service
industries, and 4 per cent in finance.
The acquisitive spirit, in contrast to
_ the “chance to do it myself” phil-
qf osophy, prevails among the finan-
y ciers.
I attended a Mergers and Acquisi-
tions session where three panelists,
_ presidents of a total of twelve com-
i panies, instructed forty single-com-
Bm pany presidents in the art of not
_ buying a pig in a poke. A careless
_ audit resulted in one disastrous ex-
_ perience where “the sheet metal cov-
ering holes in the floor was carried
as inventory.” Another president, a
seller this time, was happy with a
_ seven-figure certified check until the
POET I
eS ee
iq
fi
ed the | cow es by selling
yer fired his former staff and
ventory simultaneously with a kit-
ing of stock prigs for quick-kill
purposes.
I sat in mousy reverence at tales
of “fourteen million in cash and no
way to use it”; of private companies
“soing public” to the heavenly music
of rich rewards. In the elevator on
the way down one president volun-
teered: “That’s the trouble with this
country. Id rather run my own
show and sleep nights.”
The instinct spectrum, as with any
heterogeneous group, runs from Jim
Fisk to Jacob Riis. I found it signifi-
cant that a respected YPO founding
father, Lyle M. Spencer, was chosen
to make a keynote speech. Spencer
heads Science Research Associates, .
is a trustee of Roosevelt University
and active in getting professional
jobs for Negroes. In his farewell
speech (he has crossed the forty-
nine-year deadline and will appear
no more in these hallowed halls),
he said this:
For almost 300 years capitalism has
been the dominant form of economic
organization among the ruling na-
tions. In the past forty-three years,
the Soviets have produced a success-
ful challenge, dominating the minds
of about a billion people. We are
coming to sce that capitalism does
not exist because it can produce a
profit or because it is an inherent
right. It exists primarily to serve
human needs. Ubless we can prove
it serves the needs of all the people
better than competing systems its
future is proble al at best. We
are concerned with the uncommitted
billion and a qu people, and the
decision will be during. the next
ten years. ,
RAT Math eee tents mena
as for business?” (A: Yes.)
MENSA Ur TNC RN REP UTA te Pe ot,
The University carried electives in
five schools: Business, Liberal Arts,
Applied Arts, Family and Commu-
nity Life, and the Institute of World
Affairs. Two-thirds of the delegates
elected business, one-third cultural,
courses. The $60,000 in- tuition fees
provided Fontainebleau board and
lodging and honorariums to a faculty
including Dean Richard Donham of
Northwestern, anthropologist Ed- :
ward T. Hall, Harvard’s Edmund iva
P. Learned, West Point’s Colonel ee
George A. Lincoln, Dr. William C.
Menninger, Marshall D. Shulman,
Richard S. Winslow and Dr. Walt 4
Whitman Rostow. an
A strict campus rule compelled
full ninety-minute attendance on aah
anyone entering the classroom. No
shopping around. Thus limited to a
few classes, I chose topics from Fam-
ily Life, Business and the Arts.
Dr. Will Menninger conducted a
family-life clinic based on answers to
a questionnaire filled out by the
wives. Dr. Will kept the marital rev-
elations to himself, but it is a fair Ay.
guess his counselings were responsive
to them. I sat in the rear, with a view
of two hundred heads, in pairs, at- ha
tractive hair-dos in red, brunette, Be:
blonde and platinum, alternating ‘a
with well-barbered pates only here 7
and there beginning to show through.
Bermuda shorts were in both male
and female vogue. The attention
level was high as the husband heard
answers based on questions perhaps
submitted by the girl beside him.
The Question and Answer period
brought out many points.
“We have all his love but we don’t
have him,” was a frequent complaint.
“How much should a wife be in-
terested in office details?” (A: Not
to the point where employees whis-
per: “She really runs the business.”’)
“Can expensive gifts be a compen-
satory gesture of contrition for neg-
lect?” (A: To a mistress, yes; to a
wife, no.) “Is it better to have a —
good fight and have it over with?” —
(A: Don’t even talk problems when —
angry.) “Should I let the clillaear
climb all over him when he comes
home tired, or have a quiet drink —
first?” (A: If he loves the kids, he
won’t mind playing with them.) “Is
a long-range plan as valid for family —
abl ot is } Ba
Psychiatrist Dr. Will considered
the cases of the “wizard at business,
flop as a father”; the “wife busy as
a cranberry merchant at saving the
country”; the case of the buttonless
shirt, the forgotten anniversary, and
the threat of the predatory female.
The plaster Louis Quatorze nymph
decorating the wall waved her gar-
land of roses ever so slightly at her
neighboring plaster beau.
I supped at Culture’s Table with
Fadiman; ate lobster Newburg at
gourmet tables facing the green, sub-
tropical Atlantic; eavesdropped on
the wives’ French-refresher course
at the edge of the swimming. pool;
and had amiable discussions with
Young President top officials on
why I had been denied entry to
two course offerings, one on Moti-
vation and another on Labor.
The fact that I had been denied
awoke an urge to violence in one of
my lunch partners.
“We settled that once and for all!”
he cried in obvious pain. “Who was
it wouldn’t let you in?”
“Oh well now, look,” I said weak-
ly. “This press badge says The Na-
tion, which these folk first mistook
for The Nation’s Business. But when
they discovered it was a New York
weekly, they naturally decided a
labor seminar was none of The Na-
tion’s business.”
Unsatisfied by my _ pusillanimous
attitude, my new-found defender
rounded up the head of the Univer-
sity and the head of YPO and
achieved agreement then and there
that henceforth no one should be
denied admission to any YPO course.
I hope it sticks. I doubt whether I
would learn anything about Motiva-
tion or Labor which I could not have
garnered from chit-chats over the
lobster Newburg.
I MISSED the last session of the
University, through getting involved
in conversation with a Young Pres-
ident who thinks there are a few
residual S.O.B.’s in the organization,
but that in face-to-face arguments
with their peers the offensive qual-
ities will disappear. The scheduled
last session was a World Affairs
oT OA eRe oft 2 SY Tale eed A
Panel’ to be- conducted ‘by. Colonel
Lincoln and Professors Rostow and
Shulman. Adjacent to the room in
which the panel was to be held is
the great ballroom, at the moment
occupied in rehearsal by the troupe
which is to entertain the next sched-
uled convention, that of the Amer-
ican Tobacco Company. Slim and
beauteous gals in leotards were re-
hearsing on the ballroom stage, and
making one hell of a din over the
loudspeakers. This worried the staf-
fers of the YPO, young men to whose
well-cut Bermuda shorts are at-
tached walkie-talkies so that they
may be instantly in touch with the
high YPO command. They wangled
a sliding door sound barrier between
the noisy rehearsal and the room
where World Affairs were to be
analyzed in decorous quiet. But not
before Professor Rostow entered
with an appreciative sidelong glance
at the rehearsing leotards.
“Hum-m” he said “Do you think
our audience is going to get past
the fleshpots?”
They did.
SMALL-ARMS RACE e e by Stanley Meisler
ON MARCH 4, the 4,309-ton French
freighter La Coubre, carting seventy-
six tons of Belgian grenades and
ammunition to the army of Fidel
Castro, exploded in Havana harbor,
killing more than seventy-five sea-
men, dock workers and firefighters.
The series of deadly blasts triggered
a series of sensational questions that
hit headlines in both the United
States and Cuba. Had an American
agent or anti-Castro Cuban slipped
aboard and left a time bomb in the
hold? Had a careless dock worker
dropped a match into the muni-
tions? Had a cargo net snapped, un-
leashing crates of grenades against
the deck? Had a plane sneaked low
across the harbor and tossed bombs
into the freighter?
Other questions, tinged with less
STANLEY MEISLER is a wire
service newsman now stationed in
Washington. y
332
excitement, were also evoked. But,
too theoretical, old and uncomfort-
able, they made few headlines. They
are questions which have arisen time
after time, applied to incident after
incident, in the last decade. Their
most cogent expression came from
Colombian liberal Eduardo Santos
in 1955. “Against whom are we Latin
Americans arming ourselves?” he
cried out before a Columbia Univer-
sity forum. “Why are our countries
ruining themselves buying arms
which they will never use? ... In
this day of the atom bomb, with the
new arms whose cost is fabulous,
with technical systems involving
thousands of millions, what are our
poor countries about, bankrupting
themselves upon armaments which
in the event of an international con-
flict would spell absolutely nothing?”
The true meaning of La Coubre in-
volves not its explosion, but its
presence. Why was the munitions
i oi
vessel in Havana in the first place?
La Coubre and its grenades rep-
resent an often unnoticed phenome-
non of the cold war. While the great
nations of the world terrorize each
other in a nuclear-arms race, the
weaker, underdeveloped nations are
running madly through their own
series of small-arms sprints. They
have their junior balances of ter-
ror. Conditions are perfect: a glut
of small arms on the world market,
a host of military governments and
revolutionaries hungrier for guns
than bread, and help from major
powers in satisfying that hunger.
No one has estimated the total
amount of small arms available on
the world market during a year. But
partial figures, based on known trans-
actions and reports from govern-
ments, shed some light. Last Novem-
ber 2, The New York Times reported
that the British government had sold
1,000,000 surplus small arms during
mn. ; \e
1959. At the same time, Italy was
disposing of 500,000 surplus car-
bines. Business Week reported Sep-
tember 19 that “enough small weap-
ons are stolen from Formosa each
year to arm three or four Ameri-
can regiments” (these American
weapons then filter into Southeast
Asia). Cuba reportedly bought
$120,000,000 worth of arms during
1959. The Dominican Republic an-
nounced it had spent $88,000,000 on
arms last year — more than half its
national budget.
Although the Cuban and Domini-
can governments purchased new
weapons, surplus arms make up most
of the international market. Arnold
Freshman, director of the Arms
Traffic Division of the State De-
partment’s Office of Munitions Con-
trol, estimates that 70 per cent of
available arms are surplus. As Eu-
ropean governments modernize their
weapons or change them to conform
with the NATO standardization
policy, they dump their old arms on
the world market. The Communist
bloc also has embarked on a stand-
ardization program and soon may
put its old weapons up for sale.
In fact, the armies of underdevel-
oped nations have used Communist
weapons for several years. After
September, 1955, the Soviet bloc
delivered $380,000,000 worth of large
and small weapons to Egypt, Syria,
Yemen and Afghanistan. Some of
these arms later reached the com-
mercial market when the Israeli
army captured them in its 1956 in-
vasion of Egypt. Guinea, which has
a 2,000-man army, bought three
ae of rifles from Czechoslo-
_vakia last year after the United
States ignored a request for arms.
THIS COUNTRY has assumed dual,
contradictory roles in the arming of
weak nations. Under the mutual-
security program, it has dispensed
several billion dollars of military as-
sistance to underdeveloped countries
since 1950. At the same time, it has
tried to control the commercial
_ market and shut off the flow of small
arms to troubled areas. In its most
_ conspicuous attempt to restrict com-
mercial traffic, the State Department
has embargoed arms to the Carib-
bean, where it fears an outbreak be-
cake
’ aon eer
; :
tween Castro and Dominican Gen-
eralissimo Rafael Trujillo.
The embargo began two years ago,
withthe Office of Munitions Con-
trol halting the issuance of licenses
to American dealers for shipping
arms to the Caribbean. Since then,
the State Department also has tried
to persuade European governments
to withhold shipments. Last October,
for example, a representative of the
‘ British Embassy was called to the
State Department and_ told the
United States objected to a deal that
would have sent British jets to Cuba.
The British canceled the transaction.
Without cooperation from other
governments, of course, the State
Department embargo would be
meaningless, for foreign arms dealers
can easily fill the vacuum left by
restricted American dealers. There
is, in fact, strong evidence that they
have done so. While the Office of
Munitions Control asserts that the
embargo, coupled with the coopera-
tion of American Allies, is decreasing
the flow of arms to the Caribbean,
the decrease cannot be significant.
On March 11, The New York Times
reported estimates that “the fire-
power of Premier Castro’s forces is
more than two and one-half times
that of President Batista’s forces in
1958.” Belgian, Italian, Spanish and
Norwegian munitions, some produced
with United States aid, have reached
Cuba since the embargo. La Coubre
was delivering its second arms ship-
ment to Castro when it exploded.
. Last year, the French sold jets, light
tanks, mortars, grenades and ammu-
nition to the Dominican Republic.
Since European governments, like
the United States, license their arms
exports, the flow of munitions into
the Caribbean indicates official re-
sistance to the pleas of the State De-
partment. Several reasons for this
resistance have been suggested: pres-
sure by the Belgian rifle manufac-
turer, Fabrique Nationale d’Armes
de Guerre, on the Brussels govern-
ment; an attempt by France to court
the Dominican vote on the Algerian —
question in the U.N.; a general Eu-
ropean feeling that if they don’t sell
the arms, someone else — perhaps a
Communist government — will. In
addition, Europeans may resent the
long-standing American attitude to-
ward all arms shipments to Latin
America. Since World War II, the
United States, in the interest of
standardization, has tried to keep
the arms traffic in the Western
Hemisphere exclusively American.
THE LEGAL flow of arms into the
Caribbean has decreased much of
the need for gun-running from Flor-
ida. There are no_ revolutionary
groups with the force and appeal
that Castro had when he’ mounted
his offensives against Batista. Dur-
ing Castro’s rebellion, conspirators
in Miami smuggled $3,000,000 worth
of arms to him. Now in power, Castro
need not depend on Florida. Smug-
gling, however, apparently figures
somewhat in the defense plans of
Trujillo, whose army uses mostly
American small arms. Last year,
Augusto Maria Ferrando, the Do-
minican Consul General in Miami, of-
fered customs agents $2,400 if they
would let a C-74 Globemaster leave
Miami International Airport with a
cargo of small arms and ammuni-
tion. He was convicted of attempted
bribery and conspiracy to smuggle
arms, and the United States asked
the Dominican Republic to recall
him. A Miami exporter shipped five
B-26 bombers, surplus Air Force
equipment, to Chile last year for
use in aerial photography. The
bombers never reached Chile but
landed in the Dominican Republic
to become part of Trujillo’s Air
Force. The State Department has
demanded their return.
Hoping to stop the smuggling, the
government has assigned a_ small
force of customs men, recently aug-
mented with FBI agents, to patrol
Florida’s coastline and airports. In
two years, customs agents have
seized more than forty major ship-
ments of illegal arms. The courts
have convicted 200 persons, hand-
ing out five-year sentences in recent
cases. Nevertheless, this has stopped
only a small part of the traffic. In
their most optimistic guesses, cus-
toms agents say they have seized 20
to 35 per cent of the illegal arms and
arrested 40 per cent of the smugglers.
“It would take thousands of men to
patrol the Florida coast to watch all
small-boat movements,” says editor
William C. Baggs of the Miami News,
333
— i fa
“and thousands more to, watch all
airstrips and the hundreds of flat
fields that can be used by light
planes. Conversion of Florida into
this sort of armed camp probably
would not be acceptable by Ameri-
can citizens under any circumstances
short of war.”
With the Caribbean trade relative-
ly quiet, the chief destination of the
world’s gun-runners now appears to
be Algeria, where the activities of
American dealers have affected the
traffic. In 1957, for example, the
Italian government planned to sell
18,000 surplus rifles for shipment to
Tunisia. The French, certain that
the arms would reach the rebels,
protested, but the Italians decided
to complete the deal unless a new
purchaser could be found. Pasadena
Firearms Co. of California stepped
in and bought the lot for importa-
tion to the United States, where the
guns were sold to hunters and col-
lectors.
SUCH American absorption of sur-
plus weapons has grown tremendous-
ly during the past few years. Imports
of surplus rifles increased from 6,000
in 1954 to 170,000 in 1958. The
State Department, which licenses
these imports, considers them one
way of keeping part of the world
traffic under control.
While these importations may
ease foreign relations, they have dis-
turbed domestic relations. United
States sporting-rifle manufacturers
are not pleased. A hunter can buy
a surplus rifle for as little as $10.88;
a new American rifle would cost him
at least $80. From 1954 to 1958, the
sale of American centerfire rifles
dropped from 466,450 to 204,840
units. Last June, six manufacturers
petitioned the Office of Civil and
Defense Mobilization to limit im-
ports of surplus rifles to 5,000 an-
nually, arguing that continued im-
ports would destroy American sport-
ing-rifle manufacturers, leaving the
United States without a small-arms
industry in case of war.
Importers organized the American
Council for Technical Products,
which prepared an answer to the
manufacturers’ petition. The council
told the OCDM that imports do not
compete with American rifles: about
334
nas
half end up over mantels or in gun
collections and never reach the hands
of hunters. And in wartime, the
council added, the government,
rather than use the present small
gunsmiths, would turn to huge com-
panies, which could easily convert
their mass-production equipment for
small-arms manufacture.
The importers’ argument received
strong support from a Department
of Commerce study, issued last De-
cember, showing that the manu-
facturers’ biggest problem was not
surplus imports, but the decrease in
Army procurement. The manufac-
turers lost almost their entire mil-
itary market in a five-year period.
Makers of centerfire rifles had a
$20,000,000 drop in revenue between
1954 and 1958, of which only a little
more than $1,000,000 could be
blamed on the decline in civilian pur-
chases. The OCDM most likely will
reject the manufacturers’ petition
and let Americans continue to pluck
surplus weapons from the world
market.
By purchasing surplus weapons, ar-
resting smugglers and embargoing
exports, the United States has made
a commendable, although often in-
effectual, attempt to limit the com-
mercial traffic in small arms. But
it has made few moves toward
shrinking the real arsenal of the un-
derdeveloped world — the United
States military-assistance program.
Despite the embargo on commercial
arms to the Caribbean, for example,
the United States spent $1,089,000
on military aid to the Dominican
Republic and $543,000 on military
aid to Cuba during fiscal 1959,
In most cases, military aid, osten-
sibly given to protect the free world
against communism and to stabi-
lize regimes against subversion, has
tended (1) to force weak nations in-
to devoting huge percentages of their
vital capital to armaments; (2) to
entrench undemocratic, military
governments; and (3) to promote
arms races between these govern-
ments.
In Arms and Politics in Latin
America (1960), an indispensable
book for understanding the turmoil
in Latin America, Edwin Lieuwen,
chairman of the history department
at the University of New Mexico,
. na
ie hes
~ ' “) : A ; ; a of
has reached several .chilli
pel
¥e ‘i "
sions about our military aid program
in this hemisphere:
It seems incontrovertible that the
aid program exacerbates endemic
rivalries and mutual suspicions among
the Latin American republics and
gives rise to arms races... . For the
great majority of Latin Americans,
who see no great danger of aggres-
sion from outside, the United States
military program compounds their in-
ternal problems, interferes with the
process of social change, and hinders
progress in economic development.
American military aid to Iran is
“not strategic and tactical but polit-
ical and domestic,” Walter Lippmann
has observed. It satisfies the Iranian
army. “If that is the best way to
help Iran, well and good,” he con-
tinued. “The question which this
country will have to examine is
whether it is going to be in the future
the best way, or indeed how long it
can be expected to work.”
THERE have been recent signs, al-
though rather unclear ones, that the
United States is re-examining §poli-
cies that build up armaments in un-
derdeveloped nations. On March 21,
the New York Herald Tribune re-
ported that a “sweeping review” was
in progress. After his tour of Brazil,
Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, Pres-
ident Eisenhower said that present
circumstances “should now enable
some of the American republics to
reduce expenditures for armaments,
and thus make funds available for
constructive purposes.” But he based
this possibility on continued support
for the Rio treaty of 1947, which
perpetrates the myth that the Latin
countries would have a vital military
role in defending the hemisphere
from outside aggression. On March
15, Assistant Secretary of State Roy
R. Rubottom, Jr., told the House
Foreign Affairs Committee that the
Administration would ask $30,000,-
000 less for military aid to Latin
America in the 1961 fiscal year than
it had asked the year before. But
the requested total for 1961 —
$67,000,000 — was only $2,000,000
less than the State Department ac-
tually received from Congress for
the 1960 fiscal year and was, in fact,
$13,000,000 more than had been — |
spent in the 1959 fiscal year.
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the Né
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an ml re eet oe, ee ee eee
Tt may be too much to expect
the United States to eliminate, or
even drastically reduce, military aid
to underdeveloped nations. Any sud-
den action would create real prob-
lems and dangers. Many of these
nations have had military regimes
long before the United States began
sending them arms. They have used
the emotions of the cold war as
blackmail and have threatened to
turn to the Soviet Union if their de-
mands for weapons are not met. And
the Soviet Union has been happy
and able to supplant the United
States as an arsenal wherever pos-
sible. Any reversal of American
policy would be a slow one.
It is possible that the cry for dis-
\ »
armament, in order to have meaning,
must come from the underdeveloped
nations themselves. Here, the ex-
perience of Latin America sheds
some hope — and some doubt. In
the past few years, the civilian-con-
trolled governments of Costa Rica
and Chile have proposed disarma-
ment plans. But the response from
other nations, most of them domi-
nated by the military, has been more
polite than enthusiastic. The Peru-
vian and Argentine governments,
both dependent on military support,
bought more cruisers and jets at
the very time they were hailing
Chile’s call for disarmament. Even
Mexico, a civilian government, has
rejected general disarmament, be-
cause it fears that disarmament
would make Latin America too de-
pendent on the United States.
The arming of weak nations may
be an inevitable offshoot of the
arming of strong nations. Perhaps
Cuba and the Dominican Republic
will keep buying rifles until the
United States and Russia stop mak-
ing missiles. On the other hand, the
arming of weak nations may be an
inevitable offshoot of the fatuous-
ness of strong nations. Perhaps the
Shah of Iran will keep crying for
guns until the United States gets
enough sense to refuse them. In any
case, the time for hard reappraisal is
long due. There need be no more
mad munitions trips to Havana.
THOSE PRETTY LITTLE PILLS... by devia 1. cowen
-
*
\
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f
i
THE THIRD round of the Kefauver
hearings on the drug industry, tem-
porarily shunted aside by the civil-
rights squabble, was scheduled to
begin this week. The Senate sub-
committee conducting the hearings
will be able to build on the massive
body of statistical data collected
during the recent second round,
devoted to the tranquilizers.
It is now clear that in the tran-
quilizer field there exists a tremen-
dous spread between manufacturers’
costs and selling prices; that some
prices remain constant despite lower
costs of production; that compari-
sons among domestic prices indicate
that some are maintained at higher
levels than purely competitive con-
ditions would permit; and that com-
parisons with foreign prices show
that American prices are often the
highest in the world.
The companies, of course, sought to
‘refute each of these contentions, but
one gets the impression of adroit
polemics rather than sound argu-
_ ment. To cite but one example, it is
_ difficult to accept the contention
that lower prices abroad reflect only
DAVID L. COWEN, who teaches
history at Rutgers University, has
_ long been interested in the special
tustory of pharmacy. aah
weal
lower wage scales, lower living stand-
ards, etc., when one discovers that
meprobamate, which costs Carter,
its American patentee, $4.99 per
pound and is sold to American
pharmacists for $3.25 per fifty tab-
lets, costs the British producer from
$6.38 to $7.35 per pound and is sold
to the British pharmacist — under
the same brand name, Miltown — at
$1.48 per fifty tablets.
The profit picture of the drug in-
dustry, whether based on net worth,
investments, sales or otherwise,
places the industry in the forefront
of American manufacturers. For ex-
ample, estimates for 1959 indicate
that the rate of return for eleven
drug companies was 21 per cent of
net worth as compared with 10.7 per
cent for all manufacturing corpora-
tions. The estimates for three large
tranquilizer houses—Carter; Smith,
Kline and French; and American
Home Products Corp. — were 55
per cent, 42 per cent, and 36.8 per
cent respectively.
The subcommittee has also con-
cerned itself with the reasons for the
high prices and large profits. The
discussion that follows will point up
some of the factors involved and dis-
cuss their implications in terms of
broad public policy.
1, Patents. The position of the
>
Ty
United States on drug patents and
brands is more considerate of the
inventor than in other countries. In
Germany, for example, a process may
be patented, but not a drug product.
In the United States, too, patents
are possible on compositions of old
and known ingredients for which the
patentee has discovered a new use.
The impact of the patent and the
brand name on price is dramatically
illustrated by a comparison of prices
paid by the Military Medical Sup-
ply Agency with those paid by the
druggist. The subcommittee’s find-
ings demonstrate perfectly that the
greater the number of suppliers (in
this case licensees), the lower the
price, both absolutely and in propor-
tion to the prices paid by the drug-
gist. When, because of patent rights,
there is but one supplier — as with
SKF (Smith, Kline and French) and
chlorpromazine —the price to the
government is about 70 per cent of
the price to the druggist. Where
there are two suppliers — Wyeth
and Carter for meprobamate — the
price to the government is about 60
per cent of the price to the druggist.
However, where there are several
suppliers, as with reserpine, the re-
sults of competition are eye-open-—
ing. Ciba has sold reserpine to the
government for 1.5 per cent of its
price to the druggist (60c as com-
pared with $39.50 per thousand) and
Panray at about 25 per cent (70c
as compared with $2.65).
The investigations, moreover,
brought out another aspect of the
patent process that makes it par-
ticularly vicious when applied in the
drug field. The hearings revealed,
for example, that Carter had rather
imperiously decided with which drugs
of other companies it would permit
its meprobamate to be combined.
It refused at one time to permit a
combination with a drug whose
patent had run out; it refused one
request apparently because the other
patent was held by too small a com-
pany. Since in some cases there may
be medical advantages to be gained
by certain combinations, any legal
process which permits the withhold-
ing of a drug is contrary to public
policy.
2. Research. Figures presented by
the companies themselves indicate
that on an average (for twenty com-
panies) only 6.4 per cent of the sales
dollar can be charged to research,
Carter, American Home, SKF and
Ciba spent 2.7, 3.2, 8.9 and 13.9 per
cent of their sales dollars respectively
on research in 1958. As Senator Ke-
fauver worded it, “Research is im-
portant, but [it] has only a limited
effect on the high price of drugs and
the high profits of the company.”
But there were undercurrents in
the subcommittee’s findings on re-
search that should perhaps be of
greater concern than the impact on
prices. For example, there is evi-
dence of a great deal of floundering
about, a great many “dry hole” proj-
ects, and a great deal that seems to
have been left to chance. Some of
the floundering is undoubtedly nec-
essary, perhaps even desirable, but
there seems something Stisotind g0-
ing on when SKF, after ten years
of research, could etait no more in
the way of achidvattient than the rec-
ognition that another firm — Rhone-
Poulenc of France — had produced
what SKF’s own chemists had been
ooking for: chlorpromazine. ‘
CERTAINLY the role that chance
has played in the development of
tranquilizers puts industrial research
in a dubious light. The drugs’ proper-
336 -
ties were discovered as a by-product
of the search for anti-histamines.
SKF, for all its alertness in picking
up the patent rights on chlorproma-
zine, investigated it “principally as a
surgical pre-medicant and _anti-
emetic agent.” While the drug in-
dustry 1s capable of some highly val-
uable “pure” research, its laborato-
ries today are mostly busy with the
“applied” variety leading to the pro-
duction of practical medical agents.
But eyen in this field the public
health cannot always rely on private
enterprise alone [see The Nation,
December 26, 1959], a fact which
the Kefauver hearings underscored.
Until recently, for example, the in-
dustry was’ subject to the criticism
that it was shying away from cancer
research because the successful com-
pany would be forced to share its
findings with the whole industry. In
addition, the government’s “crash”
cancer-research program dragged
from 1953 to 1958 because of the in-
dustry’s desire to protect its patent
policies.
It took twenty-four months of neé-
gotiation for the drug companies to
get from the government an under-
standing acceptable to them on the
government’s right to insist upon un-
limited licensing if production should
prove inadequate. Under this agree-
ment, the companies are well pro-
tected: when the government feels
that there is inadequate production,
it cannot move in for ninety days;
hearings and appeals are possible,
and the burden of proof of shortage
rests with the government. (What
happens, meanwhile, to pricing poli-
cies is anybody’s guess.) On_ this
basis, there has recently developed
+ Oe ae oe sis
é
some desirable industrial activity in
the field of cancer research financed
by government grants.
There must have been consider-
able moral pressure on the industry
to accept the government’s aid in
cancer research, for the industry has
virtually refused similar aid for
mental health. Although many mil-
lions have been available, only $100,-
000 in government grants have been
awarded, probably as a consequence
of the industry’s fear that “It’s not
too large a step to go from appropri-
ations for medical research to ap-
propriations for medical care pay-
ments and for medical care direction
and administration.”
The hearings also touched on the
matter of basic research. The suc-
cess of new drugs — whether as
palliatives or genuine therapeutic
agents — has given us a false sense
of security. As Dr. Augustus Gibson,
director of Merck’s research, has
stated, “Perhaps the time has now
come to look for the answer to some
of the more basic problems.” We
have been treating symptoms, but
we know little about causes and pre-
vention: basic research must con-
cern itself with understanding the
disease.
IN THE field of mental illness, as
the hearings brought out, the need
for basic research is very real. The
mechanisms of action of the tran-
quilizers are still largely unknown.
There is uncertainty as to whether
they merely suppress symptoms or
have real therapeutic value [see
“Drugs for the Mind,” by A. Azima,
The Nation, July 21, 1956]. Most
important, of course, is that their
number and variety could possibly
be multiplied a hundredfold without
contributing anything to the under-
standing of the causes — chemical,
psychological or sociological — or
prevention of mental illness. In all
the hullabaloo about the spectacular
reductions in the population of men-
tal hospitals due to the use of tran-
quilizers, some attention ought to be
paid to the statistics on admissions.
In New York State hospitals, for
example, the current rate is 28,000
as compared with 21,000 in 1955.
This is a one-third increase.
The subcommittee also effectively
The Nation
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~~
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AMOS
e
deflated the intimations of the Amer-
ican drug industry that its research
activities are alone responsible for
discovering the tranquilizers. True,
the industry must be given some
credit for breaking down the “re-
Juctance of academical psychiatry”
and the “reservations of clinical
psychiatry” to the use of tranquil-
izers. (Even this it did not do en-
tirely alone, for by 1957 the Nation-
al Institute of Mental Health was
spending $39 million annually in this
field.) But Thorazine, Compazine
and Sparine are all developments by
Rhone-Poulenc of France, which
holds the basic patents. Ten of the
fourteen new drugs claimed to have
been discovered by Ciba from 1948-
58, including reserpine, were the
work of the parent Swiss company.
Meprobamate was developed in the
United States by Dr. Frank M.
Berger, a Czech physician who had
produced and written about meph-
enesin, the parent compound of
meprobamate, in England, three
years before he joined Carter here.
Another cause for concern — not
pursued by the subcommittee —
crept into the hearings: the method-
ological shoddiness of the clinical
studies that go into the testing of a
drug. Some of this derives from the
fact that many, if not most, of the
studies are initiated and supported
(some would say “insidiously in-
spired”) by grants from industry, a
condition which leads to haste and
prejudgment.
THUS ON EVERY count — goals,
scope, quality and effectiveness —
there are some criticisms to be voiced
of the research activities of the in-
dustry. The conclusion is inescapable
(and it is one with which the Ke-
fauver subcommittee will perhaps
not become involved): that an an-
archy exists in industrial medical re-
search. That this anarchy is no longer
tenable is emphasized by the virtual
absence of any mention of industrial
research in a recent survey of the
National Institutes of Health by its
Chief of Resources Analysis. NIH
has great potential for the planning, ~
promotion, co-ordination and evalua-
tion of medical research; the con-
tinued aloofness — or exclusion — of —
_ the industry from participation must
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in some way limit the effectiveness
of the Institutes.
3. Advertising and Sales. In Sen-
ator Kefauver’s preliminary remarks
at the opening of the second round
of the hearings, he referred to “cer-
tain alleged excesses of promotion
and advertising which, it has been
held, unduly enhance the price of the
product.” This was something of an
understatement. The selling costs of
twenty drug companies account for
24 per cent of the selling price; for
the four big tranquilizer manufactur-
ers, the per cent of sales that goes
to selling costs varies from 19.5 to
33.9, and on the average, selling costs
- amount to about two-thirds of the
ans.
|
¢
u
cost of goods. For two companies,
selling costs exceed production costs.
Obviously, selling cost is high and
obviously it affects the selling price
to the consumer. The question is,
how much of it is excessive? One is
constrained to say that most of the
cost of “dissemination of product in-
formation” is excessive, for three
reasons: much of the “dissemina-
tion” is extravagant, too much of it
is misleading, and most of it should
not be necessary.
The extravagance of medical ad-
vertising is proverbial. The detail
men, on good salaries and expense
accounts; costly brochures and
books (some of general value; many
of a purely promotional nature);
flamboyant advertisements in the
professional literature and in the
mails; gimmicks, gadgets, mountains
of samples, banquets and convention.
parties—these hardly exhaust the
list. The flamboyancy and repetition
of the advertising suggests that the
drug companies expect the physician
to react on the same subconscious,
emotional, non-rational level in the
ordering of drugs as does the house-
wife in choosing detergents.
The sending out of samples has
been dubbed a form of payola by
the Wall Street Journal. The sample
is not sent to the practicing phy-
sician for clinical assay—that has
already been made. It is sent as a
gift (the doctor can give it away or
sell it) to impress the product on the
doctor’s memory. Since even small
companies practice quality control of
their product and are subject to gov-
ernmental inspection, one must won-
der. whether or not the doctor’s
tendency to prescribe the product of
the big company is a consequence of
the subtle seduction of the samples,
gimmicks, dinners and good fellow-
ship of the detail man, or of the as-
sumption that since the company is
big and spends a lot of money on
advertising, its products are there-
fore better. One wonders how these
doctors rationalize what the profes-
sion euphemistically calls the “inci-
dents” which have, at various times,
involved the quality and utility of
products of respected companies.
The medical journals are them-
selves partly to blame for accepting
extravagant drug advertising. The
extensive use of art work—usually
in magnificent color—suggests that
the doctor can’t, or won’t, read. If
it is too much to expect these jour-
nals to eliminate advertising alto-
gether, perhaps they ought at least
to consider the transformation of ad-
vertising to “paid announcements,”
uniform for all companies, following
a prescribed format, containing com-
plete information (negative and posi- -
tive) and instructions, and set in
uniform and ordinary type.
THERE IS, in addition, a consider-
able amount of misleading advertis-
ing, some of it dangerous. This sug-
gests, of course, the need for policing,
but also points up the fact that much
of the advertising could be dis-
pensed with altogether. Medical-
advertising copywriters can teach the
rest of their trade something about
the “language of misunderstanding.”
They have been guilty of every pos-
sible offense: accenting the positive,
willful suppression or underplaying
337
y?
Pas eg os ‘
=:
Condit
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or
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we
EAS ieee aN
of negative or dangerous results, mis-
leading and questionable data,
ghost-writing, inflated and spurious
bibliographies, faked endorsements,
quotations out of context. While
most companies are probably not
guilty of these practices, the prob-
lem is widespread enough to have
given rise to the suggestion that
there be created a special commis-
sion, composed of industrial, pro-
fessional and governmental agencies,
to deal with it. But self-policing by
the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
Association and the increased ac-
tivity of the American Medical Asso-
ciation have proved ineffective:
A final word on medical advertis-
ing: It is disgraceful that American
medicine has not provided itself with
satisfactory institutional means of
keeping the profession informed of
therapeutic developments, and that
the profession must rely on the
vagaries and biases of advertisers.
THE SECOND round of the sub-
committee hearings was concerned
primarily with the economic aspects
of the manufacture and sale of tran-
quilizing drugs. There are, however,
much broader problems of public
policy involved.
The tranquilizers are perhaps the
second most-used class of drugs;
“ about one-third of all prescriptions
P call for them. In 1958, their whole-
‘ sale sales totaled about $160,000,000.
They are used all over the world.
They have had a beneficial effect on
the mental-health picture from the
point of view of both the individual
and of society. Their use is expand-
ing in anesthesia, obstetrics, derma-
tology, dentistry and geriatrics.
The tranquilizers are drugs, and
it must be remembered that any
drug is potentially dangerous. There
is no need here to run through the
whole litany of “side effects,” rang-
ing from “unpleasant mouth” to the
fatal breakdown of white blood cells.
These are well known and can usual-
ly be controlled by the physician.
But it does need to be emphasized
that there is ample medical evidence
against their indiscriminate use. Psy-
chiatrists contend that even the gen-
eral practitioner may be unable to
manage tranquilizers properly, and
lament their too casual use. All agree
_ that they should not be used by the
a |
Sa bak Ui
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i r
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"ee hdd ead ‘ oy
Hs ey 4 aT heeds Lia $
public for the relief of every-day
tensions; the American Psychiatric
Association has been adamant on
this score. In addition, the World
Health Office believes they “must
be classed as potentially habit-form-
ing” and that they should be sub-
jected to national control.
FOR THESE reasons, many persons
believe that tighter controls over
their sale are necessary. It is true
that they are “prescription drugs”
(under federal regulation, they can-
not be sold except on prescription).
But the same loopholes that make
barbiturates and amphetamines —
which are also “prescription drugs”—
so available, exist for tranquilizers.
That this is a'serious matter is evi-
denced by the fact that despite the
federal regulations and despite the
stringent New York State pharmacy
act, the City of New York has made
the same prescription requirement a
part of its Health Code.
By the same token, care must be
taken to see that these drugs do not
attain the status of “over-the-counter
drugs”—i.e., become available at
drugstores without prescription. The
danger exists. Carter first considered
meprobamate as an over-the-counter
item, then changed its mind. Yet
this company—which prides itself for
having fought off for seventeen years
the government’s finally successful
attempt to force “Liver” out of the
title of Carter’s Little Liver Pills—
might change its mind again if Mil-
town suddenly were made obsolete
by a new product. Ominously, Print-
ers’ Ink asserts that the ethical-drug
advertising agencies are “looking
forward for added growth” to the
shift from prescription to over-the-
counter drugs.
Over-the-counter drugs are gener-
ally subject to “restrictive sales”—
i.c,, they can be sold only in phar-
macies. The Proprietary Association,
an organization of manufacturers of
publicly advertised drugs, is cam-
paigning to break down this restric-
tion. The campaign has already met
with some success: aspirin, Bromo-
Seltzer and similar items can now
be picked off the supermarket shelf.
If Madison Avenue gets its clutches
on over-the-counter items, the jump.
from prescription to over-the-counter
sales will be followed | rapidly by my, ate naa
hid
‘uneull
f} ,
A he
jump to nGnckesttictive “sales, fe
Proprietary Association is thinking
this far ahead, and recently stymied
a resolution before the National
Drug Trade Conference which pro-
vided that prescription drugs reclas-
sified as over-the-counter drugs “con-
tinue to be dispensed only by or
under the personal supervision of
a registered pharmacist.” The Pro- 1
prietary Association demanded that |
the resolution include the telltale
phrase: “. . . subject to such excep-
tions as may be dictated by the fu- ,
ture status of such drugs.” y
Both the physician and the phar- j
macist, must come to the aid of the ;
public welfare by standing firmly r
against the expansion of drugs gen- ;
erated of tranquilizers partic- th
ularly—to over-the-counter and non- i
restrictive sales. One shudders at the i
prospect of seeing the shelves of the i
supermarket stocked high with more bo
than fifty-seven varieties of tran- th
quilizers. ti
iit
THERE are many still broader n
ramifications involved in the general ‘
use of tranquilizers. The tranquil- r
‘izers can affect the whole society— a
its cultural dynamics, stasis, decay. le
What happens to a people accus- ‘I
tomed to avoid all anxiety, who in
know no fear, who need not think, or és
love or hate? What happens to a thi
people without an urge to create? Mi
Or to a people who must take the su
proper potion before being able to xen
do any of these? And what happens tw
to such people when they meet up Me
with “normal” people, or with “noble th
savages” who have not had the ad- tl
vantages of the most advanced P
psychopharmacology? i.
“"
wr" + eee
Beyond Huxley, I have found no a
study by an anthropologist, sociol- Me
ogist, psychologist, psychiatrist, phil-
osopher, or any combination of 0
these, on the impact of the tranquil-
izers on man and his culture. As we we
watch over the decline of the West, in
we see the beams—the bombs and hi
the missiles; but perhaps we miss te
the motes—the pretty little pills. 7
_The’ problem deserves _ serious
study now. Psychopharmacology is
in its infancy, but the potentialities
for the manipulation of the human
mind and personality through drugs
are as limitless as the gyri gt thes
BOOKS and the ARTS
Plea for a New Reformation cal Protestantism. Concretely, they
se . +
Soar SAREE =
Pew yosr?
-
THE NEW SHAPE OF AMERICAN
RELIGION. By Martin FE. Marty.
Harper & Bros. 180 pp. $3.50.
THE STATURE OF MAN. By Colin
Wilson. Houghton Mifflin Co. 171 pp.
$3.
Gabriel Vahanian
WILL RELIGION survive its revival?
This can be said to be the question to
which Martin E. Marty devotes The
New Shape of American Religion. More
precisely, the author is concerned with
the ability of Protestantism to survive
the recent upsurge of religiosity gen-
erally deseribed as a revival. Mr. Marty
is an associate editor of The Christian
Century, a Protestant journal. In this
book, he approaches his subject with
the advantage of a thorough and prac-
tical knowledge of the contemporary
situation and its religious antecedents
in the history of American culture. He
is concerned primarily with Protestant-
ism’s entanglement in the present mess
of religiosity and its latent capacity (or
what is left of it) for resilience or re-
form. The author ends his book with a
call for Protestants to relearn the mean-
ing of their faith and to reshape it ac-
cording to the new cultural situation of
this century. It is obvious that Mr.
Marty considers the now defunct re-
surgence of religiosity as another in a
series of Protestant capitulations. Ac-
cordingly, his final plea is for a new
Reformation which would fully recognize
_ the present conjuncture of religious and
cultural realities; i.e., this new Reforma-
tion should face the religious pluralism
and the extensive industrial urbaniza-
tion, the character and patterns of
which have not been dominated by
Protestantism.
‘TO BEGIN WITH, Mr. Marty notes
that in the last decade we witnessed,
not a revival of religion, but only of
an interest in religion. The religiosity
which was thus stirred up did not rep-
_ resent Protestantism only; it also in-
cluded Judaism and Roman Catholi-
-cism — and something which was not
manifestly Jewish; or Catholic, or
Protestant and can only be referred to
here as reéligion-in-general. In fact, this
GABRIEL VAHANIAN teaches at
last, amorphous group included elements
from the traditional faiths; it cut across
confessional boundaries, and was singu-
larly affected by religionitis or “divine-
human coziness.” The author even points
out that this group actually constitutes
a sort of established religion.
In the second place, Mr. Marty ob-
serves that each turning point of Ameri-
can Protestantism has been equally in-
dicative of the erosion and corrosion that
have resulted in its present soullessness.
The more important of these turning
points are, in terms of our present con-
cern, the Great Awakening of the mid-
eighteenth century and the latest revival
of interest in religion, The Great Awak-
ening, as Robert Ellis Thompson re-
marked in 1895, “terminated the Puritan
and inaugurated the Pietist or Method-
ist age of American Church History.”
It marked the transition from an em-
phasis on the sovereignty of God to one
on the perfectibility of man, self-salva-
tion and progress.
The revival of the 1950s, Mr. Marty
adds, “is terminating the Pietist age
and inaugurating . . . a post-Protestant
age.” Each time, classical Protestantism
was seriously defaced and lost some of
its nerve. Each time, as well as during
various intermediate revivals, it ab-
dicated some of its essential tenets. And
this time, it has capitulated to the
Baals_ of religiosity whose principal
characteristics .in this nascent post-
Protestant age are a packaged God, in-
terchangeable and mass-tailored men,
and togetherness instead of true com-
munity. Protestantism must face one
major fact in this new situation: that
while “the ‘old shape’ of American
religion was basically Protestant... ,
whatever else it includes, the ‘new shape’
of American religion is not basically
Protestant.” Mr. Marty does not be-
moan the resultant religious pluralism:
for him, this pluralism goes back to the
founding of the American state.
In the third place, The New Shape of
American Religion offers its readers more
than a clever and irreverent analysis or
exposé of collective and private religion-
itis. It. also suggests remedies and a
strategy for a counteroffensive. Protes-
tantism. (and other faiths, too) must
“put up or shut up.” Mr. Marty’s pro-
center in the necessity of a theological
renascence which, for the sake of our
present world, would clarify the Biblical
meaning of God, man and community.
This needful task was one which
faced the forebears of Protestantism. It
now faces their spiritual heirs. In the
words of the author, the question is,
Can Protestantism “be expected to take
an ancient road in a new day”? But
the problem is not so simple. The Ref-
ormation of the sixteenth century took
place in a dissimilar context. Whether
ecclesiastical or social, spiritual or
secular, the structures it affected, rear-
ranged or re-defined, were basically the
embodiment of a Christian purpose and
way of life. The novelty of the situation
affecting American religion today is not
merely its post-Protestant aspect. Even
more important is the fact that the
cultural setting is that of a post-Chris-
tian era. Not only ceremonies and rituals,
i.e., externals, are put into question. The
faith itself has been undermined and
must show its relevance, if it can.
IT MAY SEEM STRANGE that Colin
Wilson’s The Stature of Man is reviewed
together with Martin Marty’s book. To
be sure, there is something coincidental
about this. But it also happens that
Colin Wilson deals with the vanishing
hero or, one might say, the packaged
man, whereas Mr. Marty deals with the
packaged God. Human or divine, pack-
aged goods can best come in standard
sizes only, as every one has been able
to observe in our chain stores.
Colin Wilson’s book is disappointing,
primarily because the author relies too
heavily on the works of others, such as
William H. Whyte’s The Organization
Man, David Riesman’s The Lonely
Crowd, on the literature of existentialism
and selected novels and plays. In The
Stature of Man, the lines of thought
drawn from these various sources are
not really developed much further.
Sometimes, they even rely on a rather
uncritical appropriation of these sources.
For example, Colin Wilson tends to re-
gard as gospel truth the working
hypothesis enunciated by William H.
Whyte in the concept of “the Protestant
Ethic,” which in turn was based on Max
Weber’s analysis of the relation between
Calvinism and capitalism.
Mr. Wilson intends to show the “fal-
Syracuse University. His field is religion, posals generally consist of a return to
or ture and art. Gia the sources — Biblical faith and classi-
lacy of insignificance” in which con- a
temporary man has been hoodwinked to
339
believe. The disappearance of the hero
is our cultural heresy, just as it could
be contended that the death of God is
our religious heresy, although there is
no need to establish a relation between
these two heresies. At any rate, it is
apparent that Colin Wilson does not
concern himself with the possibility of
any relation. This is all right — unless
we wish the author had gone more deep-
ly to the roots of our malaise.
Indeed, Colin Wilson does not realize
what Martin Marty observes so clearly.
The religiosity of modern man and the
facelessness of the modern crowd are
both expressions of the same heresy —
call it religious or secular. For it is a
fact that the communal dimension of
existence was always taken for granted
in the past. From the time of Biblical
thought until the Reformation, man was
always defined as man-in-community.
Against such a background the hero was
perhaps a possibility if only because in-
dividuality stemmed directly from the
sense of comimunion and community.
‘Today’s method of adjustment has re-
versed the order. Togetherness or col-
lectivism has therefore become its
goal, but neither can ever reveal more
than the addition of one human island
to another.
But he who sends, or listens to a
warning — and as such The Stature of
Man is welcome — has already ceased
to be an island; he is neither a conformist
nor a non-conformist — those two false-
ly heretical postures of our age.
Ignorant, Soulless and Amateur
NAME AND ADDRESS: An Auto-
biography. By T. S. Matthews. Simon
& Schuster. 309 pp. $4.50.
David Cort
of the confessional is prob-
ably proper for reformed drunks and
drug addicts. But things have gone too
far when this same accent dominates the
autobiography of the distinguished son
of a rich Episcopalian bishop and a
member of the Procter & Gamble
dynasty, graduate of Princeton and Ox-
ford, a former editor of The New Re-
public and former managing editor of
Time: T. S. Matthews. He has nothing
very serious to confess except a dislike of
Time and Henry Luce. His Midwestern
bourgeois childhood was not even as
dramatic as James Thurber’s. Nice peo-
ple will find it interesting and improy-
ing but I shall skip it, to zero in on his
THE TONE
Time, Inc. section, which seems to have
motivated the whole opus.
For this book summons me with a
blaze of trumpets to a novel and over-
due function — the defense of Time,
Inc. When Matthews writes: “... strut-
ting little venture . . . scarecrow style
. . . snook-cockery . . . ludicrous, ex-
hibitionistic but arresting dialect of
journalese . slickness, | smartness,
bluff... ,” it is time for the ranks to
close. He tells us that at every stage of
his career on Time, he blushed, flinched
and held back, hating each more elevated
prostitution while bowing to his shame-
ful fate, like a character in Candide.
This is a slander on a number of able,
am
DAVID CORT’S latest book, Is There
an American in the House?, has recent-
ly been published by Macmillan. .
340
honorable men of the thirties who liked
their Time jobs. It assumes the virtue
of the American intellectual position
that Time was a tissue of deliberate lies.
The difficulties involved in persuading
these men to compose a book of lies
would have been so enormous as to be
laughable. The American intellectuals of
the thirties were themselves confused;
and this confusion itself determined much
Time policy, made of it a choice of op-
posites. Time naturally tried to speak
with one voice, or at least seem to. But
it candidly reflected the world of the
people who wrote it — young, talented,
irresponsible, upper-middle class, some-
what pompous. They were generally
left to their own devices; certainly I was.
I speak here only of what I know; I
haven’t read Time in fifteen years. But
Matthews’ maudlin confession can be
put more fully into perspective. What
he did not know was that in those days
one small, prolific core of writers, who
never mentioned the fact, were thor-
oughly aware that a larger group had
no idea what Time, Inc. was all about.
The larger group, headed by Luce, in-
cluded Matthews. The smaller numbered
at least Martin, Billings, Busch, Fraser,
Gottfried, et al. Others fell part way in
both. These others were nice people;
nobody wanted to hurt their feelings;
and they were loaded with feelings.
Time was directed at the literate
Philistine reader, who was assumed to
be in such a hurry that only great charm
and provyocativeness could stop him
long enough to read anything. The
reader’s attention was- all-important; the
subject quite secondary; and it was best
if the writer, until ju t before he read
the research, had been as ignorant as
cael
the reader. The success of this method -
derives from the psychological truth
that the first impact of information on
any mind is always more vivid than any
follow-up. For example, if you have
never before heard that Nero was a
much-beloved Emperor who for a thou-
sand years was expected to return to
the Romans, this news will astound you
and would be considered “Time-worthy.”
But if, as a historian, you had always
known it, you would not even think to
mention it. And yet it is a very instruc-
tive, if highly cynical, fact.
Matthews’ error is shown quite clear-
ly when he describes his operations as
editor of the “back-of-the-book” critical
departments of Time. He promptly in-
quired into the souls, sincerities and
scholarships of his staff and set about
making these departments really profes-
sional. This sounds all right but it was in
fact all wrong. He was merely proving
that he thought he was still on The
“New Republic.
THE true secret of Time, Inc., if any-
thing so blatant can be called a secret
(and yet this one evidently still is), is
that it must remain ignorant, soulless
and amateur. When it tries to be pro-
fessional, it violates its own format and
becomes an enormity. Matthews’ resolve
to please God and the _ professionals
could lead nowhere except to Time’s
decadence. And one cannot suppose that
he got God and the professionals to read
even the back end of the magazine.
Matthews’ group were so intent on the
soul business that they even descended
on Luce to inquire into his soul. Mat-
thews describes this wonderful scene (a
pack of naive hounds baying on the trail
of an invisible or non-existent fox)
which, in fictional form, appeared in
Wertenbaker’s The Death of Kings. I
need hardly add that as an amateur |
laughed all the way through both ver-
sions of the scene, but not quite hap-
pily, for it is saddening to watch decent
men pour their hearts down a drain.
Their only sin had been to miss the
whole point of Time, Inc., which did not
want their souls.
The word “amateur” here is not used
disdainfully. I accept Peter Viereck’s use
of it in Contact, February, 1960; “An
amateur is the non-technician; not yet
deprived of creative imagination by
expertese.” He mentions a Professor Al-
bert Rapp, a professional scholar in the
field of humor (!), who accused Al
Capp, the creator of “Li'l Abner,” of
“amateur statements” about humor and
a lack of * ‘professional status.”
A professional is either a parrot or iy
sphinx; he knows ee “everything” ¢
eh
o)
The Natio
Bm
“nothing.” An amateur is somebody you
can talk to; he has no excuse for pom-
posity, and very little for obscurantism.
He would just as soon tear up the text-
book. To a professional, that would be
like tearing himself apart.
To a professional like Matthews it
was necessarily important to know how
Luce’s soul read. The amateurs wanted
to know as little about Luce’s soul as
they could possibly arrange. The
amateurs were always working like hell;
the professionals were arranging little
meetings of minds. And so, no doubt, it
always goes everywhere. And the ama-
teurs generally go home at 6. P.M. on
the dot with a clear conscience.
Maybe it was not too important that
Matthews, the professional, was manag-
ing editor of Time from 1943 to 1949.
Consider the period: wartime censor-
ship, the massive crushing of the Axis,
the boasts of the Pentagon, the cross-
eyed dealings with Russia, the liquida-
tion of the British Empire, the loss of
Central Europe and China; what a mo-
ment of untruth! It was not a time for
amateurs, as Churchill retired. Signifi-
cantly Matthews does not mention any
great journalistic decisions, triumphs or
defeats. Probably there were none.
There is, finally, one other way in which
the amateurs and professionals divide.
After the professionals leave Time, Inc.,
they usually suffer a bitter trauma. They
all have fascinating, if confusing, stories
of how they were betrayed. The ama-
teurs, on the other hand, have dry eyes.
They feel that Time, Inc. owes them
nothing; and they owe Time, Inc. noth-
ing. When they meet, they do not re-
pudiate the past but neither do they
linger on it. They can distinguish be-
tween God and Caesar.
A Work of Conscience
THE SURVEYOR. By Truman Nel-
son. Doubleday & Co. 667 pp. $5.95.
‘ Charles H. Foster
_ THE SURVEYOR confronts us with a
double paradox: it is not only a his-
torical novel which is a work of art; it
is a historical novel from which the his-
torians will be obliged to learn. They
have now for many years found the
_ Pottawatomie murders ordered by John
_ Brown such glaring proof of his fanati-
_cism and insanity that they have not
placed them in meaningful historical
sequence. But Truman Nelson, by thor-
oughly immersing himself in the whole
body of political and abolition literature
of a ‘century ago, and by inquiring
into~ all available published and un-
published sources on Brown and
Kansas, supplemented by assistance
from the living Brown authorities, both
pro and con, has been able to re-create
Kansas in all its political, social, religious,
_ economic, emotional and even geograph-
ical relations, and to see the Pottawa-
tomie murders, in Brown’s context, as
a cruel necessity. The fundamental clue
is, obviously, the identity of the victims,
whom Nelson has discovered to have
_ been officials of Judge Cato’s bogus
CHARLES H. FOSTER is the author
of The Rungless Ladder: Harriet Beech-
er Stowe and New England Puritanism
(Duke University Press), and is at
| work on The Secret Six: John Brown’s
Aiders and Abettors. Mr. Foster is a
' mber of the English faculty of the
s ssh 10) Pinvescta:
~
court about to indict the Free State
leaders for high treason. We must, how-
ever, experience the whole drama acted
out between unawed self-will and mean
submission, to borrow a perception from
John Jay Chapman on our slavery
crisis, to appreciate the cogency of Nel-
son’s interpretation: no summary will
suffice.
John Brown is the spiritual, the in-
tellectual, the emotional center of The
Surveyor. Benét in John Brown’s Body
and Ehrlich in God’s Angry Man, like
their predecessors with the exception of
Thoreau, lacked both the knowledge of
Brown and the imaginative force to
create the monolithic and perfectly con-
vincing human being who talks and acts
his way through The Surveyor, “ab-
-solutely bereft of any of the soft con-
fidences of the mystic, being as literal,
tough-minded, and anarchic as nature
itself.”
Nelson’s. Brown is no smoothed down
martyr figure such as we encounter in
most of the sermons after Brown’s ex-
ecution. To adapt a remark from Thor-
eau, Nelson has been engaged in driving
the phenomenon of John Brown into a
corner and if it proved mean, why then
to get the whole and genuine meanness
of it and publish its meanness to the
world, or if it were sublime, “to know
it by experience, and to Re able to give
a true account of i .” He stands
face to face with every tiégative aspect
of Brown’s character: the recklessness,
the intransigence, _ Severity, the
cruelty, the fanatici
If one factor money
han another lies
at the root of Nelson’s achievement, it
may well be his unprecedented ability
to speak for Brown with the dignity,
the economy, the awful simplicity and
compressed violence we find in his hero’s
letters and speeches. But this imagina-
tive identification is simply the outer
sign of a more profound commitment
to the old man and his radical principles,
the militant democracy and the hatred
of discrimination in every form. Finally
we must recognize that The Surveyor
is not only history and literature: it is
a work of conscience.
Second Impressions
Review of Paperbacks
Robert M. Wallace
Science
TWENTY-THREE years ago in Phil-
osophy and the Physicists (Dover,
$1.65), L. Susan Stebbing attacked the
idealistic tendencies of Sir Arthur Ed-
dington and Sir James Jeans. Her ques-
tions and ideas are still stimulating and
useful, but newer theoretical and tech-
nological developments which have
brought nuclear warfare within the do-
main of what Bertrand Russell calls “fea-
sible lunacy” have now shifted attention
to the bearing of physics on politics and
ethics. Lord Russell’s Common Sense
and Nuclear War (Simon & Schuster,
$1) eloquently and lucidly argues that
victory in the traditional sense is not
possible in nuclear war, that a univer-
sal danger requires international co-
operation and that such an international
authority as he considers necessary can
be established despite the gravest diffi-
culties. A bare directness gives his state-
ment of the case the impact of Swift’s
casual and modest proposal, and though
brinkmanship is currently displaced by
the spirit of Camp David, Lord Rus-
sell’s book loses none of its urgency in
the reprint.
Several books in the history and pro-
cedures of science reinforce the point
that solutions will come slowly. The
Birth of a New Physics by I. Bernard
Cohen (Anchor, 95c) is an exposition
of the new physics, particularly the
Newtonian dynamics of the Principia of
1687, that developed slowly by diffi-
cult stages from Copernicus’ generally
conservative physics of 1543. Cohen has
the beautiful and exciting clarity of able
simplification. Herbert Butterfield, in
The Origins of Modern Science 1300-
1800 (Macmillan, $1.25) explains more
relationships and implications. He be-
341
gins with the theory of impetus, which
worked against the animism still sug-
gested in expressions like “Water seeks
its level,” and shows how the dissemina-
tion of conflicting ancient authorities
raised doubts of Aristotle and encouraged
intellectual enterprise. Even those with
the best opportunities, such as the dis-
sectors in anatomy classes, tended none
the less to see what they expected, not
what they found. The excitement in-
herent in Butterfield’s twelve essays
rises largely from his masterful combi-
nation of the arts and sciences. He is a
scientist, a historian of ideas and a
humanist, a comfortable partner to FE.
M. W. Tillyard, whose compact and il-
luminating synthesis The Elizabethan
World Picture (Modern Library, 95c)
shows the old science and the new mix-
ing in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
English literature. These are stirring
histories which should increase under-
standing of our own time and patience
with its problems.
From Magic to Science by Charles
Singer (Dover, $2). Seven meaty essays
on Roman and medieyal science, heavily
illustrated.
Also: Why Smash Atoms? by A. K.
Solomon (Penguin, 95c), written in
1940 just after accomplishment of urani-
um fission, explains the theoretical value
of atom smashing and looks forward to
numerous’ developments, one of which
Amasa §. Bishop explains in Project
Sherwood: The U.S. Program in Con-
trolled Fusion (Anchor, $1.25). Both
profusely illustrated, for informed lay-
men.
Rigorous but manageable: De
Magnete (1600) by William Gilbert,
translated by P. F. Mottelay (Dover,
$2); basic to modern theory of magnet-
ism and electricity. The Idea of Nature
by R. G. Collingwood (Galaxy, $1.25).
The Logic of Modern Physics by P. W.
Bridgman (Macmillan, $1.25). Dowbt
and Certainty in Science: A Biologist’s
Reflection on the Brain by J. Z. Young
(Galaxy, $1.50).
Arts and Letters
Roots of Contemporary American
Architecture, Lewis Mumford, editor,
(Evergreen, $2.95) and Frank Lloyd
Wright on Architecture, Selected Writ-
ings (1894-1940), Frederick Gutheim,
editor (Universal, $1.65). Both collec-
tions view architecture as the reflection
of a way of life, Mumford’s in an orderly
survey, designed for students but ab-
sorbing for general readers. Wright’s
papers and speeches by themselves are
occasionally cryptic and are hard to
read in a severe photographic reduction
of the original page.
342
The Modern Theatre, volume 6, Eric
Bentley, editor (Anchor, 95c). Five
plays that treat “the Individual versus
the Collectivity” close out an excellent
international non-academic anthology
representing attacks against convention
by the next writers below Ibsen, Shaw,
O’Neill.
Orlando by Virginia Woolf (Signet,
50c). The fanciful autobiography in-
cluding a new afterword by Elizabeth
Bowen and the pictures of the first edi-
tion.
Almost simultaneously come three
reissues of The Ambassadors by Henry
James: the Harper text of 1903, not
edited, apparently, but introduced by
Bergen Evans (Premier, 50c); the New
York edition of 1907-1909, edited by F.
W. Dupee (Rinehart, $1.25); and the
Methuen edition of 1903, edited by R.
W. Stallman (Signet, 50c). The Signet
text is particularly interesting, Rinehart
includes James’s preface and exemplary
appendices, and both are pleasing physi-
cally.
The Scribner Library, handsome reis-
sues by the original publisher, now in-
As I Forget
for David Schubert (1913-1946)
I rummaged for that thought again,
that feeling and that image where,
as it burst forth, my life began.
The dead, I said, as others knew,
alone can tell us what we need
to learn; precisely as they owe
what life they now enjoy to us,
in turning to them we must come
much more alive and thereby blessed,
their gathered wisdom on us. Sure
of it, I sought to struggle back.
But fighting every nimble pleasure
of forgetting hemmed the way,
I soon despaired of meeting him
who might have told me, passing day,
how to withstand these temptings and
deceits by how much he had paid.
I soon despaired, my groping hand
huge with emptiness. And then
I said, Is only loss, its strength
renewed by all, one steady dun,
the thing I have to learn, and there
that image, feeling, thought embraces
me with grave and finished air?
Though pansies, lionhearted scholars,
ponder sorrow, in his words,
they utter gaiety and splendor.
Of blooms a girl the mignonette
engrossing me, I have him, am him,
and most of all, as I forget.
T. Weiss
cludes Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Edith
Wharton and Wolfe. Scribner should es-
tablish precise authority for its texts,
probably in notes on the copyright pages.
Ancien Régime
The Grand Mademoiselle by Francis
Steegmuller (Anchor, $1.25). Excellent
biography of a tremendously wealthy
first cousin of Louis XIV who, as a par-
ticipant in the Fronde and a victim of
court intrigue, learned well the mean-
ing of man’s — and a princess’ —
grandeur et misére.
Grey Eminence by Aldous Huxley
(Meridian, $1.45). Realistic portrait of
Richelieu’s confidant, Father Joseph, an
energumen who with relentless piety in-.
trigued for the Catholic interest in Eu-
rope and for a new Crusade.
The Devils of Loudun by Aldous
Huxley (Harper, $1.75). Vivid account
of the psychological aberrations and the
controversies surrounding the priest Ur-
bain Grandier, his “bewitching” of the
nuns of an Ursuline convent and _ his
burning at the stake in Richelieu’s
France.
Maxims of Francois de Rochefoucauld
(Penguin, 85c). L. W. Tancock newly
translates the full 641 “penetrating and
disconcerting” observations and _ sensi-
tively catches relevant features of Louis
XIV’s France in the introduction.
Jean Racine: Five Plays, a new blank
verse translation with an introduction
by Kenneth Muir (Hill & Wang, $1.95).
Intensely concentrated seventeenth-cen-
tury classical tragedy, with some oblique
reflections on the times.
Moliére: The Man Seen Through the
a by Ramon Fernandes (Hill &
Wang, $1.25). La Vie de Moliére of
1929, admirably compact, rapid and
pettetrating regarding Moliere and
comedy in general.
Miscellaneous
Of Societies and Men by Caryl P.-
Haskins (Compass, $1.45). A biologist
on social evolution and human organiza-
tion, emphasizing a subtle continuity in
the evolution of both man and society.
An impressive synthesis.
Man, Culture and Society, Henry L.
Shapiro, editor (Galaxy, $2.25). Sixteen
essays by specialists which constitute an
exceptionally readable general anthropol-
ogy:
The Evolution of Political Thought
by C. Northcote Parkinson (Compass,
$1.65). Organized by forms of govern-
ment — monarchy, oligarchy, democracy,
dictatorship — not chronologically. Wit-
ty, scholarly, provocative.
Av Your Drueeist’s: The Don Flows
Home to the hed a Mikhail Sholok cho
Frese
is
ki
wi
dr
m
a
th
:
hs
bu
— “3B Bs =
(Signet, 75c). Good Reading, 1960 edi-
tion, J. Sherwood Weber, editor (Men-
tor, 75c). The Miracle of Language by
Charlton Laird (Premier, 50c). D Day
the Sixth of June, 1944 by David How-
arth (Pyramid, 50c). The Memoirs of
Field-Marshall Montgomery, (Signet,
75c). Thérése Raquin by Emile Zola
(Bantam, 50c). A Hazard of New For-
tunes by William Dean Howells (Ban-
tam, 75c).
THEATRE
Harold Clurman
NOWADAYS there is so little theatre
on Broadway that everything presented
in a playhouse by stage actors is offered
as something that calls for dramatic
criticism.
So Dear Liar (Billy Rose Theatre),
an adaptation by Jerome Kilty of the
correspondence between the actress Mrs.
Patrick Campbell and Bernard Shaw,
is delivered (not impersonated) by
Katharine Cornell and Brian Aherne
with some “décor” by Donald Oenslager,
dresses by Cecil Beaton and a touch of
music by Sol Kaplan. It is all pleasantly
civilized.
Mr. Aherne reads with verve, Miss
Cornell with glamorized gentility. Shaw’s
prose is here as elsewhere agile, bounc-
ing and winningly conceited. Shaw pro-
fessed to be rapturous about Mrs. Pat,
but he was only conning her, having
some fun expressing himself, and at the
same time assuring himself of the serv-
ices of an actress he needed for Pyg-
_ malion.
The substance of the correspondence
_ ther¢fore is not romantic but mostly a
matter of shrewd show business on its
more cultivated level. What we chiefly
get is theatrical history of the not so re-
mote past — with many references to
Beerbohm Tree, Granville Barker, El-
len Terry, John Gielgud, the Theatre
_ Guild, Alexander Woollcott.
Shaw’s disgust with the idiocy of
mankind as manifested in war, his de-
scription of his mother’s cremation —
_ eloquently written but emotionally am-
_ biguous — and his toughness about
_ money produce passages of special in-
terest. The Shavian personality that
Grosser Show
| “Paintings of Morocco,” a show of re-
cent work by Maurice Grosser, is on
| New York until April 23. —
| exhibition at the Carstairs Gallery in
emerges is not always as attractive as
one might wish.
AT THE MOMENT of this writing
Ionesco’s The Killer (Seven Arts The-
atre) is being advertised as “Last five
times. Unless!” To induce playgoers to
see it, the advertisement goes on:
“Walter Kerr liked the first act, Atkin-
son the first two acts, Watts liked all
of it,” etc. It seems to me a sorry thing
that off-Broadway must now use Broad-
way methods to attract patronage.
It should be obvious when one pre-
sents such a play as this first full-length
work by Ionesco that one is not trying
to compete with The Music Man and
The Miracle Worker. If a_playgoer
seeks to enjoy the individual voice of a
contemporary writer rather than the
synthetic amusement of Times Square,
he must attend such a play as The
Killer no matter which critic liked what
in the play. In the days of O’Neill’s first
appearance I went to all his plays —
and paid for my tickets — regardless of
the notices or the plays’ particular merits
or faults.
Not that The Killer is a masterpiece,
but it is an interesting work by a play-
wright who is definitely a figure in to-
day’s theatre world. My review of the
- original production in Paris (The Na-
tion, June 20, 1959) said in part, The
Killer “is theatrically intriguing in a
certain terrifying (or merely bizarre)
comedy vein — partly symbolic, hyster-
ically voluble, and quite clear if you
do not expect everything you see in the
theatre to be literal and explicit.”
In the New York production Hiram
Sherman is once again a pleasure to see
by virtue of his affable intelligence and
his cleanness of spirit — not to mention
the excellence of his speech.
GORE VIDAL’S The Best Man (Mor-
osco) is a successfully slick affair in the
comedy vein of sophisticated chitchat
in a Madison Avenue bar. There are
numerous topical allusions — the play
is nothing if not up to the minute — to
Nixon and his television spaniel, to
Adlai Stevenson, Henry Luce, Joe Mc-
Carthy, Jack Kennedy and the Catholic
vote, etc. (It is amazing how these ref-
erences to the current scene act as a
kind of laughing gas on the audience; it
seems to be highly stimulated by all
reference in the theatre to familiar
names and matters.) But as with The
Gang’s All Here — The Best Man is
better written and more entertaining —
one can hardly credit the show with any-
thing but oblique political meaning or
walllep yey: -
Consider the plot. Senator Cantwell,
Jem if
ak
ee AES he
a candidate for Presidential nomination,
is a callous opportunist who threatens
to destroy his rival’s chances by circulat-
ing a document implying that that
gentleman is mentally unstable. The
would-be nominee thus threatened, a
millionaire intellectual and former Sec-
retary of State named William Russell,
is advised by his partisans — including
an ex-President — to expose an old
army scandal in which Cantwell was al-
leged to have indulged in homosexual
pastime. Russell concludes that since
Cantwell is a scoundrel and since he,
Russell, for a moment considered the use
of blackmail. to demolish him, neither
should have the namination. Russell re-
leases his votes to a dark horse of no
conspicuous character.
What is suggested — but never ac-
tually said — is that intellectuals are
men who cannot wield power effectively
in American politics (they are too thin-
skinned and removed from the masses),
and that rascals — especially stupid
ones — ought also to be excluded. But
nonentities given political responsibility
may possibly serve our purposes quite
adequately.
This is hardly to be taken seriously as
political thought. And while the play
makes some sly comment on the appalling
vulgarity, chicanery and emptiness of
our party politics, it is more spoof than
satire. It is not truly cutting; it lacks
If it’s bound in paper,
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resentment. Its tickle is more readily
felt than its scratch,
The production is expert, the whole
cast superior and the acting of Melvyn
Douglas, Lee Tracy, Frank Lovejoy,
Kathleen McGuire, Ruth McDevitt,
Graham Jarvis, is in the best manner
of American journalistic realism.
MUSIC
Lester Trimble
ELLIOTT CARTER’S Second String
Quartet (1959), which was given its
world-premiére performance by the Juil-
liard String Quartet in their home audi-
torium at the Juilliard School of Music,
received from the morning newspaper
critics the most extravagant accolade
that has. been enjoyed by a_ serious
American composition in recent memory.
The New York Times offered an. entire
Sunday column in praise of the work
and its composer; Mr. Carter must be
a very happy man this spring. Since he
is one of our most dignified and careful
composers, I am pleased for him, even
though I did not find in his latest work
all the rewards that were evident to
these other gentlemen.
In both il the string quartets ame
Mr. Carter has added to his catalogue
in the past decade, complex and highly
original technical processes have held
such a central position that they almost
seemed to be the motive for the music.
The First String Quartet was founded
on an immensely subtle and cerebralized
kind of written-out rubato which, if I
understand it correctly, put rhythmic
development at the very core of the
compositional process, and sought to
make the stretchings or contractings of
given rhythmic materials a major im-
plement toward expression. William
Glock, the British critic, aptly calls this
process “metrical modulation.”
In his Second String Quartet, the com-
poser worked by a different plan, one
that aimed to individualize the four
instruments by giving each “a_ special
set of melodic and harmonic intervals
and rhythms that result in four different
patterns of slow and fast tempi with
associated types of expression. Thus,
four different strands of musical ma-
terial of contrasting character are de-
veloped simultaneously throughout the
work.” The first violin’s material is
made up primarily of intervals of the
minor third, perfect fifth and major
ninth; the second violin features major
thirds, major sixths and sevenths; etc.
(344
1 Le. Tee,
The Quartet is, in other words, schema-
tized and controlled to an inordinately
high degree.
There is nothing wrong with control
in a work of art. But musie produced
according to a rigid pre-formed schema
is, to my mind, subject to all sorts of
dangers, not the least of which is the pro-
duction of pieces which are dogmatically
“about” music rather than being music
itself. With a piece as complex and high-
minded as Carter’s Second String
Quartet, it would be foolhardy to say
finally that true life and expressivity
were lacking, or that it was an example
of twentieth-century scholasticism, until
one had heard it a number of times. On
the basis of a single hearing, however, I
will say that the Quartet did not proye
itself to be alive. It seemed far: longer
than its twenty-oné’minutes, and that
is not a good sign. Its constant rhythmic
activity gave an impression of monotony.
And at the climax, in which all four
instruments played im a fair frenzy on
what seemed to ‘be unrelated ideas, I
found myself faintly embarrassed, as if
I were witnessing a family. argument
in which four people were shouting
about four different things, without
listening to one another at all. Whether
this sense of almost comical confusion
would disappear when one became more
familiar with the Quartet, I cannot say.
Other sections of the work did not, hap-
pily, elicit the same response.
It will interest me to hear the Carter
Second String Quartet on subsequent
occasions and to discover whether my
profound reservations are well taken.
We owe it to a man of Carter’s stature
to extend at least a modicum of faith
that he knows what he is doing and
that his ideas will prove themselves
in the long run.
The Carter First String Quartet is
already something of a monument in the
realm of contemporary American cham-
ber music. For readers who are interest-
ed in hearing a recording of it, the
work is available on Columbia’s ML-
5104, played by the Walden Quartet.
I will be surprised if the Second does
not find its way to the recording studio
before long.
THE CONTEMPORARY MUSIC SO-
CIETY has discovered a handsome and
acoustically delicious home for its cham-
ber music concerts in the Caspary Hall
of the Rockefeller Institute, a new au-
ditorium on the East Side of Manhat-
tan. Shaped like a half-sphere, with a
semi-circular arrangement of tiered seats
on the interior, and a beautiful podium
backed by modernisti reflective sur-
faces, the hal i a delig it to the senda,
vine va
eee ROR ee
and an unusually hospitable place in
which to listen to music.
The Society’s recent program offer-
ed, in its first half, a group of four
works for violin and harpsichord, played
by the Brink-Pinkham Duo (composer-
harpsichordist Daniel Pinkham and vio-
linist Robert Brink) and one for celesta
and harpsichord, the Concerto for Ce-
lesta and Harpsichord Soli, composed by
Mr. Pinkham. The second half consisted
of works composed on and for the tape
recorder and a series of madrigals by
Halsey Stevens, Avery Claflin, Daniel
Pinkham, Ned Rorem, Paul Hindemith
and Goffredo Petrassi, which were sung
by the Low Madrigal Singers. Edward
Low, the conductor, had been the Ce-
lesta playér in the Pinkham Concerto.
- The program was generally character-
ized by unpretentious charm, intelligence
and taste. The two works by Pinkham
(the Concerto and a Cantilena and Ca-
priccio) were impressive for their deli-
cate sonority values and their restraint.
The Duet for Violin and Harpsichord
by Alan Hovhaness’ was heartier than
I. would have expected so evanescent
a work to be. A Short Sonata by John
Bavicchi and the Fantasia for Violin
and Harpsichord by Ervin Henning
were relatively more tensile in their
melodic and harmonic usage than the
other works, and less dependent upon
instrumental sonority. They shared the
qualities of cleanliness and refinement
which were assets of the Hovhaness
and Pinkham works.
The latter half of the program, though
interesting, was less substantial than the
first. Tape pieces by Alwin Nikolais
and Richard Maxfield were pleasant,
and their presentation was distinctly
enhanced by the surroundings of Cas-
pary Hall at half-light. But, compared
with really ambitious attempts in the
tape-music field, such as those by Va-
rese, they could only be called divertisse-
ments. The final group on the program,
the contemporary madrigals, was nicely
sung by the Low ensemble, and sur-
prisingly distinguished by some “non-
sense” settings by Petrassi. I am not
a devotee of nonsense songs, but this
little group had both charm and musical
sophistication. Hindemith’s Mitwelt, An
eine Tote and I’ruehling were bores, but
tentative performances may have con-
tributed to this effect.
The Concerto for Celesta and Harpsi-
chord Soli and the Cantilena and Capric-
cid, by Pinkham, with the Duet for
Violin and Harpsichord by Hovhaness,
and with several short pieces by Henry
feo are all available on Composers _
ecordings, ar CRI 109, et
Crossword Puzzle No. 863
By FRANK W. LEWIS
ACROSS:
and 18 An usher might for a time
on air. (4-4, 7)
Rubber might, suggesting a twist
on top. (6)
10 This shortly might be Baum’s land,
_or_a measure of it. (5)
11 Found where the men date single
girls, which would be singularly
correct. (9)
12 and 24 A disclaimer going by what
holds the log? (7, 3, 4)
13 See 1 across
14 Like fleece, it comes high. (6)
15 and 26 Emit a political slogan?
(4, 3, 1, 6)
18 Would this describe a_ situation
where things might be obtuse, or
just right? (7)
21 Graduate an old naval type? It
might be hard! (6)
26 See 12
26 See 15
* 27 Back-slid. (9)
28 Weaver’s program might include
them, as it largely appears. (5).
29 If this musician were more noisy,
he could play a woodwind. (6)
30 Mrs. Aster provides a_ certain
amount of support to the members.
DOWN:
1 They should display togetherness.
2 Grey’s American. (9)
3 One might produce a reel, it seems,
in the studio. (7)
4 Gets one tooth for another? (7)
ov fe
L
Approximately 3% by 7 fect in
case of the average twin. (7)
Change 38 that is missing for a
change! (5)
Could it be made with a hard pen-
cil? It’s a cinch! (4, 4)
The locale of the “Tempest” oc-
casionally referred to is not Shakes-
peare’s. (6)
16 Criminal’s debt to society? It’s
criminal! (9)
17 Over-spoken, but simple. (8)
19 Head honors, no doubt. (7)
20 Smart in the manner of something
which might scratch the surface. (6)
21 What killed Adonis has a bloody
uprising, but one might get on! (7)
22 One might learn the result of a
wound almost has a hole in the
middle of it. (7)
23 Doesn’t go on when the beginning
of the century makes things less
painful. (6)
This stops plecdae therefore might
suit to a T. (5)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 862
ACROSS: 1 Citizen soldier; 9 Our
CO (60) ext! sop
bo
on
Town; 10 Nightly; 12 Amenable; 14°
Explain; 15 Acerb; 17 Tipsy; 19 Hoard-
er; 23 Beasts; 25 "Shut out; 26 and 21
Wishful thinking; 27 Darning needles.
DOWN: 1 Crow’s nest; 2 Torture; 3
Zoography; 4 None; 5 ‘Ornamental: 6
Dig in; 7 Eatable; 8 Lyre; 13 and 11
Washington Square; 15 Addressee; 16
Bath salts; 18 Primula; 20 Restful; 21
Test; 22 Known; 24 Swan.
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ee Se See SG
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——
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SS
“WAR BY ACCIDENT,” reads a headline on
The Nation cover for September 6, 1958. The
article, by Carl Dreher, describes a peril in-
herent in the complex technology of a nuclear
arms race.
“WEST SEEKS PLAN’ TO:PREVEN?
WAR BY ACCIDENT,” reads a headline in
the New York Post of February 23, 1960.
The AP dispatch under the headline makes
clear that Western chancelleries have caught
up with The Nation’s concern.
We aren't always 18 months ahead of the news, but we
are ahead often enough—and by long enough—to make
The Nation rewarding reading for people who like to
see a little farther than their noses. See cowpon below.
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AM
4
APRIL 23, 1960 . . 25e Va
its
ma
5 B | a
pring | COOKS | i
en
Nea
ee
Dark Laughter in the Towers
Terry Southern
Country Full of Blondes
George P. Elliott
A Strategy for James Readers
Louis Auchincloss
POETRY:
=; -
Robert Lowell - Howard Nemerov * Hugh MacDiarmid
Dilys Laing - Galway Kinnell « Charles Philbrick
pam ae “ | "
LETTERS
The Wrong Hands
Dear Sirs: | was very much impressed
with Jesse D. Wolff's article, “The Same
Old Germans,” in your March 12 issue
[see also: “Neo-Nazism on the March,”
by Heinz Pol, April 9]. I happened to
be a member of the first UNRRA team
which entered Germany on May 8, 1945
—V.E.Day. During my almost two years’
stay there, I had occasion to be in con-
tact with Germans of every walk of life.
From college professor to farmer and
cab driver, they steadfastly denied
knowledge of what was going on in
Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen, etc., or of
the existence of forced labor, even though
most of them partook of the worldly
goods of the victims and themselves em-
ployed forced labor. ... To believe them,
there was nota Nazi in all Germany....
The paranoiac delusion of superiority
was as plain in defeat as it had been in
victory. I remember a visit to Mayor
Schacht of Baden-Baden, where Frau
Schacht whispered to me, in explanation
of the rich table setting and fairly ele-
gant attire of herself and the Mayor:
“Tf you wonder at this, please note that
these things we have had for years. We
Germans know how to take care of our
things, not like the French.” The French
representative sat right beside me, the
victorious much more poorly dressed
than the conquered... .
We have put our faith in the wrong
hands.
SOPHIA SCHUPACK
Santa Barbara, Calif.
Unfair to Whites
Dear Sirs: As a true Christian, I must
express my deep concern at the way the
Negroes are humiliating the whites in
the South. By deliberately refusing to
retaliate when physically assaulted by a
white, the Negro is deceptively posing
as a man unable to defend himself. The
white, taught as a Christian never to
strike a defenseless human being, suf-
fers a deep sense of guilt when his physi-
cal assaults on a Negro are not resisted.
After all, the Negro suffers mere physi-
cal pain. But as Christians we know
that it is not man’s physical nature but
his spiritual nature which is sacred:
and it is precisely the white’s spiritual
nature which is being maimed by mate-—
rialistically minded Negroes concerned
only with obtaining a good education —
which will enable them to enter college,
compete for responsible jobs, earn decent
salaries, dwell in comfortable homes, with Truman a
compete with white families for respect
and status, and rear their children in
clean and healthy surroundings.
GENE GRUNDT
San Francisco, Calif.
Wings Don’t Make Angels
Dear Sirs: May I comment on “The Air
Force Credo,” an editorial in your issue
of March 5, 1960? Your immediate con-
cern was with “the scurrilous drivel in
the A.F. Guide for Security Indoctrina-
tion,’ and from there you went on to
indict the political orientation of the en-
tire service.
With all due respect for the sincerity
of your concern, I would like to intro-
duce some relevant considerations:
(1) You quote the analysis of John
Norris of the Washington Post, purport-
ing to explain why Air Force personnel
“tend to see God and country in their
own image. ...” To whatever extent this
may be true, it is true as well—as any
sociologist will tell you—of the personnel
of any large-scale organization and is
noted by some sociologists under the
rubric of “occupational psychosis” or
“professional deformation.”
(2) As to the degree of “political
sophistication” of USAF personnel, per-
sonally, I find no exceptional difference
between them and the overwhelming
majority of our citizenry. The failing is
common to our entire society.
(3) Finally, one thing most of us
learn in our dealings with others is that
if we keep treating a man as an s.o.b.,
sooner or later we get him to act like
one. In your concern with what you con-
ceive of as the shortcomings of certain
groups, this should, I believe, be borne
in mind,
Needless to say, these are the views of
an individual member of the USAF, also
concerned with distortion and prejudice
in all its forms.
CuHARLES KONIGSBERG
Captain, USAF
Princeton, N.J.
What’s in a Name?
Dear Sirs: Elections since 1920 show
that the only way Nixon can be sure to
win in 1960 is if his Democratic op-
ponent has a shorter name. The record:
Harding beat Cox, Coolidge beat Davis —
and Hoover beat Smith; then the
Democrats got a
picked Franklin Dela
beat Hooyer, Landy or
pee and equally _
~ Roosevelt to
d successfully
1, Willkie a id
ly the GOP won with Eisenhower (ten
letters) against Stevenson (nine).
There’s no doubt: the Republicans
would be safer this year with Rockefel-
ler,
Exior Biers
New York City
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
345 '@
SPRING BOOKS
348 @ Dark Laughter in the Towers
by TERRY SOUTHERN
Heine Dying in Paris (poem)
by ROBERT LOWELL
The Anonymous Walkers
by J. HILLIS MILLER
Country Full of Blondes
by GHORGE P. ELLIOTT
At the Reading of a Poet’s
Will (poem)
by GALWAY KINNELL
A Fix in the Igloo
by MARCUS KLEIN
A Corpse for the Carriage
Trade (poem)
by CHARLES PHILBRICK
A Strategy for James Readers
by LOUIS AUCHINCLOSS
Tragedy in Garden City (poem)
by HOWARD NEMEROV
366 The Compassionate Torturers
(poem)
by DILYS LAING
868 @ The Pleasures of Pound
by M. L. ROSENTHAL
371 '@ Art
by IAIRFINLD PORTHR
371 @ The Kind of Poetry I Want
(poem)
by HUGIT MacDIARMID
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 3872)
by FRANK W. LEWITS
HN
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, Dditor
Vietor H. Bernstein, Managing Editor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Music
Alexander Werth, Oa Rege
Correspondent
349 '@
351 @
354 '®
356 @
361 '@
362 @
364 '®
365 @
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
25, 1960, Vol, 190, No, 7
AT
= The Nation, Apr.
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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 17
NATION
EDITORIALS
The Strongest Tickets
All the palaver about polls and primaries is diverting
_ public attention from a point of cardinal importance in
_ the pre-convention phase of this year’s election. The
_ point is this: the national interest would best be served
if both parties were to nominate the strongest ticket
each can name. To the extent that either party fails to
do so, for whatever reason, the greater will be the like-
lihood that the campaign will be fought on minor, di-
visive or extraneous issues. Fortunately, it is within the
power of both parties to name tickets that would be so
evenly matched that the nominees could do nothing but
stand there, toe-to-toe, and fight it out — squarely,
fiercely, directly —on the main issues.
These ideal tickets are easy to name. Everyone agrees
that Nixon and Rockefeller, in either order, would be
_ the strongest ticket the Republicans could field. It is
almost as widely conceded — by everyone, that is, ex-
cept the candidates — that the strongest Democratic
ticket would be Stevenson and Kennedy in that order.
Rockefeller and Kennedy are, so to speak, political
vins: rich, attractive, knowledgeable, charismatic;
are excellent campaigners and fine public servants.
he Vice Presidency, Senator Kennedy would be an
nominee; that he would not be the Democrats’
yest Presidential nominee is most convincingly at-
sd, perhaps, by the consistent, highly suspicious ef-
of Vice President Nixon to give him a leg-up for
ymination. In 1952 and 1956, Stevenson faced in-
untable difficulties not merely in the fact that
‘Opponent was General Eisenhower, but also in the »
of the times and the unavoidable inheritance
> Truman-Acheson cold-war policies and their
uences. But in 1960, and against Nixon, all of
son’s finest qualities would shine to advantage;
few of whom admire be Vice President.
2 hit strength, for example, is with independent
ever be induced to accept nomination for the Vice Pres-
idency. But there is really little basis for this assump-
tion. Both are honorable men, devoted to the public
interest, with a keen sense of their political and personal
responsibilities. The Vice Presidency, after all, is the
second highest elective honor within the power of the
American people to bestow; it is not to be declined
lightly or out of personal preference or pique — par-
ticularly by men who can well afford to serve the public
interest. Let both parties name their strongest tickets
and this year’s campaign could turn out to be a dramatic
and meaningful debate on the major issues.
A Small Step Forward
By a vote of 71 to 18, the Senate has passed a civil-
rights bill, accepting with minor modifications the
measure previously enacted by the House. The plan
provides for the appointment by the federal courts of
voting referees empowered to register Negro citizens
eligible to vote in federal and state elections. Unfortu-
nately, the provisions constitute a legal labyrinth beset
with booby traps. The referees may be appointed only
after a full-fledged judicial proceeding in which the
court has-found a “pattern or practice” of discrimina-
tion. After the court has so found, Negroes must first
attempt to register with state authorities before they
can register with the referee. Then the referee’s finding _
may be challenged in the court by local election offi-
cials. These legal intricacies will be fully exploited by
the Southern states. And there will be changes in South-
ern election laws, such as increasing the number of —
election districts, to evade the impact of the bill. Of it- ;
| self, the referee plank is not likely to result in any signifi- 4
cant increase in the number of Negro voters, and the
_ other features of the bill are relatively unimportant.
Yet enactment of the bill is not without hopeful
pects. For one thing, it has given a new dimension
‘the struggle for civil rights, which for too long
treated solely as a matter for the courts. The or
al roposal of the Ci il Rights. Commission fo
al appointment of federal gistrars drew p
on to th ne basic Se e federal Execut
1 mus! t accept a
been cpened up as political possibilities, such as the
proposal to invoke Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amend-
ment, which requires a decrease of representation in
Congress to the extent than any state denies or abridges
the right to vote on grounds other than age, residence
or the commission of a crime. The need for reapportion-
ment of Congressional seats following the current census
makes the consideration of this device most opportune.
Another possibility is the adoption of a Constitutional
amendment which would simplify the registration pro-
cess, and make it amenable to federal control, by
limiting qualifications for voters to age and residence.
A third is a fundamental attack upon the underlying
problem of intimidation and economic coercion of Negro
citizens, possibly through the application of economic
sanctions. If the supporters of civil rights can develop
and agree upon a practicable program along one or more
of these lines, it may raise the struggle to a new and
more hopeful level.
Slander
Frank Sinatra bought half a page in The New York
Times and other major dailies last week to state:
In view of the reaction of my family, my friends and the
American public, I have instructed my attorneys to make
a settlement with Albert Maltz and to inform him that
he will not write the screenplay for The Execution of
Private Slovik.
Mr. Sinatra’s family and friends will have to decide for
i themselves how they will react to being associated with
his pusillanimous retreat from principle, but on behalf
of the American public we charge slander. A news story
E from the West Coast, carried earlier in the Times,
; states that the loudest voices of objection to Mr. Maltz’s
employment came from the Hearst press and the
American Legion. The confusion of such yaps with the
voice of America is clear defamation of the national
character.
~The Democrats Think It Over
Senator Henry M. Jackson, the perennial. viewer-
—with-alarm from Washington, “rapped” President [i-
senhower’s efforts to beef up America’s military might
_as “little and late.” Senator Jackson’s confrere in drum-
‘ming up trade for the aerospace industry, Senator
_ Stuart Symington, has preached the same gospel from
‘one end of the country to the other. But there are in-
¢ ications that the message is not getting over. Some
Peal lemocrats, at least, are not keen to be known as the
party of the ever-expanding armament economy. ‘The
- Democratic Advisory Committee actually dares to
talk about peace. Tt has just appointed aoe of
“seven scienti ats and economists: to a
ion from | rang delen Merger n ‘a or ne
aes 4 ahs oly a a
endeavor, in the event of world disarmament actually
coming to pass. hose who regard disarmament as a (
Communist plot will find little comfort in the names sth
of the committee members. The co-chairmen are Poly- w
karp Kusch of Columbia, winner of the Nobel prize in fr
physics in 1955, and Seymour E. Harris, Littauer Pro- pu
fessor of Political Economy at Harvard. Serving with i
them are H. Bentley Glass, Richard A. Lester, Isador ch
Lubin, F. T. McClure and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. The vi
co-chairmen issued a statement which, even a year ago, Wi
would have startled devout believers in the doctrine he
of strength through armament profits: t0
We believe that peace is attainable. It is necessary that
“we prepare now for a planned transition to a peaceful \
economy, when that transition is justified by meaningful
and enforceable world disarmament. . . . Our Committee’s
first effort will be to recommend an orderly and, we
hope, painless shifting of directions of expenditures of m
many billions of dollars annually from defense and de- a
fense production to production for use and to the build- §
ing of an economic and social plant geared to the purposes D
and opportunities of peace. r
The statement rings with sense and sincerity. On the q
part of the Democratic Advisory Committee it may be x
only a hedge, but the fact that a hedge is deemed nec- }
essary is highly significant. The drums of Jackson and l
Symington are not yet muffled, the banners of Ache- 0
son and Truman not yet furled, but when Adlai Steven-
son said on April 11 that the major issues, in order of
priority, are “first, peace; second, disarmament, and
third, the allocation of resources,” he was evidently not —
talking for himself alone.
Arming the Unarmed
Armaments are not static. Either there must
armament, or armaments must continually expand
if the great remain armed, the small must be armed
and this process of arming the unarmed involve
creasing trouble and peril for all [see “Small
Race,” by Stanley Meisler, The Nation, April
There are several facets to this problem. First,
are the unindustrialized nations which, in their bé
wardness, lack modern means of defending themse¢
and attacking their neighbors. The rising new nat
of Africa constitute one such headache for the
powers; the Western Big Three foreign ministers h
been trying to work out an arms-to-Africa rationing
scheme which could be passed on to the Summit Con-
ference. Nobody wants an African arms race, but the
ricans are not going to be content with spears as the
great powers proliferate their megaton bombs and —
eee missiles. Then there is ae situation in
snl ee lis pracgcians 34,2 mit in Latin
Wwe! yeh
own
“aid.” In the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic and
Cuba eye each other across a few miles of water, and
the United States piously refuses Castro helicopters
while spending $46 billion annually for its own “de-
fense.” Across the world lies China, already a great
power, though one substantially non-existent to Amer-
ican diplomacy. Recognized or not, China will get nu-
clear weapons, and what pleasant vistas spring into
view at that prospect! The longer the greater powers
wait, the faster their difficulties multiply. Their only
hope is to agree among themselves and set an example
to the others.
Wanted: an Atlas
A busy, preoccupied Congress, eager for adjournment
in an election year, is in danger once again of having its
collective leg pulled by another “captive nations” res-
olution. In S. Con. Res. 95, now pending before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Paul
Douglas would have Congress reaffirm “its intention to
stand firmly by the peoples of the captive nations,”
much in the spirit of the original Captive Nations Re-
solution now embalmed, as an historical curiosity, in
P. L. 86-90. But before Congress takes action on the
latest Douglas proposal, it might be well if the experts
on the staff of the Foreign Relations Committee were to
consult an atlas. For among the “captive nations” re-
ferred to — as in P. L. 86-90 — are Cossackia, Idel-Ural
and White Ruthenia. Dr. Gregory P. Tschebotarioff, a
member of the engineering faculty of Princeton Univer-
sity for the last twenty-three years, has pronounced
“Cossackia” a pure hoax and urges that the chairman
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee afford
him an opportunity so to testify under oath.
In 1918-19, Tschebotarioff served as personal inter-
_ preter to the elected Ataman of the “Grand Army of
_ the Don,” the name officially adopted by the largest
of -all Cossack regions when it refused to recognize
_ Bolshevik rule and proclaimed its temporary independ-
ence until the re-establishment of a “lawful” govern-
iment in Moscow. It was not called “Cossackia,” nor
_ were any other Cossack regions so designated, And the
point, in any case, is that the formation of the “Grand
Army of the Don” was not an act of separation from
Russia. On the contrary, early in 1919 its troops were
placed under the supreme command of General Denikin,
leader of the Volunteer (White) Army, whose slogan
was “One and Undivided Russia.” No more has “Idel-
Ural” ever existed as a bona fide state. Back in 1918, a
small separatist group in the city of Kazan issued a
i proclamation which referred to “Idel-Ural.” The mass
i,
*
‘
Se
a
of the popustions in the Vitale figs seein with a small
creation of a proclamation issued in 1918 by German
puppets in German-occupied Minsk; the term has also
been used by some Germans and Hungarians of the
region to emphasize the fact that they are not Byelo-
Russians or any other variety of Russians.
Before Congress sets out on another rhetorical crusade
to restore — in the words of Senator Douglas’ resolu-
“God-given rights to the people of the captive
it might first take time out to verify the his-
tion —
nations,”
torical and juridical existence of at least three of the
It would be most embarrassing if
rhetoric were to pass into action and — by some miracle
“captive nations.”
— the Soviet regime were to fall, leaving the crusaders ae
“liberated” Cos-
in the position of having to identify
sackia, White Ruthenia and Idel-Ural.
Crime and Punishment it
Representative F. Edward Hebert, as Chairman of a ‘S
subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee, has
publicized the names of the bestarred peddlers of muni- Np
tions contracts and the corporations to which they owe
allegiance. Not content with this brutality, the Con- ae
gressman embarked on measures to discourage the
thriving practice. He found, or thought he had found,
an ally in the redoubtable Carl Vinson, Chairman of Gr
the Armed Services Committee and, in a sense, Rep-
resentative Hebert’s boss. Hebert proposed to make the
retired-officer-turned-salesman guilty of a crime, pun- Py
ishable by a $10,000 fine and one year in prison. At oy
first Mr. Vinson was “sizzling” in support of the pro- Ps
posal; then suddenly — in Hebert’s words — the plan — fg
~ was “gutted”: the ex-officer was merely to lose his re- a
tirement pay for the period of his salesmanship, after
which he would be restored to Uncle Sam’s payroll
until his next offense. At this blow, the cruel Hebert
bawled so loudly that the benign Vinson engaged an-
other member of the committee, Kilday of Texas, to
restore some teeth into the bill. Kilday proposed that a
an officer who engages in any peddling within two years
after retirement should lose his retirement pay for two
years and be subject to court-martial. In Hebert’s
estimation, these teeth were only “baby teeth”; he
redoubled his efforts, arguing that the contractor who
hires an officer to use his influence is as guilty as the —
man hired, and should be fined, jailed or both. A court-
i atrial, he snorted, would be just an “old class te-" a
union.’ 4
ti ~ Mr. Vinson has been in Congress forty-six years | nd
the House hesitates to cross him. So Hebert was voted |
wn — although not by much, according to those who
heard the voice vote. But it cannot be said that his
forts were of no avail. For the contractors and t
s inguished servitors, Hebert’s excoriation was painful.
‘i hey may not go to jail, but one may surmise that
.
tn t e) V1 beam
ie. A
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=
SPRING BOOKS
Dark Laughter in the Towers
Terry Southern
THERE’S no doubt about it, the rarest
Laughter is brewed in high places; it
courses down the walls of civilization,
stone by stone, brow by brow, slowing
always, thinning, at last, to a trickle.
“T don’t get itl’ shouts fierce Mister
Dumbell and the howl is taken up by the
querulous, those who know better, and
voila... that faculty’s development is
boxed into another twenty-year septic
tank. And yet the day God and Democ-
racy folded in America, there was bound.
to be almost nothing left but Laughter.
Laughter and Sex.
Laughter has always been a big thing,
of course, but refinement of faculties,
like any growth in the jungle, requires
sustenance, and each flourishes at the
expense of another—the overshadowed
become stunted and die, or else must
mutate into a new species. Now, of the
four great emotions that grew in our
garden—God, Democracy, Sex and
Laughter—it seems that two are already
dead, the third is mutating in a curious
way, and Laughter, the exotic perennial,
appears to be in the bloom of a strange
and startling second growth.
Nowhere is art forced to breed with
such religious urgency and abandon as
on the floor of a moral shambles; over-
night new forms spring up, to appear
like wildflowers in the splintered marble
of a demolished drugstore. We find our-
selves now standing on the threshold of
a strong existentialist literature.
Just as formal Existentialism is a
quasi-science of methodology—not con-
cerned with asserting a standard of
- values but with determining the nature
of the standards that actually prevail—
_ $0, a mature existentialist literature is
one in which no standard of aesthetics
(or communication) is presumed to ob-
tain prior to the created work, but which
may, possibly, be derived Fra it. What
a this involves primarily is the gradual dis-
carding of the purely literary orienta-
on from which most traditional litera-
ds is conceived and read, and the
t panne instead of life and imagination
is the frame of reference. An example of
S
a The Mees SOUTHERN is the author of
this is Meursault’s indifferent behavior
(in The Stranger) at his mother’s fu-
neral. To an appreciation which derives
mainly from a professed ethic, such as
“Christianity,” or from a literary orien-
tation (i.e., comparing Meursault’s be-
havior with that of other protagonists
in the same circumstances) his behavior
would appear to be “a mark against
him,” whereas, in fact, the actual effect
achieved is quite the opposite. This
author-reader responsibility, in character
delineation, of sometimes deliberately
reversing stock values that are suspected
~of being dead, would seem to be a vital
one, because only through such experi-
mentation (on the part of the author)
and such openness (on the part of the
reader) can the real, existing, values be
separated from those which are merely
hypothetical.
In primitive existentialist fiction (i.e.,
pre-French) there are elements of hu-
mor which, though cherished by certain
intrepids, have heretofore resisted that
kind of formalized understanding the
academies traffic in. Prior to the general
acceptance of the literary concept of
“the absurd,’ the work of Kafka, for
example, was unclassifiable; it stood
apart, freakish and isolated, outside the
historical scheme. It contained elements
irreconcilable with even its most over-
simplified definitions, e.g., “an allegory
about anti-Semitism.” Why then make
K. out to be such an incorrigible donkey?
Why were he and Frieda rolling around
in that spilt beer on the floor of the
Herrenhof? Why the relentless dead-pan
burlesque? We are not laughing with K.,
nor with Kafka; if there is any laugh,
it is at them. Now this is a deliberate
form of humor, inexplicable except in
terms of the absurd, or in another area
of its development, the grotesque.
Let us consider briefly, in this later
‘light, the sequence and tone of events
in a well-known novel of 1929, Faulkner’s
own twenty-one-gun ogiite to the ab-
surd, As I Lay Dying: ©
Addie Pindren, farm W wife and mother,
lies ill in bed, presumably dying. Out-
side the pen. window, —
i noisily construc
door, sitting on the porch, old Anse
Bundren, her husband, discusses with
two of their other sons (Jewel and
Darl) the feasibility of setting out now
to pick up a wagon load of wood, a day’s
drive away, in order to earn $3; they
are undecided because Mrs. Bundren
may die before they get back. The dis-
cussion is interrupted by the sudden
arrival of Vardaman, the youngest son
(six years old), staggering under the
weight of a huge fish he has just caught
—a nameless species of fish, so curiously
obese that it must be likened to a hog.
It is decided that Jewel and Darl will
risk going for the wood after all, and
they depart in the two-mule-team wagon.
The doctor arrives, but because of his
girth, advanced age and the steepness
of the terrain, he has to be hauled up
to the house on a rope. Like a hog? In
any case, his thoughts reveal his aware-
ness of the situation’s classic absurdity,
even beyond despair:
“Tll be damned if I can see why
I don’t quit. A man seventy years
old, weighing two hundred and odd
pounds, being hauled up and down
a damn mountain on a rope.”
Mrs. Bundren, after refusing to see
the doctor, dies while he is still there,
out on the porch. Vardaman, under the
impression that the doctor is responsible
for her death, rushes about wildly,
shouting: “The fat son of a bitch!” He
then finds a stick and drives off the
doctor’s horse and buggy.
Having put Mrs. Bundren in the cof-
fin, Cash bores holes in the lid; twice
the auger slips through the lid and
goes into her head. When the neighbors
come to pay their last respects there is
a good deal of terse formality atttached
to the event, as well as to the author’s
description of Mrs. Bundren’s burial
dress:
Tt was her wedding dress and it
had a flare-out bottom, and they had
laid her head to foot in it [the coffin]
so the dress could spread out, and
they had made her a veil out of a
mosquito bar so the auger holes in
her face wouldn’t show.
Meanwhile Jewel and Darl have run
the wagon into a ditch, broken a wheel
and arene pare peng: back. Se
hy :
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Ans
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i
side the wagon on one of the spotted
horses he bought from Snopes; this is
a cause for angry embarrassment for
Anse — he, who is generally a primary
source of the absurd, is for once aware
of being caught in it:
I told him not to bring that
horse out of respect for his dead
ma... prancing along on a durn
circus animal.
It is against this backdrop, like a
Hieronymus Bosch soap-opera, that they
start out for the Jefferson cemetery —
a pilgrimage which, for sheer visual
slapstick within a framework of straight-
forwardness, probably has no equal. As
in Malaparte’s account of the first in-
cendiary raids on Hamburg, it is almost
a parody of the absurd — a parody,
however, which never cracks.
FROM THE very outset this modest
caravan, on a mission of piety, is follow-
ed by buzzards, circling lower and in in-
creasing number as the journey pro-
gresses. The bridge used to get to Jef-
ferson is impassable because of the high
waters, so they attempt to ford the
river. What happens here, of course, is
that the entire rig — wagon, cargo, team
and all—is swept crabwise down the
river, and overturned, drowning the
mules and breaking Cash’s leg. Despite
his broken leg, Cash manages to save
Jewel’s spotted pony which had been
knocked over during the melee and
was floundering in a near-drowning
panic; as he leads him out of the water,
_the horse kicks him in the stomach and
he is unconscious for about an hour.
Naturally the coffin has thrown its
moorings during the capsize and now
runs free with the current, so that a
downstream Mack Sennett chase is nec-
essary to retrieve it. This is followed by
an insane underwater search for Cash’s
hammer and saw and other small tools
which were in the wagon and are now
_at the bottom * the raging stream.
Having lost the mules, they must get
a new team, from, by a bit of ironic
bad luck, Snopes — so that Anse is
forced to trade his cultivator, seeder
__ and, unbeknown to Jewel, the spotted —
horse. By now it is dark and they must
wait until the following day before re-
_ suming the journey.
Not being able to use the bridge
‘means that they will have to take a
much more circuitous route to Jeffer-
_son, Mrs. Bundren has now been dead
for five days and ome
the buzzards become
1g. C
ash’s pros : p be-
leg — shortly after which his foot turns
black and he gradually sinks into a
delirium. By now the stench of the cof-
fin has become intolerable:
Three negroes walk beside the road
ahead of us; when we pass them their
heads suddenly turn with that ex-
pression of shock and instinctive out-
rage. “Great God,” one says, “what
they got in that wagon?”
It is so bad, in fact that they are not
allowed to stop in town, people every-
where covering their faces with hand-
kerchiefs at the wagon’s approach.
Jewel, meanwhile, enraged half out of
his mind over the unauthorized sale of
his pony, sits in a semi-catatonic state,
scarcely speaking for the rest of the
trip. The girl, Dewey Dell, believes she
is pregnant, and at first opportunity
goes into a drugstore trying to buy an
abortive drug; the pharmacist says he
will give it to her if she goes to bed
with him; she does and he gives her
some capsules filled with talcum powder.
At their next stop the buzzards become
Heine Dying in Paris
(Adapted from the German of Heinrich Heine)
Morphine
Yes, in the end they are much of a pair,
my twin gladiator beauties—thinner than a hair,
their bronze bell-heads embrace the void; one’s more austere,
however and much the whiter; none dares cry down his character.
How confidingly the corrupt one rocked me in his arms;
his poppy garland, nearing, hushed my mind’s alarms
at sword-point for a moment.
Soon a pin-point of infinite regression! And now that incident
is closed. There’s no way out,
unless the other turn about
and, pale, distinguished, perfect, drop his torch.
He and [I stand alerted for life’s doric, drilled, withdrawing march:
sleep is lovely, death is better still,
not to have been born is of course the miracle.
II
Every idle desire has died in my breast;
even hatred of evil things, even my feeling
for my own and other men’s distress —
what lives in me is death.
The curtain falls, the play is over;
my dear German public is goosestepping home, yawning.
They are no fools, those good people:
they are slurping their dinners quite happily,
bear-hugging beer-mugs — laughing and singing.
That fellow in Homer’s book was quite right:
he said: the meanest little Philistine living
in Stukkert am Neckar is luckier
than I, Achilles Pelides, the dead lion,
glorious, shadow-king of the underworld.
III
My zenith was luckily happier than my night: 2
whenever I touched the lyre of inspiration, I smote
the Chosen People. Often — all sex and thunder —
I tupped those overblown and summer clouds...
But the summer has flowered. My sword is scabbarded
in the marrow of my spinal discs.
ose all these half-gods me
world so agonizingly half-joyful.
to a close on the dominant; ;
glass of orange sherbet breaks
glass; straws in the wind?
Soon I m
that made
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so bold that they are walking around
on the ground like turkeys and perching
on the coffin. itself when possible; Var-
daman drives them about with a stick.
That night they take refuge in a barn;
in the night, Darl, the quiet one, sets fire
to it; they have quite a bit of trouble
to get the coffin out intact.
In order to avoid a law suit by the
owner of the barn, Anse decides Darl
should be committed at once to an in-
sane asylum; they subdue him and turn
him over to the authorities, at which
point he does, of course, go raving mad.
On the eleventh day after her death,
they succeed in getting Mrs. Bundren
buried as planne anticlimax which
is immediately redeemed in a Chaplin-
esque manner by Anse’s taking a new
wife the same day, before starting the
long trip back to the house.
FOR SOME YEARS now in America
there has existed a popular genre of
situation comedy (as typified by Jack
Benny) in which the comedian acts as
; his own straight man; he approaches
situations in good faith and he attempts
to maintain a certain amount of dignity
and reasonableness under the adverse
conditions which invariably arise. The
humor here does not depend so much
on the failure of dignity and reason-
ableness to prevail but upon the cer-
tainty of this failure. The audience
knows something that the comedian,
seemingly, does not: namely, that the
moment he steps out of his room he is
going to be confronted with lunacy and
chaos; his own assumption that what is
outside his room (1.e., life) can be ap-
proached in a rational manner is so
far-fetched that his attitude appears
either hilarious, or refreshingly naive.
This is the most primitive form of ex-
istentialist humor, and as yet the only
form of it widely acceptable in Amer-
ica. In literature, however, or in literary
appreciation, it is not unfair to assume
that things have gone considerably be-
r a. that, at least in certain fringe
areas. In England they quite definitely
have gone beyond that, and on a very
wide front. For example, one character
erat traditionally common to all young
heroes in English fiction has been
_ “heightened sensitivity’; ; this trait has
now become “an acute sense of the
absurd.” David Copperfield is a proto-
type of the former, Lucky Jim Dixon
bs of the latter; both are’ extraordinarily
sensitive to the people and events around
them, but the crucial difference is that
David, lacking a sense of the absurd,
would fail to qualify today as a cultural
o—he would not be sympathetic
wt, ce et On , 4-2 Uh -
enough, because with all his hopeful op-
timism and his reverence for the powers
that be, he would be considered a dolt.
Consequently, the two terms, though
antithetical in the attitudes they de-
scribed in olden days, are now synony-
mous. When one thinks of the spate of
recent protagonists in English fiction
who all possess this sense of the absurd
—Jimmy Porter, Sebastian Dangerfield,
Charles Lumley, Billy Liar, Larry Vin-
cent,* etc.—it is almost inconceivable
that a sympathetic, leading character
could now be presented, on a non-hack
level, without it.
Another element common to them all
is candor. This combination—awareness
of the absurd and candor—gives rise to
expressions of irreverence, so that these
books are often mistakenly dismissed as
being merely “novels of social criticism,”
and thus “creatively impure.” This in-
terpretation—that they are, by design,
novels of protest, and further, that the
protest is well founded—no doubt ac-
counts in large measure for the work’s
popularity, whereas, actually, the “so-
cial criticism” aspect of it is simply in-
cidental, an understandable by-product
of the combination of sensitivity and
candor. The real answer is that it is an
existentialist literature. That it has taken
such a markedly different form in Eng-
land, with so strong an emphasis on
humor, is inevitable—otherwise it would
merely be imitative of a school, and not,
as it is, culturally integrated in a deep
and inviolable way.
Discounting Burrough’s Naked Lunch,
which is not available here, and discount-
ing the early work of Henry Miller,
which, even were it not banned, would
now be out of date, little use has been
made of this combination of sensitivity
and candor in American writing. Per-
haps the nearest approach to it that
received any significant cultural accept-
ance was Catcher in the Rye. This is
considerably less of an achievement than
Lucky Jim, because the hero of Catcher
in the Rye was, after all, a child—and,
no matter how precocious, the irrever-
ence evoked by combining sensitivity
and candor, in a child, is bound to be
pretty innocuous; moreover, in this par-—
ticular case the irreverence was further
weakened by the suggestion that the
boy was about half off his rocker. The
humor, however, was there—the exis-
tentialist humor which precedes full cog-
nizance of “the absurd” and which there-
tofore had been the whole framework
Bess
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only in the “grotesque” (as in the
Faulkner work referred to) or as “fan-
tasy” (as in much of Nathanael West’s
work). The significant difference, in
terms of the development of an exis- W
tentialist literature indigenous to our
own culture, is that the “grotesque” in
Faulkner is not ordinarily read as hu-
morous, because the highly personalized
style tends to obscure it, and in West
the very fact that it zs fantasy (either
in whole or part) limits it simply to
that; it would seem that realism, at
least as a guise, is a requisite to the
absurd, and to whatever may stem from
it—by realism is meant the tone at
any given moment: the deadpan ex-
pression of the comedian as he climbs
into the cab of a locomotive, the dead- |
pan expression with which Faulkner
informs us of Anse’s “embarrassment”
about some inconsequential detail while
elaborately ignoring the old man’s re-
action to the stench of the coffin, the |
buzzards, the auger holes, etc., or again, |
the grotesque routing of Croft’s moun-
tain patrol by hornets in J'he Naked
and the Dead, as well as certain se-
quences in A Walk on the Wild Side —
outlandish situations, in short, which
are neither fanciful nor self-consciously
ironic, events which are not flagrantly
cynical, and acts which very often pro-
duce a reader response opposite to what
is ostensibly intended, or to what ordi-
nary literary standards indicate they
could produce. The future of this litera-
ture rests with writers who retain the
ability of realistic surprise, and with
readers who are loose enough to un-
bridle their response regardless of how
“unprecedented” it may seem to them
at the time.
Meanwhile, rich veins of the past
may continue to come to light. Cer-
tainly there remain unfathomed depths
of this humor in Kafka’s work, es-
pecially, perhaps, in the diaries. If one
supposes that the diaries (despite any-
thing said, or known, to the contrary —
for this deception would have been a
principal part of the whole concept)
were written to be read, that their “au-
thor” was, in fact, a creation, then we
would know how to read, for example:
November 11. As soon as I become
aware in any way that I leave abuses
undisturbed which it was really in-
tended that I should correct (for ex-
ample, the extremely satisfied, but
from my point of view dismal life of
my married sister), T lose all sensa-
tion in my arm Druselaa fora snort
Ces aay
The Anonymous Walkers
J. Hillis Miller
WHEN the machinery of French criti-
cism undertakes to assimilate a new
mode of literature, it makes what Pogo
might call a “fierce sight.” That is true
of the operations of any national criti-
cism, but there is a special homogeneity
in contemporary French criticism, and
a high degree of intercommunication
among the individual critics, which
makes it a model of the process. The
criticism, as it were, devours and di-
gests its objects, turning them into its
own substance, until at the end it is dif-
ficult to tell whether the literature exists
in the books themselves or in the articles
about the books.
With the publication several years ago
of certain key essays, like those by Ro-
land Barthes in Critique (July, 1954;
Sept., 1955), French critics began to
group together certain novels and to de-
velop a common definition of their quali-
ties. They began to talk about “le nou-
veau roman.” At the center of discussion
were the novels of Alain Robbe-Grillet,
Michel Butor and Nathalie Sarraute, and
around them those of Samuel Beckett,
Jean Cayrol, Marguerite Duras, Jean
Lagrolet, Robert Pinget, Claude Simon,
Kateb Yacine and others, shading off as
always into the lesser and the less well
known. Gradually the idea of the new
novel solidified as the critical articles
multiplied—articles by Bernard Dort,
Maurice Nadeau, Philippe Jaccottet,
Bernard Pingaud, Maurice Blanchot,
Jean Pouillon, Jacques Howlett and
many others. Robbe-Grillet and Butor
received major literary prizes (acts of
criticism in themselves), and Les Edi-
tions de Minuit established itself as the
chief publisher of the new school. The
articles proliferated from journal to jour-
nal and there began to be more and more
cross reference and repetition among
them, until, let us say with the appear-
ance of the special number of Esprit
given over almost entirely to a pano-
ramic view of the “new novel” (July-
August, 1958), a universally accepted
image was established.
But the novelists themedlyes helped
in this process of grouping and defini-
J. HILLIS MILLER, author of Charles
Dickens: The World of His Novels
(Harvard), is a member of the English
faculty of Johns Hopkins University.
_ This year he is in Europe on a Guggen-
heim Fellowship granted for work on a
Samuel Beckett
Malone Dies.
Slee s.,
Molloy. Grove Press. paper $1.95.
Murphy. Grove Press. paper $1.95.
The Unnamable. Grove Press. paper
$1.45,
Watt. Grove Press. paper $1.75.
Michel Butor
Grove Press. paper
A Change of Heart. Simon &
Schuster. $3.75.
Jean Cayrol
Foreign Bodies. G. P. Putnam’s
Sons. $3.50.
All in a Night. British Book Cen-
tre. $3.75.
Marguerite Duras
The Square. Grove Press. paper
$1.45.
The Sea Wall. Pellegrini and Cud-
ahy. $3.50.
Alain Robbe-Grillet
The Voyeur. Grove Press. paper
$1.75.
Jealousy. Grove Press. paper $1.75.
Nathalie Sarraute
Martereau. George Braziller. $3.75.
Portrat of a Man Unknown.
George Braziller. $3.50.
The Planetarium. George Braziller.
(Publication: May 16.) $4.
Claude Simon
The Grass. George Braziller. $3.75.
The Wind. George Braziller. $3.95.
tion. For it is characteristic of French
writers, as opposed to most writers in
England or America, not to be afraid of
criticism, to write criticism themselves,
and to look upon the criticism which
their work arouses as an essential part of
the meaning, of that work. The new novel-
ists see their work as experimental in the
scientific sense: the exploration of new
areas of reality. Criticism seems to them
the natural way to stake out the ground
they have gained. So Robbe-Grillet has
published, in La Nouvelle Nouvelle Re-
vue Frangaise, Critique, L’Express and
France-Observateur, a number of polem-
ical articles justifying his work. Nathalie
Sarraute has published an important
book of essays on the novel, L’Ere du
Sowpgon (Gallimard, 1956). And Michel
Butor’s book of criticism, Répertoire
(Editions de Minuit, 1960), contains two
brief essays on his own aims in the novel,
one dating from 1955, and one from 1959.
Perhaps Butor’s express statement in
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the last of these that he looks upon the
criticism his work receives as completing
the act of its creation suggests the pli-
ability of these novelists toward criti-
cism, their willingness to believe that
creation is a double process in which
writer and reader, author and critic,
fruitfully cooperate.
The “new novel,” then, seems to be
written as much to offer an occasion for
criticism as to be read by the ordinary
reader. But what do the critics find in
these novels?
THEY FIND, first of all, that these
works are most similar in their negative
qualities. They are works of destruction,
of dilapidation, of modification, démys-
tification, déconditionnement, démén-
agement. All these novelists belong to
what Bernard Pingaud calls “l’école du
refus” (Esprit, July-August, 1958). They
reject simultaneously the conventions of
the traditional novel and the “givens”
of the middle-class world of which that
novel was the image. This rejection is
both an aesthetic and a social or even
political act. As aesthetic, it takes part
in that general movement of all the arts
in the twentieth century, which is to
become conscious of themselves and of
their presuppositions, to make an art
about art — an art which in its very
form asks how there can be such a thing
as art. And as a social or political
act, the refusal testifies to the loss of
faith which is the effect of the cataclys-
mic events of our time. These novelists,
like so many other people today, no
longer believe in the stability and eternal
validity of even the material circum-
stances of our civilization. They see
everything from a distance, as some-
thing artificial, patched together, me-
chanical, something which in any case
has nothing important to do with their
lives, except as a threat to them. Sig-
nificantly, one of the novelists, Jean
Cayrol, spent time in a concentration
camp, and makes the gradual reconstruc-
tion of the self after this extreme ex-
perience the theme of one of his works.
The conventions and “givens” which
are put in question can be easily enu-
merated: the “essentialist” notion of
personality; the idea of a story, with
beginning, middle and end, which “hap-
pens to” the personages; and the notion
of a friendly world, a world full of ob-
jects which have a human meaning,
which belong to man and express him,
as does his own body. Central in the tra-
dition of the novel, especially perhaps
in the English and American novel, is
the idea of the fixity of character, the
notion that a man has a permanent self-
hood, a personality which, however mod-
a v
LE wy).
ified by experience, persists through all
the vicissitudes of his existence. And
only such people can have a “story,”
continuous series of adventures leading
to a climax after which the villains are
dead, and the protagonists can live hap-
pily ever after. Man is perfectly at home
in such a world, and the perfect expres-
sion of his existence is someone in his
own familiar household, chez sot, sur-
rounded, like so many of Dickens’ char-
acters, by an environment which he pos-
sesses completely, and which is a har-
monious reflection of himself.
The new French novelists put all this
in question. And they often do this in
the simplest way imaginable: by having
their characters walk out of their rooms
into the street. The images of a change
of dwelling place, of a journey, or, most
simply, of a peregrination through the
streets, or across the landscape, or along
a shore, recur again and again in these
novels. The man who leaves behind the
familiar room which surrounded him
like a warm cocoon is in danger of un-
dergoing a strange transformation. As
soon as he enters the long street, the
street which leads everywhere and no-
where, and belongs to everyone and no-
body, he loses himself in a labyrinth, to
borrow the title image of Robbe-Grillet’s
latest novel. He becomes an empty,
anonymous consciousness, a mere seeing
eye, without past or future, a neutral
registering instrument, like the protag-
onists of Robbe-Grillet’s The Voyeur,
and like the central characters of so
many other novels by these writers. Such
a man no longer has a fixed character,
a personality tied to past and future. He
may undergo strange metamorphoses. He
has forgotten the past, and cannot an-
ticipate the future. He lives in a per-
petual present, a present whose change
is defined only by his wandering from
one place to another in space. And so
the old-fashioned story disappears in the
same sudden shock which destroys the
personality of the hero. For a man who
is a mere succession of unconnected mo-
ments can have no story, no adventure
like those which defined the heroes of
the old novel. And, finally, this explo-
sive destruction of man and his world
is completed by a change which trans-
forms objects. Instead of being named,
close, friendly, so much a part of man
that their otherness is not even noticed,
objects in this alien outdoor space turn
away from man, withdraw into them-
selves, and lose all their historical, cul-
tural, moral and even utilitarian signifi-
cance. They become simply things which
are there, as Robbe-Grillet pu
such and such a shape
; ail /
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7 4 Yr
ti an -U | :
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up so much of the visual space, heavy,
inert surfaces, illuminated by an even
clarity with no depth and no meaning.
They are not even “absurd.” The reve-
lation of the frightening neutrality of
inanimate objects is one of the most un-
settling effects of these novels.
Everything seems to have been frag-
mented. The least false step out of one’s
own safe confines, the least doubt of
the stability and coherence of the world,
and all collapses at once into little pieces.
Man becomes an empty mind, with
past, no future, no self, a kind of sleep-
walker pacing, it may be, as in Robbe-
Grillet’s La Plage, along an utterly bare
interminable beach bounded on one side
by the ocean, and on the other by a
perfectly regular cliff which stretches as
far as the eye can see. Between any one
moment and any other, between any one
place and any other, between the anony-
mous awareness and everything in time
and space, there seem to be no connec-
tions—no connections, that is, but the
way they all repeat the same neutral
emptiness and insignificance. By put-
ting in question a false or outmoded
world, the new novel seems to be left
with no world at all.
BUT THAT is not quite the case. Like
other writers before them, these novel-
ists destroy in order to create. Their de-
structive rage is not entirely negative.
It is an attempt to remove the facade
of appearance, the debris of a vanished
epoch, in order to get at what is “really
there,” in man and in his world.
For when we have reduced human ex-
perience to this condition of extreme
bareness, two things remain: a body
moving through a space full of objects,
and a voice, a voice which expresses a
mind. It is possible, then, to'go in either
of two directions, once the old world is
exploded: toward objects rediscovered
in their strangeness, or toward the
depths of consciousness, where we can,
perhaps, find what exists under the false
coherence of personality. The new French
novelists tend to go in one or the other
of these directions.
~Robbe-Grillet performs an extravagant
purification of the traditional content of
the novel, a purification which removes
people altogether from the world, and
leaves nothing but the “look” of the
‘voyeur, registering with meticulous ex-
actness the appearances of the world in
a frozen present of spatialized time. But
though his novels seem to be oriented
entirely outward toward an objective
world which is merely
though Robbe-Grillet, in his essays, in-
sists above all on _the photographic,
“there,” and,
writing, nevertheless the true secret of
his novels is the way they reveal the
strangeness of consciousness itself. Hu-
man consciousness is the undescribed
and indescribable center of all his novels:
the guilt, whether real or imaginary, of
Mathias in The Voyeur, or the jealousy
of the effaced protagonist in Jealousy.
For though consciousness remains an in-
describable absence ‘in these novels,
is obliquely revealed by the description
of objects, and such revelation is the
ultimate end of these descriptions.
Nathalie Sarraute and Samuel Beckett,
on the other hand, go, each in a unique
way, directly toward human conscious-
ness. Nathalie Sarraute has developed a
language of subtle nuance for exploring
the “infrastructures” of the mind, what
Jacques Howlett calls “micropsychol-
ogy,” all that minute life of action and
reaction, approach and withdrawal, ex-
pansion and contraction, dissolving and
congealing, which goes on beneath the
gross surface of personality when two
human beings come in proximity to each
other. Nathalie Sarraute’s own term for
these viscous motions of the subself, this
“sous-conversation,’ Where each man is
like all other men, is the title of one of
her books: Tropismes. As for Beckett, in
his novels, as in his plays, what we hear
is a voice that becomes more and more
emptied of content, more and more
anonymous, as it attempts the impos-
sible task of exhausting the sea, saying
everything there is to say, in order to
reach the desired state of total empti-
ness and unconsciousness. The tragedy
of his novels is the inability of the mind
to free itself of all content, and thus
free itself from itself. This inescapable
perdurability of consciousness is Beck-
ett’s definition of the human condition,
and the source of the numb_ horror
which permeates his works is the fear
that it may be impossible to die.
GOING in either direction, outward or
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reject the a priori and frozen because it
is dead, and replace it with a world
which is incomplete because it is chang-
ing and vital. They write what the
critics have called “anté-romans,” pre-
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TURE OF PRE-HISTORIC JA- },
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novels, For them the novel is not a fin-
ished block of the past carved out and
thrown at the reader. It is something
which is made gradually, by “degrees,”
as the pun in the title, Degrés, of
Butor’s latest novel suggests (Gallimard,
1960). And each new image or phrase
transforms all the others, as the novelist
constructs his novel bit by bit. The very
process of writing the novel is the living
action which the novel dramatizes and,
as Butor has said eloquently in his most
recent essay about his work, writing a
novel is for him a way of living his own
life, a way of exploring and assimilating
the world. Through this exploration he
gives both life and world a direction
and a provisional order. And so, in the
same way, in Cayrol’s L’Espace d’une
nuit, the long night of searching comes
to an end, day breaks, and the wanderer
can at last reassume the world and re-
create his own existence.
The French critics tend to emphasize
in the work of these novelists the nega-
tive elements they all share in common,
their desire to reject everything given
and reduce the world and human exist-
ence to an extreme nudity. But, be-
ginning there, it is possible, as Cayrol
and Butor show, to reach a viable con-
ception of human life, a vision of life
as process and provisional construction.
This vision has in fact not a little in
common with the philosophy of phe-
nomenology. Butor, significantly, has a
degree in philosophy. He invokes phe-
nomenology in his description of his own
methods as a novelist, and it is this tra-
dition in philosophy rather than any
other which is on its own separate path
pursuing the same goals as the new
French novelists.
WHAT seems weakest in the assertions
of both critics and novelists is the over-
emphasis on the originality of their
methods and themes. In spite of their
frequent discussion of their debt to
Faulkner, Joyce and other earlier novel-
ists, they tend to exaggerate the novelty
of their enterprise. But it would prob-
ably be better to see these novelists as
only carrying a little further in various
directions the explosion of the traditional
form and content of the novel begun by
Conrad, James, Proust, Kafka, Joyce
and Faulkner. It would be possible to
show, for example, that all the defining
elements of the new French novel exist
already in a werk published in England
in the first decade of the twentieth cen-
tury: Conrad’s The Secret Agent. We
can find there the disintegration of per-
sonality into an anonymous awareness,
the image of obsessed walking through
labyrinthine streets, the discovery of the
strangeness of inanimate objects, and
even Beckett’s theme of the frightful
possibility that we may not be able to
die. But The Secret Agent is a very
good novel indeed, and to say that it
anticipates in some striking ways the
contemporary French novel is not to
detract from the validity of the latter,
nor to deny the way it offers us a vital
image of the present literary and social
consciousness of France.
Country Full of Blondes
George P. Elliott
RAYMOND CHANDLER is dead, but
he left behind five thrillers which still
show every sign of life: The Big Sleep
(1939), The High Window (1942), The
Lady in the Lake (1943), The Little
Sister (1949) and, most ambitious of
them, The Long Goodbye (1953). There
are also a dozen stories, an essay called
“The Simple Art of Murder,” and the
last thriller, Playback, a sad hoked-up
job that Chandler wrote during inter-
ludes in the lethal drinking bouts initi-
ated by his wife’s death. The five solid
thrillers will probably be read by ordi-
nary readers for a good while to come, so —
long, in fact, as the taste for violent
GEORGE P. ELLIOTT is the author
of Parktilden Village, a epee! set im
i eae | ee aii
aoe
thrillers endures and so long as Southern
California has a place in people’s imagi-
nations.
Whether Chandler will ever be elected
into literary history is another ques-
tion. The odd thing is that he is known
and enjoyed by those who have the
power to vote him in — critics, writers,
scholars, literary historians — and even
so it begins to look as though his nomi-
nation for membership may not be
seconded, To be sure, any comprehensive
literary chronicle of the age will certain-
ly list him along with Dashiell Ham-
mett and Mickey Spillane as one of the
chief _ Practitioners of the “tough-guy
mystery”; but this is indiscriminate and
flattening, this has all the verve of a_
list of the _mos
i bofnilas, ra deville ‘
cs in Texas:
com during B f
Oty
ee
ie
ee
‘
Nn
Hogg, this is pure chronicle. For, once
out of his straight-back study and drop-
ped into an aimless deck chair, this
same chronicler knows well enough that
Spillane has served up nothing but
stews of slime and slop, whereas Ham-
mett, the originator of the species, and
Chandler, his chief descendant, are at
least as good as any other
story writers whatever and
better.
All this is well known to literary folk.
I’ve asked around among my acquaint-
ance and-found scarcely anyone who
does not know Chandler, and few who
do not like him. Yet the stigma attach-
ing to detective stories’ is great; they
are recommended as Western movies are
recommended, with uncritical guileless-
ness (“there’s a terrific fight in it”);
the type is viewed as being forbidden
to serious discussion. One stalwart pro-
fessor of American literature puts The
Long Goodbye on a reading list of
twenty or so modern novels; scarcely a
student chooses to read it for the course;
a student would rather read, say, Studs
Lonigan, for there are serious essays
telling him what to think about it and
assuring him by their very existence that
probably
Farrell is in.
I would bet a good deal that right
now (1) most of the literary folk of the
country have read some of Chandler’s
best work with pleasure and profit but,
ashamed of their pleasure, would deny
it any literary value; and (2) these
same people have read of Wallace Stev-
-ens’ poems few more than the often-
anthologized pieces, and those without
anything like full comprehension or
pleasure, and yet would grant high value
to the body of his poetry. Well, I do
not mean to suggest that I think Stevens
is less than excellent or that Chandler
is more than pretty good. But I do sug-
gest that it is time we publicly honor
Chandler (and Hammett his master).
I suggest that, if literary history is go-
ing seriously to scrutinize bores with a
vein of silver (Frank Norris, say, or
James Fenimore Cooper), then it isn’t
‘too delicate to take a good look at
master entertainers who are also silver-
streaked.
THERE JS no use pretending that the
detective story has much to recommend
it as a form. In fact, I should i imagine
that no novel written within its con-
_ ventions could be first-rate, just as no
opera written within the conventions of
> Broadway musical could be first-
rate. (The words of a musical may not
_ be complex or strong, and —
may pie pole <
me, Ol jie teres Pe i rt
mystery ~
i Greene (he’s
a
which justify its pretentiousness; the
performances might .be virtuoso except
that We have no schools from which co-
herent ensemble virtuosity of theatrical
performance is likély to develop; the
best we can expect is a Porgy and Bess,
good but no more than good, well done
but no more than well done.) The detec-
tive story damagingly interferes in what
is of the very essence of a novel; it
manipulates the motives and _ relation-
ships of its characters for an artificial
and trivial end. Even in those rare detec-
tive stories where the motives are credi-
ble enough and the relationships are
reasonably subtle and valid, the reader
is kept from apprehending them in a
way that is really serious. Knowledge of
motive and relationship is parceled out
to him for reasons of plot excitement —
a matter of some, but low, value — and
this very excitement works against a
profound or thoughtful or complexly
moving appreciation of the characters’
essential natures.
Dorothy Sayers, who was bright and
only bright, tried to give her mode of
fiction merit-by-association: she called
King Oedipus a great detective story.
But this, even though she may have
meant it half-facetiously, is not cute; it
blurs distinctions. What I discover when
seeing King Oedipus is not whodunit
nor why; like Sophocles’ original au-
dience, I already know this. What I dis-
cover and rediscover is the full signifi-
cance of what Oedipus discovers — its
significance to himself, to those about
him, to his society — and I, who am
neither king, Greek, parricide, nor moth-
er-lover, I can experience this man’s fate
as man’s fate, as my fate. That is the
way of greatness. And the way of detec-
tive story discovery?
I guess you and Orrin belong to
that class of people that can con-
vince themselves that everything they
do is right. He can blackmail his
sister and then when a couple of
small-time crooks get wise to his
racket and take it away from him, he
can sneak up on them and knock
them off with an ice pick in the back
of the neck. Probably didn’t even
keep him awake that night. You can
do much the same (The Little
Sister).
Too bad, honey. That’s your problem.
! Chandler's novels are a good deal
more successful as thrillers than as
detective stories, and a thriller, as dem-
onstrated by the | ee of Graham
she need not
Be telytonship very
s_ that contemplation —
to reading” great |
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— AX LERNER in his Preface to the book
e “I hope this important and honest ac-
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— ALBERT ELLIS, PH.D,
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with a mix-up in his sexual interests.”
— DR. WALTER C. ALVAREZ
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fiction, the movement of which is most
of the time quite slow. But a thriller
can do a good many things of literary
value, and some of these things Chan-
dler does admirably.
The obvious accomplishment of his
thrillers is to generate a sort of nervous
tension which is the literary analogue
to the tension generated just by being
an American citizen. Tension alone is
not so much: one can induce it by
chain-smoking a couple of packs of
cigarettes and slugging down a_ fair
amount of liquor, driving eighty miles
an hour to a juke box joint where one
drinks black coffee and plays a slot
machine, then driving home again
chortling every so often, “We sure had
a good time, didn’t we?” In fact this
sort of tension-making is an unex-
ceptional way to spend the evening in
Southern California, and if Philip Mar-
lowe did not do things like it we would
not believe in him. “I didn’t do more
than ninety back to Los Angeles. Well,
perhaps I hit a hundred for a_ few
seconds now and then” (Playback).
But, as I think, these tension-mak-
ing actions are only externalizings of
deep and chronic and_ ill-conceived
trouble within the actor-reader. (There
is something drastically wrong with the
world and with me as part of it; I don’t
know what it is, it isn’t what they tell
me it is, I don’t think I could figure
it out if I tried; anyhow I am afraid to
look too closely.) One temporary relief
from this malaise, and I think many
suffer from it much of the time, is to
Item. A desk
Smelling of ink and turpentine
To a man whose task
Is to sweat rain for a line.
(Once someone wanted to build
A table for
His son when the child
Outwitted his professor.
He got it clear
pi Jn his mind, a desk
1
So ideal not another carpenter
Dared risk
His self-esteem. He went home,
Take what he pays, y
‘en despise what is free.
en cut out his eyes, 4
ae ai wal
vistas ab il s
* ) ‘ (a Mi “ans hs Ly
read a story which produces in the
reader a safe version of the same thing
and which purges this induced tension
by showing a Marlowe who figures out
what’s wrong with at least part of the
world and then remedies it.
Good enough. This is a considerable
endeavor for a novelist to undertake. To
accomplish it adequately, he must have,
and make us share, a clarifying and
steady vision of the evil which infects
the world he shows, and he must per-
suade us that the hero’s action is more
than a simple wish-fulfillment, is a pos-
sible and dignified deed however bitter-
ly limited it may be. |
Hammett’s vision Was of a society so
corrupt that it corrupts all individual
relationships; it is not surprising that he
turned to left-wing politics. Spillane’s
murked vision was of a human nature so
corrupt that no clean action is possible;
it is fitting that he turned for solace
to the wet-mud notions and dry-mud
practices of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Chandler’s vision was of a world which
is no less violent, ugly, unjust, or love-
less than theirs; yet it is not exactly cor-
rupt. Moral corruption implies a prior
innocent nature, whether Christian or
Rousseauistic, to be corrupted. Chan-
dler’s attitude is to look at what’s there
in the expectation that good and evil
are all mixed together; consequently he
does not suffer such rage as do the other
two. It is a stoic vision. In his novels
Chandler did not quite sustain it, be-
ing much too romantic and not quite
courageous enough to bear the full bit-
At the Reading of a Poet’s Will
Men only love what they cannot see.
(Maybe he was jaded,
Maybe he wrote too much
lor compassion to touch
The things disgust included.
Well Vl just
Listen the way his sister
Does, calmly, and not pester
In her that perturbable ghost.
She loves his poetry,
Claiming though driven he was basically
kind,
I trust love, but what if she’s blind
And loves what she can’t see?)
Item. Praise Jesus, who. spent
“His last cent
In the wild woods of himself in the try
For self-mastery. a
His boast:
Is that though he did it
On principle, in in. terror
He taught ee loy
3B ree: “into 1
terness of that vision: Marlowe’s solu-
tions are morally too easy; they promise,
dreamily, to remedy more than they
ever could, as he recognizes, despair-
ingly, at the end of each novel.
What did it matter where you lay
once you were dead? In a dirty sump
or in a marble tower on top of a
high hill? You were dead, you were
sleeping the big sleep, you were not
bothered by things like that. Oil and
water were the same as wind and air
to you. You just slept the big sleep,
not caring about the nastiness of how
you died or where you fell. Me, I was
part of the nastiness now (The Big
Sleep).
It is fitting that, when life afflicted him,
Chandler turned to heavy drinking and
despair. According to a reminiscence by
Ian Fleming in London Magazine for
December, 1959, when the police arrived
at Chandler’s house in La Jolla after
the death of his wife, “they found him
in the sitting room firing his revolver
through the ceiling.” A strange, appro-
priate gesture.
CHANDLER has a good many of the
lesser virtues and vices of a romancer.
Two of the locations for these are his
style and the way he treats blondes.
Some of the style is of the genre—
Marlowe’s hyper-aggressive truth-telling,
for instance. “You don’t care who mur-
dered your daughter, Mr. Potter. You
wrote her off as a bad job long ago.
Even if Terry Lennox didn’t kill her,
(In the temple
When it was over,
The changers withcut stalls
And cast from God’s favor,
Raising a smashed thumb
He cried aloud
He was the crowd
‘That would hammer himself to kingdom
come,
In the ery we burn,
Only pushed to its limits does a thing
excel—
Well, what if we learn
Love’s aren’t reached until hell?)
Ttem. 1 built a desk,
I spent myself for a sheaf,
All else I committed I ask
That the Lord forgive.
I took Christ for my pattern.
Once he was kind to a slattern, \
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O Identity and Anxiety 0D Advertisements for Myself
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i ° a r
Chester
Bowles
“This is a most provoca-
tive book, and anything
that Chet Bowles has to
say ought to be read and
listened to by people in-
terested in the welfare of
the country.”
—Harry S. TRUMAN
‘in THE COMING
POLITICAL
BREAKTHROUGH
one of our leading states-
men calls on the Ameri-
can people to come to
grips with history. No
one is better qualified to
write this book than
Chester Bowles. No one
knows better the full di-
mensions of the political
challenge ahead.”
—ApLAI E. STEVENSON
“Chester Bowles
performs a masterful job
of describing the kind of
political program the
American spirit demands
for 1960.”
—Husert H. HUMPHREY
“1Chester Bowles
has given us a provoca-
tive book which should
be studied carefully by
all those who are inter-
ested in our government
and the political proc-
ess.”
—LyNpDON B. JOHNSON
“4Chester Bowles
has given all Americansa #
clear vision of the future %
promise of American %
politics.” g
—JOHN I’. KENNEDY #
THE
COMING
POLITICAL
BREAKTHROUGH
At all bookstores * $3.75
HARPER
7 pM ie
oR ue 7 eee
mas mee # whe 7 rc Pa’; Rey ee ee
we ». ‘ ee “A uN poe Tm
a tig
.
and the real murderer is still walking
around free, you don’t care.” But what
is special about the style is Chandler’s
own rhinestone brilliance. Of a masters’
chess game he is reconstructing by book,
Marlowe says: “ a prize specimen of the
irresistible force meeting the immovable
object, a battle without armor, a war
without blood, and as elaborate a waste
of human intelligence as you could find
anywhere outside an advertising
agency” (The Long Goodbye). Surely
no American since Mark Twain has in-
vented so many wisecracks as this
British-educated classicist: “as gaudy
as a chiropractor’s chart,” “he looked like
a man who could be trusted with a
secret—if it was his own secret.” The
dialogue, when it is not hobbled by plot
work, is fast, glittering and tough; some-
times it includes a tawdriness that is
appropriate only to the character:
“A half smart guy,” she said with
a tired sniff. “That’s all I ever draw.
Never once a guy that’s smart all the
way around the course. Never once.”
I grinned at her. “Did I hurt your
head much?”
“You and every other man I’ve
ever met” (The Big Sleep).
But sometimes in the narrative the
tawdriness becomes Chandler’s:
In the cove the waves don’t break,
they slide in politely, like floorwalk-
ers. There would be a bright moon
later, but it hadn’t checked in yet
(Playback).
The famous language of his style is a
fabrication based only in part on the
argots of police and criminals. For this
is the world of romance and the style is
a romantic style. “Her hair was the pale
gold of a fairy princess. There was a
small hat on it into which the pale gold
hair nestled like a bird in its nest. Her
eyes were cornflower blue, a rare color,
and the lashes were long and almost too
pale.”
That is the blonde of blondes, Eileen
Wade in The Long Goodbye, and her
entrance in chapter thirteen sets off
three paragraphs of quite dazzling tough-
guy dithyramb on blondes:
There is the blonde who gives you
the up-from-under look and smells
lovely and shimmers and hangs on
your arm and is always very very
tired when you take her home... .
There is the soft and willing and
alcoholic blonde who doesn’t care
what she wears as long as it is mink
or where she goes as long as it is the
Starlight Roof and there is plenty of
dry champagne. . . . And lastly there
is the gorgeous show piece who will
,
:
rf
4 a oe 1
pO Ss eae
outlast three kingpin racketeers and
then marry a couple of millionaires at
a million a head and end up with a
pale rose villa at Cap Antibes, an
Alfa-Romeo town car complete with
pilot and co-pilot, and a stable of
shopworn aristocrats.
The endless come-on to the certain cheat,
that is the sort of women Marlowe
dreamily desires. They arouse in him
lust’s nervous equivalent of infatuation.
They are sex appellant and they do not
promise love; yet it is never the pleas-
ures of sensuality they want. They want
to use him for some other end of their
own. Each time, he escapes; each next
time, he forgets they are all traps. Just
as he courts in each novel the dangers
which brutally get him beaten up, so
he succumbs’ each time to the glitter
girls. If he wants a woman he cannot
trust her.
If you say that all this provides some-
what meager fare for romance, I must
agree. But if you say that this distorts
life beyond recognition, I must object
that you do not know that meager
region, Southern California, as well as
Chandler did.
HIS CHIEF accomplishment, it seems
to me, is to create for the place a fic-
tional image which corresponds to the
actuality more vividly and more ac-
curately than anything written by any-
one else. Southern California has occas-
ioned novels by solemn natives, the
thrillers of James M. Cain who nearly
makes it but not quite, satires by puk-
ka sahibs and The Day of the Locust
which contains fragments of splendid
phantasmagoria. But Chandler is the
authentic jinn of the place: he comes
from a higher realm yet is of a rank
inferior to the angels; he knows the
place well and in its own terms and,
as a jinn must, he influences it in turn.
If you want the feel and aspect of
Los Angeles and vicinity during the
thirties, forties and early fifties, you
could hardly do better than to read
his fictions. There is a considerable
change in this fictional world between
The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye;
part of this change was a deepening
in Chandler as a writer and part of
it was, no doubt, a result of his greater
acquaintance with the region; but part
of it too took place in Southern Cali-
fornia itself. As it has grown in popula-
tion, wealth and importance, its ap-
pearance has become less macabre and
its vileness has turned inward, hidden
behind solider false fronts.
I knew Southern California pretty
well during those years,
ON aera feel 5
a
Ae i fi t
ad a ta
aa ;
.
Par 2 eee
FRETS
' Day”
‘are all genuine. If I made a list of
places, people and events I have known,
and mixed in with it such like from
his novels, you wouldn’t be able to tell
fact from fantasy; for in this respect
his fantasy is factual.
The desiccated old folks are there on
“the front porch in “wood and cane rock-
ers . . . held together with wire and
the moisture of the beach air” (The
Little Sister), refugees from Kansas and
Protestantism; they have lost their cen-
ters; they have not controlled their chil-
dren or had much of anything to pass
on to them; they no longer believe in
the old faith or ways and have turned
to cultism, avarice, distraction, despair;
they are bitter, suckers, and sort of de-
_ cent. Young people of striking appear-
ances are indeed floating around all
over Los Angeles, pumping gas, frying
hamburgers, strutting along the beaches,
projecting their personalities furiously
—waiting like the old folks but waiting
_ to be discovered. The strapless blondes
with cold come-on eyes are in Chasen’s
restaurant, all right (as they are in
Chandler’s The Dancers), escorted by
the middle-aged joyboys with exactly
perfect suntans and blasted eyes.
THERE used to be a lion farm near
Los Angeles, an ostrich farm, an alliga-
tor ranch; now there is Disneyland with
animal dolls. Myself, I lived on a carob
plantation not far from Riverside.
(Riverside, so we were spieled at any
rate, is where the Easter sunrise vigil
_ took root in this country, and where
Carrie Jacobs Bond was supposed to
have written “The End of a Perfect
after the first sunrise service on
_ Mt. Rubidoux — Resurrection sundae
topped with canned whipped cream.)
_ Carobs are Eastern Mediterranean trees
which yield dry brown pods “used for
feeding animals and sometimes. eaten
by man”; they are the locusts that John
the Baptist ate in the wilderness; the
promoters of the plantation had in mind
_ the Southern California market of quasi-
religious health food addicts. (Have you
ever visited the sub-society of vege-
-wienies, glutenburgers and blackstrap
_ molasses? There’s one in every city.)
_ Unfortunately, the plantation’s soil was
not suitable to carobs, and the dictionary
definition should read “almost never
_ eaten by man.”
I once caught a glimpse of detectiv-
g; I must confess it resembled Mar-
owe’s adventures less than the ennuis
w which Hammett reports from his own
i.
5 the
xperience as a mopste detective. en of conjugal posses
with a middle-aged, club-car Hoosier
who said he would lend us his car to
go see the dam if we would spend the
next evening spying on his wife. She
was there to divorce him and he sus-
pected she was stepping out on him.
At five in the afternoon she walked
three blocks to a drugstore where she
bought what appeared to be a pack of
cigarettes and something else that ap-
peared to be a bridge pad. At six she
ate dinner with her parents, in whose
bungalow she was staying. At 7:30 they
began playing what appeared to be
three-handed bridge, though it might
have been gin rummy. At ten they
paused for the Richfield reporter and
iced tea. She and her father smoked
cigarettes. Her mother chewed gum and
fanned herself from time to time with
a collapsible fan. They played another
rubber and turned off the lights a little
before midnight. No one emerged from
either the front or the back door and
no one entered. She was a decently
dressed woman with a pleasant, low
voice and brown hair, and she wore
sensible shoes like a nurse. Our employer
said she was a slut like all women, and
regaled ‘us with the story of a married
woman he had seduced on a train a
month before.
AS FOR the violence which Chandler
projects, I saw little of it except in fairly
safe forms. There are the cohorts of
hot rods and motorcycles; the roller
skating derbies, which are formless, un-
gamelike contests the point of which is
nothing but expert roller skating and
mock-violent rudeness; the destruction
derbies, at which old cars are smashed
head-on, once two old locomotives. But
most of all there is the chronic, self-
exacerbated nervous tension, of the sort
Chandler (a lapsed Quaker) both re-
cords and generates, which yearns
toward violence for its relief.
Not the least source of this tension
is the inflaming sexual provocation on
every side; yet the provocation is not
toward licentiousness but toward the
fantasies of mere frustration. These folk
are refugees from the Protestant Mid-
west, but they brought the forms with
ther: The titillation aims at marriage
(the divorce rate in Hollywood is a bit
lower than the national average) but
not true marriage necessarily; when the
form of marriage loses i its content, what
enters is not pretty— irascibility, for ex-
ample, and sex for its own sake only
it’s inexpert sex, and the cold clutch
ess. To be. sure,
p ‘omiscuous: a
sae :? ae the simy
adita4:
With Eyes at the
@ Back of Our Heads
by Denise
Levertov
Miss Levertov’s newest verse
— “bezoars shaped and pol-
ished in the vitals of a pow-
erful creative sensibility”
(Poetry). $3.50
Cypress and Acacia
by Vernon
Watkins
“This is delightful poetry,
whose subject and technique
show a complex temperament
and a craftsman’s hand”
(New Yorker). $3.50
NEW DIRECTIONS
333 Sixth Ave., New York 14
c= am am ee
THE
SIXTIES
Announces the establishment of a small
press for the publication of European
and South American poctry. Some
American poetry will also be published.
The first volumes to be issued will be:
FORTY POEMS by the Nobel Prize Poet
JUAN RAMON JIMENEZ, A selection
from 1916-18, translated by Carlos de
Francisco Zea, A poet of delicacy and
enthusiasm,
TWENTY POEMS OF GEORG TRAKL
Translated by James Wright and Kobert
Bly. A new kind of poem.
TWENTY POEMS OF CESAR VALLEJO
ot Peru
Translated by various young American
poets,
TWENTY POEMS OF PABLO NERUDA
of Chile
Translated by various poets.
The last two poets are almost universally
considered to be the greatest poets of South
America An this century.
Also:
A SMALL ANTHOLOGY OF THE YOUNG-
ER GENERATION OF AMERICAN POETS,
All volumes will be 48-60 pages, on good
paper and letter press, printed in Ireland.
Volumes of translations will include the
original language on facing pages. Each
will sell for one dollar, and~ ve five may
be ordered for $5.00
Order from:
THE SIXTIES PRESS
_ Briarwood Hill, Pine Island, Minnesota
Editors: William Duffy, Robert Bly.
Third issue of THE FIFTINS still avail-—
ab le—50e} + Subscription $3.00 per year.
ties
ePrct bein a ‘
a queer because he did not try to make
her the second day of their acquaint-
ance; when he objected that she was
engaged to be married within the month,
as every Hedda Hopper reader knew,
and that he was faithful to his wife
and had three children, she shrugged
at him for being so square. And there
are the very bizarre: a fellow I went to
high school with was sent up for fla-
grant necrophilia with an officer’s wife.
But all such only substantiate Chan-
dler’s version: the sex is mostly in the
nerves, very little in the heart. In the
heart, if nothing else, there are cars.
Waiting in the grandstand one sum-
mer evening in 1950 for the auto races
to start in San Bernardino, I watched
the crowd as the little warm-up enter-
tainments came along. Mostly there was
M.C. patter alternating with popular
records; some announcements; a _ local
hillbilly in a Monkey Ward cowboy hat;
the Indianapolis speedway winner of
many years before to say a few words
to us. The crowd rustled. Then the
Orange Bowl Beauty Contest Queen (or
some such) was crowned. She was a
pink and tan girl in a short bare-
shouldered pale blue organdy dress with
a crimson silk sash; she was not quite
used to high heels yet and wobbled;
she had a Coca-Cola smile, and she sang
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
a slinky night club ‘song in a bouncy
high school voice. The crowd scarcely
paused in its restless chatter and not
a wolf whistled. But then the 51 Dodge
was driven about the track, and the
51 Chrysler, and the crowd fell silent;
we were the first laymen to see them;
and when the latest Jaguar slid out be-
fore our eyes, a rustle of sincere, abys-
mal reverence stirred among the people.
The girl—the girl would turn into a
starlet or a wife; but the Jag, now
there was something one could trust.
And the architecture of that land:
there are blue Dutch windmills selling
pastries and handsome Mediterranean
villas in Beverly Hills and — but why
go on! There used to be lots of gim-
micky developments: Venice, for ex-
ample, which currently abounds with
beatniks, was conceived as a_ stucco
pleasure world with motorized gondolas
on calm artificial canals, but it became
a stucco-bungalow town with some dry,
paved ditches in it and a rickety amuse-
ment park. If you object that such proj-
ects occur all over the nation, who’s
to deny you? Southern California is
one of the dream centers of the world
—though not of the best dreams maybe
—and it’s not only responsibilities that
begin in dreams. Ten miles northwest
of Times Square there is a hundred
Amiable Renegade
THE MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN PETER DRAKE, 1671-1753
Introduction and Notes by Sidney Burrell, Foreword by Paul
Jordan Smith. These uninhibited memoirs were suppressed by
the author’s family when they were first published, and are now
reprinted for the first time. Superbly entertaining, and valuable
social history. $7.50
Pressure Group Politics
THE CASE OF THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
Harry Eckstein. A commentary by an American social scientist
on pressure group politics in general and British medical poli-
tics in particular, with many startling comparisons with med-
ical and other pressure groups in the United States. The author
analyzes the structure of the British Medical Association, and
the attitudes of doctors and public. $3.75
Britain’s Scientific and
Technological Manpower
George Louis Payne. Brings together all available data on sup-
ply and deployment of British and American technological
manpower, with figures from the 1959 manpower survey and
1962-1966 projections of need. Recent and proposed aia 4 :
the educational system are examined,
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Order from your bookstore, please
ever did and that his novels are,
foot, decaying, stucco, pseudo-watch-
tower proclaiming an undevelopment
complete with artificial fishponds, un-
kempt plantings and a few lawned
houses. It resembles nothing so much
as a giants’ seedy miniature golf course
inhabited by commuting little ones.
Marlowe could have followed up a lead
there, one with dishwater blondes. ... .
Nowadays in Southern California (as
everywhere) the developments are mass-
produced suburbias.
THIS whole hard-boiled, fantasy-sopped
world which Chandler observed about
him and which he suggests so sharply
in his fiction, he takes pretty much at
its own evaluation. Marlowe is the guy
so wised up that he begins to think every-
thing is rigged; desiring both love and
justice, he settles (in the rigged society
he sees) for ungratified lust and half-
remedied injustices; and he provokes a
violence which is not quite purging be-
cause it is not a punishment. This, how-
ever effective, is murky; yet I would
maintain it expresses quite well the ac-
tual place—the people of those 666 de-
velopments that would like to be a city.
Still, Chandler’s version is not the ver-
sion of Southern California. He, rather
more than is strategic in a writer, puts
himself at the mercy of the place’s no-
tion of itself; for this notion is self-
deceiving, somewhat inaccurate and con-
fused. Marlowe sets some things straight
and he sees through some of the shams,
but finally he does not know what he
wants; he learns over and over that
he’s not as smart as he thought he was
and that what was most wrong has not
been seen through at all; he goes through
the forms but they are almost empty.
Like the chess he turns to; for instance,
at the end of The High Window:
T went home and put my old house
clothes on and set the chessmen out
and mixed a drink and played over an-
other Capablanca. It went fifty-nine
moves. Beautiful cold remorseless
chess, almost creepy in its silent im-
placability.
Chandler saw his region not just as it
saw itself but in his own way too. And
his version of it was so congenial and
so strong that it affected his readers’
versions. Chandler’s fictions are one of
the reasons Southern California now is
seen as it is seen.
If you object that in the long view
this is not so much for a writer to do,
I cannot disagree. What I would main-
tain, though, is that he did as much
as the J. F. Coopers of our literature
the time being, a lot more fun to re
Sea ss S|
or
ti
re
()
h
a
h
tT
|
=
A Fix in the Igloo
Marcus Klein
AMONG some other things that the fix
might be—an entertainment, an ingroup
snigger, the work of the devil—it is an
imitation of action, one that is as dead
serious as dying, complete to the point
of solipsism, and of a certain magnitude.
Through self-pity and fear and cellular
destruction it effects the catharsis of
all emotions.
Among other things the junkie among
us might be, would be—an entertainer,
Lamia, mythopoet, the devil’s own child
—he is an imitation of the swollen-foot-
ed, self-punishing hero who tore out his
eyes when he found that something
was wrong with his sex life. Swollen-
armed (a new kick), crazy with hubris
(“I don’t use, I just joy-pop”), often
homosexual when he is sexual, insinu-
ating when he is friendly, pouting when
he is not, a simple guy, really, whose
heroics are so openly fraudulent they
might charm a Time-Life Beatnik, he is
one whose tic of self-defense has become
a Bee that stings, a Monkey on the
_ back, a Habit that is more stringent
than yours or mine. The tic now wags
that gray junkie face. He boosts or
pimps or cons or pushes, because not
everyone will hire a man with trouble
on his face, because habits average be-
tween $100 and $200 a week, and be-
cause a man must have an occupation.
Or if of independent means and mind,
he makes it by researching narcotics—
vide William S. Burroughs, a legend in
his time, a junkie Odysseus who has
_ traveled in many lands to cop a fix.*
He contemplates his skin, when he’s not
on the nod, is fascinated by the func-
tions of his body, because he has put
his troubles into them, and_ regularly
two or three times a day he empties
himself of himself.
Like Oedipus, he knows that to live
with oneself is to suffer.
Why suffer, friends? (Oedipus, of
course, did not use narcotics.)
*Now an ex-junkie. In the Hvergrecn
Review for January-February, 1960,
Burroughs bids farewell to fifteen years
of the cold inside and recommends the
same to friends.
MARCUS KLEIN, who teaches in the
English department of Barnard College,
has contributed criticism and fiction to
_ Hudson Review, Western Review and
other periodicals. He is now completing
a study of the novel since mid-century
a ion by Meridian.
pode tas oh ae
It is better not to know.
Pop goes the needle!
me
International
“ye °
Which is to say that one of the Contliet if the
functions of the junkie among us is to a
serve as an example. He is suddenly ‘Twentieth
exemplifying in a modest geyser of
novels, plays, stories and essays. C
Some of what is tossed up is not entury
Dope: A Bibliography
Nelson Algren
The Man With the Golden, Arm.
Doubleday. $3. Pocket Books.
35c:
Alan Ansen
“Anyone Who Can Pick Up a Fry-
ing Pan Owns Death.” Big Table
2. Summer, 1959.
Paul Bowles
“Burroughs in Tangier.” Big Table
2. Summer, 1959.
William S. Burroughs
“Deposition: Testimony Concern-
ing a Sickness.” Evergreen Re-
view. Jan.-Feb., 1960.
“In Quest of Yage.” Big Table 2.
Summer, 1959.
“Ten Episodes from Naked Lunch.”
Big Table 1. Spring, 1959.
Clarence L. Cooper, Jr.
The Scene. Crown Publishers. $3.95.
Akbar del Piombo
Fuzz Against Junk. Olympia Press.
$1.20.
Michael Gazzo
A Hatful of Rain. Random House.
$2.95.
Jack Gelber
The Connection.
Paper. $1.75.
Herbert Gold
The Man Who Was Not With It.
Little, Brown. $3.75.
“What’s Become of Your Crea-
ture?” (from Love and Like.
Dial Press. $3.95).
Jack Green
“peyote” (from The Beats. Ed-
ited by Seymour Krim. Gold
Medal Books. 35c).
William Lee ;
Junkie. Ace Books. 35c.
Terry Southern
“Red-Dirt Marihuana.” Evergreen
Review. Jan.-Feb., 1960.
Alexander Trocchi _
Cain’s Book. Grove Press. $3.95.
Grove Press.
A CHRISTIAN VIEW
By HERBERT BUTTERFIELD
Professor of Modern History,
Cambridge University
Here is a prophetic look at the inter-
national scene today and the role of
Christianity in an age of global revo-
lution. Dr. Butterfield examines the
East-West impasse and ealls for a
changed attitude in the West that will
reflect realism and true righteousness
in place of the prevailing moralizing.
“There are many flashes of insight
which throw a new light ... on the
present international situation.”
—HANS KOHN $3.00
a new volume in
RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES
edited by Ruth Nanda Anshen
t all bookstores
HARPER & BROTHERS, N.Y. 16
A TRIO FOR TODAY
1. Approaches to Christian Unity
by C. J. Dumont
an open and current appraisal of
thorny problem — $4.50
2. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin — His
Thought by Claude Tresmontant
a cicerone to the mind of the No.
1 man of the year — $3.00
3. Morality and Modern Warfare —
A Symposium edited by William
Nagle
the state of the question within
the apathy of our time — $4.50
HELICON PRESS
Baltimore 27, Md.
A sharp, fresh approach to the
dilemma of capitalist-socialist conflict.
A fundamental new analysis with a clean-
cut program for a space-age economy.
Published January 1960 $2.00
THE KEY TO WORLD PEACE
AND PLENTY
By Elsa Peters Morse
SUMMIT PRESS
P.O. Box 5047, San Francisco 1, Calif.
example, but junkie exposé, a spout of
the secondary facts of dope: broken
homes, prostitution, police beatings,
withdrawal vomitings, battery-acid hot-
shots for stool pigeons. Some of that,
when it avoids transcending itself into
either fiction or a diffuse appeal for
more urgent social working, has power.
Clarence L. Cooper’s The Scene, a novel
ineptly devised, almost overwhelmed by
a subsidiary story of moral growth in
the narcotics squad, almost lost in an
irrelevant yearning for brotherhood and
understanding, breaks from its errors
into horrors which one knows to be
authentic.
Some of what is tossed up is senti-
mental—there was Michael Gazzo’s play
of a few seasons ago, A Hatful of Rain,
about the addict as pure victim. Johnny
Pope’s father didn’t love him, and his
brother didn’t love him intelligently,
and the love of his pusher, named
“Mother” (ah, that is where the story
should have been), Mother’s love was
sinister, and Johnny through no fault
of his own was hooked, and even the
love of his lovely wife was not perfect,
but one can understand that because
no young wife wants her home turned
into a heroin shooting-gallery. But things
turn out all right. Johnny confesses and
delivers himself over to the Law. A
nice play for those who miss Mr. Cof-
fee Nerves.
There is an effluyium, too, that is
quite simply revolting. I hold a book
of cartoons, precisely a series of antique
engravings surrounded by a deliberately
humorous narrative, if that is your hu-
mor, called Fuzz Against Junk (quaint
_ title) by somebody named Akbar del
Piombo. It is a freak-show, a gallery
of cataleptics, syphilitics, bearded ladies,
zulus, tattooed grotesques, Victorian
gentlemen, ladies with malformed limbs,
sufferers of gout and, apparently, rheu-
matism, and other unusual folk who—
and this is the point—can at a certain
ironic remove be identified as addicts,
pushers, and the few other familiars of
what the author must think a narcotics
subculture. It is a book for those who
are in the business, who must, like other
businessmen, like students and lodge
members, appreciate being joshed now
and then by professional acquaintances.
Or it is for those who like to be re-
volted, for there are such.
These junkies afe not exemplary.
There is a shower of lyrics, too, some
very dainty, of marijuana, mescalin and
other hallucinatory non-addicting drugs.
Terry Southern’s “Red-Dirt Marihuana”
A Corpse for the Carriage Trade
All of a sudden the decent trash
Pushed up at me something horrid,
Shining, real, and dead-looking: rat.
— Recognized rat stacked on the packaging
Gathered outside squeegeed windows, in front
All of a sudden as I,
As I tried to rub from my mind
Filling an overcoat into the wind
Of winter walked by, my eye flicked this thing
So sheeny and dark, and so dead, which said to me
Ten paces later, my god, they’re alive by the hundreds
If this one is dead, flounced by a car as he roamed from the river.
Of the negligees, monogrammed silks, and forced ivy.
The image of this football-fat and purpling thing
With a tapered supple tail, I wondered how such
Innocent evil — iuckily dead — could survive in a cluster
Of bricked facades with aluminum edgings which squeeze
Out the cold, which must be to rats the last of resorts
On a freezing night; I wondered how all this could be.
Then I remembered slick swarms on the bank
Of the sewered and mill-muddied river, began
To feel sorry for rats in a city, desperately toothing ~
Cement everywhere. Then I thought of the babies whose faces
Have fattened such rats in a thousand city backyards, and looked
For a stout stick, but found none. I strode along quicker —
All children behind me — determined to call es
A city offical, and threaten to, publicly die,
Unless the big city could pluck this Jone rat from my eye
Cran
is, with tenderness and much grace, a ni
rural initiation ceremony; a boy learns ai
from a Negro field hand the secrets of gr
pot and some of the craftiness of man- di
hood. Jack Green writes currently in fe
a lower-case, unpunctuated essay, “pey- al
ote”: -“i think 1 was a better person al
on peyote than i am now.” One can’t |
know. But it is a pleasant essay and, it
anyway, it is the feeling of grace that i,
matters. th
IN THE dark junkie place, however, J t
marijuana and peyote and their ana- w\
lects are the stuff of dreams and the ui
very fragrance of innocence. (“Mari- | |
juana,” says Leach in Jack Gelber’s play, m
The Connection, “no, I don’t have any h
pot. But how quaint of you to ask.”) T
What users use (and kids out for kicks
not allowed)—heroin, morphine, other
opium derivatives, cocaine and such—
is not hallucinating, dreams aren’t cool, 6
and the object of junk is the habit it-
self.
Those who are exemplary—Burroughs t
(who is also William Lee, the author
of a novel called Junkie), Gelber, and
most recently Alexander Trocchi—those
who find themselves of consequence for
the time and the place by living a '
junkie fable, exemplify removal from i
the welter of Becoming into a stasis 1
that might be Being; they attest the a
possibilities of abdication from an office
of daily living which is once again and
always too much for any man; they at- i
test the choice of the soul’s refrigeration,
for this is a time when wonderful things
are to be done with physico-chemical
therapy, and if one is to be allowed a
choice between the H-Bomb and bomb-
ing with H. . They exemplify the '
return to the womb, too—look, you can
almost do it—that misses being suicide. f
Or, if you like, they demonstrate the
possibilities of backward evolution—
Burroughs lives his fable in constant
metaphors of reptiles, gigantic insects,
pulsating larvae, absorbing protoplasms.
The junkie is the master of that gim-
mick by which existence is to be freed
of the universal fates and the daily
fates. The hero of Alexander Trocchi’s
Cain’s Book substitutes heroin for his
wife, Moira. The Moirae, the Fates, |
make demands of domestic reality, and
wives are always uncertain, In fact the
shot, for those who focus their sexuality
on the needle, is not slack or uneventful,
it has its courting ritual (dropper, collar,
No, 26 needle, cooking), its teasing of
a vein, and there is always the possi-
bility of air-bubbles—the possibility ined f
Se aa
———
‘
niques of heroin are all in all mitch
simpler than those of marriage. The
great variable is removed. The Other
disappears into a consummation so per-
fect that marriage and indeed the whole
of living in this world is just like being
alone.
To contract the world’s soul and drive
it into the glasses of one’s glassy eyes
is, moreover, total occupation. “That’s
the trouble in this damn country,” says
a character in Trocchi’s novel, “You
take shit and it becomes your profes-
sion.” But it is a trouble chosen. “Junk,”
says Burroughs speaking as William
Lee, “is not, like alcohol or weed, a
means to increased enjoyment of life.
Junk is not a kick. It is a way of life.”
The object of junk is the habit: the
neéd which has the semblance of pur-
pose, and the regimen which the need
invents.
Like Benjamin Franklin on his scene,
the junkie meets the day in a series
of planned practical maneuvers, and the
day becomes its maneuvers of buying
and shooting and waiting cunningly to
buy and shoot again. There is pleasure
in that, there is the feeling of easy
mastery in it. Not too easy, to be sure.
It is the junkie’s good fortune that the
narcotics traffic is illicit. How stale the
discipline of copping and fixing would
be if it were not, if it were no more
than a stamp-collecting or a home-car-
pentry habit, the imitation of a mean-
ingful action for only one’s most des-
perately idle hours,
The meaning of heroin, Herbert Gold
has said, is that it causes real trouble.
Junk is therefore something to do. Some-
thing, it should be added, that a few
virtuosi can do superbly. The pusher in
The Connection is called Cowboy, pre-
sumably because he pushes Horse, but
also, presumably, because the junkie-
pusher meets the mythic requirements
of the cowboy, a man who has been pro-
vided by a simplified, and falsified, so-
ciety with a distinct and simple purpose,
to clean up Dodge City,.a man who can
ride skillfully enough, draw fast enough,
and shoot straight enough to clean the
stables of the rustlers. The junkie, too,
is a straight-shooter who has something
to do.
The junkie lives alone, then, in a myth
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the matters
junkies. Their first impulse is literary.
of self-sufficiency and sufficient pur-
pose. An attractive one, it would seem,
else why this rage of testifying?
Perhaps because the addict is a social
fact. Because major crimes are incident
to the narcotics business, Because ad-
diction is not susceptible to easy cure.
‘Because there is so much money in
narcotics. Because there are youngsters
who can be seduced into thinking heroin
an imperative of pubescence.
TRUE, and not sufficient truth. Addicts
make considerable statistics—45,000 in
the United States, it is officially esti-
mated, 25,000 concentrated in .New
York City—but not such as would
make your head swim. Jaywalking is
a larger fact. Heroin is sickening, but
it is not lethal except in an overdose,
and the suffering attendant upon it is
largely a private matter. The crimes
committed in its name attend on the
fact that it is in the first place illegal.
(Then make it legal.) The traffic runs
into hundreds of millions of dollars
yearly, but more money is exploded in
a few good afternoons at the shooting
gallery at Cape Canaveral. The child
who trembles for a first fix that he
might become a man has prior problems,
and anyway the pedarist who once
turns him on will not make him an
addict. Addiction is not so easy a mat-
ter. You have to work at it.
It is not the junkie but the junkie’s
fabulous shadow that is news. The life
of the drug, retreat under discipline
(“There is no more systematic nihilism
than that of the junkie in America.”—
Trocchi), might be a metaphor that
will tell us who we are (our own poison-
ed blood; waiters who wait for another
round of waiting); where we are (No-
where, man; Heaven, man); where we
are going (“One is no longer grotesque-
ly involved in the becoming. One simply
is.’—Trocchi. “Running out of veins
and out of money.”—Burroughs); how
to live (a man has his freedom; you
can be very cool, man; you don’t have
to live). And these matters are im-
portant. In a time of confusions and
staggering possibilities of treachery, of
engineered ideas and disillusion in the
areas of volition and purpose, these
metaphysical matters are imperative.
And these are, with open intention,
that move the fabling
‘The scene they make is established and
populated not, as one might have
By tought, by uncool Coleridge, dreamy
de Quincey—they had dreams—but by
Sartre, Camus, Unamuno, Gide, latterly
tk ye
si
a
tell you so, and the junk came after-
wards, as an opportunity for creation.
(The pied piper, one supposes, was
Burroughs. Big Table 2 is partially a
Festschrift, and .if you will search the
incunabula of the pot-smoking Beats,
you will find many tributes to: him.)
Heroin is, in a word, naturalized Exis-
tentialism. ;
The hero of the Existentialist drama
faces nothingness or acknowledges ab-
surdity, discovers existence, and often
the necessity for authentic self-creation.’
That is what the junkie would be about.
Jack Gelber pauses at the first rung.
Burroughs mounts to the second. Troc-
chi goes over the top.
BUT junk as a specific literary matter
proposes its own literary problems.
Addicts for reai, whose lives are to be
given to addicts as Existential heroes,
are narcotized. They function, but with
diminished feeling, diminished intelli-
gence, as in an igloo of the body. Cool,
man. Life in an igloo is a way of life,
but it is not an interesting way. Some-
thing can be got from it, to be sure,
Nelson Algren a decade ago in The
Man With the Golden Arm found uses
for it, if only as a control for an other-
wise plotless novel, but a novel concern-
ed with other ways of life. Herbert Gold
in The Man Who Was Not With It
made of the hard belly-crawl out of the
igloo a narrative of involvement and
love, and in a recent story, “What’s
Become of Your Creature?” he makes
of the perilous way in, a narrative of
need become self-hatred. These are
superior fictions for which the cycle
of addiction performs the service of lo-
cal metaphor. When the metaphor be-
comes the subject, when the Eskimo as
he huddles is all the hero there is, then
the risks of boredom are very great.
Burroughs and Troecchi, and Gelber,
sometimes, are men of fine verbal fa-
cility and so much is saved, but it is
after all not surprising that they run
to formlessness.
“improvised” drama, licensed by Piran-
dello. Naked Lunch is a grab-bag which
does not always expose its contents.
Trocchi ends his novel with the obser-
vation that he has not yet begun to
write it, and he is right. Nothing has
yet happened in it.
And there is the error. The junkie
drama is one in which nothing happens.
Junkies don’t talk to one another.
Junkies don’t move.
And one cold Eskimo is not a signifi-
cant story.
A Strategy for James Readers
Louis Auchincloss
IN APPROACHING the great prolific
novelists of the last century, it is usually
safe for the uninitiated reader to start
at the top, with Vanity Fair for Thack-
eray or David Copperfield for Dickens.
But nobody should try to begin Henry
James with The Golden Bowl. And if
the beginner should happen to. start
with The Awkward Age and to follow
it up with The Sacred Fount, he might
well be conditioned for life to finding
nothing but snobbishness and triviality
in any of the other works, It is better
to face at the outset that there will
always be a certain number of people
to agree with Theodore Roosevelt’s dic-
tum that James’s “polished, pointless,
uninteresting stories about the upper
social classes of England make one
blush to think that he was once an
American.” It is not, however, neces-
+e » turn, instead, as pears did,
_ by Samuel Beckett and Jean Genét.
/They ar well-read ju inkies, they 3
, ilar i He
to the “fresh, healthy, out-of-doors life”
of Kipling. One can learn, with a little
application, to isolate the dross in James,
and after that The Jungle Book is no
substitute. Once the reader has been
acclimatized to the different Jamesian
styles, once he has felt the intensity of
James’s devotion to an aesthetic ideal, he
can be safely exposed even to such
dreary minor pieces as Glasses or Ford-
ham Castle. Who knows? He may even
like them. For by that time he will
have become a Jacobite, and the true
Jacobite can delight in any prose of the
master.
James himself was once consulted on
the order in which he should be read.
In 1913 he made two reading lists
for Stark Young, “the delightful young
man from Texas.” But he omitted the
short stories (the “little tarts” coul
wait until after the “beef and pota-
toes”), and he insisted (contrary to r
eS yv tt
The Connection is an
a ee ae
Hudson, The Portrait of a Lady, The
Princess Casamassima, The Wings of
the Dove, The Golden Bowl, and the
second: The American, The Tragic
Muse, The Wings of the Dove, The
Ambassadors, The Golden Bowl. Both
lists have in common with this piece
the goal of bringing the new reader as
rapidly as possible to what E. M. For-
ster calls the “valuable and exquisite
sensations” of the final novels. But it
seems to me that the recommended
steps are too short and that Roderick
Hudson is an actual stumbling block.
That James was not the best judge of
his own earlier work is shown by his
omission of Washington Square and
The Bostonians from the revised edi-
tion. My purpose is to present a some-
what more comprehensive list for the
beginner, and with this in mind I have
divided James’s writing life into five
periods:
First (1866-1880): This initial period
opens with a great clump of short
stories reminiscent in style and treat-
ment of Hawthorne. They are well or-
ganized and smoothly written, but they
incline at once to the prolix and melo-
dramatic. None of them even suggests
the full development of the later James.
There is little to recommend to the
beginner from this period but two novels:
The American and Washington Square.
The latter, James’s most finished work
to that date, really inaugurates the
second period.
Second (1880-1890): This I will call
the “Balzac” period. James may well
have felt in this decade that he had
settled on the kind of novel that he
would write for the rest of his life:
three-volume Balzacian compendium
of diverse characters plotted around a
contemporary social problem. To many
readers it is his finest period. Surely
it is hard to pick and choose among
such novels as The Portrait of a Lady
(the conflict between Americans soiled
and Americans unsoiled by a dark,
beautiful, ancient Europe); The Bos-
tonians (the cause of women’s suffrage
as an arena for sex antagonism); The
Princess Casamassima (the danger that
world revolution may destroy more than
it brings) and The Tragic Muse (the
question of art as a substitute for a
political career). The style of these
novels is of a dazzling virtuosity; there
are passages in The Portrait of a Lady
and The Bostonians as beautiful as any
prose James ever wrote. But they‘ did
not sell as widely as their author had
hoped, and he turned to the theatre in
search of the popular success that he so
coveted.
Third (1890-1895): This is the pe-
riod of dramatic experiment, ending with
the famous booing of the author at
the opening of Guy Domville. The most
remarkable thing about James’s plays
is that any of them were produced at
all. They read like thin, wordy parodies
of his poorest fiction and are pervaded
Tragedy in Garden City
This man’s head was brush-cut, like his lawn.
His view of Nature allowed that Nature
Was the producer of ergs, dyns and decibels,
Microns and photons and so many shoes to the cubic foot,
And that all these things in turn produced
Hot point and cold spot and split-level Cadillac.
Scientists in white test tubes took Nature
Wherever it was to be found, and cleverly
Issued it in plastics, repellants, and miracle whip,
To be interpreted by experts in tables
Of comparative happiness based on the relative
Consumption of pacifiers, bonds, and soap.
t And society progressed.
Only, in spring and summer, this man,
Observing the multitude of dandelions,
Of hawkweed and thistle, daisy, buttercup
And bladderwort, found that he was appalled
By the uselessness of all these wavering
Vanishers, which never became
Sunoco or Dreft or Unicef; he wondered
_ Why Science hadn’t taken these things in hand
(Year after year, year after year) — until one night,
After the household was asleep, he crept out
And harnessed three million dandelions to his house,
&
“
And waited.
Howarp NeMxov
New Directions
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by Gregory Corso
Poetry. Original.
JAMES JOYCE
by Larry Levin
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BECAUSE IT IS
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Original.
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et
with a repellent heartlessness. They
should be concealed at all cost from
the would-be Jacobite. He wrote no
novels in this period, but kept his
fictional hand in practice with a series
of short stories written in a clear, fin-
ished style that lacks the verbosity of
his first period and the involutions of
his last. But these stories also lack the
warmth and color of the prose of his
Portrait of a Lady period; there is
a thinness of material and a growing pre-
occupation with the fantastic and super-
natural. But if there are less high points
in this period of fiction, there are also
no low ones. The beginner may roam
at will from The Lesson of the Master
to The Altar of the Dead.
Fourth (1895-1901): This is the
“bad” period, to be avoided almost en-
tirely until the reader has been con-
verted. Biographically it is interesting,
for it reveals a James struggling to pull
out of the disappointment of his failure
as a dramatist and popular novelist and
curtain of art at the small resentments
that the author exposes, we glimpse the
diner-out who is obsessed with the de-
cline of manners in London high life, the
esthete who prefers houses and orna-
ments to people, the prude who is shock-
ed by sex. Of course, all of these at-
titudes can be found in the earlier
and Jater work: Hyacinth Robinson in
The Princess Casamassima (1886) gives
up his plans for world revolution be-
cause it might muddy the translucent
waters of the aristocratic way of life,
the contemplation of which must be
the eternal solace of the poor, and A
Round of Visits (1910) transfers the
author’s high-pitched anger at London
hostesses to those of New York. But it
is in this period that these attitudes
seem most, as James would put it, to
“bristle.” It is the period of the damp,
crushed spinster heroines, of Fleda
Vetch of The Spoils of Poynton and the
telegraph girl of Jn the Cage, who live
to observe and who cannot handle the
: pla
old
al]
how
sha
ne
ty
ei ak pi al sd Angionw cine toksines neo aaa )
to achieve his own unique medium. But overwhelming, suffocating vulgarity that J
such a struggle was bound to be satu- surrounds them. Like Maisie they know mi
rated with bitterness, and some of it seeps everything, and their comfort is in pel
into his work, giving it a peculiar shrill- renunciation, a renunciation that smacks’
ness and silliness. Peeping behind the of a disdain to participate. We
hi
3 rT
The Compassionate Torturers th
A Transmutation from De
the French of Victor Hugo d
th
‘Yorture chambers are not pleasure domes. tw
No-one lives more than five hours in such rooms, tin
‘The young men who go in come out grown old, th
The artist-torturer, the judge, impelled ra
one by his craft, the other by the code, i
devote themselves to work upon the soft a
medium of human flesh, conspire to join it
red iron and Roman law, and spare no pain M
to win the avowal needed. At their touch
hair, muscle, nail, and bone feel horror’s twitch. m
Loudness of screams is governed by which fiber r
shudders, which nerve responds to that skilled labor. le
A man becomes a harpsichord whereon
the bloody fingers of the player run
the scales of agony. Do not be sure
the hearts of torturers hold nothing more
than menace, for this duty makes them grieve.
They sweeten torture with a touch of love.
Resistance saddens them, and as they broach
body, to come at mind, their tongues beseech.
They are paternal as they supplicate,
stooping above the sufferer, regret
the need to blind an eye to make the mouth
vomit, a its extremity, an oath,
Theres been torturers of a grain so fine
they’ ve quoted poems to assuage the pain
and coax the secret that the captive kept. ve
And oth , big ich se y, ha t
Too many Jacobites have tried to ex-
plain away the silliness of this period
by reading other things into it. IT think
it is better to face it directly like the
audiences of The High Bid (James’s
dramatization of Covering End) who
burst into applause (to the dismay of
the author who never intended it)
when Captain Yule cried: “I see some-
thing else in the world than the beauty
of old show-houses and the glory of
old show-families. There are thousands
of people in England who can show no
houses at all, and I don’t feel it utterly
shameful to share their poor fate!”
The best writing of this period is in
The Spoils of Poynton which prefigures
James’s ultimate style, but the master-
piece is The Turn of the Screw. Per-
haps one of the reasons for its success
is that James never tells us explicitly
of what the “evil” consists. If it is
simply that Quilt and Miss Jessel have
had an affair which has not been con-
cealed from the children, one is back
with the indignant obsessions of this
period.
Fifth (1901-1911): Quite suddenly
‘we emerge from the timber into the
high, golden light of the final period
and meet in dazzling succession the
three last novels, The Wings of the
_ Dove, The Ambassadors and The Gold-
en Bowl. These have created for James
_ the special niche in the history of litera-
_ ture that was the objective of a life-
time of devoted work. Gone now -is
the shrill anger at bad manners and
_ sexual irregularity. A benign wisdom
_ instead pervades the atmosphere. The
evil in The Wings of the Dove is not
in the affair between Kate Croy and
_ Merton Densher; it is in their con-
_ cealment of it from an ailing girl whose
money they are after. When Densher
_ pounds the streets of a storm-swept
Venice while Millie Theale faces a
lonely death in her palazzo, we know,
-as nowhere in the earlier James, the
7
Books by Contributors
In the past few years, The Nation
has become a fertile hunting ground
| for book publishers alert to contempo-
rary ideas and problems. Substantial
| parts of the following books, recently
| published, appeared first in this
| magazine. -
2 There an American in the House?
it By David Cort. Macmillan.
| The Future of Public Educat
| M on ecu iver
agony of remorse. And in The Ambassa-
dors when Strether at last discovers
what everyone else has always known,
that Chad Newsome is living with Ma-
dame de Vionnet, that he is enjoying
the common or garden love affair with
the older married woman that is the
conventional oat-sowing of the rich
young American before his return to
the family business, there is no implica-
tion that Chad is “evil.” It has simply
been Strether’s naiveté that has made
him see another relationship in the af-
fair. But this very naiveté, stripped of
James’s earlier bitterness and radiant
with a new perception, is what lifts
Strether above Chad and his mistress.
As E. M. Forster puts it: “The Paris
they revealed to him—he could reveal it
to them now, if they had eyes to see,
for it is something finer than they could
ever notice for themselves, and his im-
agination has more spiritual value than
their youth.”
The remaining stories, except for The
Jolly Corner, represent a falling off to
be expected in old age. The subject mat-
ter is more trivial, the style more
elaborate. One senses the aging master,
sure now of a small but devoted follow-
ing who will wait indefinitely for the
mot juste; we can almost hear the pref-
atory cough, the chuckle as it is finally
produced and dangled before their gleam-
ing eyes. But what of that? The master
has already given us his best.
LIKE James himself, I would submit
two lists to the “delightful young man
from Texas” of today. My first I believe
to be foolproof, but it is a bit long,
involving nine steps and a variety of
alternatives:
1. The American, or Washington
Square, or The Aspern Papers, or Daisy
Miller and The Europeans
2. The Portrait of a Lady
3. The Bostonians or The
Muse
4. Any two of the following short
stories: The Lesson of the Master, The
Death of the Lion, Greville Fane, The
Abasement of the Northmores, The Real
Thing, The Liar, The Altar of the Dead
5. The Turn of the Screw, or The
Spoils of Poynton et
6. The Beast in the Jungle, or The
Jolly Corner
las Bie Ambassadog
Tragic
. Was, ngton Sq
The Portrait ¢
5. The Ambassadors
The Wings of the Dove
It would be preferable to add some of
the short stories to the second list, but
time, I know, is precious. One shudders
to consider what James, who found his
own era too full of noise and distraction,
would have thought of ours. Except one
should remember that he loved the type-
writer and the automobile. He might
have loved the jet plane. It is interest-
ing to ponder the fate of Daisy Miller
in a Rome only a few hours by air from
Schenectady.
PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN
From Strontium-90 Fallout
this simple, practical way
ven if no mere atomic bombs are exploded,
the Str ntium-90 already in the atmosphere
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some tens of thousands of Americans may
die from bone cancer and leukemia frem
bomb tests already carried out. Children
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Scientists -are at odds on the amount of
radiation the human body can absorb with
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ists are generally agrecd that any racdia-
tion Causes mutations. But one thing is
cerlain: radiation can do you no good.
Recently, Dr. Linus Pauling, Nobel Prize
Winner, announced a practical way to re-
duce by about half the Strontium-90 ab-
sorbed by the body. in the daily diet. Lt
is based on the known “discrimination fae-
tor’? between calcium and strontium in the
human intestine. The calcium preyeuts
part of the Strontium-90 from leaving the
intestine and getting into the blood stream.
Once in the blood siveam, Strontium-90
collects in the bones, and begins its deadly
damage. But when imprisoned in the in-
lestine, the human body excretes it as
waste.
For this benefit, it is essential that the
calcium itself be Strontium-90 free, and he
included in proper proportion in the daily
diet.
Available for your protection, and especi-
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RESISTRON Dicalcium Phosphate Tablets.
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And since of all minerals in the diet, cal-
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‘y
7 will
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can ced Se *,)
MIR NM ad re I oi a F b oa
‘ ; we ae ‘ er “a.” 7 toss
The Pleasures of Pound
THRONES: 96-109 DE LOS CAN-
TARES. By Ezra Pound. New Direc-
tions. 126 pp. $3.50.
IDEAS INTO ACTION: A STUDY OF
POUND’S CANTOS. By Clark Em-
ery. University of Miami Press. 196
pp. $4.50.
A CASEBOOK ON EZRA POUND.
Edited by William Van O’Connor and
Edward Stone. Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
179 pp. $2.50 paper.
M. L. Rosenthal
There died a myriad,
And of the best, among them,
For an old bitch gone in the teeth,
For a botched civilization,
Charm, smiling at the good mouth,
Quick eyes gone under earth’s lid,
For two gross of broken statues,
For a few thousand battered books.
(Hugh Selwyn Mauberley)
DID ANYONE ever state the issue bet-
ter than Pound in this poem written at
the end of the First World War? I
mean, as a poetic realization of the loss,
the betrayal of the young in the name
of values neglected except in the rhetor-
ic of war itself? But the poem has its
own life in the sad, bitter passion of
the opening and closing stanzas and in
the tragic pause, for an endless moment,
of the second stanza. “Quick eyes gone
under earth’s lid”’—a pure instance of
that “intellectual and emotional com-
plex in an instant of time” which Pound
long ago asserted a true image should be.
The hardest thing in art is to get
the emotion right and at the same time
keep the artist’s shadow from dimming
out the picture. Pound’s poetry at its
best is a poetry of absolute distinction,
the rhythmic units cleanly defined and
vibrant, the voice at once intense and
removed, and everything subordinated
to the form of the poem itself. Try
to find another poem that succeeds as
Pound’s “The Return” does in catching
the irreversible pity represented by the
fading of the gods and heroes of ancient
civilizations. Its pathos is without sen-
timentality; it inheres in what is pre-
sented rather than in anything in the
tone extraneous to the picture evoked:
See, they return, one, and by one,
~ With fear, as half-awakened;
As if the snow should hesitate
And murmur in the wind,
and half turn back;
M, L. ROSENTHAL’s The Primer of
Ezra Pound will be published by Mac-
Vaskiion thre ehuine.
These were the “Wing’d-with-Awe,”
Inviolable. . . .
A good deal of poetry in any age,
including poetry of rather exalted repu-
tation, is awesomely garrulous. I shall
cite only Robinson’s “The Man Against
the Sky” as an example of the poet
so in love with the sound of his own
voice that no sacrifice, not even that
of the poem, is too great for it. Only
the deepest self-love can explain Robin-
son’s letting himself get away with
something like this:
If after all that we have lived and
thought,
All comes to Nought,—
If there be nothing after Now,
And we be nothing anyhow,
And we know that,—why live?
Why live indeed? After such lines,
what forgiveness? The revolution that
Pound helped lead was precisely against
this kind of verbose banality, our post-
Victorian heritage. Pound has his sty-
listic flaws. His Thrones, the latest group
of Cantos, begins with two lines of
Greek, takes the next two in English,
is mostly French (with a pinch of Eng-
lish) in the fifth, is English again in
the sixth and seventh, turns to Latin
in lines eight through ten, and so con-
tinues its polylingual way for 124 pages.
It would be hard even for the specialist
aficionados to deny that the Master is
overdoing it, and that some of the in-
itial impetus of the Cantos—begun
more than four decades ago—has been
lost. Yet those Graeco-Anglo-Franco-
Roman lines are brilliant; and when
Pound rises toward his lyrical heights,
few poets can do anything comparable:
Selena, foam on the wave-swirl
Out of gold flooding the peristyle
Trees open in Paros,
White feet as Carrara’s white-
ness. ...
Pound overdoes—no question of it.
But it is the excess of a man with more
than enough to say. Even though one
could wish he might spend the second
seventy-five years of his life condensing
and reorganizing the Cantos, one must
recognize the poem for what it is: a
gigantic work-in-progress of a new kind,
the boldest experiment in poetry of the
twentieth century, the continuous ex-
pression through more than half his
lifetime of one of the most gifted of
modern poets. Its growth in time has
been essential to its very nature. Each
group of cantos is a new phas e, wi
new clusters of know nc
tion linked with the old through inter-
weavings, repetitions and the driving
central continuity. The process is an
outgrowth of Pound’s engrossment, and
of the engrossment of modern poetry
as a whole, with sensuous presentation
through the concrete image, the realized
moment and the organically accurate
movement of phrase and line and larger
units. Behind it all lies a concept of
poetic communication as something that
grows on the reader as a series of ex-
periences might.
The driving central continuity is fair-
ly simple, despite the poem’s complexity
in detail. The Cantos begins with a
rendering of part of Book XI of the
Odyssey, the Nekwia or Book of the
Dead. Here Odysseus gives his hair-
raising account of evoking the “souls
out of Erebus, cadaverous dead.” Canto
1 presents the story in a few lines. of
superb reconstruction. Then, toward the
end of the canto, the speaker reveals
himself as the re-embodied Odysseus
rather than the original one. He is the
“T” of Pound’s poem, the Odyssean
modern sensibility, who in later cantos
explores the meaning of his world in
the light of the values represented by
Homer and the great literary, cultural
and moral traditions of man’s history:
the whole sweep of European history,
especially the Renaissance and _ the
modern periods, a vast expanse of Chi-
nese history, the thought of the Found-
ing Fathers and its relation to con-
temporary America, and other points
of reference such as African and Byzan-
tine culture. Odysseus was a_ bringer
of order, a lover of goddesses, an em-
bodiment of poetic vision. Pound makes
wide-ranging use of these attributes.
They enable him to suggest in a single
figure the two sides of the secular ideal
—its emphasis on human reason and
its Dionysian celebration of the “life-
force” and of art. Thus, in many ways
throughout his poem, he advances the
Confucian (and Voltairian) ideals of a
rational political and economic organi-
zation of society and of an ordered in-
ward calm in the individual. (See, for
instance, the beautiful dialogue of Kung
and his disciples in Canto 13.) At stra-
tegic intervals, also, we have glimpses
of pagan beatitudes and aesthetic self-
transcendence. Like Yeats and Law-
rence, Pound has sought to bring to
the fore again and again the sexual
mysteries that are the wellsprings of
religion and art. His Earthly Paradise:
The light now, oa of the sun,
Chrysophrase
_ And the water green clear, md
1 dai aha
cle
~
al gi
THE GHESSMAN CASE:
A Study in Mass Deception
In the May issue of
“lf Chessman dies,
he will have been killed by the press.”’
This is a new and vital approach overlooked mi
. . . . 4
eae , 4 until now. It is written by a Los Angeles reporier, ie
Lda a author of TV documentaries and magazine writer
with more than a decade of experience in the news a 3
business. He has spent 30 hours in private conver-
salion with Caryl Chessman. He has lectured and aa
written widely on the Chessman case, capital punish- 4
ment and criminological reform.
His article deals with the incredible distortions and lies about the
Chessman case in the nation’s press, It shows how the public has been
duped into believing that Chessman is a killer and rapist, while neither
is true. It documents the actual crime and sexual act for which Chess-
man has been sentenced to death. (Up to now, the press has called
the sexual act “unprintable” although it is plainly described in the
Kinsey siudies as normal among a majority of American men and
women.) It disproves the widely publicized story that Chessman “took
a mind” from a 17-year-old girl who was committed to a mental
institution “shortly” after he forced her to perform this sexual act.
Altogether, this is the most compelling article ever written on the
Chessman case. No rational human being can read it without under-
standing why Chessman’s deaih sentence is a perversion of democracy.
\
If you can’t find THE CALIFORNIAN on the newsstands,
use the coupon below.
To: THE CALIFORNIAN
1628 Balboa Street e San Francisco 21, California
4
(1 ! enclose 25¢ for May issue. oe "I enclose $3 for a one-year subscription
(] | enclose $5 for a two-year subscription
¥
for Jan., Feb., April issues (25c each).
thee e eee e eee sees ZOME ......
‘0
eee
yr
f
— =) *
a
the turf clear as on hills under
light
And under the, almond trees, gods,
with them, choros nympharum.
Gods? 4-23:
(Canto 16)
And his major principle:
man’s phallic heart is from
heaven
a clear spring of rightness,
Greed turns it awry... .
(Canto 99)
“Greed turns it awry.” This is the
negative side of the Poundian vision.
Sections of the Cantos afford us a sore
and savage pleasure like that of the
Inferno or of Blake’s “London” when
it cries:
But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot’s curse
Blasts the new born Infant’s tear,
And blights with plagues the Marriage
hearse.
Blake was writing about a “charter’d”
world in which everything has been
reduced to property rights and profits.
In this usurious world sex has become
a source of death instead of life, through
the spread of syphilis by prostitutes.
Pound’s Canto 45 is beautiful in’ the
same way as Blake’s poem is, through
the terror and indignation of its revela-
tions. As in Blake, the hatred of life-
corruption is an outgrowth of the love
of primal innocence:
Usura slayeth the child in the womb
It stayeth the young man’s courting
It hath brought palsy to bed, lyeth
Between the young bride. and _ her
bridegroom
Contra NaATurRAM
They have brought whores for Eleusis
Corpses are set to banquet
At behest of usura.
These lines are the culmination of
one of the powerful pieces of incantatory
poetry in the language. Like the violently
exciting “Hell-Cantos,” this canto is
true poetic prophecy. Not only has it
the necessary moral vision, but it has
discovered the emotion appropriate to
it and released it in all its power. How
well Pound understood and_ identified
with Blake in this sense appears from
his picture of the earlier poet running
painfully on the Purgatorial Mount on
a road shaped in “hard steel” that winds
“like a slow screw’s thread.” |
And the running form, naked, Blake,
Shouting, whirling his arms, the swift
limbs,
Howling against the evil,
his eyes rolling,
- Whirling like flaming c “seen
ge | tos to Con:
and his head held backward to
gaze upon the evil
As he ran from it... .
In speaking of Pound’s main direc-
tions in the Cantos I have not touched
on the amazing diversity of this se-
quence. Its many “voices” provide a
profusion of dimensions of dramatic im-
personality. What Pound cannot say in
his own right, Odysseus or Confucius
or some troubadour or the bawdy Jim
X can. The range of the poem’s wit
is a subject in itself. It can be Rabelai-
sian, it can cut with a deadly if almost
invisible sharpness, it darts everywhere.
Pound has always had the lighthearted-
ness of the truly serious man, as one
of his relatively early pieces may.- il-
lustrate:
Upon hearing that the mother wrote
verses,
And that the father wrote verses,
And that the youngest son was in a
publisher’s office,
And that the friend of the second
daughter was undergoing a novel,
The young American pilgrim
Exclaimed:
“This is a darn’d clever bunch!”
(“Moeurs Contemporains’’)
The same sort of thing is scattered
through the Cantos. The solemnity of
most Pound criticism pro and con has
completely overlooked the importance of
this element in projecting the earthy
yet sophisticated consciousness at work
in the Cantos.
ANYONE who is after a clear statement
of Pound’s historical and economic
theories and of his special interests,
particularly his study of Chinese thought
and his use of “ideogrammatic” method
in constructing the separate cantos, will
be enlightened by Clark Emery’s /deas
Into Action.* Mr. Emery deals fairly
objectively with the most sensitive is-
sues at stake, the issues of Pound’s
fascism and anti-Semitism and_ their
bearing on his poetie thought. The
tragic and revolting evolution of Pound’s
thought grows, in my opinion, out of
an excessive commitment to the tenta-
tively valid principles summed up in
his How to Read:
Has literature a function in the
Btaters, > lt hopes, Lt has: to
*Though published before Thrones,
Mr. Emery’s book throws light on its
allusions to the monetary and historical —
theories of Brooks Adams, Alexander
Del Mar, and the Social Credit think-
ers, and to the analog ous i whew points
the poet attributes ii 0 96
tinian and ape ape
25
do with the clarity and vigour of
“any and every” thought and opinion.
It has to do with maintaining the
very cleanliness of the tools, the
health of the very matter of thought
itself. The individual cannot
think and communicate his thought,
the governor and legislator cannot
act effectively or frame his laws,
without words, and the solidity and
validity of these words is in the care
of the damned and despised litterati.
When their work goes rotten—by that
I do not mean when they express
indecorous thought—but when their
very medium, the very essence of
their work, the application of word
to thing goes rotten, i.e., becomes
slushy or inexact, or excessive or
bloated, the whole machinery of so-
cial and of individual thought goes
to pot. This is a lesson of history. . .
This kind of linguistic determinism
makes powerful sense in its own way, -
and the passage itself should throw some
light on the vital influence of Pound
as a critic and thinker. He has the
kind of drive and appeal that Lawrence
does, and a certain recklessness in the
way he lets fly an idea. William Van
O’Connor and Edward Stone’s Case-
book is an intelligent collection of the
most relevant documents in the contro-
versy, largely journalistic, over the con-
nection between Pound the poet and
Pound the public figure. Among other
items of interest, the book includes the
medical report on Pound when he was
committed to a mental hospital as para-
noid, Robert Allen’s description of him
in “the cage” at the Disciplinary Train-
ing Center (prison camp) near Pisa,
the main statements of the Bollingen
Award controversy, and excerpts from
his wartime broadcasts. Pound does not
emerge morally unsullied from either
Mr. Emery’s book or the Casebook.
As a shrewd friend has written me in a
letter:
Pound emerges as a crank with a
dominating idea. Like all cranks, he
has much truth in what he says, but
he rides it into the ground. And the
notion that we should get rid of the
Sassoons and Guggenheims so that
we may pursue nymphs through the
tall grass is not one to enlist my
fervor, « +»
Against which we may set the large array
of outstanding American writers, most of
them detesters of fascism, who stood
~ days. Not becaues they thought ht im
not
staunchly by Pound during his worst —
f
} York;
who had stood as well as any man in
the century for the aesthetic ideal sum-
med up once again in Thrones:
To see the light pour,
that is, toward sinceritas
of the word, comprehensive. .. .
Admittedly it’s all paradoxical, in-
furiating, etc. But truth in these mat-
ters is at least as complicated as in,
Jet’s say, the various explosions in war
and in peace of atom and nuclear bombs.
Pound represents the best and the worst
of our civilization and also the great,
obvious question: With so much self-
destructiveness, so much unresolved
hostility, can we draw on our tmagina-
tive and constructive genius to impro-
vise ways to freedom, joy and order
against all the odds?
ART
Fairfield Porter
THE FOLLOWING four exhibitions
have something in common: the Rem-
brandt drawings from American col-
-lections at the Morgan Library, which
closed April 16; the oils, pastels, draw-
ings and prints of Degas at Wilden-
stein, for the benefit of the Citizens’
Committee for the Children of New
the welded iron sculpture of
the painting constructions of Robert
Bite pa Stankiewicz at the Stable, and
- Rauschenberg at Castelli. For each of
these artists realism transcended
and
transcends any systematic artistic for-
ad
mality.
Rembrandt created a total world of
greater human depth and breadth than
any other visual artist. The language
of his drawings is, like Chinese, or the
English of newspaper headlines, a
language without grammar: the part
of speech depends on the context. In a
Rembrandt drawing a detail is almost
meaningless by itself, and there is no
form separate from the form of the
whole. A line, or lines, or the wash,
tells where, before it tells what: where
in space, where in action and where in
dramatic significance. A figure is ana-
lyzed in terms of its presence, which
precedes its articulation; and the_ar-
ticulation may be expressed with physi-
cal vividness by the expression of a
face. The turn of a neck is indicated by
the eyes. A line does not mark an edge
or change of plane any more often than
it marks the center of weight. A line
either separates what is on each side of
it, or it gives integrity to where it is.
Artists have had and still have certain
common ways of translating external
reality through appearance or tactility
into flatness, but for Rembrandt es-
sence comes first. Figures are either
emphasized or made unimportant by
thicker lines, as one may shout or
whisper to attract attention. Wash is
color, or shadow, or projection, or re-
cession, depending on the context of the
drawing as a whole. Nothing can be
abstracted; the parts are meaningless,
rubbishy, tattered: the ground which
as a whole has its total feel all the way
to the horizon, is in detail only muddy
litter; the clothes of his figures as a
whole may be grand or poor, but they
always suggest the temperature, and in
detail they are just rags. The unreal-
The Kind of Poetry I Want
Poetry like riding
a squealing oscuro
Whose back has never held saddle before
Or a grulla with a coat
Like a lady’s blue-grey suede glove
Or a bayo coyote in the red morning sun,
\ His coat shining like something alive.
A poetry wilder than a heifer
You have to milk into a gourd,
Charged with a power that only needs
The throwing of a switch to let loose
A devastating power.
\
A force reaching out as an electric current ;
Leaps a gap between two opposing nodes. ee
The poetry of one — like a wild goat on a rock.
You may try to rope him on one crag.
He leaps to a still more dangerous perch,
_ Where, flirting with seat he waEEies his beard a
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|i sible THE NATION; Mulford Q.
ee ere. cee. Pee)
eakee Oranalss zations
A Stare
oe
ity of the detail gives connectedness to |
the whole, which is held together by the
artist’s compassion. It is interesting to
observe his copies of Mantegna and of
Indian miniatures, which give the
human effect of these works without
any attention to the artistic style.
FOR DEGAS, the tension of his paint-
ings and pastels is in the conflict be-
tween the decorum of art and the un-
precedented nature of nineteenth-cen-
tury society, whose form was more and
more determined by the mechanization
of industry. Visual form is contrapuntal
to dramatic form:what people do is
one thing, and art is another. A jockey
lies wounded on the ground, while the
beautiful motion of the horses con-
tinues. Chance dominates decision. The
humanity of his dancers has nothing to
do with their skill. Degas seems to dis-
like life for not being art; though he
had sympathy for it. The whole is
greater than the part, but since Degas
lacked the energy of Rembrandt’s com-
passion, even a whole painting by Degas
has something fragmentary about it.
Degas could not include an attitude of
the whole in one camyas. The grandeur
that he could perceive lay more in art
than in man; and art for Degas meant
Ingres, Delacroix, Holbein and possibly
the Florentine fifteenth century, even
more than it meant the talent of his
fellow artists, or his own. Except for
the motion of horses and women, the
present inspired sarcastic distaste. And
Degas chose to express the disorderly
present with the orderly grammar of
the art of the idealists, whose remote-
ness from him made them idealists.
THE IDEALISTS of New York paint-
ing are the non-objective painters, who
isolate art from details of actuality.
They wish to see profoundly and they
are against illusion. Or perhaps they
simply wish to seem to see profoundly.
Rauschenberg’s art is disorderly in its
incorporation of real elements. His red,
white and black, or blue, white and
black are slapped on with the skill of
hand of the New York school. This is
his allusion to art; he alludes to his
contemporaries, as Degas’ classical line
and subtle values alluded to the masters
of the past. Rauschenberg combines in
his paintings a catalogue of real parts:
radios that can be turned on simultane-
ously to different stations, stu ed birds,
homemade ladders stained with
paint, | genir backs, aque
rough-sawn lumber and assorted hard-
ware. His extremest construction called
Gift for Apollo, consists of a cupboard
door mounted, on doll-carriage wheels,
with a doorknob and glued-on necktie
smeared with green; from this hangs a
chain ending in a bar embedded in the
hardened cement in the bottom of a
battered pail.
There is a resemblance to the scav-
enged metal work of Stankiewicz, with
the difference that Stankiewicz’s material
has, as it were, spoken to him before he
has used it, as the piece of wood in the —
beginning of Pinocchio spoke to Master
Cherry even before Master Cherry
touched it with his axe. Stankiewicz re-
sponds to a preceding life of things, and
Rauschenberg does not; for Rauschen-
berg the life of the parts depends on the
final context. When a part of a Rausch-
enberg construction has its own life, the
effect is disturbing, calling attention to
a general grubbiness; [| never find his
stuffed birds sufficiently assimilated. In
a Stankiewicz sculpture the life of a
part gives character to the life of the
completed sculpture. Rauschenberg’s
work completely counters so many pre-
conceptions that in order to see what
it is one must be open to new form be-
yond old formalities. He expresses a
morality of poverty, inducing a monastic
respect for things that no one values.
He ‘protests the waste in this society,
where we take for granted that auto-
mobiles are disposable, and that our |
trash cans are filled with paper work.
He calls attention to the success of in-
dustrialism opposite to the way the
Bauhaus did, which saw industrialism
as it wished to be seen, Maholy-Nagy
was like an academician finding beauty
in the copying of something already
beautiful, with the difference that what
he found already beautiful was not
the Parthenon, but the skills released
by modern machinery. Rauschenberg’s
work has more personality than anything
like it. Its weakness is that it tends to
approach the chic.
Rauschenberg is able to assimilate
his real elements better than he usually
cares to. It is as though in calling at-
tention to the unassimilable, he dis-
paraged art in favor of reality. Stan-
kiewicz’s fantasy about plumbing makes
him sometimes illustrative, as in the
two boiler-bathers playing at the beach,
His more formal, abstract and untitled
sculptures have greater reality; it is in —
these that one feels more oon the
nae eu i i
Crossword Puzzle No. 864
By FRANK W. LEWIS
ACROSS:
1, 4 and 6 What truth might be put
down in, and led back in what con-
dition! (5,8, 5)
9 A B C’s? No, D! It’s the way 10
might go! (7)
10 Whittier’s Mr. Ireson. (7)
11 Throw off the track? (6)
14 Monkey with this, and hers might
look bad to you and me both! (6)
15 Masses of gases. (7)
16 It’s an even bet if it goes up. (4)
17 and 22 It takes spirit to find fault
with a seed container. (8)
19 One of 600, or just his horse? (7)
24 Dreiser’s IF'inancier was the first of
one. (7)
31 Showed disapproval. (7)
32 Listens, for a change, to volun-
; teers. (7)
_ 33 He painted the old town red for en-
vironment, in a way. (5)
34 Nothing less than a great river, ob-
viously. (3)
35 The sort of things Kreisler’s mother
taught. (5)
1, 16 down, 26 across and 27 Face up
to a historian, evidently a brave per-
son, in his study? (5, 3,4, 2,3, 3)
_ 2 Certain to be found in a foolish
‘person as one convinces us. (7)
_ 8 Nothing with a tree comes up like
elay! (6)
4A minister in similar surroundings
joins one thing to another. (4)
The mark of elan? (4)
e uncomfortable with a formal
1
oe) re ee.
ee i oe
order which he follows? (6)
7 Confession of decadence reached by
the frustrated? (7)
8 Peers across the water. (5)
12 But it doesn’t imply a chicken has
a chitinous spur. (7)
13 The French way is broken up in a
heap (which is foolish for a grown
person). (7)
14 It might be a girl he found that
made him take up smoking. (7)
18 and 20 Call in question the spirit
touching everyone. (7)
21 Gloat over the ingot, if you prize
things with it. (7)
23 To put on something extra is to
get on with the writer. (7)
24 and 30 Just the 17 to fool around
with a ring-maker. (10
25 Produces what the loser does. (6)
26 With a fiery glare. (5)
28 Theirs are followed by many on
simple quests, (5)
29 A study of Arabia, in small part.
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO, 8638
‘ACROSS: 1 and 13 Give-away pyro-
gram; 5 Abrade; 10 Ounce; 10 Hmen-
dates; 12 and 24 Passing the buck; 14
Cirrus; 15 and 26 Time for a change;
18 Angular; 21 Basalt; 27 Regressed;
28 Looms; 29 Lutist; 80 Armrests.
DOWN: 1 Groups; 2 Vanishing; 38
Atelier; 4 Avenges; 6 Bedroom; 7 Al-
ter; 8 Easy mark; 9 Teapot; 16 Fel-
onious; 17 Pastoral; 19 Laurels; 20
Rakish; 21 Boarder; 22 Scholar; 23
Ceases; 25 Ergot.
= ae ee
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Box 485, c/o The Nation
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For a wonderful vacation experience visit the Soviet Union.
TOF ee... eae : aa ; ‘ aa es ?
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at
APR § 9 1960 s
2
3
Se
AI A
APRIL 30, 1960 . . 25¢e
BOURBONS, BOSSES and BROKERS
A Hard Look at the Democratic Party
Robert G. Spivack
SCHEEEEOOHOOEHEC CO OBBEO
NON-REVOLUTIONARY DAUGHTERS
Wade Thompson
Pee Se GFT HECKER ERED EHD
The Campaign for
GAS-GERM WARFARE —
John Barden
LETTERS
Life on the Campus
Dear Sirs: With regard to your April 2
editorial, disparaging the ethical stand-
ards of college newsmen who write ads
for Life, let me protest.... You main-
tain, apparently, that it is immoral to
take a fee for writing a review. Yet in
that same issue, your Vivian Mercier
did just that, to the tune of $7.50—the
price of the publisher-supplied free copy.*
.Even if Nation reporters uniquely
reject free tickets and return free books,
others do not; yet you do not call Mr.
Brooks Atkinson an artistic harlot.
Where is the moral division...?
Gorvon B. CHAMBERLAIN
Former Feature Editor,
Yale News
*All Nation reviewers get a fee for
their work, of course, and they keep the
books sent them as part of the fee. But
fees and books are supplied by The Na-
tion, not by the publisher whose work is
under review. This is where the Life
promotion gimmick departs from nor-
mal, accepted practice. — Ep.
Dear Sirs: Concerning the Life promo-
tion stunt, I am pleased to say that the
Pitt News is not among the 160 par-
ticipating newspapers. Although we
were invited to “Look at Life,” we did
not accept. I am surprised at some of
the school papers which are running
the column.
Murray Cuass
Pit News
The Need to Know
Dear Sirs: The President may keep us
accurately informed on defense but there
is no doubt that he and his appointees
have deliberately denied us the truth on
developments in China. For the solution
of acute domestic problems, we need to
know:
1. The methods used and degree of
success in elimination of crime in China,
including Shanghai, where conditions
were worse in 1949 than in Chicago to-
day.
2. The methods used and degree of
success in elimination of estrangement
or alienation in industrial cities.
3. The methods used and degree of
success in reformation of criminals dur-
ing a decade of a novel type of penology.
4. The methods used and degree of
success in stimulating participation in
self-government by the citizens.
5. The methods used and degree of
success in ending injustice and prejudice
Tee ee ee
_
*
suffered for generations by national
minorities.
Experiment on a very large scale in
each of these fields has yielded results,
good or bad, over a ten-year period. We
are ill-served by a policy which denies
us knowledge of vital import to our own
welfare. Recognition and mutual ex-
change of correspondents are essential for
American citizens who have the obliga-
tion, the right and the need to learn
the facts.
Hucu HarpyMANn
Jalisco, Mexico
Neat Distillation
Dear Sirs: 1 should like to propose that
you keep The Nation's press badge
pinned on the broad lapel of Malcolm
Ross, no matter who wants to keep him
out of their clam-bakes. The subtle fin
de siécle mood that comes through his
report of the Miami meeting of the
Young Presidents Organization was per-
haps the choicest bit in your fine issue
of April 16.
Only one who has long known work-
ing stiffs and Lee, Higginson types could
have so neatly distilled the essence of a
witty conversation over a_ bottle of
Madeira and a pipe of Irish tobacco be-
tween a mellowed H. L. Mencken (rest
his shade!) and the Canon Missioner
concerning the problems of our parish,
the nation.
C. J. S. Durnam
Vienna, Va.
A Lady’s Dilemma
Dear Sirs: 1 know I’m not supposed to
be very bright... . I will buy four extra
cans of tuna to get twenty additional
trading stamps, then try to get my
relatives to help me get rid of the tuna.
I was an ardent TV quiz fan until
recently. . . . I will vote for the man
who has the best personality (well, to
be honest, the one who looks most like
Raymond Burr).
Now I need help. Our TV and radio
newscasters and newspapers have been
expressing moral indignation at the
treatment of the Negroes in South Af-
rica. But last night there was a switch.
T heard on the radio that the put-upon
Negroes were all Terrorists. I picked up
the local Post-Times (Scripps-Howard)
and the story was that they were Com-
munists. Baffled, I hurried to listen to
Chet Huntley, who said that South
Africa says that the natives are led by
Communists (but Huntley had the
wrong expression on his face; viva la
TV). Are you as mystified as I am?
I’ve heard about Russia — there’s the
usual Communist line. But what is the
‘ tientapeeee
pa aee ter
og
line in America? It looks like the electro-
cardiogram of a highly nervous pa-
Are the South African Negroes really
Terrorists, and are they led by Com-
munists? How could they carry Com-
munist cards when their pockets are
searched to see if they are carrying their
hated passes (that is, if the pockets
aren’t a mass of clotted blood)?
EstHer R. Coapy
Cincinnati O.
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
373 ©
ARTICLES
376 @ The Non-Revolutionary
Daughters
by WADE THOMPSON
378 '@ Time-Bomb in Panama
by MARTIN B. TRAVIS and
JAMES T. WATKINS
3881 @ Bourbons, Bosses and Brokers
by ROBERT G. SPIVACK
383 ‘@ Germ-Gas Warfare
by JOHN BARDEN
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
386 @ The Pleasure of Creative Sur-
prise
by THOMAS MOSDR
Dishonest Under Pressure
by DONALD R, CRESSHY
Wagging the Dog
by WILLIAM P.
Theatre
by HAROLD CLURMAN
391 @ Art
by FAIRFIELD PORTER
383 ©
389 @
TOLLEY
390 '@
391 '@ Music
by LUSTDR TRIMBLY
392 @ Films
by ROBERT HATCH
392 'e History Lecture (poem)
by M. RIDDLE
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 392)
by FRANK W. LWIS
ULNA
George G. Kirstein,
Le
Carey McWilliams, Edit
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Wditor
Robert Hatch, Books and Sie Arts
=
=
2 Harold Clurman, Theatre
= Maurice Grosser, Art
= M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
= Lester Trimble, Music
=
Alexander Werth, Buropean
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, Apr. 30, 1960. Vol, 190, No, 18
The Nation published weekly (except for omls-
sion of four summer issues) by The Nation
Company and copyright 1960, in the U.S.A, by
the Nation Associates, Inc., 333 Sixth Aven
New York 14, N. Y. Second class postage pat
at New York, N. Y,
Subscription Price Domestlo—One year $8, Two
years $14, Three Years $20, Additional postage
per year, Foreign $1,
Change of Address; Three weeks’ foe 1s
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can
ew , Index
‘Affairs, tion |
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‘
Ld ay =~
i OP eo se rw
Sth Re ee MA
; ; ’ Pon sue
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 18
roe
THE
NATION
EDITORIALS
The Patriot
All the editorial writers and commentators agree on
one thing: Syngman Rhee is a glowing patriot, the
George Washington of Korea. The New York Herald
Tribune: “Dr. Rhee’s intense patriotism is beyond
_ question, but his impatience with opposition has led
_ him into sometimes repressive paths.” The Christian
Science Monitor: “Dr. Rhee has a strong sense of
mission .. . he feels that he must stay at the helm in
order to complete the unification of Korea — a unifica-
_ tion he has urged even at the cost of war... . It is per-
_ haps.a credit to Dr. Rhee’s concept of democracy that
_ he permits an opposition to function at all) To uphold
this avatar of democracy, we have spent 33,000 Ameri-
y
f all the aid we have given to India. We have set up,
} financed and supported with military force his regime
_ of grafters and gangsters in uniform, all under the aegis
of a love of country that manifests itself in mock elec-
_ tions, stuffed ballot boxes, and the torture and murder
of any citizen who has the temerity to protest.
From Washington it may not have looked too bad,
_ but the South Korean students were, after all, closer to
the scene. Few Americans know the record of the uni-
versity and high school students of Korea. On March
1, 1919, they issued a declaration of independence from
their Japanese overlords and organized demonstrations
all over the peninsula. Scores were killed by the Japanese
police, hundreds were imprisoned or disappeared. On
N arch 15, 1960, a similar situation developed in Masan
and \other cities. The students demonstrated not so
much against Rhee, the American-sponsored untouch-
able, as against his hand-picked stooge, Lee Ki Poong,
running for Vice President against the opposition’s Dr.
John M. Chang. In Masan, some fifteen or twenty
students were missing after “order” was restored; four
Kim Chu Yol was found { ting in ‘the dahon A
led by parents of the nisin youths, gathered
emanded the
can lives and untold American billions — more_thaf
of Masan were wrecked. The riots spread to Seoul and
other cities. Some eighty were slain and hundreds
wounded when students marched on the palace of the
great patriot in Seoul; only the army, reinforcing the
police, saved him.
On March 16, Secretary of State Christian Herter
called in South Korean Ambassador You Chan Yang
and, according to The New York Times, “filed a mild
criticism.” On April 19, Mr. Herter used stronger lan-
guage, accusing the South Korean Government, through
Ambassador Yang, of adopting “repressive measures
unsuited to a free democracy.” In this way the Sec-
retary did what he could to avert a Hungarian-type
debacle for the United States in Asia. Fresh from the
interview, Ambassador Yang, an unctuous smile playing
over his face, went on television and said it was all the
work of the Communists.
The Nation has never subscribed to the theory of
Rhee’s patriotism. Since 1946, at regular intervals, it
has denounced him as a fraud and a bloody tyrant.
The student demonstrators who chanted, “Remember
the spirit of 1919” before the troops silenced them —
they knew him for what he is. The real patriots lay in
the South Korean streets.
Easter and the Chemical Corps
This year the Easter season was marred by a series
of warlike headlines from Cleveland designed to alert
this peace-loving nation to the dangers — and tactical
advantages — of gas-germ warfare (see John Barden’s
article on page 383 of this issue). In part, the timing
was fortuitous; the American Chemical Society was
holding its 137th annual meeting and the Army Chemi-
cal Corps took advantage of a hospitable forum to air
its grisly views on how to destroy the maximum num-
ber of “enemy” lives at the lowest-per-unit cost. But )
d the headlines is a story which the press seems
, overlooked, Some time
JUL 28
mice, of a
<r
Me:
gases — and promptly passed the glad tidings along to
the appropriate British authorities. But Britain is a
signatory to the Geneva Convention prohibiting the use
of poison gas, so the British officials relayed the infor-
mation to their opposite numbers in Washington, on
the theory that, as non-signers, we might put it to
good use. “Starved” for funds, and acutely frustrated
generally, the Army Chemical Corps decided to launch
a souped-up campaign for a larger cut of defense ap-
propriations geared to the notion that if a test ban on
nuclear tests is finally achieved, the new gases might
provide a dandy substitute deterrent.
The campaign, now in full swing, carries the un-
mistakable imprint of Madison Avenue at its worst.
In fact, the London Times reported on March 8 that
the U.S. Army Chemical Corps had hired “unofficial
public-relations men to build up a systematic cam-
paign to focus attention on the possibilities of these
weapons, to reduce public fear of them, and eventual-
ly to gain official approval for them as an integral part
of the national defense system.” Queried by The Nation,
a high official in Research and Development at the
Pentagon said that if private public-relations firms
had been used it was news to him, but he conceded
that the department was eager to acquaint the public
with the facts about gas-germ warfare.
As might have been expected, the British were hor-
rified by the campaign. On March 7, the London Daily
Express reported that Whitehall feared that the start-
ing of full-scale production of the new gases might con-
vince the Russians that there was little use in agreeing
to a nuclear-test ban if poison gases were not prohibited.
The same point had occurred earlier to Rep. Robert W.
Kastenmeier of Wisconsin. On September 3, last year,
; Mr. Kastenmeier introduced a resolution (HCR 433),
which called for a reaffirmation of President Roosevelt’s
declaration of June 8, 1943, to the effect that it was
American policy not to use bacteriological and chemical
weapons unless they were first used against us. In part,
the Chemical Corps’ current campaign is aimed at
securing a reversal of this traditional policy. The Penta-
gon’s opposition to the Kastenmeier resolution is un-
qualified and substantive. The State Department is
also opposed, on the ground that the President should
be given a free hand to deal with any situation that
might arise in the future. But the resolution, if ap-
proved by Congress, would not bind the President; it
would merely represent Congressional reaffirmation of
the earlier policy declaration. Adoption of the resolution
— it is still bottled up in the House Foreign Affairs
Committee — has now become a firm necessity. Not
to adopt it, in view of the Pentagon’s extraordinary
campaign to “sell” gas-germ warfare, would make the
world suspect that we intended to use these fiendish
weapons for other than purely defensive purposes.
374
”
— Ph see
ii Oe MI | ee aA lalie e
Our Finest Hour
Addressing the AFL-CIO Conference on Foreign Af-
fairs last week, Maj. Gen. John B. Medaris, retired
head of the Army’s missile command, delivered an hour-
long attack on American military policy. The audience
was reported to be stunned — but apparently by the
wrong things. What shocked the labor leaders was that
the General, a believer in old-fashioned war with modern
trimmings, asserted that we were spending “almost
astronomical” sums for “redundant” long-range nuclear
weapons, but were in no position to fight the localized
wars dear to his heart. Probably the labor statesmen
were not much moved by his incidental revelation that
our present stockpile of nuclear weapons represents
“the equivalent of ten tons of TNT for every man,
woman, and child on earth.” Ten tons of TNT was the
explosive load of the biggest bombs — the “block-
busters” — used in World War II. Now, on the basis
of General Medaris’ figures, everybody has a block-
buster for his very own. The total is about 25,000
megatons, or some 8,000 times as much as all the ex-
plosives fired in World War II. This is splendid enough,
but we must consider that these are owr bombs — why
does General Medaris distribute them among the lesser
breeds and minor powers of the earth? If we keep them
for our own people, to whom they rightfully belong, it
figures out to not a mere ten tons, but around 140
tons of TNT for each one of us, whether with one foot
in the grave or just emerging from the maternal womb.
What a firecracker! What an achievement of the human
spirit! What a glorious age to be alive in!
Big Cold Warrior
No one will gainsay that the mantle of John Foster
Dulles (clarum et venerabile nomen) has descended on
the shoulders of George Meany, president of the AFL-
CIO. And it fits him well. At the Conference on For-
eign Affairs at which General Medaris threw a scare
into the participants, Al Hartnett, secretary-treasurer
of the International Union of Electrical Workers, had
the nerve to propose that the labor federation soften its
stand on the Soviet Union and consider exchanges be-
tween “average” Russians and Americans to foster bet-
ter understanding between the two peoples. Pleading
that communism as a world force is “here, and will be
for some time,” Mr. Hartnett proposed that American
labor should “learn to live” with this apparently ob-
durate fact. He said further that under present auspices
a “bad image” of the United States had been created
throughout the world.
Mr. Meany would have none of it. In one of the
heated replies in which he excels, he declared that ex-
changes might be all right “for artists and business peo-
ple,” but not for labor. Labor must remain pure in
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heart, unsullied by intercourse with the ideologically
obscene. He appealed on behalf of the captive millions
in whose bosoms hope still lingers, but would be dashed
to atoms if American labor leaders should “fraternize
and socialize with their captors, their oppressors, their
jailors.” Let the Soviet labor skates talk to government
representatives if they come here but, said George, un-
moying as the polar star, “They are not going to talk to
me.” Mr. Hartnett was obliterated. At this point, how-
ever, Joseph Curran, president of the National Mari-
time Union, tugged at the Meany sleeve and whispered
that he had already made plans to visit Moscow this
summer. He asked whether it would be in order to de-
bate the issue of his trip before the conference. Mr.
Meany replied (also in a whisper) that the question
would come up before the AFL-CIO Executive Council
at a meeting in Washington May 3. Mr. Curran re-
mained silent, but later said that his trip had been en-
dorsed by the full membership of his union and he had
no intention of dropping it. When Mr. Curran returns,
it will be Mr. Meany’s task to fumigate not only Mr.
Curran, but the entire National Maritime Union, lest
the contagion spread.
Another Gideon’s Army
The New Jersey Republican primary was billed as a
test of the well-known Taft-Knowland hypothesis —
currently espoused by Senator Barry Goldwater — that
the Republican problem is to bring out the massive
right-wing vote which stays home out of pure spite
unless offered candidates who will voice its favorite
nostrums, Senator Case’s easy 2-to-l victory over
} Robert Morris — a victory won despite the fact that
all but six of the Republican county leaders took a
fp peutral” position — should pretty thoroughly de-
molish the “stay-at-home” or “if-we-only-had-a-real-
alternative” theory of why the Republicans don’t win
| more elections.
C -But the New Jersey primary should also scotch an-
| other myth, namely, that there is in fact a powerful
“Right” which numerically dominates the Republican
Party. During the brief heyday of the late Senator Mc-
Carthy, “moderate” Republicans lived in mortal fear of
his hypothetically all-powerful right wing; the myth
| by a strange collection of dichard money-bags peren-
“nially eager to have their private prejudices noisily
| voiced in public. So widely is the illusion accepted that
| it has become accepted practice on radio and television
forum and panel shows, in public debates and in col-
lege discussion programs to invite a spokesman of the
“Right” — Dean Clarence Manion, William Buckley
or Senator Goldwater — who by his presence offers
ssurance to timid program chairmen that the proper
has been attained. Thus a “balanced” presen-
hat it exists has been carefuly nurtured for many years -
IN NEXT WEEK’S ISSUE
Dan Wakefield, The Nation’s roving
reporter, has just returned from a trip
through portions of this country’s own
apartheid battleground. The Southern
hospitality extended to him included an
attempt to beat him up on the streets of
Montgomery, Alabama.
You will read the details in next week’s
issue, most of which will be deveted to
Wakefield’s extensive report on a South
caught up in one of the historic move-
ments of our time.
tation is insured by having, say, Senator Goldwater
appear on the same program with Senator Humphrey.
But this kind of matching does not secure “balance”
in a program because the “Left,” which is even smaller
than the “Right,” is never represented. The effect of
recognizing the “Right” as a division of approximately
the same numerical weight as the “Center” is to mag-
nify, out of all relation to reality, the significance of
the former in American politics. And an incidental ef-
fect, of course, is to give the spokesmen for the Right
— are there more than a half-dozen? — illusions of
grandeur.
If splinter groups and factions are to be represented
in the ongoing American political dialogue as they
should be, then a true balance calls for representation of
the Center plus two wings, not merely one. But the
public’s limited attention can best be husbanded by re-
jecting the notion that there is, out across the country,
a vast army of disaffected, prepotent, angry voters of
the Right who, if only they could find candidates close
to their heart’s desire, would bring the Republicans to
power from coast to coast. The New Jersey primary is
merely the most recent demonstration that the size of
this army has been vastly inflated.
Jane Addams
The hundredth anniversary this year of the birth
of Jane Addams celebrates a pioneer in human welfare
who, beginning as a crusader against the evils of the
Chicago slums where she went to live, rose to inter-
national acclaim as the leader of the most influential
women’s movement for peace and freedom.
Quaker, pacifist, reformer and humanitarian for half
a century up to her death at seventy-five in 1935,
she was incessantly in the news as the center of highly
controversial causes. Although she called herself a
middle-of-the-roader, her championship of the underdog,
her pacifism in wartime and her unflinching response
to injustice pushed her to the Left of the road and
made her a favorite target for self-styled patriots and
P 7
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reactionaries. When her name appeared heading one
of the earhest Congressional lists of subversives, the
then Secretary of War, Newton Baker, disposed of it
by observing that the name of Jane Addams dignifies
any list on which it appears.
It is testimony to her character that Jane Addams
was able to win so great a respect even from her oppo-
nents. A serene wisdom, a sweet reasonableness and a
vast compassion inspired deference to her judgments
and quieted her critics. Of all the leaders in American
reform I knew during my years in social welfare, and
later in the crusade for civil liberties, she was the
most impressive in combining courage and vision with
practical sense.
She organized the first international peace conference
of women at The Hague in the midst of World War I;
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ood
when America entered the war, appreciating the futility
of continued opposition, she threw herself into the
campaign for food. After the war she renewed her
campaign for peace. She won the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1931 and, at a great public function in Washington
just before her death, the homage of the world’s leaders.
Besides her international work, she continued to aid
her neighbors at Hull House and to take part in na-
tional social and political reform movements—among
them the American Civil Liberties Union, of which
she was one of the founders.
Jane Addams has left a heritage of a score of na-
tional reforms achieved, her published interpretations
of her times and labors and—most enduringly—the
unfulfilled tasks of peace and freedom in the ongoing
world union of women she created. RoGerR BALpwiIN
The Non-Revolutionary Daughters . . by Wade Thompson
THE ONLY reason I have ever been
sorry to be a man, and to be de-
scended from pirates, is that I am
barred by Nature from ever joining
the Daughters of the American
Revolution—my very, very, favorite
organization. I suppose I could join
the Sons of the American Revolu-
tion, but that would be like going
into a monastery when I would in-
finitely prefer to go into a harem.
Besides, the Sons are merely an
emasculated version of the true
virago: they serve well as court
eunuchs, but they obviously haven’t
one-tenth the élan vital of the
Daughter. It’s the Daughter that
gets my ogles—the true, beagle-
eyed, firm-lipped, double-breasted
Daughter, with dedication to burn;
and I earnestly believe she should
get the admiration of a lot of people
who are presently ignoring her—
particularly of poets, painters and
composers, whose job it is to endow
the heroines of our history with im-
mortality, and who have heretofore
WADE THOMPSON, author of
“My Crusade Against Football” and
other irreverencies which have ap-
peared in The Nation, is currently
compiling these and other essays on
the American scene into a book to
be published by Argonaut Books
under the title Sacred Cows.
376
fallen down on the job miserably so
far as these fair Daughters are con-
cerned.
I refer these immortalizers to the
official records of the D.A.R. which
the U.S. Government publishes an-
nually* in commemoration of the
doings of these dear girls, who last
week held their annual conclave in
Washington. Anyone investigating
these records will agree that here, at
least, the government is performing
an invaluable service. Without such
records, the American people would
be completely ignorant of the fer-
tilizing rectitude and roaring fervor
of nearly two million ladies who,
by eternal vigilance, keep this great
land free from sin and sedition.
To read these documents—fully
indexed, annotated, imprimatured
and canonized—is to taste the joys
of a literary experience beyond com-
pare. No one will ever fall asleep
over the prose of the darling Daugh-
ters. Their syntax is ‘revolutionary,
their metaphors original, their ad-
jectives bold, and their spirit is
charged with a moral splendor that
vies with the fires of hell. Every-
thing is direct, raw, straight from
the bile. “Daughters, we must teach
“In Senate-numbered documents
commonly known as the “U. S. Serial
Set,” published by the Government
Printing Office at government expense.
_ ee aah “7
Oe Lie ae .
and teach again the principles of
Americanism to our Negroes, our
war brides, our foreigners and our
Scandinavians!” “Daughters! We
must seize the reins and ride our
country safely through the Scylla
of Communism and the Charybdis
of Socialism.” “Daughters!” (the
Daughters have a marvelous habit
of yelling at one another: Daughters!
Daughters! DAUGHTERS!) —
“Daughters! we need to be shocked!
We can’t live forever in a daze!”
“Make this your battlecry: a 6 per
cent increase in membership!”
“Daughters! We must heed the warn-
ing that we cannot take our heritage
for granted, without doing some-
thing about it!”
In just such liver-rocking language
come the reports from every D.A.R.
state regent in the republic, and
from every committee dedicated to
national salvation. Some of these
are better than others, but—as Dry-
den said of Shakespeare—there is
“God’s plenty” for everybody. The
Printing Committee happens to be
my favorite. These dear ladies abhor
“dry statistics” and “dull facts.”
Every year they compose an im-
passioned prose-elegy to the “D.A.R.
presses which are humming night
and day with never a pause for
breath.” The Americanism Commit- '
tee (which every Daughter secretly
A tA ms
ogy .
hl INA'T
‘
-
yearns to be on, since nothing makes
her happier than. banishing an in-
fidel or burning a book) invariably
packs a wallop: “At the University
of Illinois, banishment of the Ameri-
can Youth for Democracy was ac-
complished by the Alliance Chapter,”
reports Mrs. C. as she _ proudly
thumps her chest. The Membership
Committee sometimes gets carried
away: “The nation has become
D.A.R.- minded,” announces — the
Chairman, but her fervor easily com-
pensates for her ignorance. And
the Future-Generations Committee
sometimes gets downright indecent
in its effort to encourage more chil-
dren among D.A.R. members. (I'll
refrain from quoting anything on
this point.)
WHATEVER the report, whatever
the resolution, there is sure to be
something that will positively dis-
joint your esophagus and put you
into a state of euphoric paralysis.
There is an award, for example, to
Fulton Lewis, Jr., for “piercing the
Iron Curtain with religion.” There
is a long, rhymed elegy to J. Edgar
Hoover that can be sung to the
tune of “Coming Through the Rye.”
_ There are twenty-seven different
arr
in Shaw-like wit:
SET Fe
resolutions to fight communism in
the churches (sometimes done up
“Resolved that
the D.A.R. urge each church mem-
ber to seriously study the psychology
of subversion in order to distinguish
between the Word of God and the
voice of Moscow”). And there is a
solicitude for the Sons of the Ameri-
can Revolution that can only be
described as embarrassing. |
One thing these reports prove—
and prove beyond the shadow of a
_ doubt—is that the D.A.R. is funda-
mentally a Thing of Zeal. A true
_ Daughter never sits down. She is
_ forever at her job—scrubbing, clean-
ing, banishing. “Busy as beavers
a
building a dam,” begins the chair-
man of the Good Citizens Commit-
tee, and only modesty prevents her
_from saying that beavers were never
so busy. Carry Nation herself, in all
her fortitude, could never have
dreamed of chopping down more
novels of iniquity than the modern
ghter. One sees in the
whole hordes of D.A.R
et Ye
like harridans in the endless task
of keeping our thoughts fresh and
clean and all ready for Sunday
school. Moreover, the D.A.R. keeps
an accurate tabulation of all the
work it does, and all the time it
consumes. Each state regent records
the number of hours her charges
work—“Wisconsin, 5,316 hours”—
and submits an annual total. Then
the National Computation is made
and published so that Congress and
all heretics will be duly impressed.
Last year the D.A.R. worked a grand
total of 177,392 hours and fifteen
minutes, according to my calculation.
WHENCE cometh all this Zeal?
Surely only a social psychologist of
superhuman ‘profundity could give
by Vc NR Bi alle Wl a Ratna ad ie ae Ae
a satisfactory answer, but it seems
clear to me that at least part comes
from murky and subterranean drives
that can’t be satisfied elsewhere. We
snooty and sniffish men tend to over-
look this. The poet Byron got close
to the heart of the matter when he
wrote
Man’s love is of man’s life a thing
apart;
*Tis woman’s whole existence.
But suppose a woman gets no love
at all? One has only to glance at
any portrait of the D.A.R. to see
the problem. After all, who in his
right mind would voluntarily woo
the Daughters? Who would mutter
sweet nothings in their ears? Who
would flutter their pulses with poems
or thrill them with soft kisses? Who
would ever conduct a pantry-raid
against them?—not even the Ameri-
can Legion in all its intrepidity.
Faced with this problem, the Daugh-
ters have organized themselves into
a powerful combine to force men to
love them. And they have succeed-
ed. J. Edgar Hoover loves them;
Richard Nixon loves them; Dwight
Eisenhower loves them; in fact, mil-
lions of knuckle-heads love them —
or at least say they love them, and
any politician who shudders for his
political hide had better love them
or face the fury of a woman scorned.
In all probability the founders of
the D.A.R.—those dear ladies who
first collected in Washington on Oc-
tober 11, 1890—had no idea that
they were about to supply the na-
tion’s greatest organized compensa-
tion for ladies in distress, but the
fact can no longer be doubted. The
D.A.R. is surely the fastest growing
Outlet for Unused Energy in the
republic. According to the official
published records, at least 137 squad-
rons of experts on genealogy and
pedigrees are working night and day
to clear the eligibility of an esti-
mated 325,000 applicants clamoring
to get in. We can only hope they
will do their work as rapidly as
possible, and that every last lady
who feels the need of being a Daugh-
ter will forthwith be just that.
The Daughters would do well,
however, to watch carefully over
their incoming members, for the Evil
One—he who originally picked on
Daughter Eve to promote his male-
factions—is still in the vicinity (now
masking as a Communist ), and would
love nothing better than to seduce
the D.A.R. to ways of sin. I cite
an alarming dispatch from the staid
old reliable New York Times:
BINGHAMPTON, Oct. 3—The New
York State Daughters of the Amer-
ican Revolution were so “jarred”
last night by one of the speakers at
its annual convention that, in the
words of its press spokesman, “they
have been wandering around in a
daze.”
Dr. Clinton Rossiter, head of the
Department of Government at Cor-
nell University, told them that he
thought it was the United States’
mission “to lead the world over the
centuries to a system of world govy-
ernment.”
Mrs. Thurman C. Warren, Jr., of
Chappaqua, a former state regent of
the D.A.R., issued a statement today.
“Last night the conference mem-
So) 7! eee aA) 7
{ Wed we a :
: , ." iy
.
bers were jarred by the statement
that in so many years we would be
controlled by a world government.
. . . A jar such as we received last
night might. well serve to shake the
citizens of a complacency that is
threatening to devour our country.”
“Daughters, we need to be jolted,”
Mrs. Warren added, “Russia, with
her dictatorship government, is de-
termined to force her ideology on the
world.”
At first glance this seems harmless
enough; but to anyone trained in
the psychology of subversion it is
apparent that Dr. Clinton Rossiter
is only a smoke screen to cover a
much more devious person. Rossi-
ter is not the True Enemy; the True
Enemy never operates on the sur-
face. The True Enemy in this case
is none other than Mrs. Warren.
Consider the good lady’s subtlety.
“Daughters,” she says, “we need to
be jolted.” And who is the man
noble enough to jolt us? An “agent
from Russia” named Clinton Rossi-
ter. MRS. WARREN IS COM-
MENDING A COMMUNIST! Er-
go: she must be a—oh, my God!
DAUGHTERS, WE NEED TO
BE JOLTED! THE ENEMY IS IN
OUR VERY MIDST!
TIME-BOMB IN
AS THE politicians in the tight
little oligarchy which has ruled and
nearly ruined Panama since 1903
study cues for their quadrennial
shadow dance — the Presidential
election to be held there on May 8
— tremors in the earth hint that
their stage is the roof of a volcano.
The United States, guardian and
administrator of the Canal, watches
the local political miming apparently
as inattentive to the political rum-
blings as the oligarchs themselves.
MARTIN B. TRAVIS and JAMES
T. WATKINS, both of whom teach
political science at Stanford Univer-
sity, have specialized in the field of
international relations.
378
PANAMA
- « by Martin B. Travis and James T. Watkins
Yet in Panama are to be found all
the conditions for a nationalist rev-
olution which will rival the recent
upheavals in Cuba and Egypt. A cor-
rupt and decadent ruling clique of
forty or so families dominates the
social, political and economic life of
the country. The best land is theirs,
but they have developed it neither
wisely nor well. Agricultural work-
ers earn $1.50 for a twelve-hour day.
In Panama City, which holds a third
of the country’s one million inhabi-
tants, the wage scale — 35c to 40c
an hour — is half what Panamanians
receive for comparable work in the
United States-controlled Canal Zone.
Unemployment, affecting about 12
per cent of the country’s labor force,
pe
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Rice ee...
is concentrated in the cities, where
demagogic politicians can more easily
exploit the attendant frustrations.
The greater part of the population
— a third is illiterate and four-fifths
are Negro and mestizo (mulatto) —
ekes out a subsistence living with
little reason to hope for a change
under the existing system. As the
tiny, inbred coterie which is Pana-
ma’s high society has its fun in top —
government offices and waxes richer
while it does, the nation’s million
inhabitants resentfully grow poorer —
— and more numerous.
Apparently the presence of the —
United States in the Canal Zone, by
providing a convenient whipping
boy, helps blind Panama’s rulers to |
Ps
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aan 2 GS tee ee: — 3 Oe
the realities of their situation. Must
concessions be made to the temper of
the populace? The United States
can be blackmailed into making
them. Fancied injuries to the na-
tional pride will divert the attention
of Panama’s 400,000 voters from
their domestic grievances. United
States control of Panama’s biggest
business, the Canal, can be made to
obscure the oligarchy’s control of
Panama itself.
Nationalism always feeds upon the
unwanted presence of foreigners. No-
where is that presence more obvious
than in the ten-mile-wide, fifty-mile-
long Canal Zone bisecting the pocket-
handkerchief-sized land from ocean
to ocean. In the Zone, only the
American flag flaps in the tropic
breeze, and beneath it sprawls a
bureaucrat’s Garden of Eden. Every
one of the 50,000 Yankee residents
is a civil or military servant living
on what the Panamanians think of
as the fat of their land; segregated
facilities, introduced by Southern
administrators, hold at arm’s length
the native inhabitant. The Zone
operates under the alien law of the
United States with an administra-
tion so vulnerable to pressures from
a dozen different government agen-
cies in Washington that it further
irritates the people of Panama by
inconsistent and uncertain policies.
THE American presence provides
the Panamanians with other com-
plaints for the oligarchs to whet. A
third of the country’s gross national
produce is accounted for by the $1.9
million rent paid for the Zone, the
$25 million paid to the 16,000 Pana-
manians employed therein, and the
$27 million spent by the American
officials and their families. Yet much
more is demanded. Up the rent to
$40 to $50 million by applying the
50-50, or even 60-40, formula used
v by, Venezuela with the foreign oil
companies! Pay Panamanian employ-
ees as much as United States em-
ployees are paid! Train Panamanians
for the “sensitive,” skilled positions
of pilots and lock engineers! Play-
_ ing upon these themes, the oligarchs
- in the past have been able to divert
the masses’ resentment against them-
selves into nationalist fervor against
the , Dinard States, i will n not be
continue much longer to do
so. For increasingly the populace is
able to
coming to believe that the oligarchs
are hand-in-glove with the Ameri-
cans and battening on blackmail
tactics.
THE CANDIDATES in the Presi-
dential election fit the familiar pat-
tern. One is Ricardo Arias, scion of
an old and wealthy family, a cos-
mopolitan of the cocktail set, who
nevertheless turns to nationalist slo-
gans in seeking political support. His
principal opponent, Roberto Chiari,
one of Panama’s wealthiest men,
comes from a family with extensive
land holdings in sugar cane. A third
political leader, Aquilino Boyd, a
former Minister of Foreign Affairs,
was implicated in last year’s inva-
sions of the Zone by student mobs
intent upon raising the Panama flag
there. Boyd, like his opponents, seeks
partisan goals by jingoistic means,
but the electorate to which he is
appealing is increasingly aware of
past and future benefits to his $60
million businesses from concessions
to Panama’s industry wrung from
the United States in the name of
Panama’s national pride.
Successful though the oligarchy
has been in exploiting nationalist
symbols for private political pur-
poses, the situation is growing be-
yond their control. Thus when Boyd
sought to call off his student-led dem-
onstrations last November, he could
not; the nationalist fervor had
spread too far. Even more signifi-
cantly, the West Indian Negroes in
Panama have organized an Inde-
pendent Afro-Panamanian Associ-
ation, which promises to deliver 150,-
000 votes in the election. With 80
per cent of the p lation to appeal
to, the association’ threat i is a real
one, | A
eis casualty of
‘national rev-
olution in Panama will be the United
States’ hold on the Canal unless, by
wise and timely measures, Wash- “ap!
ington moves to forestall such a Sh
development. But this raises another
question.
What is the value to the United
States of its control of the Canal?
Economically, the value has long
been rapidly declining. Superhigh-
ways and jet aircraft link the East
and West coasts of the continental
United States with rapid services.
Pipelines transport oil at costs which,
competing with tankers, have cut |
into the volume of inter-coastal
Canal trade, while the industrial de-
velopment of the West Coast has
created local consumer demand for
oil products. Thus, despite the con-
veniences and economy of the Ca-
nal’s facilities for bulk cargo, the
elimination of the Canal could not
seriously hamper, let alone cripple
(as once would have been the case),
U.S. communications and transporta-
tion.
A MORE critical question than the
economic is the strategic. How im-
portant to the security of the United
States is our continued control of
the Canal?
In total war, as military experts
continually point out, thermonuclear
missiles will make the Canal impos-
sible to defend. In limited warfare,
on the other hand, no enemy is like-
ly to attack what is for the United
States (whose public is still wedded _
to the idol of the Monroe Doctrine)
a psychological chip on its shoulder, |
and thus risk all-out massive retali-
ation.
Moreover, what would the enemy
gain if it got a Canal whose control _
was bound to remain strategically _
vulnerable? American defense strat- —
egy has long been based, not upon
the Canal, but upon the continental
379
ao
Sees tay Pl * 2
United States. No combat aircraft
are stationed there; there is only one
reinforced infantry battle group,
some anti-aircraft units armed only
with conventional weapons, some
military police and a few coast naval
craft. Here is a lesson for any hypo-
thetical enemy who must operate
many thousands of miles from his
home base.
But one may argue that an enemy
hold on the Canal, no matter how
precarious, would seriously impair
the United States’ strategic position.
This is not so, There now exists a
two-ocean fleet maintained by naval
stations on both coasts. And modern
aircraft carriers are too large to clear
the Canal. True, missile-firing, nu-
clear-powered submarines, rapidly
becoming the “capital ships” of the
fleet, can make the transit. But their
use implies total, rather than limited,
warfare — and in total warfare, as
has been said, the Canal is altogether
indefensible. Moreover, the recently
explored sub-Arctic route promises
to diminish further the Canal’s mil-
itary value.
WHAT course should the United
States take to forestall the national-
ization of the Canal, which must
otherwise certainly follow upon rev-
olution in Panama?
Loud voices are heard asserting
that what is needed is not a new
U.S. policy, but rather a stronger af-
firmation of the old. That grand old
historian of the Panama Canal, Cap-
tain Miles P. Du Val, Jr., and his
eloquent mouthpiece in the House of
Representatives, Daniel J. Flood
(D., Pa.), seem to agree with the in-
cumbent Governor of the Zone,
Major General W. E. Potter, that
further appeasement of Panamanian
sensibilities will only increase the
Panamanian appetite. Representative
Flood wants us to reassert our ex-
clusive sovereign control over the
Canal Zone, suppress all demonstra-
tions and send a squadron of ships
south for the sole purpose of flying
Old Glory along the coasts of the
Caribbean. But to revert to such
nineteenth-century imperialist ges-
tures would be only to provoke a
stronger anti-Yankee stand by Pan-
ama’s oligarchy, add fuel to the
flames of nationalism among the
380
is TA 2*, liste?
aot
Panamanian masses, and_ provide
ready-made an issue on which na-
tionalists and Communists could
unite not only in Panama, but also
in Cuba, Brazil, Argentina, Vene-
zuela and Mexico.
Just as unrealistic is another pro-
posal, recently put forward, that
the United States open negotiations
with Panama with a view to gaining
for us titular as well as jurisdictional
sovereignty over the Canal. What
Panamanian government could sur-
vive for a minute if it even con-
templated such a step?
Clearly, unilateral United States
control of the Canal would prove as
unacceptable an alternative to the
present precarious situation as uni-
lateral Panamanian control. The only
remaining alternative compatible
with United States treaty engage-
ments is some form of international-
ization. This solution would serve
America’s real interests in the Canal:
(1) free access to a trans-isthmian
waterway; (2) good service at low
cost; and (3) a voice in its operation.
The Washington Post and, more
recently, a report prepared at North-
western University for the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, en-
dorse a scheme calling for interna-
tionalization under the Organization
of American States (OAS). But the
difficulties here seem to outweigh
the advantages. For one thing, in
such an arrangement the interests of
Europe and Japan, which the Canal
serves even more than it does the
Latin American flag ships (if “flags
of convenience” are discounted),
would not be represented. Even more
important, during the past decade
much of Latin America has come to
look upon the OAS as an instrument
of the United States, and so has lost
prestige in the eyes of the most re-
sponsibly democratic Latin powers:
Mexico, Uruguay and Costa Rica.
It might be some time before the
moral ascendancy of the OAS would
be great enough to insure a stable
internationalization. In the face of a
divided OAS, Panama might not feel
that regionalization constituted much
of a barrier to nationalization.
We must conclude, therefore, that
the wisest course calls for true inter-
nationalization under a U.N. special-
ized agency, responsible to the com-
.
ge Fe eee eee
munity of nations as a whole, made
up of representatives of all the
Canal’s principal users within and
without the Western Hemisphere. In
principle, this proposal is in line with
the recommendation made originally
at the Potsdam Conference in 1945
by President Truman (a principle
applicable to all waterways vested
with a public interest), and more re-
cently endorsed by Adlai Stevenson
and Senators Hubert H. Humphrey
and George D. Aiken.
Internationalization in the form of
a U.N. specialized agency could be
expected to enhance the security of
the waterway. Hopelessly vulnerable
in a general war, as we have seen, an
internationalized canal would offer
a less attractive target than one con-
trolled by the United States, as at
present, or one administered under a
U.S.-dominated OAS. Were an inter-
nationalized canal to be attacked,
any defense of it undertaken by the
United States would enjoy wide-
spread moral and practical support.
IT must not be supposed, of course,
that internationalization would be
welcomed either by the oligarchy or
the populace of Panama, whose claim
to titular sovereignty over the Zone
is legally as valid as the U.S. claim
to jurisdictional sovereignty. Yet
many of Panama’s most fervent cur-
rent nationalists were themselves ad-
vocating internationalization not long
since. Even today they must see that
once the Canal came under the aegis
of the U.N., Panamanians would get
an increasingly more important role
in its operations. Meanwhile through-
out the Zone the Panamanian flag
would fly alongside that of the U.N.,
Panamanian sovereignty (as distinct
from jurisdiction) would go undis-
puted, and all vestiges of segregation
and other discrimination would dis-
appear. By such developments, the
nationalist sentiments of the popu-
lace would be soothed, while the oli-
garchy would have reasons of its own
for satisfaction. Business interests
could anticipate even greater access
to Zone markets, and stability in the
general picture would increase the
stability of their own position.
A different argument—which oli-
garchs and populace alike can un-
derstand—is that Panama enjoys no
monopoly of trans-isthmian routes;
alternative routes can be developed
if necessary. There is the possibility
of a sea-level route across the 150
mile-wide Isthmus of Tehuantepec in
Mexico—an engineering feat which
would cost far less than, say, build-
ing the Aswan Dam in Egypt and
which would lie within a country
where revolution does not threaten.
Or else a Nicaraguan route—that an-
cient rival of the Panama route—
could be dug. Either of these could
be financed by the International
Bank for Reconstruction and De-
velopment and administered by a
specialized agency of the character
we have proposed for the Panama
Canal. As late as last November
President Eisenhower, who opposes
internationalizing the Panama Canal
for reasons which Representative
Flood would find sympathetic, sup-
ported the suggestion that an _al-
ternative route to the Panama Canal
be developed. This is an idea which
would not appeal to Panamanians
high or low.
Conditions in Panama are push-
ing that country toward revolution,
of which one of the first fruits would
be a move to nationalize the Canal.
In that event, the United States
might well find all Latin America
lined up in support of Panama and
the principles of sovereignty and
non-intervention. Is it too much to
believe that international commu-
nism would be looking the other
way?
While control of the Canal is no
longer vital to the United States, the
preservation of international water-
ways for the shipping of all nations
is a traditional American policy. We
submit that the United States has
nothing to lose and the enhancement
of its global interests to gain from
seeing the Canal operated by a spe-
clalized agency, an _ international
Panama Canal Commission, support-
ed by and serving all maritime pow-
ers. No other policy seems to fit the
circumstances.
Bourbons, Bosses and Brokers . . by Robert 6. Spivack
Washington, D.C.
THE DEMOCRATS have not yet
chosen a candidate and have scarce-
ly raised an important issue in the
1960 campaign. Yet it is widely as-
sumed here by professional politi-
cians that at least two prominent
Democrats—Stuart Symington and
Adlai Stevenson—can be elected
President if they win their party’s
nomination.
This forecast, of course, runs in
the face of several popular opinion
polls which have been saying either
that a Republican will win, or that
Senator Kennedy is the Democrat
most likely to succeed. For many rea-
sons, the “pros” do not go along with
these predictions. Wisconsin slowed
Kennedy. To many bosses, even of
his own religious faith, Kennedy at
the top of the ticket would be a na-
tionally divisive candidate. Senator
Humphrey, who has always faced an
uphill fight, was also not helped by
Wisconsin. Senator Johnson, besides
being a Southerner, is tied too close-
ly to gas-and-oil interests.
But the main reason for believing,
as Illinois National Committeeman
ROBERT G. SPIVACK is the
Washington, D.C., correspondent of
_ the New York Post and author of
a syndicated newspaper column,
“Watch on the Potomac? =
Jacob Arvey puts it, that the Demo-
cratic candidate’s name “will begin
with an S” is summed up in the quip
by Senator Mike Monroney. “Over
the years,” Monroney said, “I have
run into many Eisenhower Demo-
crats, but I have yet to see a Nixon
Democrat.”
To the hard-headed political op-
erators, the campaign will be re-
solved neither on issues nor alto-
gether on personal charm. Instead, it
will be dark-jowled Richard M.
Nixon running against the Demo-
cratic Party. And that poses a funda-
mental question: What is the Demo-
cratic Party?
There are many ways to look at
the party. It’s the party of Woodrow
Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Herbert Lehman. It’s also the party
of James O. Eastland, Theodore
Bilbo and Herman Talmadge. It’s
the small haberdasher’s party, the
missile manufacturer’s party, the
Irish immigrant’s, the small busi-
nessman’s, the union leader’s and
the Cambridge intellectual’s.
Another starting point, in seeking
to define the party, would be to de-
termine what a voter expects it to
do for him (to paraphrase Charles
Wilson, most voters do think that
“what helps me, helps the nation”).
n recent years, Arthur Schles-
TG) 5 eee aaa, ot ‘
inget, Jr., and others have sensibly
urged the Democratic Party to quit
living in the thirties and to devise a
program for the sixties. But except
for the Democratic Advisory Council
and isolated reform groups, there is
little indication that organization
Democrats, any more than organiza-
tion Republicans, think in such
terms. Where the well-meant advice
soars into outer space is that a man’s
politics is a personal private posses-
sion, with which no outsider can tam-
per. The surest way, especially in a
period of comparative peace and
prosperity, to lose a voter’s support
is to tell him what he “ought” to do
and what you think is for his “own
good.” He wants to think for himself
and cherish his own illusions.
To explain better what I mean,
ask yourself why so many voters
consider themselves Democrats. The
Gallup Poll, probably as authentic
as any poll, reports that 47 per cent
of the voters call themselves Demo-
crats, 30 per cent say they are Re-
publicans and 23 per cent speak of
themselves as “independents.” The
study, based on 9,415 cases, shows
that both young and middle-age
voters divide almost along the same
lines when it comes to expressing
their party preference. In the older
group voters listed themselves as
48 per cent Democrat, 27 per cent
Republican and 25 per cent inde-
381
pendent. The younger voters listed
themselves as 45 per cent Democrat,
23 per cent Republican and 32 per
cent independent.
The only way I know to find out
why people think as they do is to
ask them. I have gone about this in
an unscientific way, by the standards
of the pollsters, yet the results are
probably no less accurate. I have
asked ten young men and women in
their twenties and another ten mid-
dle-aged friends why they considered
themselves Democrats. Their an-
swers add up to this: the party still
reflects the glory of the New Deal.
This was true of Southerners as well
as Northerners.
THESE WERE typical replies from
the younger group. “I don’t care
much for the Dixiecrats,” said a
young woman, aged twenty-two.
“But I think there is room in the
Democratic Party for new ideas. The
Democrats are not rigid. The Repub-
licans seem to have no fresh thoughts.
They just copy or modify Demo-
cratic ideas and claim they can ad-
minister them better.” A young man
said simply the Republicans were
“too humorless.” Still another said
there were more Democrats who put
“national interests ahead of personal
interests.” A fourth correspondent,
who described himself as a “part-
time Democrat with independent
leanings,” said that the party was
“more daring, more willing to ex-
periment and more human,” but that
sometimes he was disgusted with the
conduct of “the natural-gas Demo-
crats.”
The older people were less com-
municative and less sure of what
they thought. They tended to be
more critical of individual party fig-
ures—Acheson and Truman, partic-
ularly—but still were full of mem-
ories of the depression and how the
Democrats “cured it.” “God knows
where we would have been if there
had been no F.D.R., no ‘brain-trust-
ers,’ no acceptance of the notion that
government has some responsibility
for the welfare of the people,” one
man wrote.
It would be unwise to make too
many generalizations from this small
cross section of public opinion, but
what struck me is how few defections
382
EA es ORR |
P.
\
Lyndon B. Johnson
from the Democratic ranks there
have been notwithstanding seven
years of “peace, prosperity and Ei-
senhower.”
What the voters think about the
Democratic Party is, of course, tre-
mendously important, and the smart
political boss always is on the alert
for rumblings of discontent. But
what the politicians think of the
party and its responsibilities is like-
wise important. And this is where
the “image” of the Democratic Party
begins to change. Abstract ideas,
clear-cut national policies, a sense of
public purpose, all these give way
to a picture that is muddy and
blurred. Notwithstanding the rhe-
torical homage which every politician
will pay to party traditions at least
once in four years, his real attitude
is revealed in his day-by-day conduct.
What does this show?
That the Democratic Party is not
a national party at all, but essential-
ly a collection of powerful, local-
interest and special-interest parties,
with no common philosophy unless it
is that the man serves his party best
who gets the most government busi-
ness for his clients (not his con-
stituents). This transformation from
the voter’s romanticism to the poli-
tician’s realism is sometimes hard to
take. That, I suspect, is what dis-
turbed so many reviewers about Al-
len Drury’s Advise and Consent.
The key to understanding the
Democratic Party is to understand
the way Lyndon B. Johnson oper-
ates in the U.S. Senate. Since John-
son is no writer and. not much of a
speaker (we can omit the words his
ghost writers put in-his mouth), one
can only surmise his thinking and
try to interpret his modus operandt.
There are sixty-five Democrats in
the Senate. Of this group, Johnson
writes off such liberals as Douglas,
Proxmire, McNamara and Clark of
Pennsylvania — about fifteen alto-
gether. With the others, he works on
the time-tested basis of Gas pro quo.
He does not care what they say in
their speeches for home-town con-
sumption; he just does not want
them to determine party policy in
the Senate. In return, he tries to
help them on a practical level. Do —
they need a bridge, a new court
house, some federal appointments, a
contract for the local manufacturer?
Are they tied up with the airlines,
the banks, the steel companies, the
unions, the Pentagon?
TO A MAN in Johnson’s position,
the Northern big-city boss and the
Southern Bourbon are brothers un-
der the skin. The voter may think
there is a serious North-South cleav-
age; except on civil rights, the cleav-
age is more apparent than real. If
Johnson (or Speaker Rayburn) en-
counters a_ difficult Congressman
from Illinois, Mayor Daley is called
upon to keep the transgressor in line.
If a New York lawmaker should get
too independent, Boss DeSapio or
O’Connell (Albany) or the lesser-
known, but no less powerful, borough
bosses of the Bronx and Brooklyn,
will whip him into line.
What does the West want? John-
son finds out from an O’Mahoney.
To the outsider, it seems remarkable
that a new Senator from Indiana, a
former college professor from Wy-
oming, a lawmaker from Montana
and Senator Thomas Dodd from
Connecticut should all be found
among Johnson’s admirers. Are the
interests of the East and West the
same? Maybe not, but their differ-
ences are not so irreconcilable that
a big, rich government like this one
cannot accommodate them, Are two
munitions firms, with different Sena-
tors as spokesmen, competing for
the same contract? Keep them both
happy, divide the job.
When necessary, Johnson, the
skilled political mechanic, also has
Th Pa ATIC N
ali
bile
prizes and rewards for cooperative
Republicans. How else explain the
“great debate” on civil rights which
found Johnson, Everett Dirksen
(Johnson’s GOP counterpart) and
a “modern Republican” Attorney
General, William Rogers, determin-
ing in advance just how far they
were going? (It was not far.)
Johnson understands the organi-
zational Democrat just as another
political boss, James A. Farley, did
nearly thirty years ago. The differ-
ence is that Johnson has no F.D.R. to
fall back upon; hence the imprint on
the party in 1960 is Texas gas-and-
oil, not the idealism and accomplish-
ments of the New Deal.
In addition to Farley, Roosevelt
had his Hopkins, Ickes, Sherwood
and Wallace. Johnson works with
other Democrats, who serve as sort
of party brokers—the Harry Tru-
mans, the Tommy Corcorans and
Mike Mansfields. These are men
well liked by all their fellow-politi-
cians and not too closely associated
in the public mind with what John-
son calls the “extremists” on public
issues.
This then is the Democratic Party
‘ f
7 7 o>
ad 7 > ws 1
‘ .
» * me eine
.
organization of 1960: Bourbons,
Bosses and Brokers. Johnson, to the
machine men, is Mr. Democrat, even
if they will not nominate him for
President.
THE THEORY on which the Demo-
cratic Party now operates is that
it is necessary only to hold the
“regulars” in line and attract a few
independents to win the election.
Everyone else is expendable.
Is this smart politics? We will
know the answer soon enough. Cer-
tainly it is different politics from
what many voters expect. There
was a time when the old-line Demo-
cratic bosses took the attitude that
they would let the party’s liberals
speak their piece—it would do no
harm and might do a lot of good
around election time. They have
-even been known to nominate lib-
erals for office, especially in times
when their election seemed unlikely
(Stevenson and Senator Paul Doug-
las can testify to this).
Today Johnson and the Demo-
cratic bosses have grown so sure of
themselves that they simply ignore
the liberais. Once handy to have
around, especially when the Old
Guard needed someone articulate to
tell the voters the “difference” be-
tween the Republican and Demo-
cratic parties, now they are no long-
er welcome. Once useful for explain-
ing the “issues,’? now they have
become an unsettling element. They
become nuisances when they begin
talking about the “munitions lobby”
and waste in the Pentagon, when
they raise questions about nuclear
testing, when they think revenues
from offshore oil should go to build
public schools.
It’s possible that in their appraisal
of the national mood, the Johnsons
are right. The Democratic Party, as
it is now constituted, may coast to
victory with 47 per cent of the
voters in its pocket and the liberal
independents kept in exile. But
what happens if the Republicans
come to their senses? Suppose the
GOP dumps Nixon and replaces him
with an attractive candidate like
Nelson Rockefeller? The Democratic
majority might suddenly vanish—
because essentially there is nothing
in party policy or practice to retain
a voter’s loyalty.
GERM-GAS WARFARE e e by John Barden
Cleveland, Ohio
THIS IS A report on a one-day
glimpse of federal activity in the
fields of chemical (CW) and bio-
logical (BW) warfare and defense.
Men in responsible positions cau-
tiously raised the curtain as far as
is permitted by federal security in
a symposium on “Non-Military De-
fense—Chemical and Biological De-
fenses in Perspective” at the 137th
national meeting of the American
Chemical Society held here recently
[see editorial on page 373].
The twelve participants had a com-
mon purpose—to inform and arouse
the American people from apathy.
This reporter, though fraught with
; apathy, was aroused. The inescapa-
JOHN BARDEN, a former newspa-
per man, teaches at Fenn College,
LC veland,
§ A
ble impression was of inmates re-
vealing the doings in their asylum
so far as the guards would permit.
These doings they justified by the
same doings, only better, in the east
wing of the asylum located in the
Soviet Union.
An explicit and pervasive premise
of the symposium was the existence
of the absolute enemy. The enemy,
usually though not always identified
as the Soviet Union, is formidably
capable, implacable and inhuman. He
is ready tomorrow to fall upon the
United States, a pious, righteous
country, to wreak his objectives of
destruction and enslavement—or just
blackmail—with infernal effective-
ness. Fairness requires consideration
of this premise in full context, the
common purpose to inform and
arouse. Fairness also requires that
we keep in: mind the common defini-
IN gee ts -
ay af:
tion of paranoia: a mental disorder
characterized by systematized delu-
sions, especially of persecution.
Prof. Conrad E. Ronneberg, chair-
ing the symposium, said: “We be-
lieve what now follows is a matter of
vital, personal concern for every
citizen if we expect to avoid a catas-
trophe that could make Pearl Har-
bor or Hiroshima pale to insignif-
icance.”
Maj. Gen. Marshall Stubbs, Chief
Chemical Officer, Department of the
Army, stated that the enemy, which
he identified as the Soviet Union, is
formidably capable in every aspect
of chemical and biological attack, de-
fense, research and troop equipment.
“Typical of their stated intent to use
chemical and biological weapons,” he
said, “is a statement by a senior So-
viet admiral, in 1958, and I quote:
‘... a future war will be distinguish-
383
ed from all past wars in connection
with the mass employment of .. .
various means of destruction such as
atomic, hydrogen, chemical and bio-
logical weapons.’ ”
A frequent theme was expressed
by Gerhard D. Bleicken, speaking on
“Apathy and Defense”: “The lack
of an adequate non-military defense
program may heighten the probabil-
ity of surprise attack on the United
States.” Bleicken is vice president
and secretary of the John Hancock
Mutual Life Insurance Company,
whose concern about what he called
“the real possibility of multi-millions
of American casualties” is financial.
A. shrill summary, “What We
Must Remember and What We
Must Do,” was delivered by Clif-
ford F. Rassweiler, a former presi-
dent of the American Chemical So-
ciety and vice president for research
and development at Johns-Manville
Corporation:
Suppose, at the time most favor-
able to them, Russia forces us to
sign an agreement to banish nuclear
warfare, thus destroying our retalia-
tory power. Suppose at that point
Russia unmasks its CW and BW po-
tential and demands our compliance
with its terms for world domination.
Suppose at that time we have de-
veloped neither CW nor BW retal-
jatory power nor adequate CW and
BW defense. If this supposition
seems completely impossible to you,
or if it leaves you complacent and
apathetic about this country’s pres-
ent activity in the field of CW and
BW defense, then this symposium
has been a failure!
AND THIS IS the chemical warfare
threat, according to William H. Sum-
merson, biochemist, Deputy Com-
mander for Scientific Activities,
384
Chemical Research and Develop-
ment Command:
The lethal and crippling mustard
gases have becn topped by the more
lethal nerve gases, odorless, colorless
and absorbable in the lungs or
through the skin without initial pain,
killing within minutes. Much more
lethal compounds are known, and re-
search on any of them may lead to
new, more toxic substances of mil-
itary practicality.
Among the non-lethal chemicals,
the promising psychochemicals are
lysergic acid diethyl amide or LSD
25, and psilocin. A very small dose
of LSD 25—3,000 effective doses
would look like an aspirin tablet—
produces incapacitating mental con-
fusion which wears off without dis-
cernible after-effects. Psilocin is not
as effective, but its simpler molecular
structure suggests it may be improv-
able and practical. There are also
many drugs producing sleep, tem-
porary paralysis, blindness, deafness,
lack of balance, persistent tears,
diarrhea or vomiting; and new weap-
ons of this type are on the way. The
U.S. research effort, Summerson told
this reporter, amounts to $35 million
a year at present and is about evenly
divided between the lethal and non-
lethal chemicals,
THIS IS the biological warfare
threat, according’ to LeRoy OD.
Fothergill, epidemiologist, adviser to
the U.S. Army Biological Laboratory
and the Commanding General,
Chemical Warfare:
The propagation of disease among
people, animals and plants has no
quick-kill effect. It is therefore a
strategic weapon for use against
civilian populations, not troops. The
requirement is a highly infectious,
hardy, mass-producible micro-organ-
ism with a low decay rate, and a
population with minimal immunity.
The useful bugs are classified as bac-
terial, rickettsial, viral, fungal and
toxins. The feasible human, animal
and plant diseases are plague, typhus,
typhoid fever, diphtheria, undulant
fever, yellow fever, dengue fever, O
fever, Asiatic cholera, smallpox, ma-
laria, tularemia, tuberculosis, dysen-
tery, Rift Valley fever, Japanese B
encephalitis, Russi spring-summer
encephalitis, Vi nezuelan — equine
encephalomyelitis, pithras coccidio-
. jee 2
eM i Misa,
idomycosis, pleuropneumonia, gland-
ers, foot and mouth disease, wheat
rust, potato blight and blast disease
‘of rice.
The overt means of dissemination
is aerosol spray in a biological cloud
that is invisible, odorless and taste-
less. It permeates most structures,
searches out and infects all targets
permeable or breathing. It establish-
es new foci of contagious disease in
animals, insects, birds and_ people,
and contaminates hospitals, food sup-
plies, water, milk, kitchens, restau-
rants and warehouses. The infection
of an entire continent by biological
clouds is possible under proper me-~
teorological conditions.
Covert means of dissemination
through saboteurs are almost end-
lessly imaginable and nearly as end-
lessly practical.
The effectiveness of BW agents
will be modified by the public-health
conditions and capabilities of the vic-
tim population. Laboratory identifi-
cation of the bugs is slow, particu-
larly for viruses and rickettsiae. It
can be complicated by mixtures of
Various micro-organisms in varying
amounts, not to mention admixtures
of radiation from thermonuclear ex-
plosions. There are no effective im-
munizations against some BW agents.
A unique Russian immunological
experiment exposed groups of volun-
teers to attenuated living agents of
anthrax, plague, undulant fever and
tularemia. Later positive immunolog-
ical reactions suggested success.
Fothergill’s station is Ft. Detrick,
Frederick, Md., where 950 aroused
Americans known as the Fellowship
of Reconciliation have maintained a
vigil of protest for nearly a year.
“We pay no attention to them,” said
Fothergill, when asked, “and neither
does the town.”
THIS IS the status of the médical
problems, according to Harold C.
Lueth of the Council on National Se-
curity, American Medical Associa-
tion:
The mustard gases are detectable
by a mild horseradish odor, but soon
anaesthetize the sense of smell. Skin,
eye and respiratory burns develop in
several hours, Severe cases require
hospitalization, skilled medical and
nursing care. |
The nerve gases are detecta
short of the laboratory, only by ac-
tual casualties. Early symptoms are
flushing of the face, contraction of
eye pupils, running of the nose,
coughing, headache, blurring of vis-
ion, tightness of chest and dizziness.
These are followed by severe head-
ache, profuse salivation, nausea,
vomiting, dimness of vision, fatigue,
drowsiness, cyanosis, collapse, con-
vulsions and death. “When muscles
in the body contract, acetylcholine is
formed in the myoneural junction,
and an enzyme cholinesterase breaks
down the acetylcholine an. ia
formed,” said Lueth. “Nerve gases
act by preventing the enzyme from
acting and the acetylcholine inhibits,
in seconds, any further action of the
muscles.”
The treatment is artificial respira-
tion (except mouth-to-mouth, which
can poison the rescuer) and admin-
istration of atropine, which over-
comes the action of acetylcholine
throughout the body. Three dosages
of two ce injected at ten-minute in-
tervals are recommended for mod-
erate or severe cases. A physician
should supervise further treatment.
Treatment of specific diseases
caused by the biological agents, once
identified, is well understood. The
real answer, however, is an enlarged
preventative disease program for
man, animals and plants. Here the
United States has surprisingly effec-
tive resources. The Asian influenza
threat of 1957-58 was regarded by
some as a dry-run for biological war-
fare. The combined scientific, tech-
nical, medical and public-health re-
sources of the country were pulled
together. The virus was identified,
grown and cultured, and a vaccine
made in million-dose lots within sev-
eral months. This kind of knowledge,
fed by continuous research, and pub-
lic-health cooperation, dat perfect-
ed, can probably solve the gigantic
Broblem of biological attack.
THESE ARE the detection, early
‘warning and identification problems,
according to Alan W. Donaldson,
U.S. Public Health Service, Depart-
iment of Health, Education, and
Welfare:
The need is for speed and accuracy
‘in dealing with a variety of potential
agents and a multiplicity of delivery
nt nethods. Actual systems exist for
ference, Weiss warned:
the measurement of the bacterial
content of air in hospitals. None
exists for any single metropolitan
area, much less the seventy such
areas in the country. The Army
Chemical Corps has developed a hy-
pothetical system and a prototype
of electronic equipment for counting
and analyzing air particles as dust,
pollen or bacteria, but nation-wide
implementation is far off. Air sam-
pling for viruses and other BW
agents has hardly been touched.
The long-range detection of chem-
ical gases is still in the prototype
stages. Inspection of water, food and
drugs for BW and CW agents is
only in the finding-tools-and-tech-
niques stage.
The actual reporting of disease at
federal, state and local levels is good.
Statistical variations might be the
first clues to biological attack, espe-
cially by covert methods.
Accurate laboratory identification
of CW agents is rapid, of BW agents
slow, though progress is being made.
A fluorescent dye associated with a
serum antibody causes the bacteria
for which it is a specific to fluoresce
in ultraviolet light. This technique
has reduced identification time from
days or weeks to a single hour.
MEASURES concerned with shelter
and individual protection were re-
ported by Benjamin C. Taylor and
George D. Rich of the Office of Civil
Defense Mobilization, still an agency
of grandiose plans and limited funds.
Shelters, gas masks and container-
protection for children up to four
are all in the prototype stages. They
will be sold, profitably, through nor-
mal retail channels. Five million
doses of atropine are in federal ware-
houses, enough for three doses each
for 1.7 million casualties. OCDM ad-
vice in case of biological attack is
necessarily somewhat primitive:
evacuate or find shelter; take baths;
boil milk and other foods; boil,
chlorinate or iodinize water; get all
possible immunization shots.
The research needs were ex-
temporaneously reviewed by Paul
Weiss of the Rockefeller Insti-
tute, a member of the Chemical and
Biological Warfare Panel of the
President’s Scientific Advisory Com-
mittee. At the preliminary ress con-
on’t ask
me any questions; I know too much
I shouldn’t tell.”
In the chemical and_ biological
fields, [Weiss said], defense and of-
fense are an indivisible network of
complicated interrelations. We need
to know what we must defend
against. We need knowledge
about man, the target. This is a mat-
ter for many, indeed all, scientific
fields. . ... We must convince the
scientific community that chernical
and biological warfare is not a dirty
business. It is no worse than other
means of killing. There is no excuse
for scientists regarding it degrading,
particularly in the light of its pub-
lic-health aspects. ...
It is my proposal that a counter-
part group not directly concerned with
the defense effort be established. Such
a group must represent all the sci-
ences, be aware of the whole prob-
lem, consider everything. I believe
the members of the National Re-
search Council could do this. I pro-
pose that what has begun here today
become a process to which the mem-
bers of the National Research Coun-
cil will bring scientific intelligence,
scanning and supervision.
No participant in the symposium
raised these questions:
Have the United States and So-
viet defense establishments gone too
far, alone and unrestrained, down
the path of easy, mass killing? Is
their mutually exacerbating progress
approaching irreversibility? Does a
dead-end lie ahead both for them and
millions of much more innocent peo-
ple? Does any responsible account
of man show him to be so inutter-
ably savage as these Americans
think the Soviets are and so bestially
inhuman as these Soviets think the
Americans are? If so, how have the
despicable creatures managed to
come as far as they have?
os e nat
*
=
Ce a 6a
BOOKS and the ARTS
ut ee
5
The Pleasure of Creative Surprise
Thomas Moser
INTEREST in Joseph Conrad has been
soaring of late. In the first decade after
World War II, the reissuing of his col-
lected works and the appearance of fine
critical essays by such Americans as
Albert J. Guérard, Dorothy Van Ghent,
Robert Penn Warren and Morton D.
Zabel suggested that Conrad was achiev-
ing the comfortable status of an Eng-
lish classic. In 1957, the centennial of his
birth, a genuine Conrad boom began;
it shows no sign of diminishing. Paper-
back editions have multiplied. Scores of
articles and nearly a dozen books have
appeared. Among the books listed on
this page, two voices from the past are
represented: a commentary on Conrad’s
characters by Richard Curle, the youth-
ful adoring friend of Conrad’s later
years, and Sea Dreamer, a posthumous
translation of the biography by Jean-
Aubry, an old French acquaintance.
There is a popularized, romanticized
biography by a lady journalist, Jerry
Allen, and an idiosyncratic analysis of
the theme of non-conformity by Os-
born Andreas, a “practicing corporate
executive in the Chicago business world.”
There is a scholarly bibliography, and
a psychological analysis of the decline
of Conrad’s creative powers. Professor
William Blackburn has discovered and
impeccably edited letters between Con-
rad and his publisher Blackwood; Pro-
fessor Robert Haugh has written an at-
tractive critical study.
These new books are either quite
specialized — or superficial. The first
four have about them more than a lit-
tle of the amateur. As James, Joyce
and Faulkner tend to attract philosoph-
ical and literary cranks, Conrad’s fate
is to draw amateurs. His exotic subject
matter — the sea and the East — and
his melodramatic plots enchant readers
who remain forever innocent of the or-
iginality of his intricate artistry and
the dark complexity of his perceptions.
Yet this great novelist deserves treat-
ment at once expert and comprehensive.
Two recent works stand out from the
rest in their frank attempt to be de-
finitive: Jocelyn Baines’s critical biog-
THOMAS MOSER, author of Joseph
Conrad: Achievement and Decline (Har-
vard), is on the English eae of
Senn Ui eae: ;
Jerry Allen. Thunder and the Sun-
shine. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. $4.50.
Osborn Andreas. Joseph Conrad:
A Study in Non-Conformity. Phil-
osophical Library. $3.75.
Jocelyn Baines. Joseph Conrad. Mc-
Graw-Hill. $7.50.
William Blackburn, editor. Letters
to William Blackwood and David
_ S. Meldrum. Duke. $6.
{Richard Curle. Joseph Conrad and
His Characters. Essential. $6.
Albert J. Guérard. Conrad the Nov-
elist. Harvard. $5.50.
Robert F. Haugh. Joseph Conrad:
Discovery in Design. Oklahoma.
$3.75.
G. Jean-Aubry. Sea Dreamer: A
Definitive Biography of Joseph
Conrad. Doubleday. $4.50.
Kenneth A. Lohf and Eugene P.
Sheehy. Joseph Conrad at Maid-
Century: Editions and Studies
1895-1955. Minnesota. $5.
Thomas Moser. Joseph Conrad:
Achievement and Decline. Har-
vard. $4.50.
raphy, Joseph Conrad, just out; and
Albert J. Guérard’s Conrad the Nov
elist, published two years ago.
MR. BAINES’s biography is far and .
away the most detailed and accurate
that has yet been written of Conrad.
In every chapter Conradians will find
exciting new material either discovered
by Mr. Baines or first made generally
available by him. He presents, for ex-
ample, a wealth of Polish documents,
notably many letters from Conrad’s
father, Apollo Korzeniowski, and from
his uncle, Thaddeus Bobrowski. Mr.
Baines has traced Conrad’s voyages with
painstaking care and has, in the process,
caught Conrad in a flat lie to his uncle.
Conrad wrote asking for extra money,
having, he said, lost all his possessions
when the Annie Frost sank. But “Con-
rad was not on the erew’s list, nor did
the ship founder this time.” Mr.
Baines details with equal care the writ-
ing career, particularly the sources of
the novels. He re
tromo owes to Con
7
+
father was a zealous patriot, fanatically—
i much Nos-
ke yo “felce a and went into ¢
A f
i
-
PI
and he fills in the anarchist background
of the other two political novels, The } ;
: Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes. -
One of Mr. Baines’s discoveries has
received wide advertisement. A letter | ‘
from Uncle Thaddeus to his best friend | |
says that although he has told people | "
that his twenty-year-old nephew was |} ‘
wounded in a duel, the boy in fact at- | “
tempted suicide in Marseilles. Every- i
one, including Conrad’s wife and f
children, has believed The Arrow of } “
Gold version in which the hero falls in | ©
a duel over his Basque mistress Rita.
Actually, there is nothing ‘surprising in }
the suicide story. Conrad’s reputation
as a ship’s officer who liked risky pas- } )
sages, his narrow escapes in the Con-
go, his many deeply depressed letters, | ™
all suggest a person more than usually | ™
self-destructive. | Nevertheless, Uncle }
Thaddeus’ (and Mr. Baines’s) belief in hi
the suicide story need not be taken as | |
conclusive. Conrad showed himself will- [| ™
ing at another time to lie in order to | ™
gain his uncle’s sympathy. Perhaps he }
thought that the duel over a woman f
would seem to the conservative uncle | iit
simply more evidence of a wild bohemian } "
life, while a tale of suicidal despair over } #l
financial affairs would elicit sympathy. }
The suicide story, true or not, certainly | lle
worked. Uncle Thaddeus paid all Con- | Wi
rad’s debts, some 6,000 francs. vit
MR. BAINES’s Joseph Conrad is, then, a | %’
valuable, thought-provoking book. But 7!
is it the distinguished biographical in § hi
terpretation hailed by English reviewers? } !
Is it not rather a reliable factual ac-—
count which fails to present either a |
coherent interpretation of a believable
human being or a persuasive, original f
critique of his fiction? Joseph Conrad’s
life was partly, at least, a product of J)
and a conscious reaction against the
romantic ideas of Polish nationalism |
which fostered hopeless devotion to
political revolution, Conrad’s letters, like
much of his fiction, are seriously politi- f
cal. Yet Mr, Baines almost ignores Con- atm
rad’s ideas and asserts that Conrad is JM.
not an intellectual! Porn,
Again, Conrad’s unusual, tragic child- Phd
hood requires thoughtful comment. A im
failure at practical affairs, Conrad's Bite
phn
committed to Polish independence. His J \\hj
mother delayed her marriage eight |
years, in deference to her dead father’s JM)
wish, Once she was married, however, hi
she wholly organo? fer, husb band’s “pol
i
=
a
Pyar”
2
ing along the four-year-old Conrad,
their only child. They endured severe
privation. The little boy watched: his
mother, without adequate medical care,
slowly waste away with tuberculosis.
She died when he was seven. He watched
his father withdraw into the consola-
tion of a profound Christian mysticism
(“religious morbidity,” Mr. Baines calls
it). Not surprisingly, the boy himself
was often sick and for two years had no
schooling at all. Father and son were
finally released after six years. Shortly
afterwards, the father, too, died of
tuberculosis. Uncle Thaddeus became
Conrad’s legal guardian and tried by af-
fectionate exhortation to wipe out those
years and cure the boy of his Korzeni-
owski impracticality. What would a
young man with such a childhood be
like? Mr. Baines does not tell us, except
to throw out a string of redundant,
meaningless adjectives: “irresponsible,
undisciplined, inconsiderate, sensitive,
highly-strung, passionate.”
Certain important strands in Con-
rad’s later life need to be recognized,
examined, interpreted. With a small but
adequate inheritance, why was he for-
ever trying to involve himself in risky
financial speculation? Why were Con-
rad’s closest friendships only with men,
and why did an open break usually fol-
low intense affection? What was he
like as father and husband? He cer-
tainly appreciated his wife’s domestic
virtues and worried over his two boys.
But also he got married with the most
obvious reluctance and later frequently
treated his family cruelly. All this Mr.
Baines either ignores or finds amusing-
ly insignificant.
EVEN more distressing than the re-
fusal to interpret the man is the at-
‘tempt to interpret the works. Joseph
Conrad is, alas, a “critical” biography.
Yet none of the valid critical percep-
tions is original. Although the book
claims to be “carefully documented”
(some 1,600 footnotes, one quarter of
them /bid.), it acknowledges indebted-
ness for critical ideas only in a single
statement at the beginning. The com-
mon. reader could hardly guess the
constant debt to Messrs. Guérard and
Zabel. Moreover, specific borrowings
from other critics (including this re-
viewer) not only of ideas but even of
phrasing go utterly unacknowledged.
While such carelessness is irritating,
‘it need not invalidate Mr. Baines’s
‘critical assertions. But the truth is, Mr.
[ Baines would have written a better
book if he had borrowed more. He
would have written an even better one
if he had read the novels with atten-
0, 1960
ede
tion and humility. Mr. Baines regards
“catastrophe” as Conrad’s central theme,
thus simplifying him into a Thomas
Hardy, who sees man as wholly the
victim of outside forces. This is an in-
accurate reading. Conrad is a moralist;
the catastrophes he inflicts upon his
characters exist to test their moral
strength. The insistent ironic tone of
Conrad’s voice — and Marlow’s — pro-
nounces constant moral judgment.
Mr. Baines fails to recognize Con-
rad’s most important psychological per-
ception, the mechanism of psychic identi-
fication. Time and again, a “normal”
Conrad character sympathizes irration-
ally with a criminal, because he uncon-
sciously identifies himself with the other
man, senses his own weaknesses in the
other. If the reader misses this, he can-
not understand some of Conrad’s crucial
actions. Mr. Baines wonders why Mar-
low remains “loyal to the nightmare of
my choice,” Mr. Kurtz, white god of
African cannibals. Mr. Baines cannot
understand the suicide of Brierly, one
of Lord Jim’s maritime judges, although
Conrad makes it quite clear that Brierly
saw in Jim’s cowardice his own, and
could not endure the thought. Even
though Mr. Baines has discovered that
the original title of “The Secret Sharer”
was “The Secret Self,” he sees no special
connection between the. ship’s captain
and Leggatt, the fugitive he hides.
In general, Mr. Baines distorts Con-
rad by oversimplifying him, by remain-
ing unaware of the ambivalent feelings
at the heart of Conrad. He converts
Lord Jim into a simple tale of sin and
redemption apparently because he can-
not believe that Conrad could write a
sympathetic, but damning, story of a
man who fails not once, but twice.
When Mr. Baines has no one to lean
on, his own critical method is only too
obvious: a series of quotations pasted
together with plot summary and such
comments as this: “It is well written
and there are delightful descrip-
tions. . . .” He reminds one of Henry
James’s account of readers who feel “that
a novel is a novel, as a pudding is a
pudding, and that our only business with
it could be to swallow it.”
THE true artistry of Conrad — what
Mr. Baines missed — has been beauti-
fully defined in Albert J. Guérard’s Con-
rad the Novelist. Although the book ap-
peared nearly two years ago, it deserves
at least brief celebration here. Not only a
truly definitive work on Conrad, it is
also one of the very best critical books
on any novelist. Conrad the Novelist
fully satisfies its author’s high aim: “to
talk as rigorously and fully about these
4 ,
novels as certain critics talk about
poems.” Clearly, precisely, Mr. Gueérard
describes Conrad’s moral world, his
psychological insights, his political ideas.
Even more important, he shows the im-
pact on the reader of a Conrad novel.
Lord Jim is more than a masterpiece
of form; it is a living thing that invades
our lives, enlists our sympathies, and
makes us harassed participants in the
moral action. Mr. Guérard’s most mem-
orable pages are on The Nigger of the
“Narcissus” and Lord Jim:
The Nigger of the “Narcissus” recasts
the story of Jonah and anticipates
“The Secret Sharer’s” drama_ of
identification. This is a truth but a
partial truth. And how many partial
truths would be needed to render or
even evoke such a mobile as this one.
Touch one wire, merely breathe on
the lovely thing and it wavers to a
new form!
The critic pays tribute to the vivid
creation in Lord Jim:
... without the finely evoked atmos-
pheres and brilliant minor vignettes,
the novel’s amount of brooding de-
bate would have become intolerable.
Its pleasures in any event would have
been different ones. Page by page,
Lord Jim’s consistent great appeal
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, ae ee
ins
largely depends on its changing of
the lens, on its sudden shifts from a
often nebulous moral
perspective to a grossly and superb-
ly material foreground. Marlow’s
tendency to make such shifts is his
most personal and most: useful man-
nerism. It lends reality to the un-
substantial gross sub-
stance is bound to do, yet invites us
to look at them more critically. But
most of all, it offers the pleasure of
a creative surprise.
Mr. Guérard’s book is difficult and
complex, as any criticism worthy of
Conrad must be. Still, Conrad the Nov-
clist, by the austere, scholarly explorer
of André Gide, contains far more genu-
ine, informed delight in its subject than
does Mr. Baines’s biography.
distant and
reveries, as
A sharp, fresh approach to the
dilemma of capitalist-socialist conflict,
A fundamental new analysis with a clean-
cut program for a space-age economy.
Published January 1960 62.00
THE KEY TO WORLD PEACE
AND PLENTY
By Elsa Peters Morse
SUMMIT PRESS
P.O. Box 5047, San Francisco 1, Calif.
A
Non-Communist
Manifesto
THE STAGES
OF ECONOMIC
GROWTH
by W. W. ROSTOW
Karl Marx asked some pretty
good questions, but came up
with wrong answers. Rostow
gives the five stages that
nations must go through,
from the traditional, through
take-off’ to high mass
consumption. He shows how
this must affect the U.S.A.,
the U.S.S.R., and the problem
of peace.
“The most stimulating
contribution to political and
economic discussion made
by any academic economist
since the war.”
: —The Economist
Cloth $3.75 + Paper $1.45
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY
PRESS
Dishonest Under Pressure
THE THIEF IN THE. WHITE COL-
LAR. By Norman Jaspan with Hillel
Black. J. B. Lippincott Co. 254 pp.
$4.95.
Donald R. Cressey
THE FIRST general embezzlement
statute, which outlawed the act of
fraudulently converting funds that had
come into a person’s hands legally, was
passed in England in 1799. In an earlier
period, business had been carried on by
principals thermselyes — masters were
masters and servants were servants. As
commerce and business developed, ser-
vants had to be transformed into clerks
and cashiers, but there were no laws
that could be used to prosecute the new
class of trusted employees when it dip-
ped into the employers’ pile — a prac-
tice that became widespread. The new
embezzlement statute, which was modi-
fied and improved regularly up until
about the time of the Civil War, was
designed to fill this legal loophole.
This short history suggests that
modern business can be conducted only
if there is trust; a company that closes
off all opportunities for trust violation
certainly will diminish the amount of
money lost annually to dishonest em-
ployees and executives, but it will also
go out of business. Businessmen can
only hope that our laws against trust
violation, plus the dignity of stalwart
employees and partners, will keep trust
violation down to tolerable levels. Jas-
pan and Black show how fragile that
hope may be.
The authors of The Thief in the White
Collar — president of a management
consultant firm and a free-lance writer
— document the fact that embezzlement
has become one of the institutions of our
commercial life. Most of the cases they
describe were discovered when some
company asked the management firm
to determine why its margin of profit
was decreasing despite the fact that its
volume, or efficiency, was increasing.
Dishonesty was found in more than 50
per cent of the companies that hired
the consultants merely to survey plant
Jayout, materials handling systems, con-
trol systems, etc. — cases where there
had been no prior hint of dishonesty.
One chain of supermarkets loses be-
tween $4 and $5 million a year through
stealing, half of it by its own employees.
DONALD R. CR
PSSLY, author of
Other People’s Money
(Free Press), is
Bonding companies paid out $35 mil-
lion in honesty insurance claims in 1957,
and only 10 to 15 per cent of the na-
tion’s manufacturers, wholesalers and re-
tailers were insured. Last year, Jaspan’s
firm unearthed more than $60 million
worth of dishonesty, with more than 60
per cent of it attributable to supervisory
and executive personnel. Jaspan_ esti-
mates that in 1960 about $5 billion will
change hands in kickbacks, payoffs and
bribes. It is estimated that at any given
moment, between $10 and $25 million
is missing in employee thefts that have
not even been discovered. The entire
take for a year in the United States is
not known, but it must be fantastically
high.
The authors do little to explain em-
bezzlement. They call all company and
employee thefts “white-collar crime,” but
they are not concerned with the theoreti-
cal significance of the concept, as it was
developed by Edwin H. Sutherland, an
eminent sociologist. They make use of
my work on embezzlement (Other Peo-
ple’s Money), and I suppose there is a
lesson in that about the eventual value
of “pure” or theoretical research in
sociology. Especially, they seem to have
been influenced by my observation that
a potential embezzler first conceives of
some financial problem he has as one
that is non-shareable (e.g., his indebted-
ness is too personal, or embarrassing, to
be discussed with his employer or a
bank). They do not follow through with
an attempt to show the extent to which
this generalization fits their cases. (I
am happy to report that they did not
steal any case histories from my book
and report them as their own, a mild
kind of white-collar crime perpetrated a
few years back by a national magazine
in connection with an editorial on the
extent of fraud and phoniness in busi-
ness. )
THE authors fall into the common er-
ror of excusing some cases of dishonesty.
Before a trusted person can embezzle,
he must tell himself that doing so is not
wrong, or is somehow justified, He ar-
gues that he is only going to “borrow”
the funds, or he may believe that his
company is not giving him a fair shake,
This kind of rationalization is crucial to
trust violation; to the extent that Jas-
pan and Black fall in with it, they add
their bit to the embezzlement rate.
For example, criminals who have
broken banks by embezzlement are
called “Robin Hoods”; beautiful under=
‘statement is used to condemn an em-
‘ 7 7 % a .
a is J,
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ich
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ployer who grew rich but paid a respon-
sible employee only $70 a week; and it is
observed of an embezzler who got a
better job after being fired for dis-
honesty: “for the first time in his life
he was making a living wage. Waldo
at last could walk with dignity.” The
authors also seem to admire some man-
agers who helped a female thief get a
new job and did not report her to the
police because “the reasons for her dis-
honesty were such that she really didn’t
deserve punishment.” Three embezzlers
are said to “have in common the fact
that external circumstances over which
they had no control forced them to
commit dishonest acts.” Jaspan also
argues that “the most important cause
of executive thievery is what I would
call management myopia, the near-
sighted board of directors or president
who shortchanges the firm’s high eche-
lon personnel. . . . In numerous instances
the financial rewards [the executive]
receives are not commensurate with the
value of the work he does.” He com-
ments on the tragic predicament of an
“executive who is expected to cut an
impressive figure in his community on
we Pe Ere h Set Ae So 4
a salary that is far from adequate.”
Finally, it is said that “In too many
instances management refused to realize
that the employee who cannot live on
the salary the company can afford to
pay will almost inevitably compensate
by falsifying output, or overtime, or
expense accounts, or solicit kickbacks.
Eventually he will turn to outright
theft.”
Although they were not so intended,
such statements are definitions of situ-
ations in which embezzlement is con-
sidered appropriate or, at least, not ter-
ribly wrong. They have been used by
embezzlers for decades. But trust viola-
tion is never appropriate; it is always
wrong. During the 1943 famine in India,
Hindus starved to death rather than
kill a sacred animal; they lacked ration-
alizations to make the killing “all right”
in extreme situations. In our society
we are so unsure about the im-
morality of embezzlement that we con-
done specific instances of it even while
we condemn it in general. As long as we
continue to find excuses for individuals
who turn dishonest under pressure, our
embezzlement rates will remain high.
Wagging the Dog
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL AND
TOPO DEGLINE OF LIBERAL
EDUCATION. By Earl J. McGrath.
Bureau of Publications, Teachers Col-
lege, Columbia University. 65 pp.
$1.50.
William P. Tolley
AMID the cacophony of voices sound-
ing alarms over higher education there
are very few that deserve serious atten-
tion. Higher education is a highly com-
plex force in modern society, about
which the amateur may propose, but
the professional will dispose. This mono-
graph is the work of a professional. It
should be widely read.
Dr. Earl J. McGrath, former United
States Commissioner of Education, is
currently Executive Officer of the In-
stizute of Higher Education at Teachers
College, Columbia University. His thesis
is that “if the liberal arts colleges are
to regain their proper functions they
‘must free themselves from the domi-
nance of the graduate school.”
_ The purposes of liberal education clus-
‘ter around man as man in the social and
} physical worlds rather than man as
| scholar or as professional practitioner.
The three differently focused types of
education thus implied are denoted by
Dr. W. H. Cowley of Stanford as “demo-
centric,” “logocentric” and “practicen-
tric.” Liberal, or “democentric” educa-
tion, should provide a comprehensive
body of knowledge in the major
branches of learning; develop skills of
reasoning and communication, and nur-
ture traits of mind and spirit, a Welt-
anschawung, on the basis of which the
purposes and activities of existence can
be structured.
Dr. McGrath’s substantial historical
documentation sustains the premise that
a distorting eclipse has occurred. “The
decline of liberal education in this
country,” he observes, “parallels almost
exactly the ascendancy of the graduate
schools. The liberal arts colleges frag-
mented knowledge, specialized learning
in a multiplicity of departments, and
lost their distinctive objectives in a
patternless mosaic.” The liberal arts
colleges “shifted their emphasis from
teaching to research; from instruction
concerned with the key ideas of Western
culture to instruction composed of the
latest findings in ever narrower areas
of scholarly investigation; from a con-
cern with the complete development of
mind and character...to the cultiva-
tion of the professional skills and the re-
tie
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Dr.
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stricted subject matter of the various
fields... .”
Exception may be taken to Dr. Me-
Grath’s dissociation of competent re-
search and vigorous teaching. The latter
is possible without the former, but it is
neither likely nor ideal. The failure of
our institutions to relate them properly
is not evidence of their immiscibility.
As a consequence of the ascendancy
of the graduate school the mores, ad-
ministrative organization, rewards of
academic life, and free self-determination
of college policies have been radically
altered. In a day when the need for col-
lege teachers is expanding geometrically
neither the numbers nor the type of
preparation is regarded by this study as
at all adequate. Dr. McGrath’s indict-
ment is severe:
Although the graduate faculties
are largely responsible for the pres-
ent shortage of college teachers, that
is not their sole adverse effect on
liberal arts colleges. In a measure
the graduate schools deny society
the services which the colleges ought
to perform by transforming them
from institutions for general educa-
tion into agencies for the initial voca-
tional education of scholars, They
produce college teachers prepared not
primarily for their chosen work but
rather for research activities of a
limited character. Through the con-
trol of the political machinery in
the academic community they de-
termine the policies governing pro-
motions and salaries. By their ar-
rogation of the authority to define
the conditions of professional ad-
vancement in terms of research and
publication they divert the energies
of college teachers from their proper
employments.
Further, they consistently oppose,
often with shocking success, the at-
tempts of liberal arts colleges to re-
sume the time-honored function of
providing a general education for
youth regardless of their vocational
objectives. But, most important,
they have splintered the corporate
body which once was the liberal arts
college into small and often com-
pletely unrelated departmental units.
The monograph suggests the altera-
tions in both the liberal arts college
self-image and the graduate school
programs necessary to correct the situ-
ation. It suggests separate graduate
programs for those intending to teach
and those with special interest in re-
search careers; broadened education for
the college teacher; conceptual or in-
tegrative thesis work rather than factu-
al research; participation in a seminar
590
\thee a
+ A
a”
rin tee’
on higher education as a whole; and an
apprenticeship in the classroom under
an accomplished teacher. Only the first
and third of these suggestions would
face resistance.
The academic community will not
welcome his urging trustee action here
any more than they did the Ruml and
Morrison call for trustee action on class
size and the proliferation of courses. But
then that community might well con-
sider what action it will take for itself.
Kenneth Galbraith’s insight that “the
march of events” often changes social
practices against which reason has been
powerless should not hold true of the
citadel of reason itself.
THEATRE
Harold Clurman
I AM SORRY but Bye, Bye Birdie by
Michael Stewart, Charles Strouse and
Lee Adams (Martin Beck), the new
musical fun show at which I had a good
time, made me think of grave matters.
My pleasure and my sobriety are
both rather paradoxical, for when I be-
gan to detail the items which had pleased
me, I found myself depreciating the
sane s attributes. There were no voices,
I thought. The music, though interest-
ingly orchestrated, did not strike me as
ingratiating. The choreography, though
animated — and in the instance of the
Shriners’ Ballet delightfully surprising—
was not unusually distinguished. The
leading lady, Chita Rivera, hardly beau-
tiful, dances very well but sings only
passably; and the leading man, Dick
Van Dyke, can’t sing at all, though he
has an engaging personality and moves
with an odd precision which conveys
a winning archness.
The plot doesn’t altogether cohere
and much of the show appears impro-
vised; it is a revue in disguise. But if
one were to insist on such negatives the
point and value of this entertainment
would be lamentably missed. Somehow
these negatives compose into a special
sort of crazy-quilt spectacle (it re-
minds me of the block on West 52 Street
where the theatres housing Greenwillow
and the Thurber Carnival, the fancy
honky-tonk Dance City, and an Amuse-
ment Center offering a shooting gallery,
objects for obscene practical jokes and
self-photographing appliances, are all
conveniently at hand) that adds up to
a positive and peculiarly American
quality and dissipates many of our
critical demurs. The daily press as a
whole described the show as “fresh” —
which may be the right word; I think of
it as phenomenal.
The “phenomenon” is the satiric vein
which at times is so markedly accurate
that it becomes painful. At one moment
I whispered to my guest, “This is so
terribly funny that I feel like crying.”
What ostensibly is being satirized 1
Bye, Bye, Birdie is the teen-agers’ craze
for the Elvis Presley type of crooner.
But the satire extends beyond that: it
is a satire on our mass culture, on our
all-pervading conformism, our mechani-
cally stratified, almost fossilized infantil-
ism, our public delinquency.
“SATIRE” is perhaps too specific. Ring
Lardner, Thurber and a host of minor
American humorists may be thought of
as satirists — though their work does
not always stand sufficiently apart from
the objects of their scorn — but a show
like Bye, Bye Birdie manifests an en-
ergetic innocence which appears quite
unaware that its pranks are knocking
the hell out of everything in and around
us — that if the game were carried far
enough the result might destroy us.
This point is best exemplified when the
“typical” small-town papa rebels against
his house being taken over by the
crooner, his manager and the crazy kids
who swarm around them. The out-
raged man is about to throw the in-
truders off the premises when he is told
that he and his family are to be televised
on the Ed Sullivan show. This breaks
his morale. Consumed in glory, he turns
to jelly. He, his family and the entire
community (of Sweet Apple, Ohio) join
in a choral hymn — a Missa Solemnis,
a Bach Passion — in praise of the
grandeur that is Ed Sullivan.
The audience thinks this very funny,
which it certainly is; but one doesn’t
doubt for a second that it also feels
about the great television exhibits —
Sullivan’s or Paar’s or any other of a
similar category — very much as do the
communicants on the stages. Where
then is the satire?
Evil or disquieting thoughts , broke
through to my consciousness, as it may
to that of some others. We begin to
feel that our countrymen take nothing
seriously except financial panic or, more
pointedly, the loss of status which would
deny them the privilege of remaining
comfortably in the swim of a world en-
compassed and made safe by the bene-
fits that television sells. Such a world
is either the peak of our civilization —
the goal of all our striving — or the
doom. We all know it, laugh over it,
fight it, and sometimes turn the oc-
casional nightmare it causes our still
sentient souls into such a bright
A 7
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talented, frightfully ingenious and still
youthfully attractive, colorfully frivo-
lous, adulterated expression as Bye, Bye
Birdie.
The show’s theatrical effectiveness is
due in large part to the direction of
jower Champion, who also invented
the dance routines which compose only
one aspect of the evening’s ebullience. He
4s aided by a bunch of remarkable teen-
agers — one of the most pleasing being
the actor, Michael Pollard, who does
not however sing and dance as do the
others.
ART
Fairfield Porter
IT REQUIRES much more imagina-
jon to be a sculptor than to be a paint-
And because a sculptor’s activity is
Be guently more serious, a sense of
mor is more necessary to him than to
painter —the kind of humor that
eeps one from making mistakes about
slative values. Is this equivalent to
saying that humor is art? It may have
been this humor that Renoir found in
Degas and missed in Rodin; though a
ack of inhibition, or simply great energy
—which, if not humor, is parallel to
tumor and possibly even sometimes
uperior to it — allowed Rodin to carry
his inflated values.
William King’s sculpture, at the Alan
gallery, has a deceptive witiness, so
hat it looks like something not to be
aken seriously. He has a talent for cari-
ature, a quickness of mind followed by
quickness of execution that make
im pass from one accurate observation
another. His self-caricature in terra
otta shows an almost characterless,
hin face and pendulous chin ionling
orizontally out from behind thick spec-
cles like a professor of histology glued
0 his microscope. At the Party is a
alvanized iron man like a stovepipe.
Bs thin legs support a jacket in whose
ght pocket is hooked his right hand;
poste arm hangs straight and limp
| eagerly stooped intellectual shoul-
ers. ‘It is out of The New Yorker.
arpenter is a pine-plank abstraction.
iF the top a round blank clock face,
aperingly narrowly down to the floor;
18 a metronome in reverse, pedanti-
lly precise about space instead of
bout time. Articulated Figure com-
on the habit of anthropomorphiz-
ols or simple machinery. But King
‘Not use found objects; he com-
is very rare in sculpture: create a three-
dimensional whole out of more than one
figure in the round. That requires an
imagination as much greater than the
ordinary sculptor’s imagination about
volume, as a talent for three-dimen-
sional chess is greater than a talent for
ordinary chess.
And if you recall how few equestrian
statues are any good, you will be im-
pressed by his wooden Lady Godiva,
rather abstract, rather flat, but which
has a continuously composed silhouette
as you walk around it. From any side
or angle it looks like a half geometrical
bas-relief with all the projections at 30
and 60 degrees. King’s sculpture re-
sembles Picasso’s most recent sculpture,
except that he doesn’t get away ‘with so
much, and doesn’t fall into either of
the opposite vices of laziness or pedant-
ry.
MUSIC
Lester Trimble
CHOREOGRAPHER George Balan-
chine bundled together an astonishing
mixture of elements when he produced
his latest ballet, The Figure in the
Carpet to music by Handel (The Royal
Fireworks Music; The Water Music).
The Persian motif of the scenario begins
with an abstract, dance depiction of
desert sands, followed by the creation
before one’s eyes of an immense Persian
carpet that then forms part of the décor.
The climactic scene is devoted to an
entertainment at the Persian Court,
wherein ambassadors from France,
Spain, the West Indies, China, Africa
and Scotland present themselves in in-
dividualized dances. The ballet closes
with two “Finales” which have little
dance movement, but focus interest
upon elaborate and ingenious stage
machinery created by designer Esteban
Francis. The Figure in the Carpet is an
eye-filling ballet; a little afflicted by in-
congruity; Pecdeibuallg “corny”; and
opulent in the extreme. Indeed, it is so
strikingly and heavily costumed, and
the décor is so assertive (and beautiful)
that I was sometimes not sure whether
the show belonged to Balanchine or to
his designer.
The Figure in the Carpet was com-
posed in honor of the Fourth Interna-
tional Congress of Tranian Art and
Archaeology, which opens soon in New
York under the patronage of President
Eisenhower and the Shah Tran. The
basic ideas for the sequence of five
Dr. Arthur
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a
Upham Pope, Director of the Con-
egress. These are entitled “The Sands of
the Desert”; “The Weaving of the
Carpet”; “The Building of the Palace”;
“The Gardens of Paradise”; and “The
Fountains of Heaven.”
If you reason it out, there is perhaps
no incongruity in The Figure im_the
Carpet. However, the complexity of
elements — the plot, the different na-
tionalistic styles, Balanchine’s own style,
and a variety of historical periods —
could easily muddle a spectator more
intent on theatre than on logic. It might
have been wise to omit mention in
the program notes of the Court of
Louis XIV, since this information,
useful mainly as an insight into
the choreographer’s source of inspira-
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is ADDRESS —— I
1 Cinna a sTATa as!
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cvaililindadle .
tion, was not really pertinent to the
scenario, and injected some nervousness
as to the locale of the important Recep-
tion Scene. At that point, we had al-
ready been switched from the out-of-
doors to the interior, and from a cast
of Iranian characters to one including
an international assortment. Handel’s
music has nothing to do, stylistically, in
terms of mood, or of historical period,
with either Iran or France. So there were
quite enough discontinuous elements
floating around in suspension.
The choreography itself was all beau-
tiful. The opening scene, “The Sands of
the Desert,’ employed a large group of
girls in movements and patterns as light
and gusty as wind blowing over sand.
In “The Weaving of the Carpet,” Balan-
chine had his dancers moving fleetly
across the stage with long, colored
streamers held overhead and _ flowing
out behind them. Though I am seldom
as convinced by Balanchine’s use of
streamers and windings as I am by the
other elements in his vocabulary, I
found this scene exceedingly handsome.
With the next section came the high
point of the evening: a Reception of
Foreign Ambassadors, serving as a pre-
text for a divertissement. Here Balan-
chine loosed his genius for humor and
virtuosity. Surprise piled upon surprise,
witticism upon witticism.
It would be hard to choose a favor-
ite among Melissa Hayden and Jacques
d’Amboise, who appeared as the Prince
and Princess of Persia; Edward Villella,
as the Prince of Lorraine; Mary Hink-
son (of the Martha Graham company)
and Arthur Mitchell, as the Oni of Ife
and his consort; or Diana Adams, Deni
Lamont, Michael Lland, Richard Rapp
and Roy Tobias, who danced a deli-
cious caricature of Four Lairds of the
Isles and their Lady. Everybody was in
top form, and Balanchine had given
them enchanting things to do.
The two “Finales,” telescoped to-
gether, were a letdown, despite the ex-
traordinary inventiveness and the lux-
uriousness of taste revealed in Esteban
Francis’ décor. A real fountain, no less,
ended the ballet, with fragile, rhinestone-
like jets of water shooting into the air.
It was a sight to see, and almost made
one forget that the choreography had
turned static a short time earlier.
History Lecture
An era had come to its end,
Tt was the end of an era.
The era was now over, and
A new era was beginning.
M. Rippie
FILMS
Robert Hatch
JAZZ ON A SUMMER’S DAY is an
entertainment documentary made at
Newport last summer during the annual
jazz festival and when the America’s
Cup trials were being held there.
Though the subject is music, the point
of the picture is photography. The
camera wanders with lazy curiosity
through the streets of Newport (picking
up old residents and weekending cats
with impartial amusement), looks over
the huge camp-chair-crowded field where
the festival centers, pokes into the
boarding houses where the musicians re-
hearse and drink beer. It swings out for
a gander at the pretty yachts, picks up
provocative faces and saucy costumes,
intrudes on absorbed couples and in-
dulges in small photographic cadenzas,
just to show how relaxed and happy it is.
All this time the great names of jazz
are blaring and noodling on the stage,
and every so often the camera dutifully
scurries back to show what manner of
man is producing this grotesquerie of
sound. The camera, like a child wander-
ing in a safe park, can move most free-
ly in the daylight hours; at night it is
confined pretty much. to the festival
grounds, but even so it noses around in
an ingratiating way. The film was pro-
duced and directed by Bert Stern.
As for the music, I’m not an initiate,
but I think I know. what jazz is about.
One of these days, the boys in the au-
dience are going to start handling the
girls the way these musicians handle
their instruments; then the authorities
will surely step in and we shall cry
“tyranny,” like libertarian sheep. The
dithyrambie cry is fine healthy ex-
ercise, and one can grin for quite a while
at the varieties of erotic experimenta-
tion the jazz musicians can evoke; but
even dancing around the Maypole gets
monotonous in the end, and the time
may come when jazz will want to look
around for other appetites to feed.
THE INGREDIENTS of L£ypresso
Bongo are stale to the point of having
lost almost all flavor: the ruthless show
business finagler who lives on corned
beef sandwiches and uses his self-pity
as a club; the aging star who adopts a
fledgling performer, only to discover
that he has used her bed as a spring-
board to success. What saves the picture
for an American audience is the view it
offers of present-day vulgar entertain-
ment in London. The coffee joints where
teen-agers shuffle about in jeans, the
guitar bands beating out tuneless
rhythm, the long-haired boy who sings
like a saxophone under water; the half-
disgusted adults who make quick money
out of this joyless fun — any American
who has listened to a disk jockey knows
where all this comes from. ‘
It is sad that our bad taste exports so
readily. Not that this section of British
youth would be preparing morris dances
or singing “Widdecomb Fair” if left to
its own devices—it would have invented
some equally dreary pastimes of its own.
But it is better that each country be
put to the trouble of devising its own
vulgarity; that gives the world a more
motley look and does not cover every-
thing with a uniform sauce.
The picture, I think, intends to “com-
ment” on its subject, but I can’t tell
what it means to say. That, perhaps, is
because it singularly lacks wit, though it
is full of raffish gestures. There is a
promising bit in which a “brain-trust”
type of B.B.C. commentator attempts
to report on the significance of expresso
culture, but he becomes lost in a demon-
stration of academic dimness. And Law-
rence Harvey, who plays the hungry
agent around whom the picture devel-
ops, is a most unresilient actor. Again,
as in Room at the Top, he strikes me
as having no. self-propulsion —_ the
director provides all the steam. Cliff
Richard, as the young singer, exudes a
horrible authenticity when he is working
his act; otherwise he seems stunned, and
that is good acting or good casting.
THE BRITISH Battle of the Sexes is
based on James Thurber’s short. story,
“The Cat-Bird Seat.” I have not read
the story and would never have guessed
Mr. Thurber’s hand in the enterprise.
It lacks his wit and displays instead the
gentle spoofery now characteristic of
British screen comedy. An ancient Edin-
burgh tailoring establishment is thrown
into turmoil by the installation of an
American lady efficiency expert (Con-
stance Cummings), hired by the impres-
sionable new heir to the firm (Robert
Morley). She installs modern office
equipment, proposes to abandon the
cottage weavers and build a_ central
factory for the weaving of synthetic
yarns. Consternation and despair among
the old retainers. However the faithful
old bookkeeper (Peter Sellers) is a man
of absolute meekness and diabolical
guile. He sets his little traps, and I
think you can reconstruct the story from
there. Mr. Sellers plays with what is
known as delicious roguery, and six
months from now I shall be prepared to
swear that L saw Alee Guinness in the
part. he Battle of the Sewes is goo
formula fun, -
4 J
Le N ATION
Crossword Puzzle No. 865
By FRANK W. LEWIS
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11
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24
25
29
30
381
ne
ACROSS:
It might bear the seal of quality
with characteristic tone. (5, 4)
and 18-Imminent thing of fine con-
struction. (2, 3,6)
Draws one into the middle of au-
thentic esprit, obviously. (7)
Whence some call, and are sur-
rounded by candy. (7)
Sleepless serviette in the family.
The girl’s age is written immediate-
ly after this. (6)
See 29
Being’ in charge of the meeting sug-
gests the Cross of London. (8)
Paper plants? (6)
See 6 across
Not nice, yet nice in a way, even
though there’s a dent running
through it, (8)
What Cato said the belly doesn’t
have. (4)
And what Plato said is the parent
of luxury. (6)
The measure of look-alikes. (3)
A stag in facing trouble? (7)
and 13 A light turn-over might have
been responsible! (7, 4)
Mann said the actual one is the un-
known. (5)
Pine, because ‘it’s some time 29,
though not smart. (4, 5)
DOWN:
Nerve on the side of the face. (5)
This might feel capable of helping
out at the reception. (7)
rl 30, 1960
oA
aiel
3 A sweet sort of 14. (10)
4 A shaker of gin ruins this, but it
might be playing safe. (8)
5 Play a bet, by the sound of it. (6)
6 Where one might be put up in two
directions. (4)
7 In a manner expected 31. (7)
8 Is one all right, or just left alone?
4 Rush the construction of these, per-
haps, or the construction of 3.
(4, 6)
15 What might go with bill each time?
Barrels of it! (9)
17 English canaling might be different,
however. (8)
19 Grave in visage, but responsible for
a certain amount of warmth. (7)
21 To account for the unknown level,
by the sound of it. (7)
22 Canal boat? (6)
27 and 26 Just got up in the “Vaga-
bond King,” (4,1, 4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 864
ACROSS: 1, 4 and 6 Black and white;
9 Abscond; 10 Skipper;. 11 Derail; 14
Rhesus; 15 Nebulae; 16 Toss; 17 and
22 Pericarp; 19 Charger; 24 Trilogy;
31 Rebuked; 32 Enlists; 33 Durer; 34
Nil; 35 Songs. DOWN: 1, 16 down, 26
across and 27 Beard the lion in his den;
2 Assures; 3 Kaolin; 4 Adds; 5 Dash;
6 Writhe; 7 Impasse; 8 Earls; 12 Leg-
horn; 13 Puerile; 14 Raleigh; 18 and
20 Impeach; 21 Crowbar; 23 Addison;
24 and 30 Tinkerbell; 25 Yields; 26
Lurid; 28 Noses; 29 Aden.
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The NATION
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Printed in the U.S.A. by RCR Publication Printers Corp., N. ¥. 0.
A Maestoae From Georce Seldes
Dear Friends and Former Readers of IN FACT:
When | wrote my hail and farewell in 1950 | hoped for new
financing and a new plan of publishing, but the times were full
of fear and anxiety, and now fortunately other publications are
filling the void.
| have spent the best part of the decade in preparing a book
which my experience with IN FACT readers taught me is a vital
necessity. In my attack on censorship and suppression | had
learned that even today, and even in free and democratic Amer-
ica, the words and ideas of great men are still feared—and still
omitted—and notably in universally accepted, most popular and
most familiar anthologies.
The quotations of liberals and radicals and all on the "Left,"
including Jefferson and Adams [in their views on politics and
religion) and even conservatives such as Washington himself, are
so universally omitted in books pretending to fairness and com-
pleteness, that | am forced to believe that these patriots as well
as Tom Paine, and our first Freethinker-Publisher, Ethan Allen,
&
g
e g
6. pd
4a ge
tin ew?
8 |
& nw
ve compiled : 50
& an re ee
have been deliberately censored and suppress-
ed. | have been amazed by quotations from
them, and from hundreds of others, which |
have authenticated.
When it comes to Liberty (in general) and
to a free press, and to non-conformity, and to
dissent, and to Truth itself, the popular and
familiar books of quotations are either badly
done, incomplete jobs or guilty of suppression.
When John Stuart Mill's essay ''On Liberty" is
omitted from a dozen editions of Bartlett over
a hundred years (and is quoted for part of a
page today) | must suspect the censor. And so
with Milton's ''Areopagitica,'' the world's clear-
est call for a free press.
From Socrates to Einstein the story is the
same.
| have now collected, edited, and indexed
what | believe are all the great quotations of
all time. | have omitted the 80 to 90°% or more
of the material in the standard volumes. | do
not think that | have used 5 or 6% of the quo-
tations you will find in any other volume.
And, although | have emphasized liberty and
democracy, new truth on freedom, free speech
and free minds, it does not mean that | have
omitted anything important, even the anti-
humanitarians, the dictators, tyrants, authors of
terror and genocide. My one test has been
greatness. There has been no moral — or any
other form of censorship.
From the more than 100,000 letters | re-
ceived from IN FACT readers | have a feeling
you will value this book as much as | do.
| think it is the best contribution | have
made in my lifetime.
Cordially yours,
GEORGE SELDES
NOW ... after two decades of re-
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,.. THE GREAT QUOTATIONS is ready
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second to none. J. Donald Adams in his intro-
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thinking... "'
We believe it is one of the most im-
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A REPORT FROM THE SOUTH
by Dan Wakefield : ms
LETTERS
Prize-Winners
The winning of the Sidney Hillman
Foundation Prize Award by Harry
Ernst and Charles Drake for their arti-
cle in The Nation, “The Appalachian
South: Poor, Proud and Primitive” (see
announcement on back cover), has natur-
ally aroused great interest among the
people of the region. Following are com-
ments from West Virgimas Governor
and some of the state’s Congressional
delegation. — Epirors.
Sirs: Please accept my congratulations
to your magazine and extend them to
Mr. Ernst and Mr. Drake. The article
is good in style but wrong in fact....
The authors employ inverse romanti-
cism curiously to enhance while simul-
taneously to deprecate poor, proud and
primitive conditions in the Appalachian
South. Too many people in West Vir-
ginia are poor, but few are proud of
their poverty. Instead, they hope and
seek, sometimes desperately, for a job,
a chance. Nor are they primitive—no
more so than the technology and the
culture which trained them.
However, these errors are in point-of-
view, which is the authors’ prerogative.
But a more serious error of fact exists
in the article. Mr. Ernst and Mr. Drake
join two separate situations and con-
sider two different problems as one: the
Appalachian South with West Virginia;
pockets of isolated mountain culture
with the milieu of the coal camp; the
primitive poverty of culturally retarded
people with the hardship of the indus-
trial displacement of thousands of coal
miners.
The majority of West Virginia’s un-
employed are second-generation only.
Their fathers came to our State around
the turn of the century, specifically to
work in the coal mines. .
That these people acquired certain
aspects of a mountain culture is unde-
niable; but they created a new culture
—the culture of the coal camp. Their
poverty today does not result from cul-
tural retardation, as sociologists some-
times attribute to the mountaineers of
the Appalachian South. They are sim-
ply out of work. Mechanization in the
‘mines has displaced 75,000 miners in
the last ten years....
Those of us in state government are
conscious of this problem. Industrial
development efforts have been acceler-
ated; in 1959, an Economic Develop-
ment Agency was created, to co-ordinate
state planning; a public-works program
shortly will be under way; pilot programs
in vocational retraining point the way
to new skills for displaced miners.
Mr. Ernst and Mr. Drake suggest
that a TVA for the Appalachian South
could solve all of its problems. How-
~ever, the Appalachian South is not a
valley, it is a mountainous area. A
region can be developed, but only to
the maximum of its innate potential
and within the demands of a national
economy. Area redevelopment would be
only a partial solution for our severe
industrial displacement. A more reason-
able solution would combine such re-
development by federal, state and local
agencies with the training and _place-
ment of workers for jobs where avail-
able...<
Cecit H. Unperwoop
Governor of W. Va.
Charleston, W.Va. .
Sirs: I am enclosing a record of legisla-
tion that I either co-sponsored or sup-
ported during the first session of the
86th Congress. One can easily see the
solutions offered by Mr. Ernst and Mr.
Drake correspond with my way of think-
ing.
Rosert C. Byrp, U.S.S.
West Virginia
Washington, D.C.
Sirs: The authors have correctly pin-
pointed the need for providing federal
assistance to economically distressed
areas. I particularly liked their reference
to “a domestic Point Four program” as
a panacea for the problem.
Cievetanp M. Bairey, M.C.
(Third Dist., W. Va.)
Washington, D.C.
Sirs: I feel that the judges have made
a fine selection. . . . The migration of
younger people from the area (over 40
per cent of the Korean War bonus
checks by the State of West Virginia
were sent to out-of-state addresses) is
the most serious aspect of this situation.
The average age of the state population
is rising faster than the nation-wide
average. The older people with invest-
ments in their communities and who
experience difficulty in changing jobs or
getting new jobs are the ones left behind.
I thoroughly agree with the prescrip-
tion in the article concerning the need
for a domestic Point Four program. . . .
I believe that a well-financed area-
redevelopment program would do a great
deal to help—not through what its op- —
ponents term is “dole,” but through —
yet eo ee
Sy eee
what would really be a genuine program
to help the areas finance their own in-
dustrial development and expansion.
Ken Hecuuer, M.C.
(Fourth Dist., W. Va.)
Washington, D.C.
Sirs: The approach to the problem used
by the authors differs a great deal from
that which I believe must be used if we
are to encourage progress in the Appa-
lachian area. I believe that, generally
speaking, the situation of the so-called
“depressed areas” can be improved only
through economic redevelopment tied
directly to the general pattern of indus-
trial development which we can see on
the horizon. In other words, our pro-
grams of betterment must contemplate
the impact of positions taken in Moscow
and Geneva for reasons which should be
self-evident.
Joun M. Stack, Jr., M.C.
(Sixth Dist., W. Va.)
Washington, D.C.
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
393 @
ARTICLES
396 '@ Eye of the Storm: Report
from the South
by DAN WAKEFIELD
(Cover and drawings
by Karl Leabo)
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
406 ‘e “Young Tom Writ Large”
5 by FRANK GREENAWAY
407 @ The Total Joke
by THERRY SOUTHERN
407 '@ This Spring (poem)
by EDWARD WHISMILLUR
408 @ Letter from Aldermaston
by W. S. MERWIN
411 @ Theatre
by HAROLD CLURMAN
412 @ Music
by LYSTER TRIMBLIE
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 412)
by FRANK W, LEWIS
AVN
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, Wditor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Bditor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Music
Alexander Werth, Duropean
orrespondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, May 7, 1960. Vol. 190, No. 1D
The Nation published weekly (except for omis-
sion of four summer issues) by The Nation
Company and copyright 1960, in the U.S.A, by
the Nation Associates, Inc., 333 Sixth Avenue,
New York 14, N, Y. Second class postage paid
at New York, N. Y,.
Subscription Price Domestico—One year $8, Two
years $14, Three Years $20, Additional postage —
per year, Foreign $1,
er re ae
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 19
THE
NATION
EDITORIALS
Winds of Change
Every sailor knows the signs; the wind has died
down, the sea is calm; then, far away, “catspaws” ruffle
the surface, small and insignificant at first. But wait.
The catspaws advance, the spaces between them dimin-
ish. Driven by the rising wind, they take off menac-
ingly. Anybody can see it now: the wind has changed.
What the sailor knows, the politician may know too,
but he ignores it as long as he can. For some years there
has been a calm of a sort, a calm of repression and
frustration for many, the absence of great events. An
older generation was passing, intent for the most part
on its comforts and the avoidance of disturbances. It
assumed that the next generation would settle for the
same jumble of pleasure and pain. And in part this was
true — but only in part. For many of the new actors,
the lines were no longer worth reading, the objective
had to be more than to endure an hour and see in-
justice done. Nor did they know that in the modern
world revolution is supposedly impossible, that the po-
lice and the soldiers, with their machine guns and air-
planes and tanks, are all-powerful. Or if they knew, these
young ones didn’t care. In Seoul, the unarmed stu-
dents walked up to the tanks and said, “Shoot me.”
But they could not all be shot, and finally even the
tyrant had to face the fact of change. “This is the
victory of the people, of the young generation,” one of
the students cried.
And this goes on all over the world. In Tokyo eight
thousand students march to protest the remilitarization
of Japan. In England, the cradle of education in mat-
ters political, the great Aldermaston demonstration
against nuclear warfare pours a hundred thousand
Sie Fe,
In Turkey, students take up the banner of protest and
march against the Menderes government. In our South,
the Negro students engage in sit-ins for their “dig-
ity” and white students support them, knowing that
marchers into Trafalgar Square: “We want to live.”
all must have it, or none will. And in South Africa the
Bantus, treated as savages, demand the blessings of
that democracy which is so much more easily preached
than practiced.
This issue of The Nation reflects two of these world-
wide developments in Dan Wakefield’s “Eye of the
Storm: a Report from the South” (see page 396) and
W. S. Merwin’s moving description of the Alder-
maston march (see page 408). Indeed, the wind is
changing. It wouid be well if the statesmen, East and
West, took notice.
An Issue for the Democrats
A little more than a year ago, Mr. James Roosevelt
introduced a resolution (HR 53) to abolish the House
Un-American Activities Committee (the wording was
more limited but the intention was clear). The resolu-
tion was promptly bottled up in the Rules Committee,
where most worthy initiatives expire.
On April 25, Mr. Roosevelt once again addressed
himself to the resolution. This time, unlike his first ef-
fort, he pulled no punches; not since its inception has
the committee received such a masterly working over.
Congress, Mr. Roosevelt insisted, must accept respon-
sibility for the slanders, crimes and misdeeds of the
committee. “We created it,” he said, “we sponsor it, we
vote the funds for its continued operations, we enforce
its process, we publish its reports.” The committee is
not autonomous, it is not sovereign, it is an agency of
the Congress. It is, he said, “a monstrous thing that we
have created such an institution and lent it our powers
and prestige . . . it is to our eternal disgrace that we _
_ Sponsor such misuse of our authority.”
_ to be a rather quixotic gesture, made for the record;
~
“Jimmy,” it was said, could not be serious. Otherwise
Mr. Roosevelt’s first assault, a year ago, seemed —
>
he would not, as the goad politician he is, run the risk
of incurring the lasting enmity of the all-powerful com-
mittee and its all-powerful friends in and out of Con-
gress — such, for example, as Mr. Robert Morris of
New Jersey. But this year his resolution has at least
the limited backing of Speaker Rayburn and the Demo-
cratic leadership. It has also received powerful if indi-
rect support from a group of his colleagues who have
rallied to the defense of the National Council of
Churches (see: Congressional Record, pp. 7669-7705,
April 19). True, the Air Force Manual was their prime
target, but the offending passages came from the files
of the committee. It is worth noting that when Rep.
Donald Jackson — who has decided for some un-
announced reason not to seek re-election — rose to meet
their attack, he was not supported. In a year’s time it
was Jackson, the committee’s defender, not Roosevelt,
its critic, who found himself surrounded by air space.
In concluding his speech, Mr. Roosevelt urged his
colleagues to talk about his resolution when they re-
turn to their constituencies this summer. “I think,” he
said, “we need only break the spell of anxiety to find
wide support for the abolition of this thoroughly bad
institution. Then those who return here next January
can complete this imperative task... .” But an inter-
mediate step should be taken. The fact that Rep. Ches-
ter Bowles will chair the platform committee at the
Democratic convention should insure a fair hearing for
a proposal to put the party on record in support of the
Roosevelt resolution. The Republicans, on the other
hand, can be relied upon to extol the committee, with
whose work Mr. Nixon’s name has long been associated.
A political party, like a wise politician, should be con-
cerned with the future; it is the issue of rising popular-
ity, not the exhausted issue of yesteryear, that can be
ridden to power. Mr. Roosevelt has created a fine op-
portunity for the Democrats. Can they muster the
wit, and the courage, to take advantage of it?
Politics and the Bomb
When Dr. Edward Teller, “father of the H-bomb,”
appears before a Congressional committee, he is heard
with the rapt attention given an Elvis Presley by teen-
age girls. Dr. Teller doesn’t believe in a nuclear-test ban
under any conditions whatever. No matter what con-
trols are devised, in his view the Russians will cheat.
Dr. Hans A. Bethe, although an equally eminent sci-
entist, has less emotional appeal. His position has been
that the risks of continued testing outweigh the risks of
Russian skulduggery.
On April 21, however, reports issued from the hear-
ing room of the Joint Atomic Energy Committee which
made it appear that the difference between the two sci-
entists had been narrowed, if not obliterated. The let’s-
not-resume-testing forces were disconcerted until it
developed, first, that the reports were inaccurate. Bethe
agreed with Teller only to the extent that he conceded
394
what everyone already knew —that the 1958 control
system could not detect low-yield explosions, or even
some of medium yield if elaborate decoupling or muf-
fling measures were employed. The “rigging” consisted
in the limitations on testimony imposed by the com-
mittee, now happily united in an entente cordiale with
the Atomic Energy Commission. The witnesses were
confined to technical considerations, such as how many
seismographs are required for “fool-proof” detection at
a given kilotonnage. That Bethe has not changed his
mind on the crucial question is shown by his speech of
April 25 before the Washington Philosophical Society.
There he accused his opponents of raising “most un-
likely technical difficulties” in an attempt to defeat a
possible agreement with the Soviet Union. “We have
lost our sense of balance in pursuing complicated tech-
nical problems,” he argued, and have “completely for-
gotten the political objectives of a test-ban agreement.”
There is an even more disturbing aspect to the turn
the test-ban controversy has taken. In the April 24
New York Times Arthur Krock, who surely cannot be
accused of dallying with the national security, wrote
that the hearing conducted by the Joint Committee
was “an act of statesmanship,” then added, “But even
professional politicians can see that sometimes states-
manship is also the best politics. ... The Committee...
is under Democratic control. The Democrats fear the
Republicans may have the materials for two campaign
issues which can elect their ticket in November — peace
and prosperity. If the President emerges from the
Summit Conference ... in the heightened glow of the
peacemaker, with the State Department steadily claim-
ing ‘progress’ in the negotiations for an efficient nuclear
test-ban treaty, and the moratorium is represented as
another proof that Eisenhower and peace are synony-
mous, this might insure a Republican victory in the
1960 election.”
The Joint Committee, led by Teller and his group,
has shifted all the emphasis to the margin of error that
exists in every inspection system. Nor has it tried to
improve the system. Billions have been spent on H-
bombs, a few millions at most on detection. Two bodies
of scientists now should make themselves heard. One is
the Advisory Committee on Science and Technology
of the Democratic Advisory Council, whose members
must take cognizance of the charge that some Demo-
crats are prepared to sabotage a test ban for Democratic
advantage in the coming election. The other is the sci-
entific staff of the Atomic Energy Commission itself.
According to Harold C. Urey, “It is not a unanimous
view of people working within the AEC that we need
this host of tests that is emphasized continuously.”
Urey always knows what he is talking about. If any
of the AEC scientists have anything to say in the na-
tional interest, now is the time for them to say it.
eer ee Vara
-
China and the Bomb
As one can see from the foregoing, the test-ban con-
troversy has reached a crucial stage. The crisis, how-
ever, extends far beyond the play of American domestic
politics or the obsessions of one section of the American
scientific elite. In the London Observer for April 24,
Mervyn Jones recalls that everyone who is old enough
can remember the point at which he had to admit to
himself that the Second World War had become a
probability. Jones applies this observation to the con-
temporary scene: “The event that will make the Third
World War — in other words, the end of civilized and
perhaps of all human life —is a probability that can
now be foreseen. This event is the acquisition by China
of nuclear weapons.”
It is characteristic of the Communist system that,
while its technological development may be uneven, it
can mobilize enormous industrial power where the lead-
ers feel it is most needed. The Russian sputniks are an
illustration. Jones, reflecting Labour Party opinion,
thinks that the Chinese Reds may have nuclear weap-
ons in four, even two, years. With every enlargement
of the nuclear club, the chances cf war increase accord-
ing to something like the square of the number of mem-
bers, but China will not be just another member. With
or without the bomb, China is on the verge of becoming
a Great Power, i.e., a nation able to initiate a major
war. And China, in contrast to the United States and
even the Soviet Union, is a dissatisfied Great Power
and, further, an untrammeled one. China lacks the Eu-
1 See
ropean ties of the Soviet Union, she is not a member of
the United Nations, she is a complete outsider. Poten-
tially, China and Russia are rivals. Jones does not think
the rulers of China are actively preparing for aggression,
but he notes that they have much less confidence in a
_ peace based on negotiation and agreement than the
rulers of the Soviet Union. Analyzing China’s position
and characteristics, Jones concludes that “it would be
very rash to assume that such a Power, when full-
_ grown to greatness and equipped with the bomb, would
be deterred by the threat of nuclear bombardment.”
But unless a beginning is made in the creation of con-
trol machinery, the nuclear race will go on, and neither
the Soviet Union nor the United States, much less
Britain, will be able to prevent the Chinese from join-
ing it. Then the flimsiness of the 1960 objections to a
test ban will be clear to everyone — but then it may
be too late.
To the Armories, Artists!
and magazines in New York copies of a letter addressed
A group of artists has recently sent to newspapers
to ee curator of a vi Museum pecoums the
‘shows. And on a recent Sunday, another group of artists
picketed the Museum of Modern Art as a house of
dilettantes and a force for perv erting the natural good
taste of the common man.
This is fine — whatever the actual merits of the at-
tacks, it is fine. Museums are institutions and unless
they are under constant fire, they become establish-
ments. Any artist whose work is rejected by the aesthetic
authorities should feel morally outraged; if he doesn’t
feel outraged, he is no artist. Letters should be written
on all possible occasions and banners should be unfurled
in every breeze that will flutter them. The curators
should be made to know that they live dangerously in
those elegant halls, that the breath of unrecognized
genius is on their necks and that ridicule and scorn
await them in the future. Nothing is worse than a
complacent curator, unless it be a resigned artist.
But of course the letter writers and the placard wield-
ers shouldn’t stop there. They should organize their
own shows and let us see how truth and beauty have
been scorned. What are armories for?
Question for Quesada
In The Nation of April 9 we questioned the decision
of the Federal Aviation Agency to reduce the cruising
speed of Electra turbo-prop airliners as a precautionary
measure. We pointed out that if FAA had reason to
believe that the planes were structurally defective, they
should have been grounded altogether pending a full
investigation. Since then, thanks to the timely action
of Senator Vance Hartke, it has been disclosed that the
Civil Aeronautics Board — which investigates air acci-
dents — had in fact unanimously recommended, on the
basis of preliminary investigations at the Lockheed
plant, that the planes be temporarily grounded. The
FAA, however, declined to accept the recommendation,
and instead ordered that the cruising speed of the planes
be reduced. But the CAB would not release its report,
which it claimed was “confidential”; nor would the
FAA release it. Nor has it since been released. This left
the public in a quandary. It neither knew the basis on
which the CAB had made its recommendation, nor
the reasons why the FAA had rejected it.
The two agencies have now issued “companion”
reports — not a joint report. For its part, the FAA
takes the position that inspection of all Electra airliners
supports its finding that the planes are safe under cur=
rent speed restrictions. The CAB merely states that two. i I
weeks ago it made a recommendation for grounding | ne
the planes. This makes the original quandary even
worse, for it suggests that the two agencies, which ap- 2
parently took divergent views at the outset of the in-
vestigations, have not resolved these differences. Does
on this inconclusive note?
Mr. Quesada feel that it is fair to close the Electra file
-
a
REPORT FROM THE SOUTH
EYE OF THE STORM... by dan Wakefiela
Southern newspaper executives attending the convention of the Ameri-
can Newspaper Publishers in New York last week have their own ideas on
when integration will come to the South: “Not as long as I live”; “I'll not be
there to see it”; “It 1s a long way off”
; “Not im the foreseeable future.” Un-
doubtedly this is a popular timetable among Southern whites, but is it ac-
curate? There are those — including whites — who are seeking to draw up a
new one, and the resultant clash has made, and will continue to make, some
of the most sigmficant headlines of this decade. That is why we sent Dan
Wakefield — author of Island in the City and many articles on the race
question —into the eye of the storm; his report will help you make up your
own mind on timetables. — Tur Enptrors.
We’re just not gonna do it.
—Don Hallmark, program chair-
man, Montgomery, Ala. White
Citizens Council
-Nothing can stop us.
—Billy Smith, Negro student sit-
in demonstrator, Greensboro,
NAG;
Montgomery
BENEATH the gold draperies that
canopy tthe long, high-ceilinged
stage of the Montgomery, Alabama,
City Hall sat the officers of the local
White Citizens Council and _ their
honored guests — the top officials
of the city, county and state police
forces. Montgomery Safety Commis-
sioner L. B. Sullivan, who heads the
police and fire departments of this
city of roughly 70,000 white and
50,000 Negro citizens, stood at the
rostrum and told his appreciative
public audience:
Since the infamous Supreme Court
decision rendered in 1954, we in Mont-
gomery and the South have been put
to a severe test by those who seek to
destroy our time-honored customs.
... I think I speak for all the law-
enforcement agencies when I say we
will use all the peaceful means at our
disposal to maintain our cherished
traditions.
So stand the police of Alabama
— on the side of law, order and the
cherished traditions of the white
citizens. Indeed, the topic of this
particular meeting was “A Salute to
Law and Order.” I attended it with
a young man and woman who live
in Montgomery, and we sat through-
396
out the proceedings in_ silence,
neither clapping nor rising from our
seats during the several standing
ovations. Throughout the speeches I
was taking notes, and this, along with
our failure to rise and applaud at ap-
propriate moments, was _ evidently
enough to brand us as “outsiders.”
When we walked toward the door at
the end of the meeting a middle-
aged man in a brown business suit
followed along beside us and began
to shout at me, “Did you get enough
information? I hope you got all the
information you wanted!”
I said yes, thanks, I had all the
information I wanted. He continued
to follow, shouting and pointing at
us, and other people began to stop
and stare. He yelled out, “I know
who you are! I know who all three
of you are!”
By the tone of his voice and the
look on his face, he seemed to be un-
der the impression that we were, at
the very least, three of the Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I ex-
tended my hand and told him my
name, but he drew back and shout-
ed, “Never mind, I know who you
are! You’re not welcome here!”
We walked on out of the door, and
when we got to the street, several
young sport-shirted men and one
elderly white citizen fell in behind
us. We walked on in silence to the
car, which was parked around the
corner from the City Hall, across
the street from the fire station. Not
looking back, we seated the girl in
the car. I got in next to her by the
door, and the other young man
walked around to get in the driver’s
seat. Before he got in, my door was
yanked open and two of the men
who had followed us were grabbing
at me, cursing and trying to pull me
out of the car. They grabbed for my f,,
arms, legs and the notebook and
papers I carried, tearing at my
clothes and ripping my jacket.
The young man who had come to
the meeting with me quickly hustled
the girl out of the car. She ran across
the street to the fire station, where
four or five Montgomery city fire-
men were standing outside and
watching us. She yelled “Help” as
she ran toward them, and they hur-
ried inside, retreating into a back
room of the fire station, and refusing
to answer when the girl pounded on
the door.
My own yells by now had become
quite loud and quite sincere, and the
zealous citizens, who still hadn’t
managed to pull me out of the car,
finally ran off down the street and
out of sight. My two friends got
back into the car, and just before
we drove away the firemen appeared
again outside the fire station across
the street. They were smiling at us.
Evidently they, too, were unmoved
by, or unaware of, the doctrine of
the uses of “peaceful means” in pre-
serving tradition that their boss,
Safety Commissioner Sullivan, had
espoused in behalf of himself and
his men at the meeting a few minutes
earlier. ;
Law and Disorder
In fairness to the inspired citi-
zens who attacked us, however, it
ought to be explained that the Citi-
zens Council “Salute to Law and
Order” program was not exactly a
Gandhian conference on the merits
of love and non-violence, and L. B.
Sullivan’s text was far from being
The Sermon on the Mount. One of
the significant and dangerous fea-
tures of the respectable racism prac-
ticed by the White Citizens Councils
is that although their leaders and
orators never fail to mouth a firm
dedication to law and order at every
public gathering, they also stir the
passions of their crowds with provoc-
Tl) ; Natron
en) ee |
>I?
ative and outraged attacks on all
those who oppose their principles,
and deliver soul-searing declama-
tions on the sacred cause of white
supremacy. If zealots leave these
meetings and vent their passionate
dedication to the cause by violent
means, the Citizens Council offi-
cials can, of course, deny responsibil-
ity by citing their statements up-
holding “legal, peaceful means” of
action.
Safety Commissioner Sullivan,
for instance, could disclaim any in-
citement to violence in his speech by
pointing to his clearly stated belief
in “peaceful means” of preserving
the threatened white traditions. But
after that affirmation (a not too
radical stand for a city police chief),
ters. The City of Montgomery, he
explained to his audience, was se-
lected long ago as “a site for racial
agitators and troublemakers to at-
tack our cherished way of life.” The
pressure had increased of late, he
said, because of the efforts of civil-
rights groups to influence politicians
in Congress and in the coming Pres-
idential elections. The rabble-rousers
had so far met with little success, he
reported, but there were dangers
| ahead:
Not since Reconstruction have our
customs been in such jeopardy... .
We can, will and must resist outside
forces hell-bent on our destruction. ...
As if this weren’t enough to in-
flame the breast of any loyal white
citizen, Mr. Sullivan went on to
state: “We want these outside med-
dlers to leave us alone”; then, in a
_ slow, meaningful tone of irony: “Jf
they do otherwise, we'll do our best
| to ‘accommodate’ them here in
_ Montgomery.” '
And who could say that the citi-
zens who shortly afterwards at-
tacked us were not just doing their
best to “accommodate” some “out-
_ side meddlers”?
The audience had also been in-
formed that outsiders were the real
cause of the attempted Negro prayer
march to ‘the steps of the state
_ Capitol on March 6, which barely
_ was prevented from turning into a
riot when an angry mob of 5,000
whites assembled to stop the demon-
s Program chairman Don
7, 1960
he got down to more alarming mat- .
Hallmark of the Montgomery White
Citizens Council told the meeting
that “The people who sponsored this
demonstration were disappointed —
they had a lot of money in it.”
The Citizens Council “Salute to
Law and Order” was held to honor
the law-enforcement officials for
their work in dispelling the mob and
preventing violence at that demon-
stration. But one of the important
groups that took an active part in
controlling that explosive situation
was not represented on the platform
along with the city, county and
state police officials feted by the
Council. This was the group of
armed horsemen whose appearance
on the scene marked a new addition
to the law-enforcement procedures
of the South. The band of mounted
“deputies,” led by Sheriff Mac Sims
Butler, was composed of wealthy
cattlemen from the surrounding area
who now are on call for emergencies,
and have several times come into
town with their horses in trailer
trucks for “civil defense” drills. Dur-
ing the prayer-march demonstration,
they roughed up and _ threatened
three press photographers, two from
Alabama papets and one from Mag-
num of New York. One of the photog-
raphers was arrested for refusing to
obey an officer (deputy) who told
him to move back. These non-uni-
formed mounties are unknown by
face or name for public record, and
have been especially vigilant in pre-
venting any pictures being taken of
them. =
Reasons of secrecy no doubt pre-
vented them from appearing on the,
Citizens Council platform to share
the honors with the city, county and
=
Ys
4 7?
~
°
state police, but perhaps that was
all for the best. The volunteer horse-
men might well have been disap-
pointed at the public’s appreciation
of their efforts. An estimated 5,000
of their fellow white citizens had
turned up to form the mob that they
helped to hold in tow on March 6;
but not more than fifty sat scattered
in Montgomery’s large City Hall on
“Law and Order” night. When Don
Hallmark stepped to the front of the
stage to open the meeting, he looked
around the nearly vacant auditorium
and asked: “Where is everybody?”
Empty Rows,
The only answer was an uneasy
shifting as necks craned around at
empty rows, and Mr. Hallmark,
after asking those scattered at the
back and the sides to come on down
front and center, attempted to dis-
pel the momentary gloom with a
hopeful appraisal that “We think
we make up for numbers in quality
here... .”
It is easier to assemble larger num-
bers of white citizens for a mob than
for a meeting. But that is not hard
to understand — a mob at least of-
fers excitement, but even the most
ardent white supremacist must at
this stage be weary of the ceremonies
of the Citizens Councils. It is now
six years since the conception of the
397
W.C.C.. sprang full-blown from the
forehead of Robert “Tut” Patterson
in Sunflower County, Mississippi,
and with occasional and _ usually
minor variations, the meetings of
these defenders of the faith through-
out the South remain as unchanged
in rhetoric and style as high school
graduation ceremonies,
As is the usual custom at these
proceedings, chairman Hallmark
harangued the conscience of his au-
dience on the need for financial as
well as moral support of their prin-
ciples (last year Alabama’s white
citizens coughed up only $4,000 for
the cause, while their brothers in
Mississippi gave $160,000). In the
same familiar formulas, Mr. Hall-
mark reaffirmed the organization’s
principles (“states’ rights,” segrega-
tion, “preservation of our cherished
customs”) and its unbending al-
legiance to them (“despite federal
prisons or anything else, no force
can make us integrate”).
It was Safety Commissioner Sulli-
van who provided the only new
notes in the evening’s incantations.
If there were any skeptics present
who had doubted the feelings of the
police about their role in quelling
the mob at the prayer-march, Mr.
Sullivan soothed their minds. He
complimented the mob for its “co-
operation” with the law-enforcement
officials by finally dispersing without
drawing blood, and made it clear
that the police had not only been
there to preserve the peace, but to
preserve the white traditions as
well. “Spring is here, and birds are
singing,’ Mr. Sullivan said, “but
with the help of our law-enforcement
people, the blackbirds aren’t gonna
sing on the Capitol steps.”
The white citizens laughed, and
rose to a standing ovation.
And Anti-Semitism, Too
The segregationist politicians and
Citizens Council orators constantly
compare the current threat to
“Southern customs” with the crisis
of Reconstruction; and indeed the
rlietoric and attitudes of that era
have been revived by the whites who
are fighting to preserve segregation.
In describing the atmosphere of the
South in Reconstruction, W. J. Cash
(in his brilliant book, The Mind of
the South) wrote a passage that per-
398
Pee A Ge ee | Re ne
fectly fits the situation today in die-
hard Dixie areas, especially in Ala-
bama and Mississippi:
Criticism, analysis, detachment, all
those activities and attitudes so nec-
essary to the healthy development of
any civilization, every one of them
took on the aspect of high and ag-
gravated treason.
The cry of “treason” from a small
band of anti-Semitic, anti-Negro
bigots in Montgomery, plus intimi-
dation by the local Ku Klux Klan,
have effectively wrecked what few
groups there were in the city which
mildly promoted a less than Dixie-
dedicated approach to the race ques-
tion. The unaffiliated bigot group,
composed of both men and women
(female suffrage seems to be its main
difference from the Klan) is centered
on Rear Admiral John G. Crom-
melin (Ret.), a former chairman of
the Millions for McCarthy Commit-
tee, and a weekly newspaper called
the Montgomery Home News. The
paper is indistinguishable in its ide-
ology from Common Sense, The
National Defender and similar bigot-
sheets which have long been pub-
lished in the country. But the dif-
ference is that this is a “home-town
hate paper.” You buy it on the news-
stand, or in the hotel lobby. The
degree of its acceptability in the
community can be seen in the fact
that in its April 7 issue, eighteen
candidates for political office in the
city, county and state advertised
in its pages. Most of them allude to
their dedication to the cherished lo-
cal customs, and John Crommelin,
“the Whiteman’s Candidate to the
U.S. Senate,” is if possible even more
explicit:
As your Senator, I, will ATTACK
and EXPOSE the Anti-Defamation
league of B’nai B’rith (ADL), the
malarial-mosquito of integration and
REAL HIDDEN ENEMY of White
Christian Alabamians. THIS MUST
BE DONE. The ADL (all jew) is
the mosquito; the NAACP (jew con-
trolled Negro) is the germ.
The message that the whole cam-
paign against segregation is part
of the “Communist-Jewish” con-
spiracy is also brought to the citizens
of Montgomery by Mr. Crommelin
on the local television station,
In the search for traitors, the Jew
ee ee ee
oe r Ai * 3 ay a
is an ideal target for the white South-
ern racist. As the threat to local
racial customs grows, the embattled
white-Protestant zealot finds in the
Jew a ready-made “outsider” living
in his midst, and the results are a
rise in anti-Semitic feeling which :
is likely to end in incidents like the f ,,
bombing of synagogues (the most 3
recent of which took place in Gad- | ”
sen, Alabama, this spring). This cur- |!”
rent rise in anti-Semitism in the Cin
South is, like the rest of the current ty
rhetoric of hate, nothing new, and Pr
its roots were well explained by W. il
{.; Gasie ie
Sau
The Jew ... is everywhere the fi oy
eternal alien [writes Mr. Cash] and in aup
the South, where any difference had the
always stood out with great vividness, =
he was especially so. Hence it was "
perfectly natural that, in the general }
withdrawal upon the old heritage, the it
rising insistence on conformity to it, |
he should come in for renewed de- }
nunciations; should, as he passed in § tt
the street, stand in the eyes of the fh
people as a sort of evil harbinger and f |i
incarnation of all the menaces they f }
feared and hated—external and in- Jy
ternal, real and imaginary. t
Flight into Prejudice t
The White Citizens Councils, which '
claim to be clean of prejudice of any ,
kind, are fond of pointing to their
acceptance of Jewish members. In-
deed, the Jew in the South may often
join his local Citizens Council with
genuine dedication — not so much
in the desire to protect the tradition
of white supremacy as to protect
himself and his family, This reason-
ing was well explained in an anony=
mous letter from a Jewish member
of the Mississippi Citizens Council
which was published in the April
edition of the Montgomery Citizens
Council newspaper under the head-
ing, “A Jewish View”: |
Because I have always manifested °
such respect for my own religion, my
fellow members of my local Citizens
Council would not for one moment
entertain thoughts of turning the
Citizens Councils’ activities into anti-
Semitic channels. This pattern is, I
am confident, being repeated in all
the towns and cities where respected
and self-respecting Jewish Southern-
ers have felt as I feel—that segrega-
tion must be maintained and that
membership in the Citizens Council,
cil
7 ’ Wy as
tink I TI
Hu :
: 5
will help to maintain it. I speak from
first-hand knowledge when I say that
there are many Jewish members of
Citizens Councils both here and in
Alabama .. . the Jew who attempts
to be neutral is much like the ostrich.
And he has no right to be surprised
or amazed when the target he so
readily presents is fired upon.
But the target of the Jew is fired
upon anyway, if not by the White
Citizens Council he has joined, then
by the Klan and the local white-
Protestant hate groups that won’t
allow him to join. The Jews, how-
ever, are few in number in the
South, and not everyone who stands
outside the firm boundaries of white
supremacy can be labeled a Jew;
these others, then, are labeled Com-
munists. The enemies of Southern
white tradition are “atheists, social-
ists, communists, red_ republicans,
jacobins . . .”; this list was not com-
posed by John G. Crommelin, who
carries on the crusade today, but
by Dr. J. H. Thornwell, speaking in
1850, the year before he assumed
the presidency of the College of
South Carolina. The two evil spec-
ters conjured up by the racists as
the current enemies of Southern
white tradition are not new inven-
tions, but old ghosts brought down
again from the attic of the past.
‘Mental Health’ Conspiracy
The Montgomery patriots who
dedicate themselves to rooting out
the Communist-Jewish conspiracy
have been successful in breaking up
any groups of “traitors” in town who
do not adhere to the Southern segre-
gation stand. An interracial prayer
group of local church women, many
of them wives of well-known Mont-
gomery business and religious lead-
ers, had been meeting for four or
five years to sing hymns, pray and
have coffee together, but this trea-
sonous conspiracy was wrecked in
September of 1958 when the local
segregation patriots took down li-
cense numbers of the attending
ladies, took pictures of them as they
came out of the church where they
had met, and published their names
and the names of their husbands’
businesses in the Home News. The
ladies began to receive threatening
and obscene phone calls, husbands
blicly denied approval of
‘wives’ treachery (some took ads in
the Montgomery Advertiser, disas-
sociating themselves from _ their
wives’ guilty activities) and the
group has not met since.
An even more subtle conspiracy
was uncovered recently by the zeal-
ous followers of the Home News and
the K.K.K. This was the establish-
ment of a branch of the Mental
Health Society in Montgomery. Its
meetings at first were quite well at-
tended, but then the Klan and its
Crommelin friends turned out to
picket and distribute literature ex-
plaining that “mental health” was
only another aspect of the Commu-
nist-Jewish conspiracy. The aim of
the Mental Health Society was to
“brainwash” good Southerners into
accepting integration. It was further
revealed that these “mental health”
people had a secret hospital in Alas-
ka where Southerners were taken to
have lobotomies performed on them
which changed them once and for
all into accepting communism and
integration. To further prove their
case against mental health (if there
indeed could be any doubts left),
the “patriots” pointed out that most
psychiatrists are Jews.
The people who had been attend-
ing the mental-health meetings may
not have been convinced of the logic
of the attack on their society, but
they were genuinely frightened at
the K.K.K. picket lines which greeted
them before and after the meetings.
Attendance dropped off until the so-
ciety decided not to hold any more
public meetings; their last gathering
was held under the auspices of an-
other local organization not tarnished
by the stigma of “mental health.”
The local patriots of segregation
are actually wise in seeing “mental
health” as a threat to all they hold
dear, for the current segregation pat-
tern of Montgomery is one of the
most intricate pieces of insanity on
exhibit in the Western world. Its
complex absurdity can perhaps be
glimpsed by the following illustra-
tion: physicians’ offices in Mont-
gomery have separate, segregated
waiting rooms, but many doctors
have colored receptionists; lawyers’
offices have single, “integrated”
waiting rooms, but only white re-
ceptionists. ee
Mi ‘
ae
ve ae re ; ie
The growing hysteria surrounding
the protection of the complicated lo-
cal traditions of segregation not only
makes any criticism of them by
native whites a sign of treason, but
any violation of them by outsiders,
however unintentional, a hostile and
probably conspiratorial act of ag-
gression and/or subversion. A group
of undergraduate students from
MacMurray College in Illinois, who
stopped in Montgomery several
weeks ago in the course of a sociol-
ogy field trip through the South,
were found guilty of such “subver-
sion.” They had been to a cattle
ranch one morning and came into
Montgomery that afternoon, where
they met for lunch with some of the
local Negro students and ministers
in a private room of the Regal Café,
a small restaurant in the Negro sec-
tion. Someone saw the white students
entering the café with Negro stu-
dents, and the police were notified.
Several police cars came, a TV re-
porter and camera man followed, and
the MacMurray students were ar-
rested and charged with disturbing
the peace. The evidence rested on
the fact that after the police cars
and camera man arrived, a crowd be-
gan to gather. The judge found the
defendants guilty, amd they must
return to Montgomery to stand trial
for their crime — eating lunch with
Negro ministers and students.
How to Disturb the Peace
They were apprehended under a
new city statute that makes any ac-
tion “calculated” to disturb the
peace a crime; of course the arrest-
ing officers and the judge and jury
decide what type of action is so “cal-
culated.” This statute is the new
weapon the city has devised to help
maintain its complex customs of
segregation. Before this, the city had
passed a series of statutes outlawing
a number of specific types of race-
mixing — for instance, the playing
of checkers or dominoes by Negroes
and whites — but revoked them this
year in the fear that they would be
found unconstitutional by higher
courts. It is felt that the new statute —
on action “calculated” to disturb the |
peace can cover such threats to the |
safety of the city as interracial —
domino games, and at the same time —
399
have a better chance of standing up
if challenged constitutionally, for it
makes no specific mention of race.
So another piece of chewing gum
is stuck in the dike that holds back
the threatening tide. The segrega-
tionist may now sleep easier, know-
ing that a white man who sits down
to have a ham sandwich with a Ne-
gro can be arrested and sent to jail
for disturbing the peace. But isn’t
there any reason for alarm, even for
the white segregationist, as he sees
the walls between the races rise
higher? Montgomery is a city of
70,000 whites and 50,000 Negroes; a
city whose recent years have been
scarred by bombings, and recently
threatened by a mob, and whose
Negro leaders have pledged their
continuing fight for an equality
whose realization stirs many whites
to violence. Isn’t it only practical to
establish some form of communica-
tion between the races? I went with
that question to Carl Bear, a lead-
ing Montgomery businessman and
an official of the Chamber of Com-
merce,
White Supremacist Speaks
Mr. Bear is a middle-aged man
whose hair is turning to a distin-
guished steel-gray, and whose broad
shoulders, firm jaw and _ thin,
straight-set mouth, combine with his
deliberate manner to convey an im-
pression of rocklike solidity. Mr.
Bear looks like the kind of a man
who, if he ever played fullback,
would not even bother to look for
holes in the line when he carried the
ball. I began to ask him some ques-
tions, and before answering he told
me to put my notebook and pencil
away. He said that after we talked
I could write out some questions if
I wished and he would write out
the answers and send them to my
hotel. The essence of his stand —
and that of so many of his fellow
white businessmen and community
leaders — is most clearly summed
up in the written statement he sub-
sequently sent me:
The relationship presently existing
between the white and negro races
is substantially attributable to the
breakdown of communications be-
tween the races which occurred ap-
proximately four years ago following
the bus-boycott incident. Since that
incident the only yoices which have
been heard concerning our social
problems have been those of the ex-
tremists, or professional agitators, of
both races who in neither case repre-
sent a majority of the white or negro
community. I believe that essentially
most of us, of whatever race, are
men of good will and earnestly desire
to get along with one another. How-
ever, there is a crucial need for the
more emotionally mature and sub-
stantial citizens of both races to as-
sert the leadership which good stew-
ardship requires of them. In my
opinion, most negroes of this com-
munity do not want integration; they
do want equality, but they believe
that equality can be had while the
races remain segregated. They also
realize that equality is a status in
society which must be earned and
cannot be accomplished by force, nor
can it be conferred by judicial de-
cree or legislative enactment. They
know that this earned equality will re-
quire much more education, extend-
ing over a period of many years.
(signed) Carl H. Bear
The exhausting revelation of this
statement is that “communication”
between the races means much more
than sitting down at a table to-
gether. The heart of the problem is
not that the white man refuses to
sit down at the table, but rather
that when he does, he refuses to see
the real face of the man he is sitting
across from. His whole life has pre-
pared him to believe that the man
across the table is good ol’ Preacher
Brown; and who can blame his blind
refusal to see that it is Martin Luther
King instead?
Passing of Uncle Tom
The main streets of downtown
Montgomery come together in a
quiet, sun-swept intersection that
carries an aura of charm and well-
being. A fountain sprays in the warm
spring light, soothing music streams
from public Muzak-boxes attached
to light-poles, and the wide main
street stretches gracefully upward to
the alabaster columns and dome of
the state Capitol, handsome against
a sky of perfect posteard blue. In
this peaceful scene stand the land-
marks of conflict, past and present,
whose turbulence seems so foreign
to the setting. It was in this Capitol
that Jefferson Davis took the oath
of office as President of the Con-
federate States on February 18, 1861;
a little below the Capitol’s dome is
the small frame building that served
as “the White House of the Con-
federacy.” It was here, just a block
down the street in the Dexter Ave-
nue Baptist church, built by Negroes
during Reconstruction, that a young
minister named Martin Luther King,
Jr., took over the pulpit on Septem-
ber 1, 1954. And it was here, in this
same church, that several hundred
Negroes assembled March 6 for their
prayer march to the Capitol and
emerged to find a mob of 5,000 angry
whites. Montgomery is already
known as “the Cradle of the Con-
federacy”; it is also the cradle of the
Negroes’ non-violence movement
against segregation which started
here five years ago with the bus boy-
cott and now is shaking the South.
Surely the white people of Mont-
gomery, who watched that move-
ment begin, lived with it, and saw
its success, should understand better
than any other Southern whites what
it’s all about. But they refuse even
to believe it. Five years after the
beginning of the bus boycott, and
less than a month after the Negro
student sit-in demonstrations in pub-
lic eating places throughout the city,
Carl Bear can sit at his desk and
write that “In my opinion, most ne-
groes of this community do not want
integration... .”
Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote
in his book that, after the boycott
was over, the Montgomery whites
had a new respect for the Negro citi-
zens. It is certainly true that the
Negroes gained great dignity from
what they did, and that by all ra-
tional standards the white people
should have gained a greater respect
for them. But the feelings involved
in this conflict have little or nothing
to do with rationality. Judging from
the whites I talked to recently in
Montgomery, the successful boycott
did not increase their respect for the
Negroes who carried it out, but
rather increased the mistrust and
hatred of them.
The sentiments of the majority of
local whites toward the Reverend
King and the leaders of the boycott
are probably reflected with accuracy
in the outrage vented on them by
the press. To The Alabama Journal,
Mr. King is a “despicable character.”
In denouncing the recent sit-in dem-
onstrations, the Montgomery Ad-
_vertiser had this to say about the
Reverend Ralph Abernathy, who is
now the head of the Montgomery
Improvement Association (the Ne-
gro group formed by King to carry
out the bus boycott):
Instead of diplomas and teacher
certificates, they [the Negro student
sit-in demonstrators] can mount in a
frame upon the wall a picture of Dr.
Abernathy jazzing around in_ his
Gandhi impersonation for the TV
and Life Magazine cameras, using
them as potted palms in his act of
aggrandizement.
Negro leaders like King and Aber-
nathy are especially despised and
_ ridiculed, for they are not the Ne-
groes ‘sho fit the image of the shuf-
i old Uncle Toms — the image
which the white so tenaciously holds
on to because it gives meaning to
his whole rationale that the Negro
isn’t yet ready for equality, and is
in fact genetically and educationally
(or both) incapable of assuming the
responsibilities of full citizenship.
Part of the insistence by Southern
_ whites that the movement for Ne-
gro rights is a plot engineered by
outsiders (Jews and Communists)
is based on the reasoning that the
_ Negro is unable to carry it out him-
self. The emergence of Southern Ne-
gro leaders like King and Abernathy
as es F
confounds the old comfortable the-
_ ories — but does not disprove them
to the segregationist.
Even today, the Southern minis
can say with conviction, along with
‘
Carl Bear, that the majority of Ne-
groes do not want integration. How
do they know? Why, they asked. I
have never yet been in a city in the
South in which at least one white
person didn’t explain to me that Ne-
groes didn’t really want integra-
tion; they had been assured of this
only the other day when they asked
their maid, or their yard man, who
had been with them all these years
and surely wouldn’t lie. Perhaps the
example that best explains the irony
of these reports is one told by a
white citizen of Montgomery who
was present when the family maid
was asked what she thought about
the bus boycott. “Oh, my folks don’t
want to have anything to do with
that kind of trouble,’ the maid had
assured her employers. “Me, I walk
to work, and my brother Jim, he
drives and picks up some other folks
and takes ’em to work, and we just
stay away from those buses — we
don’t want to have anything to do
with that boycott.”
The Negroes They Love
Much is made of the genuine love
that Southern whites feel for the Ne-
groes, and such love indeed exists,
as long as the Negro stays “in his
place” — which is out in the cotton-
field, mindin’ his business and hum-
min’ a tune. A recent editorial in
the Alabama Journal tells us how
warm the feelings are for those Ne-
groes wha stick to their cotton
pickin’:
One of the pleasant items in the
day’s news was a report made by the
Negro county agent to the Mont-
somery County Board of Revenue.
. Among specific individual reports
was the fact that Minnie Guice of
Mt. Meigs produced the first bale of
cotton in the county in 1959. .
Outsiders are hare to convince snes
white citizens of Montgomery take
pride in such achievements by Ne-
groes who conduct successful farm-
ing operations and who are not led
astray by the visiting agitators who
come into the county to make trou-
ble.
Farm stories about our Negroes
such as these reported by the county
agent show how pleasant are the
racial relations here when our natives
are left alone by the troublemakers.
There are loving words for Minnie
Guice, who produced the first bale
of cotton in the county; but stones
for Autherine Lucy, who tried to en-
ter Alabama University. Despite the
editorials of the Alabama Journal,
however, Autherine Lucy is not go-
ing back to baling cotton; but it
well may be that Minnie Guice’s
daughter will try to enter Alabama
University. That is the awful truth
that the whites refuse to face, for it
means nothing less than that the
past they are trying to preserve is
already lost.
Role of Economics
The stubborn attempt to preserve
the myth of the old, dependent Ne-
gro who likes things just as they are
— the myth which is so essential to
the rationale of segregation — has
many complex and powerful roots.
Certainly the whole area of sexual
guilt and fear, which Cash explains
so well, is a primary factor in the
present violent attempt of the whites
to preserve the status quo of segrega-
401
—— ge Ant bi
‘ oe “yy f
i
%
tion. But besides the unconscious
motivations, there are also some
practical considerations involved
the fight to preserve white suprem-
acy in the South. I mean considera-
tions of the pocketbook.
An Alabama labor leader told me
that he was convinced “that one of
the aims of the Citizens Councils,
and the more extreme hate cam-
paigners, is the opposition to the
economic policy of the AFL-CIO
and the weakening of the labor move-
ment in the South,”
The threat that unions will mean
integration has always been one of
the major weapons of Southern
management in keeping their work-
ers from organizing, and thereby
keeping down wages of both white
and Negro workers. “Management
can’t go in and tell the white worker
that they'll have to pay him more
if Negro wages go up—so they feed
him this social stuff instead—tell
him that if he joins a union it means
he’ll have ‘nigger officers.’
“The leadership of the Citizens
Councils comes from the Chambers
of Commerce, the landowners, the
businessmen. This is partly an eco-
nomic war for them. They need cheap
labor—which means Negroes; any
time there’s a threat of an increase
in industrial wages, there’s a threat
to their labor supply.. Some of the
leaders of the Citizens Council in
Montgomery are contractors who
wouldn’t work a union man on a job.
Most all their labor is Negroes.”
When asked if the propaganda of
the Citizens Councils had made or-
ganizing more difficult, the union
leader said, “Oh, Christ, yes. In fact,
it makes it more difficult to hold
what you have.”
Default of Labor
There have been abortive efforts
to form a white “Southern Federation
of Trade Unions,” but lately the
talk of that has given way to inten-
sive and often successful efforts of
Klan and Citizens Council union
members to take over AFL-CIO
locals. “I’ve seen cases where they
turned local union meetings into
Citizens Council meetings,” the la-
bor official said.
The Klan and the rabid, less “re-
spectable” Citizens Councils draw
402
vee
”
~ much of their support from the white
laboring class (Elston Edwards, Im-
perial Wizard of the K.K.K., is a
paint-sprayer in the Atlanta Chev-
rolet plant and a member of the
U.A.W. local there) and in many
places in the South they have turned
union locals almost into “branches”
of the segregation groups. Efforts of
the international unions to remedy
the situation have been of little or
no avail. And most of the skilled-
craft unions in the deep Southern
states — particularly in the build-
ing trades — are exclusively white.
The Carpenters Union in Montgom-
ery, for instance, is all white.
The continuance of cheap labor in
the South, which rests so heavily on
the system of segregation, is one
of the major lures used to bring in
Northern industry. And the absen-
tee Northern owners—who control
most of the industry in Alabama as
well as in other Southern states—
ask no questions about labor prac-
tices and make no attempt to inter-
fere in the “local customs” of segre-
gation. As the Alabama labor official
summed up their position: “They
sit in their ivory towers in the North
and their hands are clean.”
Default of Industry
Harold Fleming, director of the
Southern Regional Council with
headquarters in Atlanta, affirmed
that the Northern corporations which
are going into the South “have it
within their power to make a tre-
mendous impact” on the pattern of
segregation.
For instance, Douglas Aircraft
recently opened a plant in Charlotte,
N.C., and went in with the under-
standing from local leaders that they
would hire on a non-discriminatory
basis. Few cities are likely to refuse
the promise of a new industry that
makes such a stipulation. But the
few such cases. “For the most part,”
Mr. Fleming said, “the corporations
that come down here are interested
only in avoiding conflict.”
That is an understandable desire,
but even the business strategy for
avoiding areas of racial conflict is
often based on a naive view of the
situation, Mr. Fleming said. Busi-
nessmen tend to Paty epee where
“everything is quiet,” without. seem-
ing to realize that today’s ‘quiet
spot” may be tomorrow’s explosion.
A business might have chosen to set
up a branch in Mississippi, for in-
stance, rather than in Little Rock
during the school trouble, on the
grounds that all was quiet in Mis-
sissippi. No new businesses came to
Little Rock during the school crisis;
now that it is over, the Little Rock
Chamber of Commerce leaders are
trying to attract new business with
the line that “We’ve already had
it here; this is a safe spot to come,”
The Second “Secession”
It is sad that more Northern cor-
porations have not attempted to
take fair-employment practices with
them when they open branches in
the South, for they are among the
few “outsiders” who could make any
dent in the local Southern segrega-
tion patterns. With the exception of
labor unions in some areas (this
year, for instance, the North Caro-
lina State Labor Council not only
ruled against segregation in its lo-
cals, but made a public statement
supporting the Negro student sit-in
demonstrations), the involvement
and the influence of outside forces
in the Southern crisis has been piti-
fully small. Yet the “Southern crisis”
is, in the end, the American crisis.
In many places, especially Ala-
bama and Mississippi, the die-hard
segregationists have seceded again,
at least intellectually, from the rest
of the country, and the attempt of
national organizations of which they
are a part to influence their actions
on segregation has usually met with
rebuff and withdrawal. This has been
the case with the churches in almost
every instance. The formation of
Methodist “Laymen’s Leagues” in
the South has been one kind of with-
drawal by whites from the influence
) _ of their national church group. An-
Douglas example is one of a very
other typical example of the church
situation occurred while I was in Ala-
bama. The National Council of the
Episcopal Church sent out an “ad-
visory statement” urging support of
the Negro sit-in demonstrations, The
Rev. C. C. J. Carpenter, Bishop of
Alabama, quickly issued a statement
saying that Episcopalians in the dio-
cese of Alabama should “ignore” the
Councils advice.
ani ok
- Jn the same week, the national
board of the YWCA came out in
support of the sit-ins; the Mont-
gomery YWCA quickly met and
issued their own statement, deplor-
ing the national stand. The local
branch is now studying the possi-
bility of breaking off relations with
the national organization.
There is a tragic irony in the fact
-that, as the Southern whites increase
‘their own segregation from the out-
side world, the Southern Negroes be-
come much more involved in the life
beyond their own communities. At
the same time that the Bishop of
Alabama was telling his flock to
ignore the words of the National
Episcopal Council, and the white
girls of the Montgomery “Y” were
considering cutting off relations with
the national organization, the Rev-
erend Ralph Abernathy was in
_ Ghana, attending a conference on
- non-violent action, and Mrs. A. W.
West had just returned from Wash-
ington to report to the Negro’s Mont-
gomery Improvement Association
on the recent White House Confer-
ence on Children and Youth.
“Don’t worry about the Negroes
here,” one white Montgomery resi-
dent told me. “They’re doing fine.
It’s the whites you ought to worry
about.”
Atlanta
ONCE DURING every session of
the Georgia legislature, the state’s
two U.S. Senators return from the
battle in Washington to give of their
wisdom and inspiration to the troops
at home, and in turn be duly hon-
ored for their latest forays against
the federal menace. This occasion is
usually—and especially in recent
years—a time of solemn rejoicing
and rededication to the common
cause of states’ rights, segregation
__ and the preservation of the cherished
_ Southern traditions. Standing ova-
_ tions from the state legislators, as
_ well as from the grateful citizens
packed in the gallery, are a cus-
tomary part of the tribute accorded
_ the Senators. But this year it was
_ different. When Senators Richard
_ Russell and Herman Talmadge made
their appearance at the last session
of the legislature, the politicians rose
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and cheered as usual, but the gal-
lery was seated and silent. It was
filled with mothers who carried signs
that said “Save Our Schools.”
The mothers were members of an
organization called HOPE (Help
Our Public Education), which was
formed here a year and a half ago
and has spread throughout the state.
Its purpose is to keep the public
schools open in compliance with a
federal court order for the begin-
ning of integration in Atlanta schools
this September. Until two mothers
of Atlanta school children got to-
gether in November, 1958, “to do
something” about the possible shut-
down of public education in the face
of court integration orders, there
had been no public discussion of the
issue locally beyond the usual po-
litical oratory promising that “It
can’t happen here.”
The mothers who organized HOPE
held public meetings, circulated lit-
erature, sent speakers to talk on the
issue before any group throughout
the state, and for the first time
brought the subject into the open.
Their work has been much like that
of the mothers’ group formed to try
to open the schools in Little Rock—
except that HOPE began before a
crisis came. Mrs. Donald Green, one
of the mothers on the HOPE board,
said recently: “Since we started a
year and a half before the ‘shock’
of the actual court order, we hope
well be able to save the day. We’ve
gotten help from the mothers in the
Little Rock group, and mothers’
groups in other states have asked us
for help. There’s a real feeling of
fellowship among these groups in
the South.”
Making Headlines
The debate on school integration
in Georgia, begun by HOPE, has
come into almost daily headline
prominence in recent weeks with the
deliberations of the Sibley Commis-
sion, a study group appointed by the
state legislature at the end of its
last session to hold public hearings
and then make a report and possible
recommendations on the school ques-
tion by May 1. This was a week be-
fore the federal ruling is expected
on whether or not the Atlanta
school board must put its court-
accepted pupil placement plan (be-
7 pa hyn
erful here, too, and the ladies of 7
a! pu" i to ; DD dill sites ae a a Ss - e 4 ¥ fe - -,
(which recently presented a petition
or no schools. The Klan and the
ginning with the 12th grade and
working down a grade each year)
into operation this September.
It is still possible that the Atlanta
schools will close, at least temporarily ‘
(though Atlanta Mayor Hartsfield i
says they won’t close for a single
day because “we’re too busy making
progress here”). Governor Ernest
Vandiver was elected on the promise
of total segregation, but the new
force of public opinion on the side
of keeping the schools open may
give him an excuse to retreat. Some
political observers in the state be-
lieve that the Governor will try to
wait until Negroes are ordered into
the schools, so the federal court—
rather than the state legislators—
will have to knock out Georgia’s
segregation laws, thus leaving him
and the other politicians “officially”
free from the blame.
Changed Climate
Whatever tactical stalls may oc-
cur, the work of HOPE and the
Sibley hearings have changed the
whole climate of the conflict. In At-
lanta, eighty-five of 114 witnesses
told the Sibley Commission they
favored keeping the schools open in
compliance with the court integra-
tion order. In every one of the ten
counties where hearings were held,
even in the most die-hard segrega-
tion spots in south Georgia, HOPE
had witnesses to support its stand.
Even the most optimistic observers
were surprised and encouraged by
the fact that not only Atlanta, but
a total of five of the ten districts
where hearings were held had a ma-
jority of witnesses in favor of main-
taining public education even if it
meant integration. “A lot of us,”
one HOPE mother said, “never
dreamed that the state was even
split on the issue.”
The results of the hearings, and
the popular support of HOPE
signed by 10,000 voters supporting
open schools) does not mean that
there is a great wave of sentiment
for integration in Georgia. HOPE |
does not take any stand for or
against integration, but presents the
issue purely as a matter of schools
Citizens Council elements are pow-
403
lg
j
1
HOPE are subjected to obscene and
threatening phone calls from out-
raged segregationists. Georgia, like
Alabama and Mississippi, is one of
the states that Martin Luther King
called “the South of Resistance,” but
the difference is that in Georgia
there is now an open debate, at least
on the issue of school integration.
Where there is a public dialogue,
bringing the issues and arguments
into the open, there is hope. In Ala-
bama and Mississippi there is none.
Raleigh
A CONSTANT theme of Southern
segregationist orators, waving the
banner of states’ rights, is that basic
changes in local customs and tradi-
tions cannot be lastingly imposed
from the outside. They are perfectly
right; Reconstruction proved the
point. But they, as well as we ob-
servers in the North, forget that
when we speak of “the South” (e.g.,
“the South Says Never!,” “the South
Spurns the Court”), we really mean
the white South. This mistake in
terminology allows us to overlook
the fact that the South means Mar-
tin Luther King as well as Richard
Russell, and that the greatest pres-
sure for change in the South today is
not being “imposed from the out-
side” but is coming from within. It
is the pressure of Southern Negroes
to do away with segregation in all its
forms, and its most dramatic and
significant expression is the move-
ment that has grown from the Negro
student sit-in demonstrations.
Harold Fleming, who, as head of
the Southern Regional Council, has
probably been in closer touch than
anyone else with all aspects of the
racial conflict in the South in the
past decade, told me in Atlanta:
“Just as the Supreme Court de-
cision was the legal turning point,
the sit-ins are the psychological turn-
ing point in race relations in the
South. This is the first step to real
change—when the whites realize that
the Negroes just aren’t having it
any more,”
The leaders and representatives of
the new generation of Southern Ne-
groes who have shown that in spite
of jeers, threats, jails or mobs “they
just aren’t having it any more” as-
404
sembled Easter weekend at Shaw.
University in Raleigh, N.C., and af-
firmed that the movement they be-
gan with the lunch-counter demon-
strations was only the beginning of
their struggle for full equality.
If there had been any possibility
that the spirit of protest born in the
student sit-ins that have broken out
in every state in the South would
peter out as a passing fad, there was
no such. possibility after this con-
ference. The meeting, which was
sponsored by the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (a new or-
ganization led by the Rev. Martin
Luther King, Jr., and other young
Southern Negro ministers) estab-
lished goals, strategy and lines of
communication for the future in a
series of discussions and workshops
held by the students. Up to this
point, the student demonstrations
have been spontaneous; in the future
they will not be. The students now
have their own organization, which
will work with, but not be led by,
adult groups such as the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference,
CORE (Congress on Racial Equal-
ity) and the NAACP, as well as lo-
cal church and civie groups.
Young vs. Old
The question of the role of adults
in the student movement was a tick-
lish one, for in a sense the move-
ment is a protest not only against
segregation practices, but against the
older Negro leaders. Where many sit-
ins have taken place, older Negroes
have been skeptical and fearful of the
results, feeling that the students were
“going too far” at the present time.
At a recent meeting of the Mont-
gomery Improvement Association,
the organization which carried out
the Negro bus boycott, the Rev. S.
S. Seay chided his fellow elders by
saying that “A lot of our people
don’t seem to understand what the
young people are doing—they say
they don’t agree with them, Well,
that just means they aren’t catching
the significance of events—it’s a case
of intellectual sluggishness.” |
The conflict on taetics has actually
been going on for some timé through-
out the South. In Atlanta, for in-
stance, the local NAACP lawyer who.
had led the Negro community’s bat-
tle for civil rights for several decades
err . ee ‘ ee a >
opposed.a group of younger Negroes,
in their late twenties and early thir-
ties, when they wanted to boycott
the city’s segregated trolley cars sev-
eral years ago. The elders felt that
it wasn’t the right time, but the
“Young Turks” won out, the boy-
cott was successful, and the younger
men emerged as the more influential
leaders 'in the Negro community.
The sit-ins have brought the stu-
dents’ feeling of protest over the
adults’ “slow” tactics into the open,
and after some initial reluctance,
most of the adults have gotten be-
hind the movement with moral, le-
gal and financial help. The student
action has, in fact, become a great
source of pride and new morale for
their elders, who have been in the
battle so long.
Miss Ella J. Baker, executive di-
rector of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, told the
adults at the rally that “The young-
er generation is challenging you and
me—they are asking us to forget our
laziness and doubt and fear, and fol-
low our dedication to the truth to
the bitter end.”
And King, in the evening’s main
speech, hit hard at the same theme,
saying that the student movement
“Is also a revolt against the apathy
and complacency of adults in the
Negro community; against Negroes
in the middle class who indulge in
buying cars and homes instead of
taking on the great cause that will
really solve their problems; against
those who have become so afraid
they have yielded to the system.”
Setting an Example
Already, many Negroes who have
known nothing else but subservience
to segregation all their lives have
found new hope and courage in the
students’ example. Harold Bardo-
nille, a junior at South Carolina
State College in Orangeburg, S.C.,
was telling several students at the
Raleigh conference how the old Ne-
groes from surrounding farms had
come to the college to offer their
help when they heard that police
had broken up a prayer march by
turning fire hoses on the students
and had made mass arrests.
“When they heard about it, a
group of tenant farmers came up to
the campus,” Bardonille explained,
NAT.
i a { >
“
i
SS A A
nd T mean these were real tenant
armers—dirt farmers. You know?
They went up to one of the profs and
said, ‘What're you gonna do about
ball those chillun that got hosed?’
/They said they wanted to help, and
they'd do anything they could. They
don’t know what they can do, but
they look to us for leadership.
They’re eager to be a part of this.”
Harold Bardonille told the story
with a kind of awe, which was only
appropriate. Those tenant farmers
in the depths of South Carolina are
the kind of Negroes whom King de-
ribes with the lines of the Blues
B. say “Been down so long that
down’ don’t bother me.” But now
‘even they are looking up because a
ew generation has shown them it
is possible. To the students, in fact,
is not only possible but necessary.
Camus wrote in his novel The
lague that the people who risked
eir lives to join the “sanitary
squads” that fought the disease did
$0 not out of any sense of heroics,
but because “they knew it was the
only thing to do, and the unthink-
able thing would then have been
‘not to have brought themselves to
‘do it.” That is the spirit in which
‘the Negro students seem to have
‘taken up their fight against the
“plague” of segregation. It seems so
‘luminously obvious to them that
‘what they are doing “is the only
thing to do.” Those students who
“came from every state in the South
-to the conference at Raleigh went
about their business with a quiet
“determination and a minimum of
oratory; to look at the small groups
of students scattered on the grass of
the campus in the afternoon work-
shop sessions, or seated in the humid
‘classrooms in the earnest discussion
periods, you might imagine you had
stumbled into an ordinary spring
day of study at any small college.
In the “breaks” between sessions the
Students smoked and talked, ex-
hanging news of what was going
in their own school and city. Billy
ith, a student at A& T College in
Greensboro, was telling a Nashville
student how he and his friends had
been training the high school kids
in the town to take over the sit-ins
when the college term ended for
a vacation.
hey'll carry it right on till we
lan), 7. I ee
¥
get back in the fall,” he said. “We
can’t let it stop just because of va-
cation. We’re ready to keep on going
for five or six years, or whatever it
takes. This is no fad—this is it.”
Only the Beginning
And “it” does not mean merely
the end of segregation at lunch
counters. As Harold Bardonille put
“We're trying to eradicate the
whole stigma of being inferior.” The
lunch-counter protest is only a sym-
bol of the students’ expression that
“they aren’t having it any more.”
Already students in many of the
cities have broadened their work to
include help in voting registration
and preparation of economic boy-
cotts among the adult community.
Billy Smith said when he got to
Greensboro that he and his fellow
students would be starting a “door-
to-door knock” in the Negro com-
munity to “inform them about
‘selective buying.’ ”
The reports of the ten workshops
that studied the major phases of the
movement from “the Philosophy of
Non-Violence” to “Jail vs, Bail” re-
vealed the scope and commitment
of the students’ ideas. The young
girl from the “Jail vs. Bail” commit-
tee reported quietly that her group’s
recommendations were that the stu-
dents arrested in demonstrations re-
ceive no bail.and pay no fines; that
all persons arrested ‘stay in jail.
“This,” she explained, “will show
that arrest will not deter us.”
One group of students studied the
role of college. asominretiaes, and
decided that Negro college presidents
and administrators should back the
students’ action (at least to the ex-
tent of not allowing them to be ex-
pelled) and should be willing to do
this at the risk of their own jobs.
Most of the Negro colleges in the
South are state-controlled, and have
white boards of directors. Thus,
many Negro college administrators
who have expressed private sym-
pathy with the student movement
have had to maintain public silence
—and, in the case of Alabama State,
allow some of the student demon-
stration leaders to be expelled. The
students at the conference expressed
their belief that the college admin-
istrators should put the movement
for equality above their own careers
—as the students indeed have put it
above their own education.
The workshop that studied the
“interracial” nature of the move-
ment (there were about a dozen
white students at the conference
from colleges in both the North and
the South) recommended that “this
shouldn't just be a movement for
Negroes but for all people who are
against injustice.” The representa-
tive of the “Preparations for Non-
Violence” committee stressed that
only those who are certain they can
meet the threats and violence with
Passive resistance should take part
in the demonstrations, but that “for
those who can’t take intimidation,
find something else for them to do—
even if it’s licking stamps.”
The commitment to non-violence
is a keystone of the movement, and
the Negroes have learned its power
and importance. At the Raleigh
mass meeting, King preached the
difficult text of this doctrine he has
given them to use as their weapon
against the ugly mobs they have
faced already and will face even
more often in the coming months
and years. He said:
“Do to us what you will and we
will still love you. We will meet
your physical force with soul force.
You may bomb our homes and spit
on our children and we will still
love you. But be assured that we
will wear you down with our capa-
city to suffer. . . .”
That is the road they have set
upon, and they have already passed
the point of no return,
Ss SS
a a
———— SS
——<——
==
FRANK GREENAWAY is
wy oe Vy.
: ‘
BOOKS and the ARTS
‘Young Tom Writ Large’
T. H. HUXLEY: Scientist, Humanist
and Educator. By Cyril Bibby. Fore-
words by Julian Huxley and Aldous
Huxley. Horizon Press. 330 pp. $5.
Frank Greenaway
BIOGRAPHIES so often try to be
works of reference that we are tempted
to skip and select, looking for passages
to highlight our prejudged picture of
the subject. This book deserves to be
read right through: preliminaries, fore-
words by two grandsons, portrait cap-
tions, appendices and all. Dr. Bibby has
shown high cunning in_ presenting,
chapter by chapter, not just incidents
and events, not just aspects of character,
but successive levels at which Thomas
Henry Huxley was involved in the life
of his times. His book diminishes a
legend and restores a man.
Huxley’s name is well known at least
because of his part in an incident in the
history of Darwinism — his clash in
1860 with “Soapy Sam,” Bishop Wilber-
force, over the descent of man — which
clouds the memory of a_ scholarly
churchman and distorts the record of a
scholarly agnostic. As Julian Huxley
says in his foreword, Huxley was more
than Darwin’s bulldog.
Dr. Bibby lets Huxley speak, briefly
but often, so that we know all along
how Huxley saw himself, and it is al-
most always with the three talents as
scientist, humanist and educator in ac-
tion together.
After a modest but effective schooling
and an orthodox medical training, he
realized that the world of science was
his to possess, but not by scholarship
alone. Thus, in 1851, of the British As-
sociation meeting: “Anyone who con-
ceives that I went down from any es-
pecial interest in the progress of science
makes a great mistake. My journey was
altogether a matter of policy.” We some-
times think that the battle with sci-
entific authority was won in the seven-
teenth century. Not a bit of it; this is
a never-ending guerrilla warfare. At a
time when much was being taken on
Deputy
Keeper of the Department of Chemistry,
the Science Musewm, London. He also
lectures in the history of science for
the extension departments of the Un-
versities of Oxford and London.
authority, and not very reliable author-
ity at that, Huxley had the great ad-
vantage of studying biology thousands
of miles from a university. His voyage
on the Rattlesnake was great good for-
tune. Early recognition is a godsend to
a man whose head cannot be turned by
it. It helped Huxley steer his way,
through temptations to choose some
other career, toward a life which was
essentially one of public service. But
it was a public service of which he him-
self helped to create the forms. As Al-
dous Huxley says im his foreword: “We
grumble about our educational system
but forget that less than a century ago
there was no system at all; merely a
squalid absence of education.” Huxley
was able to help greatly in this change
because of the variety of his gifts.
As with all scientists, Huxley’s re-
search papers (150 of them) have been
absorbed into the common compost of
knowledge, making fertile ground for
another year’s crop. His scores of publi-
cations on educational reform are now
mostly (but not all) irrelevant to times
which enjoy some of the reforms he
promoted. Much of his writing on re-
ligious and ethical issues was prompted
by controversies now long spent. But
the institutions he helped to create,
the educational principles for whose ac-
ceptance he worked, are active forces
today. Only the spirit of tolerant,
humble, inquiring agnosticism which
guided him, and which he offered to
others as guidance, is hard pressed to
survive in a society which has forgotten
how to honor dignified nonconformity.
NOT that nonconformity need mean,
or meant in Huxley’s case, withdrawal.
It was said of him that “As a political
operative, Huxley was devastatingly ef-
ficient.” Suggestions that he enter Par-
liament came to nothing; though there
is little doubt that he would have had
no difficulty in finding a seat, or in
making an impression. But he was con-
tent to act from outside. Huxley was
that most effective kind of lobbyist:
the one who offers a scheme which looks
as if it will work because it takes ac-
count of those political realities with
which the parliamentary politician has
to reckon.
He had no naive belief in innate
equality. He held that men vary in
ie wr, FAB Nias
‘ 4 ATIC
capacity as much as in opportunity.
“The great mass of mankind have
neither the liking nor the aptitude for
either literary or scientific or artistic
pursuits; nor indeed, for excellence of
any sort.” But he meant these hard
words to apply to all classes, and he
saw ignorance and lack of taste in all
levels of society. Dr. Bibby gives many
pages to Huxley’s educational theories,
but no more than are needed to convey
an impression of the importance Huxley
himself attached to them. Education
was to him the means by which society
discovered what a man was good for.
He insisted that teaching must be based
on knowledge (“What you teach, un-
less you wish to be impostors, you must
first know”); and on skill (“There is
nothing so difficult to do as to write
a good elementary text-book, and there
is nobody so hard to teach properly and
well as people who know nothing about
a subject”). He practiced what he
preached: his own teaching was ac-
knowledged by his pupils to have mold-
ed all the biological instruction of the
next generation.
He had enough confidence in_ his
principles to want to see them put into
effect at the starting point of new lives.
The Education Act of 1870 required a
system of elementary schools. There
was no network of local education au-
thorities, so ad hoc school boards were
set up, the first to be elected being
where the need was most urgent: in
London.
The first year’s work of the London
board set the shape of English educa-
tion for three-quarters of a century,
much that it achieved being initiated
by Huxley or by others in sympathy
with his ideas. Dr. Bibby’s account of
this phase of Huxley’s work makes it
clear that his agnosticism was no passive
apathy but did justice to the good in
all things, as when he defended Bible-
reading: “. . . the mass of the people
should not be deprived of the one great
literature open to them, not shut out
from the perception of their relation
with the whole past history of civilised
mankind,”
Huxley’s part in the development of
higher education in» Victorian England
may seem now to have little but anti-
quarian interest, but the record belies
this, and shows that his influence is
lasting. Superficially it might seem that
Huxley’s battle for education in science
was won long ago. In fact, as the d
* th
v
uy
ipe
the
tio
Ae
pa
an
pr
tio
ve
(al
H
tailed account of the negotiations in
which he was involved brings out, his
battle for a balanced scientific educa-
tion was lost when, against his hopes,
separate science degrees were instituted
at bachelor level in the universities.
Even though he was the principal force,
by practice and planning, in the crea-
tion out of several schools of the Im-
perial College of Science and Technol-
ogy, his instinct was always against
specialization. He would have opened
the arena to the visual arts and to
music, not only in elementary educa-
tion but at university level as well.
nt in the mass of mankind, the
Aesthetic faculty, like the reasoning
power and the moral sense, needs to be
aroused, directed, and cultivated; and
I know not why that side of his nature
. should be omitted from any com-
prehensive scheme of University educa-
tion.”
Huxley’s name and fame were uni-
versal in his day. Honorary degrees
came to him sooner from abroad than
from his own country. His visit to the
United States in 1876 was a notable
occasion. His lectures were a crowded
attraction, and profitable (“Say £600
profit on the whole transaction” notes
his diary). It is characteristic of his
sympathy for an audience that his
lecture at Nashville, Tennessee, was
based on the local geology. At the in-
augural ceremony of Johns Hop-
kins University, Huxley’s presence was
not altogether welcome. One critic sum-
med it up: “It was bad enough to in-
vite Huxley. It were better to have
asked God. It would have been absurd
to have asked them both.”
Dr. Bibby has constructed his book
according to his view that “the great
it oe ae.
pam
Professor Huxley was simply young
Tom writ large.” Not that there was no
progress or development; but all Hux-
ley’s qualities were needed all his life:
“the luminous intelligence, the restless
inquiry, the indefatigable industry, the
courage and the pertinacity, the wide in-
terests, the toughness and the tender-
ness.” And his sheer effectiveness. He
saw what men and institutions society
needed and used all his qualities to make
sure it got them. Each of Dr. Bibby’s
chapters surveys, from this point of
view, Huxley’s efforts in a particular
field over a long period. The cumulative
effect is not so much a portrait as a
man alive.
The book would be admirable had it
only the minimum reference to sources.
As it is, Dr. Bibby’s appendices give
a thorough annotation. There is also a
fascinating parallel chronology of the
events of Huxley’s life and the politi-
cal, social, cultural and scientific events
of his long day. The plan and execution
of this book are worthy of its subject.
The Total Joke
GOLK. By Richard G. Stern. Criterion
Books. 221 pp. $3.95.
Terry Southern
GOLK takes its engaging title from the
name of its hero, Sydney Golk, a rotund
and highly creative entrepreneur who
builds a “candid-camera” TV program
into a mammoth Frankenstein’s monster
which in the end threatens (or rather
promises — it is a big friendly monster)
to destroy, by illumination, quite a
spread of our present way-of-life. The
program’s original format — On Camera
it’s called — and, seemingly, its ambi-
tions, are both quite modest: for ex-
ample, a man enters a reputable butcher
shop and unwraps what appears to be the
hindquarters of a very thin dog, which
he indignantly claims was sold to him
earlier as a sirloin steak; naturally an
interesting conversation ensues between
him and the equally indignant butcher,
at the climax of which hidden mike and
cameras loom into view and the fat
“customer” announces jovially, “You’ve
This Spring
(For Luverne)
Now to the care of air spring like a sound
Drifts, and round
The new leaves a pale sun weaves
Frail and bright its running water light.
Song the day long! What floats? the song? a tree?
Sweet buds burst,
But thirsts of bird and bee are half for flight.
What climbs? From earth, yet free,
Rise through the rimed grass all eyes
Flowers whose vivid shades deny that all
Passes, and will fall.
Last fall my sister died; a winter came, -
They passed, those days.
And something still of her
‘einade Now to the care of air lifts, and stays,
Now I can speak her name.
Epwarp WEISMILLER |
¢ ‘an
ee
ir ry
\»”
just been On Camera, Mister Butcher
as he doffs his disguise and is revealed
to be none other than the notorious
Golk himself.
As the program grows in_ national
favor, under Golk’s good guidance, it
also develops upward through several
stages of complexity, humor and _ phil-
osophic insinuation until it reaches full
maturity by presenting three ruses of.
such elaborate seriousness as could stag-
TERRY SOUTHERN’s novels are The
Magic Christian (Random House) and
Flash and Filigree (Coward-McCann).
*Jt’s an old
American custom’’
THEIR MAJESTIES
THE MOB
By John W. Caughey
This fast-paced work of scholar-
ship is more terrifying than any
fiction. Using more than fifty
documents from American his-
tory, John Caughey traces the
vigilante impulse in the last
hundred years of American life.
He shows the common source
underlying all “mob justice”’—
from the impromptu hangings of
the old West to the blacklist-
ing, character assassination, and
racial rioting of our own day.
$5.00
Through your bookseller
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
5760 Ellis Avenue, Chicago 37, Illinois
In CANADA: The University of
Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Ontario
ger the national brain. It would be un-
fair to divulge the mechanics of these
particular dodges, but, in tonal para-
phrase, they amount to something like
gaining the confidence of the Vice Pres-
ident and offering him (very privately
and very convincingly) $10 million, say,
to come out strongly for communism,
Man-Tan, or some such thing, just to
get his reaction, you see, he being con-
vinced the two of you are completely
alone and the offer a genuine one —-
whereas, in fact, the whole thing is being
ME NRE
televised live on a nation-wide hookup.
And yet such delightful speculations
are not the limit of this book’s con-
siderable interest. Surrounding Golk are
several personages and_ relationships;
and at least three of these are drawn
with bold and contemporary strokes,
from an insight that is rare and a trust
in it that is rarer still. Golk is a book
then to be recommended on many levels,
and to be enjoyed by all — all except,
no doubt, those very ones in whose la-
ment its author so lyrically sings.
LETTER from ALDERMASTON
W.S. Merwin
ON Falcon Field, on Good Friday, in
the countryside of Berkshire, England,
I met a young English playwright
whom I knew. We compared impres-
sions. Spreading around us, the gather-
ing had something about it which was
faintly reminiscent of a football crowd.
And more than a hint, here and there,
of a Sunday School outing in unpromis-
ing weather. All of the English political
parties of any importance, from Con-
servative to Communist, were repre-
sented, but the atmosphere of the as-
sembly was not (and never became)
appreciably political. In the end we
agreed that these ten thousand people,
spread out over a large meadow, eating
sandwiches, strumming musical instru-
ments, rubbing their feet with alcohol,
sitting in little bunches and _ talking,
wandering back and forth under their
banners and placards, many of which
were obviously homemade, were not
quite like anything we had ever seen.
The 1960 Aldermaston to London Nu-
clear Disarmament March had estab-
lished its own character before it ever
set out on the fifty-four miles to Trafal-
gar Square.
There was clowning. Girls in Bardot
hair and leotards, boys in carefully
bashed top hats and outlandish cos-
tumes; bearded ragtime musicians,
warming up on “My Old Man’s A Dust-
man.” There were many Quakers, noth-
ing conspicuous about their dress except
the heavy shoes and the knapsacks. A
large group of Catholics. Another of
Methodists, Unitarians, Baptists, Pres-
byterians, Franciscan Monks. Country
gentry in impeccable tweeds; doctors;
W.S. MERWIN is a poet whose work
has appeared frequently in these pages.
His latest collection of verse is Green
With Beasts.
408
medical students; businessmen; nurses;
a representation of colored people in
many of the groups. There were con-
tingents from the different boroughs of
London, from scores of English towns,
from Eton and other schools, from what
seemed to be dozens of universities,
both in England and elsewhere. An in-
ternational ex-servicemen’s group. And
the international contingent itself, with
sections from France, the United Arab
Republic, Israel. Ceylon, India, Pakis-
tan, Iraq, West Germany, Sweden,
Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Italy,
Denmark, Netherlands, British Guiana,
Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Japan,
Treland, New Zealand, Cyprus, Tan-
ganyika, Kenya. And the United States.
The Japanese section consisted of a
half-dozen students who had come from
Japan expressly to join the march.
Their way had been paid for by the
donations of other Japanese; their
cameras and other equipment had been
supplied by Japanese firms. They car-
ried no banners except the small one
which told where they came from.
Japan’s special place in the demonstra-
tion needed no emphasis.
Falcon Field faces the heavy wire
fence which surrounds the Atomic
Weapons Research Establishment, Al-
dermaston. Inside are what appear to
be miles of low, pastel-colored build-
ings laid out like an army base. Between
the fence and the buildings is a con-
crete road. A closed truck passed on
this road from time to time, like a
satellite in a planetarium. A guard
truck? Just inside the enclosure two or
three men stood with a big police dog
on a chain. Behind them, in and among
the buildings, there was not a sign of
life. But elsewhere it was obvious that
we were not popular around Aldermas-
ton. The pub keepers: ee the field
7 4@ r
were non-committal, but local children
shouted “Cheers for the Bomb” and
“Marchers Go Home,” obviously ex-
pressing their parents’ attitude. The Al-
dermaston Establishment has, of course,
brought employment and business to the
locality.
Canon Collins, the precentor of St.
Paul’s, London, and leader of the march,
conducted the assembly through a hymn,
pronounced a simple, apposite prayer
while Catholics, Communists and Quakers
stood silently beside each other; then
he headed the march out of the field,
down the road toward London. Beside
him were other members of the clergy,
writers, journalists and Joseph Rotblat,
nuclear scientist from the University
of London, who had been on the Brit-
ish team at Los Alamos. He was one of
a number of nuclear physicists who
marched. The day was cold, blustery,
with spatters of rain. As we left Falcon
Field we had a first glimpse of one
visible characteristic which would stay
with the march. On the field where
10,000 people had been having lunch,
there was scarcely a sign of trash, paper,
or garbage. The march would have its
nuisance value, all right, but that was
not the way it would go about it.
THE procession went on walking for
four days, from Good Friday to Easter
Monday. On the first day, as we passed
through the countryside, there were few
spectators. The rain settled in, wet feet
began to blister. But it was on that
afternoon that most of us had the first
exciting view of the march. As_ the
country lane wound through open fields
we could see the column moving four
abreast under its banners, stretching
ahead of us for more than two miles until
it disappeared over the horizon, Behind
us, at a distance nearly as great, the
end of the line was still not in sight.
The line, in fact, was four and a half
miles long as we wound into Reading,
to make our way to the schools assigned
to us, where local women were waiting
to sell sandwiches, hard-boiled eggs and
soup at cost, and where we would col-
lect our blankets and sleep that night
on the schoolroom floors, laid out like
bullets in a belt.
On the second and third days the
march was at its most distinctive. The
distances were longer, the weather, at
least part of the time, got better; it
was still cold but the sun came out,
and all through the second day there
were larks overhead. Feet got worse;
spectators multiplied; so did the march-
ers. On the second day, to cover the
nineteen miles, there were 15,000, nd :
on the third, hia ie the « col nn
ue 7 nb -
Re ite kd N
ad
ee eee ee att eet gia, ol ot
that moved into Chiswick, in outer
London, was 20,000 strong and stretched
for seven and a half miles. The police
had traffic problems. They also had
apparently endless patience. Theirs was
part of a huge wave of patience and
good will which seemed to envelop the
whole enterprise, and with so few ex-
ceptions that many of us found it hard
to believe. It was partly because of
this, I imagine, that many who had
come to march only for a day stayed
on to the end.
AND as the march wore into its second
and third days, details of it began to
pile up and make a picture which sur-
prised everyone, including the organ-
izers. Pathetic and funny details, some:
the turbaned Sikh who stood rigidly
saluting the column as it ambled past;
the man with the brief'case who walked
the whole way, alone, on the other side
of the road. The antics of the clowning
teen-agers; the skiffle bands. On the
first two marches, in 1958 and 1959,
these eccentricities and capers had been
played up in the press, and the demon-
stration had been largely written off as
a stunt carried out by weirdies and
cranks. This year, what with the num-
bers present, and the quiet demeanor of
the demonstration as a whole, it was
impossible to overlook the seriousness
of the procession; in any case the press
no longer seemed disposed to do so.
The seriousness was neither earnest
nor scouty, and it did not preclude a good
deal of gaiety quite apart from the self-
appointed clowns. “They can’t ignore
us now,” Canon Collins kept saying
as the march grew. “They can’t say
we're just a bunch of cranks now.” The
details which helped to underline his
conviction were as homemade as any
of the instruments in the skiffle-groups,
but they made less noise. Blind men
being led the whole way, after having
traveled from remote corners of Eng-
land to march. Spastics and cripples
going as far as they could. A gray-haired
Quaker who pushed his paralyzed wife
all the way in a wheel chair. Old peo-
ple. A man from Brooklyn, a Prince-
ton graduate in his seventies who
has sent two sons through Princeton,
a victim of throat cancer, whose
larynx has been removed; he was on the
march every day, and has participated
in every march since the first. Middle-
aged people joined the procession in
mid-morning, with bulging knapsacks;
when the line broke for lunch, they
opened these packs which turned out
to be full of food to be given away.
| _ Several people appeared in the line with
Plastic buckets full of peeled oranges for
= ‘ = C2 “oe
rao Oana aN
= a . Oa
the marchers. Couples pushed their
babies and lunches in baby carriages.
On the second and third’ days, too,
people began to walk in the “wrong”
contingents, not by accident but as a
way of fraternizing. In most cases the
effect was not obvious. They carried
one another’s banners and the result look-
ed about the same. But in the interna-
tional contingent, where this practice
was most prevalent, there were some odd
results. At one time the Nigerian banner
was being carried by two whites who
had never been near Africa — a Ca-
nadian, as I heard it, and a Dane —
and there was only one Negro march-
ing in the unit. Arabs and Jews marched
together in several instances, and black
and white South Africans. Quakers from
far parts of England, Negroes from the
West Indies, Japanese, writers from
London and Paris, marched with the
Americans. A Swiss boy and an English
girl once carried the American banner
for miles while the Americans marched
with the Japanese, the French, the
Swedes, the Italians and the Irish (who
had an accordion). So that part of the
time when the spectators cheered the
“Yanks,” as they did, they were cheer-
ing half of Europe without knowing it.
On the second day the column passed
an American car with two American
officers in it. As the internationals ap-
peared, one of them was heard to say
to the other, “Well at least there won’t
be any Americans here.” “They’re right
back there around the bend,” several
of the marchers told him, “you just sit
tight.” If the officers waited long enough
they saw not only a huge U.S.A., but a
separate banner from the University of
California, marching among the Eu-
ropean universities.
THERE were hecklers, but astonishingly
few. I could count on one hand the
number of jeers I heard on the whole
march, and I am not sure that all cf
those were seriously meant. The main
opposition came from Fascist fringe or-
ganizations which sent cars up and down
the road through the middle days of the
march, going too fast, usually, for us to
hear what they shouted. One of their
slogans, apparently, was “Let Britain
Lead,” and it is said that the marchers
simply picked it up from them to use
themselves. Certainly many of the im-
provised placards bore that same legend,
sometimes with “There’s Still Time,
Brother,” or simply “No Nuclear Weap-
ons” written underneath.
The last day the distance was short-
est. All the way into London numbers
(including the entire large cast of a
very successful West End play) stepped
off the curbs and joined the march. In
Hyde Park, at lunch time, it was pos-
sible for the first time to compare notes
with the spectators. Then one heard
story after story of chic couples who
had come to watch and say amusing
things to each other and who had looked
quite different after an hour. And of
men who, asked what they thought,
said “Up until today I was neutral.”
The silence of the column, we found,
had more effect than its songs. It was
too late to impress this on the marchers,
but as the procession entered its last
half mile, from Parliament Square to
Trafalgar Square, it marched, by agree-
ment, in silence. By that time, accord-
ing to police figures, the total proces-
sion numbered 74,000, marching six and
eight abreast (there were about one
hundred in the American contingent at
that time). At the head of the whole
march a single drummer in kilts slowly
beat out the Morse for Nuclear Dis-
armament. Behind him the column, ban-
ner behind banner, advanced up White-
hall into Trafalgar Square and the end
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of the march. There had not been so
large a peaceful procession through Eng-
land, we were told, since the days of
the Chartists, if ever. There had not
been so many English banners since
Agincourt. Quietly the procession came
to a stop at the foot of Nelson’s col-
umn. Some began to disperse. Some
stayed for the speeches. One of the last
was given by a nuclear physicist who
announced that the police estimated
126,000 as the total of those who had
been in and around Trafalgar Square
to take part in the demonstration, and
pointed out that the first small and
relatively primitive A-bomb which was
dropped on Hiroshima had killed a com-
parable number of people in one second.
At the end of the ceremonies there was
a minute of silence for the dead. of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Trafalgar Square—Union Square
When 100,000 people marched for peace in England a few
weeks ago, did you ask yourself—
“Why can’t we do something like that here?”
WE did, and we believe it’s high time we in America
launched our own CAMPAIGN FOR DISARMAMENT.
In a world which threatens all with destruction in a matter
of minutes, working and voting for political candidates, and
writing our elected representatives no longer seem sufficient to
express our growing concern for peace. The arms race must
be stopped NOW!
To this end we have called a
San Francisco
Little Summit Conference
May 13-14
Friday evening} eominars on the issues of disarmament
Saturday morning)
SOME of the banners, some of the
marchers, moved on toward Waterloo
Station to cross the channel and form
a procession to the Summit Conference
at Geneva. The rest of us straggled off
on wobbly joints. (Waiting for me, in
the mail, was an insurance statement in
red warning that the insured objects
under the old policy were not and would
not be covered against nuclear radia-
tion. Waiting for all of us was the news
that one more victim of the Hiroshima
bomb had died of radiation poisoning
while we were actually marching.) As
we left, we were impressed, in retro-
spect, by the quiet determination of the
whole demonstration in which we had
participated. We kept asking each other
whether it could be ignored now.
Whether “they” could say that it was
just apolitical demonstration, or a
cranks’ carnival. Two reporters came up
to us in the American contingent and
asked — among other things — whether
we minded giving our names, because
they’d quite understand if we did, and
“the Embassy, of course, might take
views... .” We gave our names. Con-
sidering how many able-bodied Ameri-
cans there were in London, we wondered
why there had been no more of us from
the land of the free and the home of
the brave. Or we tried to wonder. Those
tourists missed something. We remem-
bered how people all the way along had
behaved to us when McCarthy was
mentioned, or the McCarran Act, or
Little Rock, or the American South, or
America’s policy on disarmament and
the arming of Germany. How those
people had always been sure that there
must be good reasons for all those
things. How we had always agreed,
naturally, trying like mad to remember
what the reasons were.
Saturday afternoon—peace walk and rally at Union Square
Much depends on YOU! We can have peace; we ean bring
pressure to bear on the world’s leaders to end the arms race.
All we need is people and money. Join us if you can; send
a donation anyway in any amount (address below). Make
checks payable to the SAN FRANCISCO LITTLE SUMMIT
CONFERENCE.
Let us begin now to build a coordinated CAMPAIGN FOR
DISARMAMENT in America!
|
American Friends Service Committee
Northern California Regional Office
Unitarian Fellowship for Social Justice
San Francisco
Sane Nuclear Policy Committee
Marin County, California
Women’s International League for Peace
and Freedom, San Francisco
_ San Francisco Little Summit Conference
210 Alma Street San Francisco 17, California
Phone: LOmbard 4-3189 or SKyline 2-7766
Harold Clurman
THE PHOENIX THEATRE is fortu-
nate in having followed the production of
Henry IV, Part 1 with its sequel Henry
IV, Part 2. If anything, the latter pro-
duction is an improvement on the first.
There is more comedy in the second
part than in the first, and generally
speaking the Phoenix company is more
successful with the comedy passages of
the play than with the others.
An exception to this is the king’s
death scene, in which Fritz Weaver
gives one of the most forceful readings
in the production as it is one of the
most convincing of his career. Actor
and words seem truly wedded at this
point. For the rest, Eric Berry com-
pletes his sound rendering of Falstaff,
though I thought that the moment in
the first part of the play in which he
senses the possibility of the prince’s
final rejection was more telling than
the actual scene of the dismissal in the
second part. John Heffernan is amus-
ing as Shallow. (I have yet to see an
actor fail in this role.) The others are
adequate or better.
It is a very “commercial” play, this
Henry IV, for it combines strong action
— gratifying propaganda for England’s
royal house — with a generous admix-
ture of ribaldry and horseplay. I can
_ imagine the critical gentry at the Globe
grumbling in their beards at the pre-
mieére of, say, King Lear: “If only gentle
_ Will would return to the sunnier vein
of the Henrys — he’s so cross nowa-
_ days.”
_ JEAN GIRAUDOUX’s Duel of Angels,
_ beautifully translated by Christopher
_ Fry, has been given a handsome produc-
tion (Helen Hayes Theatre) under the
_ skillful guidance of the English dancer-
_ choreographer - actor - director Robert
Helpmann. Vivien Leigh, looking alto-
_ gether lovely in superb gowns by Chris-
_ tian Dior, speaks admirably in a voice
_ that is both caressing and provocative;
_ she has probably never acted better.
~ Mary Ure is a bit overbleached for my
taste, but she also fills the eye with
_ grace.
The text itself — it is Giraudoux’s
swan song and was first produced post-
_humously in Paris — has always struck
me as somewhat ambiguous. Therefore,
though it is certainly one of the superior
offerings of the season, I feel slightly
ambivalent about it. f.
e play is another of Giraudoux’s
pes is
960 aie
m4
“i
ms Re, ce
we ,
paradoxical variations on a classic
theme — in this case the legend of
Lucretia — and deals, as does so much
of his work, with the subject of purity.
What is meant by purity in this instance
is sexual purity (in Ondine and The
Enchanted the purity is of another
kind). One might say that purity here
has its most popular Gallic connotation:
conjugal purity and its converse, adul-
tery. At the end of the play, with the
suicide of Lucile (“Lucretia”), a pro-
curess says something to the effect that
purity cannot live in this world... a
conclusion which Giraudoux has drama-
tized before.
What troubles one is that Lucile is
made to seem — apart from her beauty
— a thoroughly bigoted figure, certain-
ly not appealing. Paola who represents
the sophisticated rationalization of the
worldly Frenchwoman (the play is set
in the South of France in the mid-nine-
teenth century) makes Lucile appear
almost ridiculous, though at the sight
of Lucile’s dead body Paola is non-
plussed and admits that Lucile may
have been right. We wonder whether
Giraudoux meant us to feel that absolute
purity must seem either absurd or
hypocritical to the normal mentality —
as idealism always strikes us in every-
day life — because it is so rare as to be
out of place in this world. One is not
altogether sure where Giraudoux stands.
Does he wish to infer that purity by its
uniqueness is something of a threat to
us and in its own way wrong, even
“bad”?
ON further reflection, I hardly think
this interpretation, though admissible,
is what Giraudoux intended. And here
a subtle point of theatrical treatment
comes into play, one also involving na-
tional character. For I am fairly cer-
tain that, though the French are usual-
ly considered more tolerant than the
English or the Americans in regard to
marital infidelity, the French audience
did not laugh at Lucile as the Ameri-
can, or at any rate the Broadway, au-
dience does. I believe the Parisians must
have taken Lucile at her face value as
an inspired person (if only symbolically
so) whose example of sexual highmind-
edness was a kind of poetic reproof of
their looseness. One is a sinner only if
one believes in sin, and the most frivo-
lous French audience is sufficiently pen-
etrated by its cultural-religious tradi-
tion to believe in sin. We, on the other
hand, are free without foundation; we
are not sure of anything either in our
orthodoxy or in our emancipation. As a
result we laugh at Lucile, whom we
take to be a nuisance, and side with
} <9 Ades
i
,
20th CENTURY TOUR
N.B.B.S. Traveling Seminar
on Contemporary Politics
A series of summer sessions
beginning on the student ship
and continuing to Amster-
dam, Berlin, Geneva, London,
Paris, and Rome. Among the
seminar topics:
Amsterdam: The Effects of the
Common Market.
East Berlin: The One-Party Sys-
tem of Government.
West Berlin: A United Germany.
Geneva: The League of Nations
and the U.N.
London: Classes in European So-
ciety.
Paris: De Gaulle and Algeria.
Rome: Religion and Politics.
The seminar leaves from New York
on June 29. Participation is limit-
ed to a group of fifteen college or
graduate students accompanied by
an American professor and a Dutch
student guide.
For further information write to:
Netherlands Office for
Foreign Student Relations
(N.B.B.S.)
29 Broadway, New York 6, N.Y.
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411
Paola, who is shrewd, perceptive and
above all gay and amusing.
In this half-spoken and semi-revealed
conflict of attitudes, our audience re-
gards Duel of Angels as_ essentially
comic, in which case it is very nearly
an immoral or a misanthropic play. (In-
cidentally, Lucile’s husband is shown to
be a conventional prig, morally entirely
inferior to his wife.) But I suspect that
for all the play’s wit and polished de-
tachment, Giraudoux meant it to have
a tragic emphasis: he is for Lucile. (The
play’s original title is Pour Lucréce.)
A striking example of the contradic-
tion between the text and the audience’s
reaction to it is the last scene, in which
the procuress despoils Lucile’s corpse
of its treasures — the triumph of evil
as it were; clearly not a comic moment.
But the first-night audience laughed
at it, not only because the curtain
MEETINGS
The New Rise of German Nazism
A Meeting Sponsored by
THE NATIONAL GUARDIAN
Speakers: James Aronson, editor
Russ Nixon, Wash. Corresp.
Special: SENSATIONAL GERMAN FILM
THURSDAY, MAY 12 at 8 P.M. Adm. $1.50
New York Center, 227 West 46th St.
Tat olan
Gia pe ie
Salute the Summit!
HEAR:
Mrs. ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
Gov. G. MENNEN WILLIAMS
WALTER P. REUTHER
A. PHILIP RANDOLPH
NORMAN COUSINS
Dr. ISRAEL GOLDSTEIN
Dr. HAROLD TAYLOR
® Harry Belafonte
® Mike and Wlaine
@ Orson Bean
® Tom Poston
NAnoison SQUARE GARDEN
Thurs., May 19, 7:45 p.m.
Tickets: $10,, %5., $3., $2.
National Committees for a
SANE NUCLEAR POLICY
17 Hast 45th St, N.Y. 17 OX 71-2266
412
speech was read with an ineffectual
lightness, but because the interpretation
of the play as a whole had led the au-
dience to believe that this too was to be
taken as a keen joke.
What I think happened is this: the
play is difficult because the part of
Lucile is not written as consummately
as that of Paola. (Also the leading lady
— Vivien Leigh — plays Paola opposite
a much less xiv actress.) Then the
interpreters —-»the director and the
others — like their audience are not
impressed by Lucile’s’ (and probably
Giraudoux’s) moral position. Finally,
since the play is so elaborate and ele-
gant in language as to need a special
style of presentation to make its par-
ticular manner conform with our ordi-
nary demands for “realism,” a directorial
compromise was effected by placing the
emphasis on good looks, suave decorum,
salon flair, comedic airiness, a ballet-
like picturesqueness in the manner of
Constantin Guys’s ‘drawings—and a min-
imum of ‘feeling. The result is civilized,
smart, fashionably glacial and—thinking
of Giraudoux—perhaps false.
MUSIC
wie
Lester Trimble
LEONARD BERNSTEIN and _ the
New York Philharmonic — performed
Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in. celebra-
tion of the Easter season. The choral
parts were sung by the Symphonic Choir
of the Westminster Choir College, a
group consisting of roughly 125 voices.
Soloists were Eileen Farrell (soprano),
Carol Smith (contralto), Richard Lewis
(tenor) and Kim Borg (bass-baritone).
These four are first-rate musicians and
made an excellent quartet, though Miss
Farrell was not at her usual peak. The
choir, while certainly a respectable one,
did not sound as homogeneous in quality
and well trained in matters of diction
and voice production as some others that
have appeared with the Philharmonic.
Be that as it may, the Missa Solemnis
made its point.
Probably because this Mass is not
worn out by performance, I usually find
my response to it fresher and more
stimulated by a sense of discovery than
is the case with most of the Beethoven
repertory. It is not as perfect an aesthet-
ic entity as the “Choral” Symphony, the
“Eroica,” or some oof the other sym-
phonic works. But it is such an interest-
ing piece; such a handsome colossus,
despite the fact that) Beethoven carved
it out with total indifference to surface |
in top vocal form.
sheen, and was sometimes even gauche
in his mode of presentation.
The “Gloria,” for example, has im-
plicit in it a quality of raw extroversion
not too far removed from a football
rally. When the section is approached
from a standpoint of muscularity and
speed (as it was by Bernstein), it be-
comes a real shout from the bleachers.
It contains, of course, profundities that
one would not find at the forty-yard
line, and in the most compelling readings }
of the Missa Solemnis these are empha-
sized and the naked shouts played down.
But the shouts are there, on the score-
paper, and one cannot criticize a con-
ductor too severely if he lets them out.
You can only recommend a bit of aging
and constraint (what is usually called
“mellowing”’),
composer’s Teutonic exuberance and oc-
casional lack of manners.
Not only does the Missa Solemnis
contain a preponderance of music that
is first-rate Beethoven, it has a peculiar
character which sets it apart from all
other works in its genre. There is none
of the restraint and impersonality typi-
cal of Palestrina; none of the almost
turgid, inner-orientation of Bach; none
of the soft subjectivism of later, Roman-
tic Masses. Like almost everything
Beethoven wrote, the Missa Solemnis
is a violent affirmation of self, and of
the universality contained within. the }
individual. He wrote not just of faith,
but of faith as he conceived it, without
humility and without immersion,
On the other hand, the work is not
without context. It owes a heavy debt
to the Handelian Oratorio. This can be
seen in the many instances of ingenuous
illustrative writing, such as the simple
rising scales which accompany the words
“And the third day he arose again. .
It is also, I suspect, responsible for a
certain ambivalence, which shifts the
accent back and forth between sym-
phonic, illustrative and tone-poem ap-
proaches. In the final two sections, the
“Sanctus” and the “Agnus Dei,” the
music takes off in a direction totally
opposite to that of the “Kyrie,” “Gloria”
and “Credo,” and these become a com-
pendium of attitudes which did not reach
fruition until Brahms and Wagner.
Although Bernstein’s performance oc-
casionally lacked subtlety and the kind
of roundness which can enrich this
music, it was blessed by enthusiasm,
clarity of idea and an obvious knowl-
edge of what the work is about, I would
like to be present when he gives his
fiftieth performance of it, with a some-
what smaller chorus, and a set of soloists
as good as those used on this occasion
as an antidote to the} —
Crossword Puzzle No. 866
By FRANK W. LEWIS
ect El
pee |
ACROSS:
1 Will might have this wind about a
returning hero. (7)
5 Certainly not the way of peace fol-
lowed by the brave. (7)
9 The sort of help to affect heavy
results, no doubt. (7)
16 One who governed Berkeley’s fam-
ous course concerned with the Oc-
cidental Movement? (7)
12 Feverish child, about ten, found in
its native state. (9)
15 It suggests breaking into a run.
20 Rhubarb is such a plant. (3)
21 Partly responsible for the cowboy’s
overhead expense. (7)
23,11,18 across and 14 Something
broken off knocks a good score and
fusses with the singers. (8, 8)
26 and 24 Implying someone like Lang-
BY, ae a hollow background? (4,
9 Oy 6
28 Empty. (5)
29 Re the noun ceased to delineate
it!
80 What the minister might take if
the degree is his bent? (7)
31 Macbeth talked with some weird
ones! (7)
32 What the female 23, 11, etc., might
do in the grass if not originally
broadcast. (7)
DOWN:
1 Holds fast and lights after a num-
ber of these. (6)
2 Comes down to your level of arti-
ficial design? (6)
ay 7, 1960
2a Ae
ee ee | AM |
‘lt aa
| ae |
=
oer]
Beau |: 4
3 What the classic naval manoeuvre
might do with old armament. (9)
4 Were the old professional men real
elingers? (7)
5 Pulled away with the left part in-
side hitched up. (7)
6 Indian traders might use it, but
not wampum. (5)
7 Gives a certain amount of public-
ity to traveling in the field tem-
porarily. (8)
It .shows in her age (no doubt
picked up from her parents!) (8)
13 and 17 Plant Fido’s idea of a play-
ful pursuit? (6) .
16 A bad liar is put out of tune.
18 Something added changes in the
service, possibly. (8)
19 They might sell lots of anything
but copies of “Magic Mountain.” (8)
22 Yankees were wary of wooden ones.
23 The English gorge after dinner.
25 Like the best players and raisins?
27 The measure of 29. (5)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 865
ACROSS: 1 Class ring; 6 and 18 In
the offing; 9 Entices; 10 Minaret; 11
Kin; 12 Hereon; 15 Chairing; 16 Papy-
ri; 20 Indecent; 23 Ears; 24 Wealth;
25 Pea; 28 Against; 29 and 13 Chicago
Fire; 30 Enemy; 31 Long since. DOWN:
1 Cheek; 2 Antenna; 3 Saccharine; 4
Insuring; 5 Gambol; 6 Inns; 7 Tardily;
8 Extremist; 14 Cane chairs; 15 Co-
operage; 17 Anglican; 19 Furnace; 21
Explain; 22 Vessel; 27 and 26 Only A
Rose.
ee -
fo]
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In a recent three-month period, Nation articles have been
awarded four important prizes:
* Politics: The New York Newspaper Guild’s Page
One Award to “The Shame of New York,” by Fred J.
Cook and Gene Gleason (The Nation, Oct. 31, 1959).
% Architecture: A Certificate of Merit in the Seventh
Annual Journalism Award Competition of the Ameri-
can Institute of Architects “for the excellence of a
series of articles on architecture by several authors.”
* Welfare: The Sidney Hillman Foundation Prize
Award for “The Lost Appalachians: Poor, Proud and
Primitive,” by Harry Ernst and Charles Drake (The
Nation, May 30, 1959),
% Art Criticism: Longview Foundation Award to Fair-
field Porter in recognition of his art columns in The
Nation.
The Nation excels in so many varying fields because its
interests are widespread
and because it seeks the best
writers in every field.
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CHEATING YOUR WAY
THROUGH COLLEGE
William Graham Cole
South Korea and Turkey
ACKDROPS TO CRISIS
Jay Lefer © Frederick W. Frey
7
GENETICS and SUBVERSION
Sidelight on |
> 7
LETTERS
Approachés to Peace
Dear Sirs: Your editorial of February 6,
entitled “The Candidates and a Politics
of Peace,” treats with some of the most
important issues before this country. In
fact, the challenge of peace and disarma-
ment is the most important.
This country must assume the lead-
ership in a continuous effort to attain
permanent world peace, with justice and
freedom. As a necessary step toward
this goal, mutual disarmament agree-
ments with as violation-proof inspection
and controls as practicable must be
negotiated.
It is realistic to recognize that these
mutual agreements can be arrived at
only if we approach the negotiation
table from a position of relative strength.
Our superior relative strength must be
across-the-board: military, economic,
psychological and moral. We dare not
concede an advantage to the Commu-
nists in any one of those respects.
We have the intelligence, the re-
sources, the skills, and above all the
faith, to have and maintain such su-
periority. But mere possession of such
assets is not enough. We must use them,
with leadership and vigor.
Stuart SYMINGTON
U.S.S. (Missouri)
Washington, D.C.
Dear Sirs: I quite agree with The Na-
tion’s editorial of February 6 (“The
Candidates and a Politics of Peace”)
that the issue of peace transcends all
other issues in the coming election. I
think also that foreign and domestic
policies are inseparable and that a re-
actionary approach to our domestic
problems is likely to vitiate our policy
abroad.
The success of that policy depends on
the intelligence with which we (a) work
out a meaningful halt in the arms race
and a basis for living with the USSR,
its satellites and allies; (b) strengthen
the international machinery for main-
taining peace even in a relatively dis-
armed world; (c) bring the economical-
ly backward parts of the world into the
twentieth century.
The sheer hazard of modern weapons,
plus dissipation of the atmosphere of
hysteria which plagued us during the
McCarthey-Stalin era, make meaningful
negotiation about armaments possible
before it is too late. With this, the slow,
painful job of reducing frictions with
the Communist world may start. Small
' beginnings have already been made that
ee ee en}
although he did app
surely would not have been possible
when leading Republicans were finding
the State Department infested with
Coffimunists and the Democratic Party
vergihg on treason. With this, too, it be-
comes possible to think practically about
strengthenifg international peace ma-
chinery. .
I hasten to add that I comment on
your editorial not as a Presidential can-
didate, but as one who aspires to pro-
vide progressive leadership right here in
California, where fifteen million people
in one of our great states have a unique
opportunity to reach out and understand
the human stirrings in the Pacific basin,
of which we are an inseparable part.
Epmunp G. Brown
Governor of California —
Sacramento, Calif.
Everyone’s America
Dear Sirs: As a Negro college student, I
believe that I share the convictions of
my fellow Negro college Americans, when
we take the lead against discrimination
which our elders have left untouched.
We Negro students claim for ourselves
every single right that belongs to a
freeborn American citizen. Until we ob-
tain these political, civil and social
rights, we will never cease to protest. Is
America not our land? Have we Negroes
not helped to build it, and bled for it,
too? Does not our toil and tears of three
hundred years sanctify its soil? It is
here that we stand and stay and succeed!
Epwarp B. Kine, Jr.
Co-Chairman, Dormitory Council
Kentucky State College
Frankfort, Ky.
Corrections Noted
Dear Sirs: As a member of the Bund
Nationaler Studenten, a West German
student society, who is now studying at
the University of Indiana, I would like
to comment on the article, “Neo-Nazism
on the March,” by Heinz Pol, which ap-
peared in your April 9 issue.
1. Our newspaper is not called Stu-
dentenvolk, but Student im Volk, Our
group only advocates unification of Ger-
many before unification of Europe.
2. The Bund does not have 2,000
members as stated; at most, it has 1,000,
3. Herr Suendermann, who was second
to Goebbels in Hitler’s Propaganda Min-
istry, appeared as an invited guest speak-
er before our group only once.
4. Willi Schlamm, who preaches a war’
of aggression against ( jermany’s ee
neighbors, never spoke before our
tis
Aa
Christlich-
supported Ring
Demokratischer Studenten, another stu-
dent society.
ernment
WoLrramM OSTERTAG
Bloomington, Ind.
Germ-Gas Warfare
Dear Sirs: 1 would like to comment on
John Barden’s article, “Germ-Gas War-
fare” |The Nation, April 30], lest your
readers obtain the feeling that research
in these fields has the approval of most
biological scientists. It does not. .. .
Prof. Paul Weiss let the cat out of the
bag when he said, as quoted, “We must
convince the scientific community that
(Cantinued on page 425)
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
413 '@
ARTICLES
416 @ Cheating Your Way Through
College
by WILLIAM GRAHAM COLE
418 '@® Backdrops to Crisis:
South Korea
by JAY LEFDR
Turkey
by FREDERICK W. FREY
420 @ Genetics and Subversion
by RONALD W. MAY
422 @ The Field the Pilot Trusts
by KARL M. RUPPENTHAL
424 @ The Numbers Writer: a Portrait
-by JULIAN MAYFIELD
BOOKS AND THE ARTS,
426 @ Forty Years of Friendship
; by HOWARD GC. IORSFORD
St. Martin’s Lane, London
(poem)
by SUSAN ALLISTON
Those Who Murder
by C. H. ROLPH
Letter from Chicago
by JEAN MARTIN
Films
by ROBERT HATCH
Art
by MAURICH GROSSER
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 482)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
AU
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, Editor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Editor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
= M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
426 @
427 '@
428 @
430 '@
431 @
Lester Trimble, Musie
Alexander Werth, European
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, May 141, 1960, Vol, 190, No, 20
The Nation published weekly (except for omis-
sion of four summer i a The Nation
Company and copyright om ae e U.S.A, by
the Nation Associates, Met rk Avenue,
_ New York 14, N, Y, aed paid
at New York,
N, ¥,
ia
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1 Ast
aireraft remain available, they will still be in the money.
They are joined by thousands of reservists and Air
National Guardsmen, for whom whole airports are kept
in service that they may save the nation every week-
end when the weather is good.
Does anyone dream of abolishing this racket? The
government is, indeed, pondering a remedy. Not to end
. flying pay — perish the thought! — but there is the
added expense of maintaining, repairing and servicing
the airplanes the men must use to draw their bonuses,
the risk to the airlines when the hot pilots cross their
routes, The govern-
ment’s best thought is to pay without flight, and at
least save the expense of the aircraft. In civil life this
would be called featherbedding.
and some other disadvantages.
The Next Civil-Defense Drill
Several years ago, Dorothy Day and Ammon Hen-
nacy of the Catholic Worker, with a few of their col-
leagues, inaugurated the custom of refusing to take
cover when the air-raid sirens sounded. The site where
Miss Day and Mr. Hennacy invited symbolic immola-
tion was City Hall Park in New York. After serving a
jail sentence or two, they were joined by a housewife
with three children and some other conscientious ob-
jectors. At the last civil-defense drill (May 3), Miss
Day and Mr. Hennacy did not suffer the pangs of
loneliness. Some 700 persons stood their ground in City
Hall Park. The police were not overzealous in their
pursuit of these hardened criminals. Only three of the
police buses, which New Yorkers call “patrol wagons,”
were on hand and at the most there was room in them
| for 5 per cent of the crowd. Not even approached by
the police were Miss Day and Mr. Hennacy who, as
| charter members, certainly had a claim to bus seats.
) Other defiant ones who went unwhipped by justice
' were Kay Boyle, Norman Mailer, Dwight MacDonald
and A. J. Muste. Their only punishment was that they
were among the 3,935,490 persons in metropolitan New
York who were hypothetically killed by blast and heat,
or who died later of radiation. In contrast, a hundred
law-abiding citizens in the men’s bar of the Waldorf-
Astoria Hotel escaped unharmed, the bar having been
officially designated as a shelter and, it may be added,
{ a very comfortable one. Among other survivors were
the spectators at the Yankee Stadium, who were di-
| rected to seek shelter under the bleachers. Not one was
| hurt, which suggests that bleachers may be the answer
_ to the shelter problem.
_ The police, however, must be doing some alt
about the next exercise. They will have no trouble with
the lovers of the national sport, nor with the habitués
Oy the men’ s bar at the Wal oa at the Biltmore,
literary lights who seem to frequent such gatherings.
After all, where else could a New Yorker get Norman |
Mailer’s autograph? There may also be a certain num-
ber of Americans who resent being pushed around, per-
haps some, even, who have read that none of the other
freedom-loving nations have air-raid drills. It is perhaps
too much to expect that there will be 100,000 New
Yorkers to match the Britishers who crowded; into
Trafalgar Square at the end of the Aldermaston march,
but that the New York cops are going to need more
than three paddy wagons can be confidently predicted.
Fallen Bastions
When an overseas “bastion” of freedom falls, his
name is stricken from the roster of American heroes
with a suddenness and a degree of unanimity that is
truly startling. Forgotten by the press are the years
of praise, of glowing tributes, of flattering profiles and
biographies, of inspired editorials that went into the
making of the hero’s public image. Syngman Rhee, for
example, must be shocked to discover how quickly the
American press has reversed its opinion of him. Not so
long ago, notes Mr. James Cameron, foreign editor of
the London News Chronicle (he was once ousted from
South Korea on the personal order of Rhee), “It was
unfashionable and indeed hazardous to point out that
Rhee was in fact a cruel and arrogant oligarch who was
dead certain one day to end up behind the barricades.
.. In those days South Korea was ‘a bastion of the
free world’ and Syngman Rhee was ‘a stalwart of de-
mocracy’; though anyone who knew either it or him
sometimes wondered if words had lost their meaning.”
Other “bastions” will fall, other heroes will be dis-
carded, That the South Korean elections were rigged,
we all now know, because the entire American press
concedes the fact. But the press has not headlined the
facts which Representative William Meyer of Vermont
called to the attention of his colleagues at the opening
of a recent day’s deliberations in the House:
Our press frequently refers to Formosa as a bastion of
freedom in the Far East, but this is what happened in
the recent election of Nationalist China:
First: President Chiang Kai-shek was the only can-
didate allowed on the ballot.
_ Second: The constitution was dita. for one day be-
cause it forbade a third term.
Third: The only way electors could vote against
Chiang was to cast a blank ballot and so oe ons thr
Me Gut as bespalid “ei f
\
i”
electoral otes. “ j
We gh seen the ate in South Korea of straying
Beteiticke: but they were allotted sly 2 ptt, cent | caf vata
from professions of some form of democratic \
le. be jonni tine which i is wiohge on the ty
-
ee ce)
Cheating Your Way Through College.. Willcm Crahi Cote
THE GROVES of Academe across
the country are currently being toss-
ed about by a tempest of impressive
force. The trouble began with the
revelation that the television quiz
shows were rigged; the integrity of
one celebrated egghead was the first
casualty of a storm which has grown
steadily to virtual hurricane propor-
tions. Today the evidence is wide-
spread that cheating goes on in col-
leges and universities in all parts of
the nation. And it isn’t only routine
tests and examinations that are in-
volved; ingenious entrepreneurs are
doing a lively business ghost-writing
term papers and even Ph.D. theses.
We have long been accustomed to
the fact that political figures read
speeches written by others, but there
is a general conviction that a man’s
sheepskin credentials should be his
own. The diploma certifying one’s
academic achievement, whether as a
Bachelor of Arts or as a Doctor of
Philosophy, has been traditionally
regarded as a prize won by blood,
sweat and midnight oil. If the cost
can now be translated into ingenious-
ly designed crib-notes, skillfully fur-
tive peeks, or even cold cash, then
indeed the question may be raised:
what is higher education worth?
Now, it is deceptively easy to be
blown away by the gale, to fulminate
eloquently about the decay of na-
tional morality, to see in this alarm-
ing phenomenon one more sign of
the troubled times. “O tempora! O
mores!” The situation demands some
caution, however, for no one can be
certain how recent is the phenom-
enon of academic dishonesty, nor
how much more prevalent it is today
than in previous eras. Clearly there
is more cheating today, but equally
clearly there are more schools, more
students and more tests. The ques-
tion is one of proportion. In any
case, little is gained by a rush to
the wailing wall, however emotion-
ally purging that may be. What is
called for rather is a sober attempt
a
to analyze the sources of the prob-
WILLIAM GRAHAM COLE is
Chairman of the Department of Re-
ligion and Dean of Freshmen at Wil-
w ery College. '
t ae” a ladder to
lem and to discover some viable
solutions.
First of the factors that require
a long, long look is the heavy em-
phasis placed throughout American
education on grades. Admission to
college and university today requires,
more than ever before, a record lib-
erally sprinkled with As and Bs. The
graduate schools, becoming increas-
ingly selective, also place a high
premium. on the marks received in
college. This means that as the stu-
dent climbs the academic stairway,
he finds at each successive level a
sign reading “Reserved for those
with good grades.” Thus, if he is not
content to abandon his ascent, he
must produce his passport.
BUT WHY MUST he cheat? Why
should he not earn his marks by
hard work? Of course, the answer is
that many do, perhaps even the ma-
jority. But there is evidently a siz-
able minority who take the easier,
less virtuous way, and when some do
and get away with it, the incentive
to hard work is perceptibly weaken-
ed. Besides, it is the final mark re-
cewed im the course, not what one
has learned, that is really important.
The academic community rewards
the A-earners, however little of their
learning they may retain or use,
while it disapproves and may even
separate the C- and D-earners, no
matter how much of lasting and
pragmatic value the latter have de-
rived from their studies. And every
institution of learning has teachers
who play favorites, who discriminate
in favor of students who flatter and
agree while penalizing those who are
personally indifferent and _ intellec-
tually independent. Learning, then,
becomes a game which must be play-
ed with skill, gaining aptitude in the
arts of “one upmanship.”
The curriculum is the means to an
end rather than an end in itself—
not only in the structure of the grad-
ing system, but in the culture as a
whole. One of the facts of life early
transmitted to the child in a home
whosé sights are set on the higher
levels of success is the necessity of
a college degree. The diploma is a
satel
ngpenionss! K ‘pieb ;
a gt '
ae he
o's
to profit and prestige. The process
may be dull, the experience itself un-
rewarding, the years empty and rou-
tine. Never mind, the pay-off comes
later. And not so much in the fact
that the graduate is necessarily bet-
ter informed or more sensitive and
aware than his less-educated com-
petitors; it is simply that he pos-
sesses those magic letters after his
name. Ergo, on to college! — there
to have as much fun as possible, to
major in social activities and ath-
letics, to gain experience in manipu-
lating and influencing people (in-
cluding professors), to acquire the
grades necessary for graduation or
for admission to professional school,
but with as little involvement as
possible in the life of the mind, in
the excitement of ideas for their own
sake.
America as a civilization has never
displayed high regard for the intel-
lectual, for the pursuit of learning
as an end in itself. American educa-
tion has always been more or less
vocational. Our earliest colleges were
tooled up to produce clergymen, doc-
tors and teachers. We could not af-
ford the luxury of a landed gentry
with the wealth and leisure pre-
requisite to a life of letters. We have
been traditionally a nation of doers,
not thinkers. The highest places on
the totem pole of prestige have been
reserved for the businessman, the
industrialist, the engineer and the
banker. The egghead has occupied
the lower echelons. Since the Soviet
Union crossed the barrier into the
space age, the scientist has enjoyed
rapid elevation—primarily for his
contributions to technology, not for
his explorations into the unknown.
Applied research has_ incalculably
greater financial support, laboratory
facilities and trained personnel at its
command than the humbler basic
research. Education is of value as an
instrument to mold persons and
things; it has little market for its
own noncommercial self.
THESE FACTORS represent the —
backdrop against which the sordid
drama of cheating on the campus is —
acted m muse f y ae ons to
nk
ho
ch
ser
fag
the
the
Sermonettes on moral uplift and the
importance of integrity will be of
little value against the far more pow-
erful structure of academic attitudes
and practices. Many institutions of
higher learning make use of an honor
system with varying degrees of suc-
cess. On some campuses, the system
functions extraordinarily well, and
the reason seems to be more a mat-
ter of mores than of morals. It is not
that these students are more honest
or upright than their peers at other
colleges. Rather, the prevailing cli-
mate simply renders cheating a
thing that is not done. It is not ac-
ceptable to the community and
therefore the individual is unwilling
to risk the personal rejection in-
volved (though he might be willing
to risk official censure and even ex-
pulsion). The sine qua non of an ef-
fective honor system, therefore, is an
atmosphere of wholehearted accept-
ance by the student body—an at-
mosphere so unmistakable that the
newcomer recognizes it at once— -
that here no one cheats.
This method, while it eliminates
academic dishonesty, obviously does
not deal with the deeper malaise of
the educational system. The empha-
sis on grades remains, and the de-
gree is still primarily the means to
another and more important goal.
OTHER colleges protect themselves
by a system of rigidly and carefully
proctored tests and examinations. A
survey of editorials and articles in
campus newspapers across the coun-
try makes one suspicious as to just
how effective these measures are.
The students themselves admit that
cheating goes on, and the tighter the
screen of security erected by the
faculty, the more ingenious become
the cloak-and-dagger aptitudes of
the students. This is not to say that
proctoring is totally ineffectual. In
some areas, it is probably 100 per
cent effective; in others, only a mi-
nority successfully elude its watchful
eye. But its over-all impact is simply
to underline the basic importance of
_ grades and to intensify the rivalry
between the teacher and the taught.
What seems to the present writer
_ a more desirable and viable solution
is to fix attention on the basic sources
of campus dishonesty, rather than
O
srr a
ei te Se a
ptoms and |
ways to suppress them. (What fol-
lows may appear visionary, even
radical, to heads older and wiser
than mine, but these are times which
call for courage and for some new
thinking.) The first ingredient in
the prescription to cure the disease
is our willingness to ask a_ basic
question: What is education for?
Somehow, some fundamental re-
examination must take place so that
students will realize that, when they
cheat, they are actually harming no
one more than themselves. The Ph.D.
who pays to have his thesis written
for him is robbing himself of the
discipline, the experience and the
satisfaction of an independent. piece
of research. The undergraduate who
relies on crib-notes instead of care-
ful preparation has cheated his par-
ents, who have paid for his educa-
tion; he has cheated himself, for he
has learned nothing. He has not
really cheated either his teacher or
the university, neither of whom is
seriously damaged. Even his peers,
who may find themselves with some-
what lower grades, are not in the
long run damaged. They have learn-
ed something; the cheater has not.
But how to teach such an under-
‘standing? In the first place, by do-
ing something drastic about the
whole grading system, which not
only is a sheepskin curtain blocking
effective communication and coop-
eration between teacher and student,
but a misdirection of the entire aca-
demic enterprise. It is not the A for
which we want students to work,
a ee bie sy
» el
ae in
rn eee ay oO Ure Cpe ht eas pees yas
aie
but rather for what that letter rep-
resents: comprehension, imagination,
skill, sympathy, diligence. This al-
most every faculty member knows
very well, but it is poorly projected
to those who sit on the opposite side
of the desk, the more especially when
so many tests are “objective,”
graded by machine, requiring little
thought or originality. To be sure,
this is the easiest type to mark and
it reduces to a minimum the teach-
er’s subjective biases. But such a
test is a deadly bore for the student
and, incidentally, is the easiest kind
to cheat one’s way through.
WHY should it not be possible for
American education to adopt the
tutorial system so long effective in
Britain, where the teacher works to-
gether with the student preparing
for an examination which someone
else will give? The examination is of
the comprehensive type, virtually
impervious to cheating. It is not a
trap for the student to reveal how
little he knows. It is rather an op-
portunity for him to show what he
can do. Mere rote mastery of facts
will get him nowhere. He is asked
to display his ability to reason, to
relate, to react. It is the sort of ex-
amination which is fun for any stu-
dent worthy of the name. It would
be perfectly possible to give such a
test “open-book” fashion, allowing
the examinees to bring into the room
any materials they like, since the
material would be of little use any-
way. This is the best way to deal
with cheating—to make it imprac-
tical by making it undesirable to the
student himself. At this point, it
should be said in fairness to at least
segments of American education that
many teachers are regularly giving
“open-book” exams, and almost in-
variably students find them a stim-
ulating challenge.
But a change in grading system, —
in type of examination, in student-_
teacher relationship, is mere mechani-
cal manipulation. More fundamental
is the student’s attitude toward edu-
cation itself. American education, by —
and large, produces a maximum of
passivity; students do not so much —
learn anything as they are taught —
something. There is precious little —
correlation that is obvious to them
between what is going on in the
hi ee OO eet See
|
i”
4
fi
classroom and im the market place
where they intend to spend the rest
of their lives. We need far more in-
dependent study in our colleges and
far more contact with the workaday
world than we now have.
I am not suggesting vocationalism
in any sense of that word. I do, how-
ever, mean to point strongly to the
need for a continuous dialogue be-
tween the university and the world
at large, a dialogue which now con-
sists of two independent and deaf-
eared monologues. If students can
be encouraged to pursue their own
research out of sheer curiosity, for
the mere joy of learning, and then
be asked to relate what they are
doing to the larger commonwealth
of mankind, in which they share
citizenship, then cheating on the
campus will wither and die, because
the waters which now keep it alive
will have dried up.
SOUTH KOREA AND TURKEY
BACKDROPS TO CRISIS
The following articles, both based on
first-hand knowledge, convey something
of the atmosphere in South Korea and
Turkey out of which arose the recent
crises in both countries. The author of
the South Korean article served as
neuropsychiatrist to an American mil-
itary unit there; the writer of the second
piece spent two years studying politics
in Turkey on a Ford Foundation grant.
—Enpirors. —
Korean Vignette
Jay Lefer
KOREA from the air is a lunar Jand-
scape. Rocky mounds of earth rise
everywhere; and in the autumn, the
colors are sparse, the countryside
seems naked. Between the many-sized
mountains lie geometric rice fields,
where the farmer plows some ab-
sentee landlord’s furrows with an ox-
drawn wooden plow that could have
seen service in Babylonia. It takes
three men using one shovel to dig
the ground; they attach themselves
to the shovel with ropes. The tractor
treads visible on the dirt roads are
left by light and medium tanks that
appear suddenly from behind the
barbed-wire encampments which
cover the peninsula from Pusan,
‘Taegu, Kwangju and Taejon to Se-
oul, encircling the 400,000 South
Korean troops spread along the de-
militarized zone. Near them are the
two American divisions — under-
staffed, understrength, and using M1
rifles and jeeps that were in good
working condition during World War
II. The barbed wire continues on the th
opposite side of the line to the Yalu made easier because I taught at
a? me ie 2 ie a a? 1. en)
River, the graveyard of American
Marines.
Arriving in Ascom City in the
morning, the Grand Central Termi-
nal of the military, you are taken by
the mists covering the mountains,
and surprised by the reality of quon-
set huts and the evil smell emanat-
ing from the nearby Korean village.
You sit down on a hard, metal cot,
grimy and sweaty after the shaky
MATS plane ride from Japan, and
you are greeted by a plainspoken
personnel non-com who tells you
that the sinks are broken and the
water lines have been stolen by the
“slickee boys.” Then a voice bellows
assignment orders. Those going on
to the division area learn that
“They’re lucky the war’s over any-
way, “cause you'll be living just like
there’s a war going on but no shoot-
ing.’ Going to Seoul and the cities,
“Well, that’s pretty good, ’cause
there’s lots of moose [girls] and they
put out for two bucks.” KMAG, the
Korean Military Advisory Group,
means living amenities.
I FOUND myself in a KMAG unit
for several months, the general prac-
titioner for about twelve officers
and twenty enlisted men assigned to
an ROK army reservist unit near
Kwangju. The houses had been left
over from the post-World War II
military government, There was a
quonset hut containing a library;
on the shelf, surprisingly, was a book
by Owen Lattimore, who in 1949
had predicted a war between North
and South Korea, |
My meeting with Koreans was
oy my vy
ete «nN
the medical school and held weekly
English classes. The classes were
held in a dim-lit, barnlike building.
The high school students were bright,
seemed eager to learn. Their black
uniforms were torn and_ patched.
Large rats ran around the room.
They wrote compositions that bore
titles like, “The Beauty of a Korean
Spring,” “What Is an Autumn Leaf?”
The medical-school library con-
tained texts from Germany and
Japan, mainly published in the early
twentieth century. The students
wanted cheap books from Japan,
but the Rhee government refused
to allow any trade. The youngsters
knew all about the free tuition and
books available in North Korea, but
if they dared complain the police
and government officials immediate-
ly labeled them “Communist.”
Rhee’s Liberal Party officials lived
in splendid homes, contrasting with
the squalid, mud-walled huts, roofed
with hay, of the rest of the populace.
The officials seemed to have a never- —
ending supply of money. Those with
military titles openly sold American
military supplies.
THE AMERICAN Army officers
counted their days of the tour, as
did the thousands of enlisted men,
The dichotomy of military duty and
politics was respected. One embit-
tered colonel went from person to
person telling the story, “And who
do you think God put here first?
The doctor? The lawyer? No, for
in the beginning was
wherever there’s chaos,
enn, eey®) | ga A,
Niehts v
4
here’s the
chaos, and
ing, collecting groups of prostitutes,
and drinking. The “doc” was priv-
ileged because he had the supply
of “no-sweat pills” (achromycin) to
guard against gonorrhea. Besides, the
“doc” could avoid writing one’s
name next to the diagnosis going to
Washington (wouldn’t be good for
the record). Later, I was surrepti-
tiously asked to give “no-sweat
pills” to an officer on the General’s
staff in Seoul. Venereal disease re-
mained a problem, in spite of an
8th Army regulation demanding
continence. A chaplain said that
the problem was common to all
armies in similar situations; he
couldn’t do anything about it. In the
division areas, Korean girls would
crawl over the hills at night, stick
their breasts through barbed-wire
openings or enter a quonset hut
after pay day and go from bed to
bed. If the GI didn’t have the two
dollars, it was “do it now, pay later.”
The Korean police would snatch a
sizable cut of the proceeds.
Seoul was the showplace. The Of-
ficers’ Club was rich, with fine fur-
niture, running waitresses, good
steaks, excellent plumbing. It seem-
ed as though all the money was con-
centrated here to give visiting Con-
gressmen a good time. In the division
areas—isolated, forlorn, where Con-
gressmen rarely came—the units
continued to lack the most elemental
toilet facilities. The Chosun Hotel
in Seoul was like the sex temples of
ancient Persia. The wives were far
away, and the girls paraded along
‘the bar and dance floor, going from
one officer to another. The enlisted
men were accosted on the streets.
NIGHT DUTY at the dispensary or
hospital was similar to the emer-
gency room of any mid-Manhattan
hospital: drunks, knife wounds, con-
_tusions, narcotic addicts. ‘Tite. psy-
Bchiatiic ward contained cases of de-
‘pressions, suicide attempts, schizo-
pphrenic breaks. The atmosphere of
thwarted aggression was bursting out
with unrestrained sexual behavior,
; Riischolvarn or self-destructiveness.
The Korean people became the
target of the Americans’ anger at
having to be in their country. The
J , in-
ulted. The American radio repeat-
“This is freedom’s frontier”’—
Syngman Rhee
and in every city and village was
the evidence of a lack of freedom, of
strict police control. The students at
the Korean universities whispered
complaints; they were frightened,
then, by the police beatings. Korea
was known even in the nineteenth
century for government brutality.
A missionary reported that one form
of torture was to pry apart the leg
bones with a sword.
The Americans came and went,
relieved to get away. The opposition
party, the Democrats, remained the
party of the middle-class profes-
sionals. About 80 per cent of the
people toiled, their backs bent with
heavy A-frames, and the few in the
government collected all the money
and all the power. Facade after
facade was created to continue the
democratic picture of a government
supporting the fourth Peet army
in. the’ world. And’ the people
waited ik
Turkey’s ‘War’
Frederick W. Frey
TURKISH newspapers recently
have been running items that start
like this:
TO THE EDITOR: Ws
Ur Report About the Sh —
Ortage of Antibiotic Dru —
Gs was false. The ministry
has conducted an investigation. . . .
The peculiarly scrambled typog-
raphy is part of the guerrilla war-
fare between the government of
Adnan Menderes and Turkey’s in-
dependent and _ opposition press.
Among a series of measures against
the press, Menderes has put through
a law providing that anyone men-
tioned in a news story is entitied to
a response, or denial, which the paper
must print in exactly the same posi-
tion on the same page, in exactly
the same type, accompanied by ex-
actly the same size photograph —
and occupying up to twice the space
given to the original story. Under
these rigid conditions, there is little
the beleaguered papers can do but set
the type, as in this example, to make
the denial look ridiculous.
Under Menderes’ press laws, a
total of 811 (by government tally)
jail sentences were imposed on Turk-
ish journalists between 1950 and
1958. Many others have been fined.
As many as thirty-five cases have
come up in one day in the Ankara
Press Court. As a result, the special
press cell in the Ankara jail has been
unable to meet the demand for its
facilities: the journalists have had to
queue up to do their time.
THE source of most of the sentences
is the Menderes law that provides
for prosecution on the basis of any
news item that “belittles” the gov-
ernment — a charge that can be, and
occasionally 1s, applied to virtually
any kind of criticism of the regime.
The Times (London) commented
that “a vague and Draconian press
law is applied arbitrarily to some
journalists for seemingly mild of-
fenses and heavy fines and long pris-
on sentences hang like the sword of
Damocles over the heads of all
writers and... editors.” Usually the
journalist is sentenced for “belit-
tling” Menderes, one of his ministers
or, In one case, a local prosecutor.
One of the “belittlers” was a sixteen-
year-old newsboy charged with hav-
ing hawked his papers with the
words: “It says the price of sugar
will be increased.” And the Shah of
Iran invoked the law (at the instiga-
tion, it was rumored, of the Turkish
government) against a Turkish mag-
azine for some rather tame remarks
about the Shah’s marital difficulties.
The “denial” law has been a fertile
419
source of convictions. The govern-
ment has enforced what is literally
the letter of the law: journalists have
gone to jail for printing the denial
on the left side of the page when the
original was on the right (seventeen
days plus fine) and for cutting an
accompanying picture one centimeter
too short (fifteen days). Turkish
papers often are speckled with the
denials. In the first nine months of
last year, the Istanbul Press Prosecu-
tor sent no less than 700 denials to
the local papers for publication.
Occasionally the government con-
fiscates a paper’s entire issue, or sus-
pends the publication for up to three
months. The regime also has avail-
able economic weapons against the
press. It has the power to allocate
newsprint and commercial as well
as state advertising. It has stated as
the criterion for receiving govern-
ment notices — an important source
of revenue — that the papers must
show “objectivity in local and foreign
news.” These weapons have been
used mainly against the organs of
the opposition Republican Party
and the bolder independents, though
Zafer (Victory), the organ of the
ruling Democrats, has also been sus-
pended.
MENDERES’ treatment of the
press is not unusual in the under-
developed world: the Turkish press,
even now, is probably as free as any
in the Middle East, and freer than
most. Nor is press restriction any-
thing new in Turkey. Kemal Ata-
turk censored the press; his successor,
Ismet Inonu, censored the press; so
did ‘Turkish governments before
Ataturk. But the present tightening
comes after a period in which Turkey
seemed to be on the way to parlia-
mentary democracy and a free press.
After World War II, Inonu canceled
most of the controls on the press as
part of the courageous experiment in
democracy toward which Ataturk’s
policies were headed. In 1950,
through the efforts of Inonu, who
had to overcome strong opposition
in his own Republican Party,
Turkey’s first truly free elections
were held. Menderes won and Inonu
Cumhuriyet (Istanbul)
Turkish Journalist's Wardrobe
%
freely gave up power. But, within
four years, Menderes and the Demo-
crats began to move against both
the press and the opposition. These
measures coincided with the end of
the Menderes administration’s ‘polit-
ical honeymoon. After a period of
great popularity, the country was
getting into economic difficulties.
The result of the Menderes policy
has been resistance by the press,
more restriction by the state — and
increased resentment of the regime.
A year ago the Manchester Guard-
ian found in this resistance cause
for optimism: “The most remarkable
thing about the government’s as-
saults on the freedom of the press
and other liberties is not that they
are made... but that they are re-
sisted so stoutly. So long as Turkish
journalists go on writing what they
think needs to be said in defiance of
repeated prison sentences, Turkey is
a country of hope.” In view of the
high price Turkish journalists have
so often paid in jail time, fines and
loss of livelihood, it is, indeed, re-
markable how hard they have fought
back — how often they have dared
punishment to speak their minds.
Now, as the government and its op-
ponents approach a _ showdown,
Turkey’s future seems to be in the
balance. But it is clear that it is the
spirit of resistance which the press
has helped keep alive that today
propels the students into the streets
of Istanbul.
GENETICS AND SUBVERSION e « by Ronald W. May
REP. FRANCIS WALTER (D.,,
Pa.), chairman of the House Un-
American Activities Committee, and
Richard Arens, the committee’s staff
director, have shown interest in a re-
search project, underwritten by a
wealthy New Yorker, which seeks to
prove that the Negro race is genetic-
ally inferior and that American Ne-
groes ought to be “repatriated” to
Africa.
Arens has been accepting a stipend
RONALD W. MAY is a Washington
newspaper man.
420
for his services, a circumstance which
opens him to charges of violation of
a section of the La Follette-Mon-
roney law of 1946 which says that
“Professional staff members | of Con-
gressional committees] shall not en-
gage in any work other than com-
mittee business and no other duties.
may be assigned them.”
Congressman Walter is serving as
an unpaid member of one of two
three-man private committees which
are distributing grants to finance
the research on the project. Mr.
Walter’s fellow workers in this field
ss
are alleged to include Senator Fast-
land (D., Miss.) and a group of pri-
vate citizens of whom several have
been making public appearances on
the far, far Right of the ideological
stage.
These remarkable extracurricular
activities of two key figures in a
Congressional body supposedly de-
voted to upholding the fundamentals
of Americanism (“All men are
created equal,” says the Declaration
of Independence; remember?) were
uncovered by this reporter in a series |
of interviews, telephone calls and
“«
«
’
eo
et
s
is
"
“J
oer
“a
Ul
“y
exchanges of correspondence in
which both Messrs. Walter and
Arens were given their chance for
rebuttal.
The underwriter of the project is
Wycliffe Draper, a near- -recluse in
his seventies, who some time ago
decided that some extra money he
had lying around could not be bet-
ter spent than on proving that Ne-
groes were inferior in intelligence
and that those now living in the
United States would be better off in
Africa — where, presumably, they
would be under the tender care of
the South African police. When he
‘failed to get support for his theories
from several respectable geneticists,
he decided, three years ago, to ap-
point two committees which might
be capable of finding researchers
more sympathetic to his ideas. Mr.
Walter was named to one of the
committees, for which Mr. Arens
serves as paid consultant (stipend:
$3,000 a year). Senator Eastland was
named to the other committee, ac-
cording to a man who, as we shall
see, certainly ought to know.
BEFORE proceeding further with
this inquiry into the connections be-
tween Messrs. Arens and Walter
with Draper, it might be well to de-
scribe the general tone of Draper’s
theories as revealed by the scientists
who turned down the opportunities
offered them to work with him.
Eastern university zoologist: “TI
took dinner with Mr. Draper at the
Harvard Club, and his first remark
about the Negro waiter who served
us apprised me of the nature of his
interest in human heredity. I don’t
believe he made any offer of sup-
port, but he left the impression that
what interested him was evidence
of race inequalities. I bade him good-
by after dinner.”
Well-known geneticist: “I don’t
recall that Mr. Draper offered us a
specific amount. . .. He did not real-
ly know any genetics himself and
was a racist of the usual type. He
wished to prove simply that Negroes
were inferior to other people and
wished to promote some program to
send them all to Africa. We merely
told him that his ideas were a lot of
_ Nonsense and certainly would not
“ _ work.”
psrector of -a university genetics
laboratory: “As far as I could tell,
Mr. Draper thought the country
would be better off without Negroes
and believed that the ideas current
immediately after the Civil War of
repatriating the Negroes to Africa,
as was done in the Liberia experi-
ment, could be resumed on a larger
scale and would be successful. As
this seemed completely foolish to me,
I merely told him that I did not
think this was a sensible project.”
Eastern university geneticist: “My
impression was strong that Mr. Dra-
i
Representative Walter
per was a racist and a radical eugeni-
cist who believed that inferior peo-
ple ought to be sterilized.”
MR. ARENS, when asked about his
work for the Draper project, would
concede only that he had assisted
Mr. Draper in finding recipients
for research grants in the fields of
“immigration and genetics.” He later
told The Washington Post that he
had never devoted more than fifty-
two hours a year to his work. On the’
basis of a $3,000 annual stipend, it
would seem that the science of ge-
netics was rewarding Mr. Arens at
the rate of $58 an hour.
Concerning the propriety of this
activity, the Post, referring to the
LaFollette-Monroney law, com-
mented:
Those familiar with the writing of
the Act declare the wording means
precisely what et and that #
_ would be both unusual” and “e
ceptional” for a professional commit:
: oy a
tee staff employee to be receiving
outside income from other work.
Queried on the same subject by
this reporter, Sam Rayburn (D.,
Tex.), Speaker of the House, said
that he would consider it “definitely
improper” for a Congressional com-
mittee staff man to take money from
a private person or group that is “in-
terested in” or “connected with”
legislation, no matter how remotely.
Mr. Rayburn added that he*would
not object to a committee employee
working part time at a store, garage
or other small business which could
have no possible tie with the busi-
ness of Congress.
CONGRESSMAN Walter was a little
more communicative than Mr.
Arens, but not very. At first he told
this reporter that he had long been
interested in immigration as it re-
lated to Africa (the Congressman is,
of course, a member of the Joint
Congressional Committee on Im-
migration and National Policy). In
fact, he said, he had spent some time
in Africa last year studying native
universities to find those which
might profit from Draper grants.
For instance, he had conferred with
officials of the University of Dakar
over the possibility of establishing
a chair of government to speed na-
tive competence in self-rule. He said
also that he had considered the pos-
sibility of a Draper grant going to a
university in Mali.
But, as the interview proceeded,
Mr. Walter gradually withdrew his
implied connections with Draper and
ended the talk by denying that he
had ever met the gentleman or knew
anything about his grants. Why, un-
der these circumstances, he had
traveled around in Africa looking for
likely recipients of Draper grants
was left unexplained.
This reporter next telephoned
Draper 1 in New York City (the num-
ber is unlisted), and was told that —
questions about the grants should |
be directed to Harry Weyher, a New
York attorney. Mr. Weyher seemed
startled to be asked about the mat-—
ter, but under persistent probing he
admitted that two committees were —
disposing of Draper’s money for 5
“worthy projects” and said that Mr.
Arens is a paid consultant for the
committee on which Congressman
wu
Be 422"
Walter serves and that Senator East-
land is a member of the other com-
mittee. He explained that the grants
dispensed through the committees
pay for “research into genetic and
blood-type sciences” and into the uses
of isolysin, a chemical important
in establishing the transfusibility of
blood types. (Southern racists have
long inveighed against mixing Ne-
gro blood with white in blood banks
on the theory that genetic Negro in-
feriority is thus transmitted to
whites, or that in any case the trans-
fusion damages the white person’s
health.)
Senator Eastland, queried about
his connection with Draper, vigor-
ously denied even remembering the
gentleman’s name, and said he had
had nothing to do with dispensing
any of the Draper money.
FURTHER inquiry by The Wash-
imgton Post revealed something more
about the fountainhead of all these
grants and the committees which are
disposing of them. Draper is a Har-
vard graduate whose interest in re-
strictive immigration laws led, to a
friendship with the late Senator Pat-
rick McCarran (D., Nev.), co-au-
thor of the McCarran-Walter im-
migration bill. At that time, Senator
McCarran headed the Senate Judi-
ciary Committee, of which Mr. Arens
was then a staff employee.
As to the grant committees, serv-
ing with Congressman Walter are
Benjamin Douglas Van Evera,
chemistry professor and dean _ of
sponsored research at George Wash-
ington University, and Dr. Anthony
Bouscaren, political scientist at Le
Moyne College, Syracuse, New York.
Dr. Bouscaren, an outspoken ad-
mirer of the late Senator McCarthy,
moved to Le Moyne from Marquette,
in Milwaukee, last year after his
work for Draper had led to difficul-
ties with the administration of the
Milwaukee institution.
The second grant committee con-
sists of Senator Eastland (according
to Mr. Weyher, at any rate); Henry
FE. Garrett, professor of education
at the University of Virginia, and
Joseph W. Brouillette, Sr., on the
staff of the education department of
Louisiana State University.
Mr. Garrett, who retired last year
as professor of psychology at Col-
umbia University, was one of a group
of New Yorkers who a year ago
sought a certificate of incorporation
from the Queens County, N.Y., Su-
‘Ss + w " 7 . ‘ - ,
preme Court to form an “Association
for-the Preservation of Freedom of
Choice.” Heading the petitioners was
Donald A. Swan, whom the New
York Post has referred to as a “self-
described American Fascist.”
The court turned down the appli-
cation for incorporation because of
what it termed its “malevolent pur-
pose.” The application, said the
judge, spoke of “individual freedom
of choice,” but the “avowed pur-
poses” concealed “the negation of a
whole series of fundamental and basic’
rights which are the warp and woof
of the way of life vouchsafed to
everyone by the U.S. Constitution
and that of the State of New York.”
The judge further referred to the
“Aesopian language” of the applica-
tion as really intending to give the
majority the “choice” to segregate
minorities by denying them a right
“to enter, ride, worship, eat, play,
study . . . in certain public places.”
It would appear that Messrs. Wal-
ter and Arens are linked to a _ proj-
ect with ramifications that seem re-
markably unsuited, to say the least,
to catch the favorable attention of
the chairman and staff director of
the House Un-American Activities
Committee.
THE FIELD THE P ILOT TRUSTS ee by Karl M. Ruppenthal
LANDING ‘unexpectedly at Olathe,
a few miles south of Kansas City,
Kansas, another airliner recently
made the news. It had lost a wheel
from its landing gear. The pilot,
bound for Peoria, had suspected
trouble shortly after his take-off at
Chicago. Together with the copilot,
he made the inspections that are pos-
sible in the air. Then he called the
Chicago Midway tower and asked
the operator to take a look. He circled
the field as close as he could and
made one pass in front of the tower.
Two operators peered through field
KARL M. RUPPENTHAL, an. air-
line pilot since 1942, is a lecturer in
Transportation and Management at
the Graduate School of Busimess at
Stanford Unwersity.
glasses. They were uncertain about
the extent of damage, but suspected
that a wheel was gone.
The captain next called the plane’s
hostess. Since flights from busy
terminals normally waste little time
getting under way once they are air-
borne, he knew the passengers would
be curious about their circling the
field. And he thought they had a right
to information. He explained the
facts to the stewardess, and ampli-
fied them with his guesses, then
asked her to take it from there.
Quietly and efficiently she briefed
the passengers. Since the load was
light, and she had plenty of time, —
she talked to them individually. She
carefully explained about the defec-
tive landing gear: while there was
ova reason to ble that oe land- |
4
ing would be normal, there was no
merit in taking chances. She hoped
they would not mind a little incon-
venience for safety’s sake.
She gave each an extra pillow in
case padding might be required. She
made certain the seat belts were in
order, for they might really be need-
ed this time. Once on the ground,
she told them, they should proceed
calmly to the exits, but with no un-
due delay.
Meanwhile in the cockpit the
pilots, too, were busy. Establishing
communications with the company,
the copilot explained the situation.
The captain requested a search of
the runway the plane had just left;
_and would the company check old
log books to see if there was any
history a might: hear -pmit he §
fo
Ie
cal
cre
ta
de
lo
th
th
fe
Wo
botidition of the gear? The log book
in the plane was new, giving history
for but the previous three days, and
revealed nothing of importance.
It was not long before an answer
came from the airport: the search
crew had found a wheel. From all
indications it had fallen free on the
take-off roll. The crew found no evi-
dence that anything else had come
loose. Armed with this information,
the captain radioed the dispatcher
that he was diverting the flight to
Olathe. Next he called Airways Traf-
fic Control and received clearance to
his new destination.
There was a hum of activity on
the ground. One man called Olathe
to make certain the authorities there
knew about the flight. Another
_ checked with reservations for a count
of passengers on the plane and ar-
ranged transportation for them from
_ Olathe to their destinations. A third
man called public relations: since
anyone can listen to radio communi-
cations, some enterprising reporter
would surely be on the scene, and it
would be well for P.R. to have a
man there, too.
ON THE GROUND at Olathe there
were other discussions. Since the run-
way was covered with snow, was
_there any danger of fire? Had it been
dry, the crash crew would have
coated the runway with foam to
inhibit sparks and to smother in-
_cipient fire. But was this necessary,
or desirable, with a natural coating
of snow?
| The pilot finally brought his plane
| in. ‘He came over the threshold us-
ing the least possible speed. Near
he ground, he held her off until she
ould no longer stay in the air. Then,
ansinne he landed on the two re-
aining wheels, keeping one side
| from lowering as long as he could.
} Quickly, gracefully he brought the
plane to rest. It was a magnificent
| job of flying.
Seconds later the crash crew ar-
| rived. Swarming about, hoses
ip primed, they watched foe. possible
e. Quickly; efficiently, the well-
iefed passengers deplaned. ete
‘lit tle» excitement, -they walked
ced aes
ns
ney BI a ah ye
the terminal iahere an agent-esc a aoe fashion, it would
rem to a waiting limousine. Almost af id ini
iti eee hu aecnatilicy would ‘be fixed:
ations. An unneeded ambulance
drove quietly away.
It was a great day for the reporters
and photographers. What better for
page one than a shot of the disabled
plane on the runway! There she
stood, ankle deep in the snow, like
an embarrassed queen on a throne
that had unexpectedly collapsed. A
reporter rode the passenger limousine,
listening for tidbits. There would be
human interest here. Probably it
would be some woman’s first plane
ride. That would be worth half a
column. Or an important speaker
might have missed a lunch engage-
ment. Or perhaps a lovely bride might
be late for her wedding. In any case,
here was high drama: the world
would be eager to learn how it feels
to be in a plane that has left one
wheel behind on the ground.
Satisfied with their work, the re-
porters filed their stories. AP dis-
tributed the pictures throughout the
land. Radio newscasters painted
dramatic oral images (though many
of them couldn’t pronounce Olathe).
Two days later, the story was dead,
wrung thoroughly dry of human in-
terest. A plane had landed safely,
minus a wheel, and nobody had been
hurt.
In due course of time, there would
be an investigation. Specialists from
the Civil Aeronautics Board would
overlook nothing. With cameras,
tapes and transits, they would care-
fully check the place where the wheel .
had been lost. Speed and _ take-off
roll would be documented. The plane
itself might be impounded temporar-
ily and the doubtful gear inspected.
There would be hypotheses, tests
and checks. Mechanical deficiencies
might be uncovered, and voluminous
reports would be filed.
Weeks later there would be a hear-
ing. Here much evidence would be
presented: the date and origin of the
flight; its weight, fuel load and des-
tination; the certification of the air-
line and its right to operate sched-
uled. flights; the name, z
ifications of each
crew. And there
B would
publish findings. Dry
ory of the flight. And
at fault would be the pilot, a me-
chanic or the airline. Or it might
even blame a faulty part. But hav-
ing assessed responsibility, the CAB
would then close its books.
The FAA, too, might write a
chapter. It might investigate to de-
termine whether the pilot had acted
legally in diverting to Olathe. Had
the dispatcher concurred with him in
the decision? Did the approved oper-
ating manual give the company au-
thority to land a plane at Olathe un-
der such conditions? If it did not,then
by what authority was the landing
made? If the captain claimed an
emergency, was he justified in so do-
ing? And if he was, did he, within
the statutory time, file sufficient
copies of an appropriate report de-
tailing the reasons for his actions?
In the end someone would be rep-
rimanded, perhaps fined. And one
more statistic would be added to the
accident records of the fiscal year.
And there, in all probability, the
matter would end.
FOR IT is extremely unlikely that
the real story will ever be written,
because no reporter will take the
trouble to inquire. He will not think
to ask why the pilot chose Olathe —
why a little town in Kansas, nearly
Leoria
ILL
300 miles beyond the flight’s des-
tination and 435 miles from its ori- :
gin. Why didn’t he set her down in
Peoria — or in Chicago?
Was it more than coincidence that —
a few months earlier another pilot —
had selected Olathe when his landing
gear had also declined to function?
The papers had carried that story,
too: an incident, superb flying, co-
ordinated activity on the ground. _
But why did both pilots select
Olathe, an airport where no airline
a facilities, where they ene no
at Ba
“1 *
7
mechanic and own no loading stand?
The unwritten story would reveal
that both pilots landed at Olathe
because they knew what they could
expect there, and that is more than
can be said for Chicago or Peoria.
Olathe, long a training field for Navy
pilots, is equipped for accidents which
are sure to occur in training. It has
adequate ambulances, fire trucks and
other emergency equipment. Equal-
ly important, it has sufficient trained
men who know what to do. And
that, too, is more than can be said
for many airports.
For it is a sad fact that the pilot
faced with an emergency has no way
of knowing the adequacy of the facil-
ities on the ground. There is no list
telling him what equipment is avail-
able. Of course, given time, the pilot
may inquire by radio whether a
field has a fire truck in operation,
but even then its effectiveness re-
mains unknown. For there are no
standard requirements.
While it is true that major air-
ports have emergency equipment,
the variations are tremendous. No
regulation sets forth the number or
capacity of fire trucks. No rule stip-
ulates crash-crew size nor how well
the crew must be trained. Even
where airports have emergency
equipment, men to operate them are
not always available around the
clock. Indeed, at some “modern” air-
ports the men assigned to the equip-
ment know little more about this
job than would volunteers in Ben
Franklin’s bucket brigade. Other
fields do have both the latest equip-
ment and men trained to handle it
efficiently.
For the business of emergency
operations is in a no man’s land.
It is true that the federal taxpayer
pays the lion’s share of the cost of
building the nation’s airports. But
except in the nation’s capital, once
an airport is built, it is run by local
groups. Safety items regarded as es-
sential by the Port Authority of
New York may be ignored by the
airport commissions at Peoria or by
the City Council in Dubuque, Iowa.
And the pilot on the spot has no
way of knowing whether a regular
airport has emergency equipment,
whether the equipment is in operat-
ing condition, or whether its handlers
have ever seen a fire.
There is urgent need to assess the
emergency facilities at all airline
airports and to remedy deficiencies
that may be discovered. It is all
very well to be “for” safety, much
more important to achieve it.
Today many of our airports are like
poorly designed industrial plants.
Tacked on the walls are numerous
signs saying, “Safety First,” “Be
Careful,’ “Pay Attention to the
Rules or Lose Your Job.” But the
workers in the plant would trade
all the signs for reliable safety equip-
ment continuously manned by com-
petent operators.
THE NUMBERS WRITER: a Por trait ee by Julian Mayfield
THE POLICY racket was in the
news again. Adam Clayton Powell
(D., N.Y.) had charged that the
New York City police were cooperat-
ing with white numbers bankers to
drive Negro bankers out of Harlem.
Police Commissioner Kennedy re-
plied that the charges were irrespon-
sible. Representative Powell, whose
district includes most of Harlem,
read names and addresses of white
“policy barons” into the Congres-
sional Record, and there was a wave
of arrests in Harlem. The newspapers
vied with one another to see which
could produce the loudest headlines.
It seemed that, after half a century,
a real attack was about to be mount-
ed against the numbers game.
I wondered what my friend Jimmy
Slick thought about all this furor,
and I went up to Harlem to see him.
Jimmy is a numbers writer who has
spent more than half of his forty
JULIAN MAYFIELD is the author
of two novels on Harlem, The Hit
and The Long Night (Vanguard).
(424
years in the racket. In the early af-
ternoon he is always at his favorite
barroom on Seventh Avenue, where
he writes down the bets of his cus-
tomers, and it was there I found him
going about business-as-usual. When
I asked him what he thought of Mr.
Powell’s declaration of war on the
numbers game, he set his glass on
the bar and cursed — not violently,
but tiredly, as if he were weary of
everything, even his own curses.
Jimmy was one of those who had
been picked up a few days before
during the mass arrests. The young
white plainclothesman who took him
to the precinct station had been
very embarrassed because he himself
was on the policy payroll, the same
as Jimmy. The detective had been
full of apologies, but Jimmy had
comforted him, assuring him that
everything was cool, that such things
were to be expected from time to
time. “This cop,” Jimmy said,
one of my regular players. He’s been
betting 507 with me for two years.”
I asked Jimmy if he aia he
nei Dil’
eae ni ‘y
would receive less “action” (betting)
as a result of all of the unfavorable
publicity, and he stared at me as if
I had suggested he run for Presi-
dent. “Man,” he said, “you can’t
stop people from playing the num-
bers. And, furthermore, nobody is
going to try to stop them. This is a
business.” He said it with a quiet
assurance that is disconcerting to a
person who believes in the possibil-
ities of genuine social reform.
Since 1900, there have been count-
less exposés of the policy racket, and
there have been several vigorous
spurts of prosecutions. Indeed, it can
be argued that one man, Thomas E.
Dewey, almost reached the White
House on the fame he achieved in
his war on the numbers. But today
the racket is more highly organized
than ever and, as a business, it shows
no signs of experiencing even a mild
recession during the present munici
“is pal soul-searching. In each of th
greater urban centers, it is the em-
ployer of several thousand people
and in New York City alone its an-
4
a? : ‘ Na
rs \
i 2
Cat
rT)
By
hea
ab
lion
can
irs
nual take is estimated to be a quarter
of a billion dollars.
Even the most tolerant among us
must by now be convinced that the
policy racket can no longer be con-
sidered a harmless pastime. It is a
cancerous growth on city life. It
siphons millions of dollars a year
from the sections of the population
that can least afford it. A huge
share of its revenue is used to bribe
the police and public officials who
protect it. Worse, the easy atmos-
phere of corruption in which it flour-
ishes destroys respect for social in-
stitutions and encourages juvenile
delinquency. Moreover, the well-
greased and efficient machinery of
the numbers game is used for other
criminal activity; many of the policy
barons are knee-deep in the dope
traffic, using the capital acquired
from one to furnish cash needed for
the other,
I like to think that Jimmy Slick
is unaware of the anti-human ramifi-
cations of his trade. He is, after all,
only a minor figure in the operation.
But perhaps he is aware, for I have
heard him say, defensively: “This is
a business, man, like any other. Mil-
lions of dollars are involved. You
can’t stop business. Business comes
> first.”
I BELIEVE that is the heart of the
matter. Jimmy Slick and his world
view, his Weltanschawung, were not
created by the policy racket. Both
Jimmy and the racket were spawned
out of — and are sustained by —
certain generally accepted attitudes
which many people fear now domi-
nate our national character. These
attitudes might be summed up as
follows: The highest motivation of
_ mankind is to look out for Number
One; corruption and compromise of
, principle are as natural to human
: society as breathing; and, in the end
. the only thing that matters is suc-
"| cess (the getting of money, influ-
; _ ence or power).
aim it is in this framework that we
r a test Jimmy Slick’s cynicism. To
; “thread in the quilt of national cor-
ne} TUPtion. He did not share the out-
him the policy racket is merely a
rage that many people felt when the
ee exposés shook oa ae
red by the promise
man Adams was driven out of
Washington for accepting favors from
a person doing business with the
government. Jimmy has assumed for
many years that nearly everyone in
public office is on the make one way
or the other, that where there is no
actual graft there is the use of in-
fluence and the exchange of favors
for personal gain. The hullabaloo
over the fixed TV quiz shows and
payola confuses him, for he cannot
believe so many people are genuinely
indignant over something that is so
perfectly natural. To a barroom pal
who was excoriating Charles Van
Doren, Jimmy said: “Cut the bull,
man. Nobody turns down $123,000,
no matter what he has to do for it.”
Few people, privately, would disagree
with him.
Jimmy’s attitude is more complex
toward prominent Negroes who find
themselves in trouble, but it is con-
sistent with his philosophy. He de-
fends Adam Clayton Powell and
Hulan Jack, but he does not protest
their innocence. He is convinced that
politics are behind the prosecutions.
Besides, he points out, the amounts
of money involved are piddling com-
pared to the sums he has heard
changed hands during certain Title
I slum-clearance deals. The one
thing for which Jimmy will never
forgive Mr. Jack is that he received
only $5,500. Jimmy says scornfully,
“That was a disgrace to Harlem!”
Why, he demands (echoing Mr.
Powell’s outcry against the police
and the white policy barons) should
the Negro get a smaller share of the
spoils?
JIMMY never believed that Con-
gress would pass a strong civil-rights
bill this year. He is even a little
amused at the circus that was staged
in Washington, for he wonders how
it appeared to the rest of the world.
He expresses no outrage that Presi-
dent Eisenhower, while vacationing
at a Jim Crow golf course in Augusta,
pontificates about the challenges
facing the free world while he re-
fuses to take a forthright stand on
human freedom at home. To Jimmy
this is the American way of life.
It is years since he has. been’ stir-
the Bill of
Tighe and he rat downright
why should scientists speak and think
embarrassed pledging his allegiance
to the flag of the United States. He
remembers the Star Spangled Banner
nostalgically only because of a verse
he and his Harlem schoolmates used
to sing to the tune:
Oh, say, can you see
Any bedbugs on me...
Tf you do, take a few
Because they came from you...
Obviously, Jimmy is not typical of
any large segment of our society. But
this should give no one comfort, for
his attitudes, while not typical, are
symptomatic of a growing cynicism
among those who once dreamed of
seeing our nation realize its great
potential. The cold war, the constant
threat of a nuclear holocaust, the era
of McCarthyism and a_ creeping
apathy have taken an awesome toll
of the most visionary elements in our
community.
Idealism has given way not to
complacency, but to resignation. How
are we to meet the challenge present-
ed-by Jimmy Slick? Do we still have
the capacity to regenerate his faith
in the American promise? Or have
we resigned our prerogatives as free
citizens to such an extent that there
is now a little of Jimmy Slick in all
of us?
LETTERS
(Continued from inside cover)
chemical and biological warfare is not
a dirty business. It is no worse than
any other means of killing. There is no
excuse for scientists regarding it as de-
grading, particularly in the light of its
public-health aspects.”
If scientists were ready to work in
these fields, they would need no con-
vincing. Those who have spent a good
deal of their adult lives in finding ways
to protect Man from his biological ene-
mies (and this includes Soviet man as
well as American man) are not going to
be so easily convinced that they should
now discover how best to use bacteria
to wipe out Man, indiscriminately. Of |
course, CW and BW are no worse than
atomic warfare. Nor any better. But
of killing?
Puitip SIeKevITz
_ The Rockefeller Institute
New York City
5
’
rf
|
a
and Howells, will join the Depar
of English at the University of Rochester. i
BOOKS and the ARTS
Forty Years of Friendship
MARK TWAIN - HOWELLS LET-
TERS: The Correspondence of Sam-
uel L. Clemens and William D.
Howells, 1872-1910. Edited by Henry
Nash Smith and William M. Gibson
with the assistance of Frederick An-
derson. Harvard University Press. 2
Vols. 984 pp. $20.
Howard C. Horsford
“SOMETIMES I think we others shall
be remembered merely as your friends
and correspondents,” Howells once wrote
Twain, with a wry near-accuracy. De-
spite his admittedly serious limitations,
Twain has emerged as one of our great-
est writers; only in a much more hesitant
way is Howells just beginning to re-
but also the editor-critic who almost
single-handedly midwifed the birth of
modern American literature. So it is one>
of the many signal virtues of this cor-
respondence that Howells emerges a
warmly friendly, acute intelligence, a
restrained strength to match the vol-
atility of Twain.
These two volumes, — scrupulously
edited by two distinguished scholars of
Twain and Howells (it would be grace-
less carping to suggest that the editorial
apparatus is almost too anxiously full),
and handsomely produced by the Bel-
knap Press, bring together for the first
time all the known but scattered nearly
800 letters and notes of all kinds. Hap-
pily, there seem to be only a few tanta-
lizing gaps. Twain, exulting in the finan-
cial triumph of his first book, /nnocents
Abroad, had met Howells in 1869 to
thank him for his discriminating re-
view in that temple of New England
ice onien The Atlantic Monthly,
but the extant correspondence begins in
1872, with a telegram from Twain char-
apipdstically. helping a friend. The sub-
sequent forty-year record of one of the
closest and most significant friendships
in American literary history is rivaled
only by the remnants of the Melville-
Hawthorne exchange, or by the letters
between Howells and his other great
on riend, Henry James.
towne C. HORSFORD, who has
written on Melville as well as Twain
after: Sache ‘this summer at B read
ie ] 4 7 o \
ment
These are not, to be sure, the letters
of a Walpole or Chesterfield, written in
- formal elegance and with half an eye on
posterity’s audience. Much of the time
the two men lived no more than a few
hours from each other, joying in each
other’s many lengthy visits; the letters
occupy only the interstices of their com-
munion. Besides, many of the letters in-
dividually are already familiar from pre-
vious use elsewhere.
But it is the whole consecutive se-
quence here which is illuminating, which
conveys the developing sense of con-
fidence and intimacy in understanding
that sprang from a long, deep and con-
stant affection. The publicly — staid
Howells writes from Switzerland: “Think
of a country where they are so proud of
their manure heaps that they plait the
edges of the straw that sticks out.” We
see not only Twain’s exasperations and
his extravagances, but often also his un-
publicized generosities. We learn to esti-
mate the generosity of Howells, who
again and again took time from his own
crowded days to read and correct pa-
tiently the manuscripts or proofs of his
much wealthier, impatient friend. With
newly delighted pleasure, we come un-
expectedly upon the well-known pas-
sages casually mentioning the genesis of
Life on the Mississippi or Huckleberry
Finn, see the new disturbed seriousness
of Howells as he writes A Hazard of New
St. Martin’s
Fortunes, or risks his career to speak
for the Haymarket anarchists. Bit by
bit we see their Republican satisfaction
eroding before their developing social
consciousness and troubled political con-
sciences as the century wears out its
tarnished years.
We have known of the frail health of
the two deeply loved wives, but it is
with a much deeper sense of the recur-
rent distress it must have held for their
husbands that we see it mentioned again
and again, year after year, as a kind of
grimly accepted constant. The younger .
exuberance and high spirits shift slowly _
into the wry jesting about age, the let-
ters carry an increasing burden of news
of death of friends and relatives. With
sharper poignancy in its restraint, after
the tormenting years of his daughter
Winifred’s breakdown, comes the last
sentence in an otherwise routine note
from Howells: “We shall be just beyond
Cambridge, not far from Winny’s grave,
beside which I stretched myself the other
day, and experienced what anguish a_
man can live through.” And then there
is the wonderfully delicate sympathy of
Howells’ letters to Twain during that
devastating sequence of the death of a
daughter, a wife and another daughter.
THE notion that Twain was not, all
faults being freely granted, a deeply
serious writer behind his role of profes-
sional entertainer dies hard. So does the
notion — built on arbitrary excerpts and
given its most extravagant statement
Lane, London
Yes, and,on the one hand were the jagged tecth of walls
And starred red paper screaming .
Paper pasted with a host’s qa
Screaming where it hung like flesh,
Torn away by a demolition plan.
‘They felled the bricks and dust
Streamed about them,
Rose from the rubble — inevitable ghost
Haunting their mouths with grit.
Yes, and then opposite
The mammoth many-storied monster
Still in a cage of scaffolding —
Men were flies on its side —
_ Was hideous and- -grey in growing pains.
— Something
Or ¢ to re
Something was in the air I thought, —
like ‘dust t to dust’ .
balance hae old)
sped in my taste 2
Sige
7
years ago by Van Wyck Brooks — that
Twain’s genius was stunted by his cul-
ture, emasculated by those genteel
representatives of that culture, his
wife and his friend. But if the
patient work of more recent students
has not laid such notions of Sam and
Livy Clemens, of William and Elinor
Howells, perhaps these letters may.
Within this sequence we see more justly
the significance of the constant teasing
about domestic tyrannies, the shared,
intimate family joke. The supposedly
chilling effect Mrs. Clemens had on the
vigor of her husband’s diction comes in-
to a more proper perspective after we
read any number of passages like this
one spoofing Livy’s clucked exaspera-
tion over a social engagement prevent-
ing a Howells visit: “That did not de-
ceive the Recording Angel a bit; I knew
the entry that was being set down in the
great book opposite the name Livy L.
Clemens, to wit: ‘March 24, 1880 —
at breakfast unarticulated remark
reflecting the thought, “Damn _ those
Warners.”’ — To get this woman to
give up the baneful habit of underhand-
ed swearing, is one of those things which
I have long ago been obliged to give
up. . . . But the poor children don’t
suspect, I thank God for that.”
FOR Twain, Howells was “really my
only author.” His regularly enthusiastic
acclaim for each new Howells work, no
matter how slight, is in large part due
to his personal affection, but it is also
based on a genuine appreciation of
Howells’ merits, the delicate felicity of
style, the shrewd elucidation of char-
acter and motive and situation — mat-
ters always close to Twain’s artistic
heart. Howells, for his part, was rather
more discriminating in his praise; some
of his restraint comes from a too wary
regard, no doubt, for the nineteenth-
century proprieties. But to his everlast-
ing critical credit, he saw and shared
almost from the first something not al-
ways recognized even today — the pas-
sionate moral intensity, the tenderness
for human suffering, the outrage at
injustice, the constantly deepening tragic
perception in Twain.
Of course Livy Clemens and Howells
had effect on Twain’s writing, and at
times we should call that effect too pris-
sy. But what is clear here, if we had
not known it otherwise, is something of
the debt Twain owed his wife’s good
sense in vetoing his genuine crudities,
his misplaced enthusiasms and exaspera-
tions. Most of all, we begin to sense the
enormous debt Twain owed, owed
knowingly and gratefully, to Howells’
patient counseling. “I owe as much to
your training as the rude country job
printer owes to the city boss who takes
him in hand & teaches him the right
way to handle his art.”
Life, as Melville wrote, seldom has
the symmetry of fiction, and these let-
ters end rather flatly with one of no
great significance from Howells to Twain,
just before Twain’s return from Ber-
muda to die. But the editors appropri-
ately conclude with a passage from
Howells’ moving tribute, My Mark
Twain, written in deep grief in the
months following the death of his great
friend and of his own wife — a tribute
Howells had promised himself years
before when he wrote Twain, “I want
to get a chance somehow to write a
paper about you, and set myself before
posterity as a friend who valued you
aright in your own time.”
Those Who Murder
A STUDY OF MURDER. By Stuart
Palmer. Thomas Y. Crowell Co. 239
pp. $4.95.
THE MIND OF THE MURDERER.
| By Manfred S. Guttmacher. Farrar,
Straus & Cudahy. 244 pp. $4.50.
C. H. Rolph
I FOUND only one slipshod, non-sci-
entific statement in the whole of Dr.
Palmer’s truly remarkable book:
“Chance makes it likely that about one
| out of ten of the men imprisoned for
‘murder did not actually commit the
‘crime.” What on earth is chance doing
in a report so methodical, so scrupulous-
unbiased from beginning to end? Dr.
mer goes on: “Ten to twelve per
cent of selected groups of individuals
in the United States who have been
executed or imprisoned for life in recent
years have later been found to be in-
nocent.” This is better, though it is a
staggering statement. This, at least, is
why such a survey must be welcomed
by criminologists the world over —
this, and the stubborn survival of the
death penalty in countries where men
are free to make their own laws.
Dr. Palmer sets out to prove no the-
C. H. ROLPH, a regular contributor to
the New Statesman, is a former Chief
Inspector of the City of London police.
He is on the Executive Committee of
the Howard League for Penal Reform.
eu?
/
Should only a
POLITICIAN
be President?
read
PRESIDENTIAL
POWER
ByRicHARD E. NEUSTADT, Colum-
bia University, The time is now.
The men are Roosevelt, Truman,
Eisenhower—and the next man in
the White House. The problem is
serious: how these men protected
or neglected their tremendous in-
fluence, and how the next Presi-
dent may act to preserve his power,
Should only a politician be Presi-
dent? This book gives you the
reasons why. $5.95
Why do we vote
as we do?
THE AMERICAN
VOTER
By ANGUS CAMPBELL, PHILIP E,
CONVERSE, WARREN E. MILLER,
and DONALD E. STOKES, Survey
Research Center, University of
Michigan. Why do we vote as we
do? Is it the man or the issues?
Is it your age, sex, income, voca-
tion? It’s all of these and many
more factors, as shown by ten,
years of repeated surveys in depth,
and reported in this book. Often
troubling but always revealing,
The American Voter will definitely
give us all pause for thought.
“., has the avid attention of lead-
ers in both parties.” —U. S. News
and World Report. $8.50
AT YOUR BOOKSTORE, OR
JOHN WILEY & SONS, Inc.
440 PARK AVENUE SOUTH
NEW YORK 16, N. Y.
age
ory in this account of his interviews
with fifty-one male murderers — and
their mothers, whom he rightly expected
to know so much and who seem to have
talked to him so freely. He has a posi-
tion about the death penalty, which is
so exactly my own that I can’t forgo
the indulgence of quoting it:
Capital punishment probably does
not lead to a decrease in known mur-
der because it is not based on psy-
chologically sound principles. People
about to commit murder do not ra-
tionally weigh the act against the
penalty. On the other hand, some
individuals have unconscious drives
to place themselves in positions
where they will be punished with ut-
most severity. My feeling is that the
major reason for existence of the
death penalty is that it allows the
more or less law-abiding members of
society one violent aggression outlet.
The murderers are, in part at least,
the products of the society, and they
become its scapegoats.
If he had a special interest it was to
find out whether there was a connec-
tion between severe frustration in in-
fancy and murder committed by grown-
ups. His study, carried out in New
England from 1956 to 1959, involved
the interviewing of a selected number
of murderers still young enough when
hie met them to have living mothers.
Since it also necessitated an equal num-
ber of non-murderers (a “control
group”) to compare them with, what
better choice could there be than their
non-murdering brothers, who had shared
the same family atmosphere? The nu-
merous “comparative tables” about
these two groups reveal, perhaps, few
surprises, and would do some damage
to any preconceived theory of causa-
tion; but among the few surprises some
are memorable and disturbing. What
are we going to do, for example, if we
can confirm on a larger scale than Dr.
Palmer’s research that there are danger-
ous indications in epilepsy, prolonged
high fevers, falls on the head, severe
corporal punishment, an excess of physi-
cal pain, the slow learning of speech,
early histories of bedwetting, stuttering,
sleepwalking? ;
Dr. Palmer’s experience reinforces re-
cent “prediction tables” and suggests
more convincingly than ever before
(though he makes no strong claim him-
self) that a good many — potential
murderers could be recognized and
headed off in early life. He is a very
acute and perceptive observer of human
beings. And his reporting of these uniq
interviews achieves a standard of v -
| | eM
- *
: y
it y i ; >) ee mi Th
ih Cay 4) ee
a PP a
ae 3 ‘a
m4 P
isimilitude that you would expect only
of a tape recorder,
IN The Mind of the Murderer Dr. Gutt-
macher has brought together, in an ex-
panded form, the Isaac Ray Lectures he
delivered at the University of Minnesota
in 1958 under the auspices of the Amer-
ican Psychiatric Association. For more
than twenty-five years he has been
Chief Medical Officer to the Supreme
Bench of Baltimore; and among the good
effects his book may well have is to con-
vince other states at last — and even
the United Kingdom — of the value of
such an official within the juridical
pattern. It’s a fair criticism of this book,
its title and its publishers to say that
only a third of it (Part I) is in fact
concerned ‘with “the mind of the mur-
derer.” Part II is about “expert testi-
mony” and Part III about “the patient’s
right to secrecy,” and they could have
gone into any other collection of Dr.
Guttmacher’s criminological _ lectures.
For me, though, the fact that they are
published at all is ample justification
for their appearance between any two
covers, and I would expect his invigorat-
ing chapters on “experts” of all kinds to
attract the most attention — and grati-
tude,
The presence of the court’s own
psychiatric expert does away with those
“battles of the experts” which dis-
figure and confuse so many criminal
trials, bring forensic psychiatry into
popular disrepute and create the situa-
tion described by Dr. Guttmacher on
page 118:
More than ten per cent of psy-
aa Sa é
4 r
chiatrists refuse all courtroom em-
ployment, and another twenty per
cent refuse employment as partisan
experts — they are only willing to
testify when cast in the role of
neutral adviser to the court. One can,
of course, smugly assert that that
still leaves seventy per cent of the
nation’s psychiatrists to draw upon
and that is more than enough. The
truth of the matter is that in this
dissenting third are to be found most
of the leaders of American psychiatry.
Even so, Dr. Guttmacher himself
can quote cases like that of an aged
clothing merchant who had _ been
struck with the butt of a_ revolver
while measuring his assailant’s waist-
line and could recall that his last_
thought before losing consciousness was
that the man was a thirty-six. When |
the prisoner protested that he was a
thirty-two, Dr. Guttmacher was called
upon, as a “neutral expert,” to make
an examination and report to the
court. With a clear notion that this
was not psychiatry, he demurred, sent
for a tailor and stood by while the old
man was proved to have been right.
But as the author elsewhere remarks,
it is an amazing phenomenon that
the truth, in legal cases where medical
issues are of paramount importance,
should be reached (he might have
said obscured) by _ biased partisans
noisily developing certain facts and
skillfully concealing others, by relying
on an esoteric and narrowly restrictive
procedural formula, and by leaving the
final decision to twelve bewildered lay-
men.
LETTER from CHICAGO
Jean Martin
CELEBRATED | visitors to Chicago
frequently get themselves quoted in its
newspapers, somewhat petulantly, to
the effect that although they have heard
there is a renaissance going on_ here,
they haven’t seen it. Now, a renaissance
is a difficult thing to pinpoint for a
tourist, especially while you are right
in the middle of it (probably nobody in
fourteenth-century Italy consciously
thought of himself as living during a
renaissance), but some small offshoots
do make themselves apparent, Even
Norman Mailer, in town for a reading-
and-a dvertisement-for-himself graciously
~ New York. Chicago likes to start things,
tagged Chicago a “hip town.” Then,
eager to provoke an audience discussion
of “hipness” for which he had appar-
ently come equipped with manufactured
bons mots, he was dismayed to find
that a Chicago audience wouldn’t play.
ball. Chicago likes its ideas before the
edges have been rubbed off. The oy
does not go for the posh, the polished,
the professional. It leaves all that to
to rough them out approximately; it
likes the actual moment of creation, the
“becoming” rather than the “being.”
For that reason it is especially diffier
i" , i . “ r 5 "
to take something in “the Chica
styl ae nd tran por inte ‘
aa q al ; sc ; ., Y
. .
around aimlessly on the old “Tonight”
* show was Chicago; when he tried to
take this same casual intimacy and
consciously embed it in the massive
background of New York TV, “the
Chicago style” flew out the window.
Kukla, Fran and Ollie were not so much
ploughed under by national television
as made to seem like a small candle
alongside a battery of klieg lights. But
the spark of creative energy in its pur-
est, most rudimentary form which they
captured and which is the true “Chicago
style” cannot be extinguished except
by polishing it out of existence.
Granted this kind-of intimate, sharp,
crude vision, the Chicago scene is an
ideal one for raising up small, neat,
_scalpel-like talents, and one branch of
the Chicago renaissance has been the
flowering of the Chicago comedians.
Just at a time when many people were
_ beginning to wonder where, if anywhere,
the new comics would come from (after
all, the old favorites had been around
a long time, including Mr. Jack Benny
of Waukegan who has done as master-
ful a job as possible of transferring in-
timate Chicago humor to the big-time),
Chicago has turned out in quick suc-
cession such talented recruits as Mike
Nichols and Elaine May, Shelley Ber-
man, Jean Shepherd, Abrogast, Shel
Silverstein and Bob Newhart. But the
newest and brightest manifestation of
the Chicago comedy renaissance is a
vibrant troupe of young comedians who
have pooled their talents at a Chicago
_coffeehouse-night club called The Second
City and who, with their joint, anony-
‘mous and_ skillful comedy creations,
‘constitute a kind of Skidmore, Owings
and Merrill of satire.
TRUE to the Chicago tradition there
is nothing spectacular about The Sec-
ond City, but neither is there anything
quite like it in the entertainment world.
It is a place where intellectuals go to
et kidded by other intellectuals, where
-a bowling-and-beer society it is not
considered effete to be able to think
arply and express yourself with finesse,
where the big sport is joshing phonies.
ihe Second City (the name is wryly
taken from A. J. Liebling’s patronizing
Vew Yorker profile of Chicago) is lo-
ted in a made-over Chicago laundry
North Wells Street in the arty sec-
tion called Old Town. Decorated with
scarded phone-booth doors painted
black, chi-chi San Francisco round-globe
lighting fixtures, and a red-velvet, jewel-
sfortain, The Second City ee like
f
erest audience which comes j in
' dience
ves up espresso and satire toa mi- :
Shelley Berman, Zohra
majority numbers to see—well not ex-
actly a review (there’s not enough mu-
sic to call it that, although there is
some)—but a kind of playing around
with ideas, often improvised out of au-
suggestions. Sometimes the
theme is classic as in “What Happened
to the Centaurs?” where a bearded boy-
centaur (an irresistible variation of the
old lovable two-man _ stage-horse) ap-
pears and pleads with an invisible ad-
versary, “But please, sir, if you could
just wait a minute. I know she will be
here in a minute.” But his adversary
cannot wait, and when at last a girl-
centaur gallops onstage and asks the
characteristically feminine question, “Am
I late?” the boy-centaur answers with
some asperity, “Yes...Noah - sailed
without us.” Sometimes, however, the
theme is contemporary as in “The Many
Faces of Richard Nixon,” in which ideal
wife Pat one morning forgets to give
Dick his public face before sending him
off to work. Finding himself faceless ‘on
the street, Dick rushes back and fren-
ziedly tries on his old public faces, “No,
no, that’s my Russian super-market
face... no, no, that’s my South Ameri-
can face, it’s a little smashed on one
side....” He finally settles for his new,
liberal face which, when he gets out on
the street, causes passersby to mistake
him for Senator Kennedy. In another,
Senator Harry Byrd, anxious to pre-
serve the traditions of the Old South,
is instructing a troupe of players in the
art of putting on a jolly old minstrel
show: “You gotta have the blackface,
see, and sing a little song about ‘How
ah loves to plant de cotton all day on
de massa’s place, and in the evenin’ go
to the movies and sit in a “special”
place....” The Second City skits num-
ber dozens and range from the vagaries
of Swedish dialogue in Ingmar Bergman
movies through the subtleties of a True
Confessions serial.
While all seven actors collaborate on
these satirical sugarplums, often using
the daily newspaper as a springboard to
ideas, a single taste is needed to hold
it all together, and in The Second City
the common denominator is thirty-two-
year-old director Paul Sills. Sills, who
looks like a sulky Teddy Bear, some
years ago co-founded the ragtag drama
group of University of Chicago actors
who called themselves Playwright’s
Theatre Club and who gave offbeat
dramas (very heavy on the Brechtian
didactic theory) in a ‘converted chop
suey parlor on North ‘LaSalle Street.
Playwright’s ambitions outstripped its
facilities, but it provided | ining ground
for Mike Nichols and Elaine May,
2a ‘
rt, and by >
a fo eee —
e >
the time it disbanded and re-formed on
Chicago’s South Side it had evolved into
The Compass and had dropped formal
drama in favor of acting out ideas,
often trom on-the-spot audience sug-
gestions. Most of these were esoteric
South Side jokes, but The Compass idea
was always and everywhere a hit. Sills
worked with a Compass group in St.
Louis, studied at the Old Vic in England
on a Fulbright, learned the night-club
business in a Chicago folk-song bistro;
then, with Bernard Sahlins and Howard
Alk, he regathered the old Compass
troupe and opened the present den of
satire. Ten minutes before opening
night found them - frantically painting
the last of the phone-booth doors, but
from the very beginning The Second
City was first rate. For those who knew
Playwright’s and The Compass it was
the gradual evolution of a kind of play-
acting in which the actors project ideas
rather than emotions, but to others it
seemed a crazy dove of comedy out of
a clear blue sky.
A SECOND branch of the Chicago
renaissance became easily apparent this
spring with the First Chicago Invita-
tional Art Exhibit held simultaneously
The first
complete history
of the Soviet
Communist Party
ever written in the
Western world
THE
COMMUNIS
Party of the |
Soviet Union
By LEONARD SCHAPIRO-
“A brilliant and unique achievement. The
authoritative history of the Soviet Com-
munist Party for our time.’”” — PROFESSOR
MERLE FAINSOD, Harvard University
Over 600 es. $7.50, now
at your boo e. i) '
at the Allan Frumkin Gallery, the Su-
perior Street Gallery and the Holland-
Goldowsky Gallery. It is the first clear-
cut dissection of what is happening in
Chicago painting and it turned up a
whole herd of cloven-hoofed fawves—the
beautiful new Chicago Uglies.
The problem of showing Chicago art
has always been a ticklish one, and the
Art Institute, yearly committed to a
showing of local work to the local pub-
lic (it has certain prize money it must
give away) has never successfully solved
it. If it chooses a “New York” jury,
the little old ladies in the suburban art
leagues take umbrage at what the staid
Chicago Tribune habitually refers to as
“so-called modern art.” If, however, the
jury is conservative, students and local
professionals bitterly ridicule the beauty-
take-your-hand-off-my-knee realism of
the show. If the students take too many
of the prizes, the professionals hold mass
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discussions and demand that student
work be banned. If the Institute obliges,
the students scream discrimination and
organize counter-exhibits. And all of
these groups are very, very verbal. One
year, in what must have been real de-
spair, the Institute held a No Jury show
—just hung everything submitted—but
this involved using Navy Pier to show
it and subjected the visitor to literally
miles of amateur art, some of it un-
believable, like painted tigers behind
real bamboo bars, not to mention the
Taj Mahal made of sugar cubes.
All this cacophony of hurt feelings
had made it almost impossible to know
what direction Chicago art was taking
until three small galleries joined forces
and solved the problem by the simple
expedient of not trying to please any-
one. Caring not a fig for anything but
showing what was going on in Chicago
art, they invited whom they pleased
(hence First Chicago Invitational) and
the results are explosively exciting.
Painting in a variety of manners as
alike yet different as handwriting, the
new Chicago Uglies read like a glossary
of the old classic Scottish spooks: (1)
the Ghoulies (Schulze, Halkin, Bouras,
Berger, etc., who paint dark, weird,
fascinatingly ugly things); (2) the
Ghosties (Pope, Kahn, — Sellenraad,
Brorby, etc., who paint eerie, other-world-
ly scenes); (3) the Long-Legged Beast-
ies (Kokines, Goto, Hunt, etc., who
do spidery, angular, creepy creatures);
and (4) the Things That Go “Bump”
in the Night (Kapsalis, Post, Baum, etc.,
who paint bits and pieces of interesting-
ly repellent, darkly unspeakable objects).
The whole show is hands-down the most
illuminating cross section of contempo-
rary Chicago painting yet uncovered and
— as the French say — it marches.
FILMS
Robert Hatch
LESLIE STEVENS has written and
directed in Hollywood Private Property!,
the kind of picture one instantly senses
could never be made in Hollywood. Ac-
tually it wasn’t made there, if by Holly-
wood you mean the big studios and the
great names. It was filmed (filmed with
the sharpness of a knife) in the very
luxurious house and grounds of its pro-
ducer, Stanley Colbert, and in a house
standing empty next door. And the cast,
three men and a woman, has not a
neon name on it. Kate Manx, very beau-
tiful but a little too obviously being led
through an intricate charade, is Stevens’
’ ‘ .
ine Sawa
wife. Corey Allen and Warren Oates,
whom I do not recall having seen be-
fore, play a couple of psychotic bums
with horrifying conviction.
All in all, it is a horrifying film,
though not entirely convincing. The idea
is that Boots wants a dame, but is too
close to being a moron to get one for
himself. His dominating buddy, Duke
— more dangerously unbalanced but a
skillful dissembler — therefore under-
takes to snare one for him. Ann, alone
in the isolated house all day and with
the empty house convenient for a hide-
out; Ann, whose lounging pants look
painted on and who swims naked in the
secluded pool, is designated.
She proves easy, being a naturally
friendly girl and being also made a little
restive by the fact that her husband is
too much engrossed in his successful in-
surance business to notice that her needs
are not all monetary. The pair of ani-
mals moves in and before long she is
fighting for her sanity and her life.
I’m certain that Mr. Stevens can
prove that every episode in the picture
is not only possible, but has in fact some
time happened. Nevertheless, it all fits
together with suspicious neatness, more
like a clock than a drama. If a thriller
was all that Mr. Stevens had in mind,
he has certainly achieved that; I get the
impression, though, that he was trying
for more.
ANOTHER of the young French di-
rectors dealing in “strong” subject mat-
ter is Jean-Pierre Mocky. His The
Chasers is thus “new wave”; it also re-
calls Marty and Federico Fellini’s Vitel-
loni (The Big Calves), shown here four
years ago.
The story is excellently simple. Two
downy young men, one clothed in sophis-
tication and the other quite nakedly
inexperienced, devote a summer evening
in Paris to chasing girls (this, you might
say, is a healthier version of Private
Property!). Their aim is to find com-
panions for the night, their dream is to
find true loves for a lifetime, their fear
is that they will pick up professionals —
not unlikely, considering the waters in
which they fish. They avoid profession-
als, not because of the money such en-
counters would cost — they have no
money, so that danger is not real — but
because the point of their game is to
buttress their insecure belief in’ their
own charms: girls must be dazzled, not
bought.
The great fun of the picture is to
watch these feckless seducers at work, |
They are as brash and as timid as squir-
rels, disguising their honest, yearning
hearts behind the second-hand tech- |
niques of eroticism, They get a great |
many nibbles — I thought a surprising
number even for a warm night in Paris—
but they land no fish. Or perhaps the
Marty of the pair does—at the end he is
escorting home a mousy trained nurse
whom he and his pal have rescued from
a debauch of stunning implausibility
(the only really crass sequence in the
film) — but he will certainly have to
see her father before he sees her bed-
room. The knowing youth, however, is
beset by the most perverse bad luck:
every girl he picks up turns out to be
suicidal or lesbian or underage or crippled
or sadistic or in the trade. It looked in
the end as though the script were toy-
ing with him. No tragedy though: he is
young enough to try another night, and
meanwhile he has had a lot of exercise
in the fresh air.
Jacques Charrier plays this part — a
slightly Americanized French youth —
with a lucid ease and warmth of com-
munication that is impressive in a young
actor. His surface mastery of situations
he doesn’t begin to understand is ap-
pealing, and his lechery — quite explicit
in places — has a gulping inexperience
about it that keeps it sweet. Charles
Aznavour, as the eager incompetent, is
wildly funny at moments and keeps the
necessary pathos uncloying. Like The
Cousins, this picture reflects what seems
to be the new “international” (i.e.,
American disk jockey) culture of young
France.
| DESPITE THE JUBILANT press
greetings and notwithstanding the pres-
_ ence in the cast of Peter Sellers and
Terry-Thomas (also a funny man,
_ though more blatantly so), I found
I'm All Right, Jack a little slow on the
bounce. “Ha,” you say, “the man’s a
_ liberal — he refuses to admit that a
_ satire on organized labor can be funny.”
I don’t think that’s so; in fact, labor
seems to me about as ripe for balloon-
pricking as any pomposity in our midst.
It’s just that everyone in the picture
works so hard that in the end you get
the idea it must be pretty hard work.
ee opening scene in a nudist colony,
neither relevant nor witty, starts matters
off on the wrong foot, and after that
the plot creaks and labors, the actors
visibly holding their sides to contain
their scarcely disinterested laughter.
Mr. Sellers’ dim cockney-come-up-in-the-
_-world is undeniably brilliant, but even
way that would not occur to him if he
were sure of his material. I wonder if
e makers of the picture thought they
re: being terribly, terribly — daring. —
etlais the: arch gig oe
he seems impelled to pop his eyes in a_
- there are better Pasc
& Jaxa Band. There w:
ART
Maurice Grosser
FIFTY works of modern art, donated
by artists, dealers and collectors, were
auctioned late last month for the bene-
fit of the Museum» of Modern Art’s
thirtieth-anniversary fund. This sale, at
the Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York,
was easily the most brilliant event of
the season. The audience was made up
of all the prominent figures in selling,
collecting and curating modern art. The
Mayor, Mr. Wagner himself, was there,
and the ceremony was introduced by
Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III. The
multiple Leicas of some fifteen press
photographers flashed incessantly to
record it, while the crews of two televi-
sion cameras transmitted the scene by
closed circuit to bidders in Dallas,
Chicago and Los Angeles. The bidding,
in behalf of a respected cause, was brisk
and cheerful. The ladies’ hats, like large,
tight bouquets of fresh spring flowers,
were wonderful, and the auctioneer, Mr.
Louis Marion, in front of a pink curtain
and lit by rosy spots, was the best of
television entertainment.
The works being auctioned had been
selected by Alfred Barr, Jr., director of
the museum’s collections, from those
offered to the museum for the occasion.
Apart from two Cézannes and three
Renoirs, they were all by the names in
modern art, from Braque and Picasso
to Soulage and Mathieu, which are the
museum’s special province. The over-all
quality of the collection was disappoint-
ing. In fact, there were only two pieces
of first qGahity among the entire fifty.
The finest, given by Governor Nelson
Rockefeller, was a quite wonderful Braque
Violin in the high Cubist manner of 1913;
the other a Picasso pastel, one of the best,
depicting, in his 1920 “Classical” style
with daring and skillful distortions, a
pair of meditative and affectionate fe-
male nudes. Of the two Cézannes, the
more important — a characteristic still
life with wall paper, apples and crumpled
napkin — is one of ‘his more heavy-
handed pieces, while the other — three
small dead birds on a brick-red cloth —
is a minor work and unappealing. As for
the three Renoirs, only ¢ one has any
pictorial quality, and that — a late
painting of a large fat servant — is
singularly unattractive. T e Juan Gris
is characteristic but 1
ubuffet were represent
_ amples _ of their work -
sparse Vase ase of Flowers
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5th PRINTING
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THE
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By WILLIAM A. REUBEN
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The Truth of What Happened
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e How Nixon “uncovered” a spy
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e How Nixon deceived the public
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“pumpkin papers” proved Al-
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e How Nixon “discovered” these
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microfilm), which have since
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Whittaker Chambers (and Nix-
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a shocking eye-opener that reads
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—ROBERT W. KENNY
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somewhat posterish Tamayo of a night
sky with moon and hills and constella-
tion of stars; an important Miro; a
Gorki, thin but with pretty color. Apart
from these, almost everything was
either unimportant snips or, in my opin-
ion, decidedly second rate.
Nevertheless, the auction netted the
museum almost $900,000. The highest
prices were paid for the Cézanne still
life — $200,000 — and for the Braque
Violin which brought $145,000. (“That’s
not a price,’ said Mr. Marion, the
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auctioneer. “You can’t stop there. Think
how much nicer to be able to say “That
picture cost me $150,000!’”) The large
Renoir went for $31,000, which I under-
stand is something less than the usual
market price for a Renoir of that size,
and the Picasso pastel brought in $32,-
000. The bidding for one of the works—a
large energetic criss-crossing of black
paint on a brown ground by Hartung
— was stopped by a precisionist in the
audience who protested that it was dis-
played upside down. The bidding was
resumed and the picture, still upside
down, went for $11,000; a pair of negli-
gible Matisse paper cut-outs went as one
of the cheapest lots for $2,600.
THE prices, I am given to understand
by dealer friends, were not exaggerated:
slightly higher than the market, per-
haps, on some of the smaller pieces, and
lower than expected on some of the more
important ones, but roughly comparable
to what the works would have cost from
a dealer. They seem, none the less, for the
most part astonishingly out of scale with
the pieces’ real value as works of art,
and are more than a little shocking to
one like myself, not a dealer or collector,
but a painter, accustomed to evaluate a
work on its own qualities rather than on
the publicity rating of the painter’s name.
It almost seemed — as it has seemed
before — that the buyers were collect-
ing signatures rather than pictures.
Just the same, such prices are standard
for work, even indifferent work, by fa-
mous-name painters of today. There are
several reasons for it. To begin with, and
contrary to received opinion, successful
contemporary painters have always
brought higher prices than old masters
— except those few outstanding master-
pieces from the past which only rarely
turn up in the market. In any given
period, contemporary work is more in
demand. Naturally enough; we would
find it on the whole more cheerful to
live with a Matisse, say, than with a
Rembrandt. And if we are astonished
at the prices commanded by Braque or
Picasso, remember the prices brought
by Bougereau or Meissonier in the
nineties and by Sargent and Lazlo in
the years before the wars. And high
prices for pictures that have worn bet-
ter than these were also normal. In the
sale of Degas’ collection, which took
place in 1918 in Paris under bombard-
ment by the German guns — certainly
not the most favorable background for
a public auction — a small Cézanne of
two green apples Reni $2,000, a tiny
Bathers $5,000 and a Manet $10,000,
However, another factor operates to-
day to inflate the picture market. Un-
der our income tax regulations, a de-
duction (up to 30 per cent of taxable
income) is allowed for donations to
schools, hospitals or charities. In this
context, a museum counts as a charitable
institution, and if it accepts a work of
art, the work’s money value can be
listed by the donor as a tax deduction.
The money value of a picture is at the
best a guess, depending on highly sub-
jective estimates of what it would bring
if sold on the public market. It is to the
donor’s advantage — and not to the
disadvantage of the museum — to as-
sess the value of his gift as high as pos-
sible. All of this tends to jack up the
prices of pictures, particularly of pic-
tures by famous names, which are, of
course, what a museum will most willing-
ly accept.
Up to a few, years ago it was possible
for a donor to announce his intention to
give a picture to a museum, take its
value off his income tax, and still re-
main in possession of the picture dur-
ing his lifetime. This is no longer pos-
sible, though even now a museum may,
after taking title to the picture, allow it
to remain on loan at the donor’s house.
As a result, the market has for a number
of years been ransacked for pictures ac-
ceptable to a museum, and _ sufficiently
high in price to make the troublesome
operation worth while. It is principally
this which has been responsible for the
astronomical prices museum-type pic-
tures have now attained.
NONE of this applies directly to the
recent auction. There the deductible
value of the works contributed was not
based on fanciful estimate, but on the
exact amount each picture brought when
sold. The high market was, of course,
already established, but the buyers,
whatever their good will toward the
museum, had no inducement to raise
it higher. Furthermore, the pictures
were offered to the museum for sale
in auction, not to hang in its collections.
With this in mind, it could accept works
of lower artistic merit than commonly
appear in its galleries as representative
of modern art. This goes far to explain
the group’s low quality.
That was not the museum’s fault.
The auction was announced; works were
given; all the museum could do was to
select the best. One remembers in this
connection the Parisian doctor who was
also a collector and whose collection
was sharply divided into two categories.
On the one hand were the excellent pic-
tures he had bought himself. Ou the
other were mediocre ones given him, in
return for professional services, by his |
painter patients, a0
— ha mn 867
1
ol
i
ACROSS:
Whatever happened to Edward Bok?
(Taking aim can zero it, in a dif-
ferent environment.) (15)
Give the people it belongs to good
cheer at first, for it entitles them
to something! (9)
See 21
War-time-colonels in the air serv-
ice? (6)
Hence this shadow in Macbeth! (8)
a” things might arrive on it.
Do the ones of glory have grave
consequence? (5)
The home of the Rhyme of the An-
cient Mariner? (5)
What a muddy shoe leaves.in the
vestibule might be official. (8)
al but one might be taken on board.
and 10 BCD* (Confused with what
it does to your ribs?) (11)
What one might do with the cue
missing (2, 3)
Where one’s carriage is left shaken
by the ague so? (9)
Fair game in the cloak room at
Ruby Foo’s? (7, 8)
DOWN:
It’s a rare old bird to be climbing
inside one cell, if given life. (6)
It’s not necessarily the caliber of
the poe that causes it. (5).
| Fe | hos es ee ez oe
23
ACROSS: 1. Codicil;
Sans. reproche? (15)
What’s the trouble with Bach Etu-
des, anyway? (4)
Certainly not in
the 38. (10)
Attributing to the gods the shape
we find ourselves in? (15)
Layers coming out of it were not
unnecessarily exposed. (9)
But these, in the Old West, were
not real layers. (7)
Native Australian Federation? (4,
6)
Louie Chan — who might check the
26? (4, 2-3)
Zounds! It is! (7)
a these trees like some swans?
6)
Purpose to which the writing of
ci. might be put? It’s wrong!
(
Might cause a scratch, but it prob-
ably doesn’t show! (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO.
the manner of
866
5 Warpath; 9
Adipose; 10 Emperor; 12 Hottentot;
15
18
26
Inane;
Dashing; 20 Pie; 21 Stetson; 23, 11,
across and 14 Chipping sparrows;
and 24 Lily of the Valley; 28
29 Hnounce; 30 Doubled; Bl
Sisters; 32 Relayed. DOWN: 1 Clamps;
2 Deigns; 3 Crossbows; 4 Leeches; 5
Wrested; 6 Rupee; 7 Airstrip; 8 Heri-
tage; 13 and 17 Catnip; 16 Spiritual;
18 Psalters; 19 Realtors; 22 Nutmeégs;
23 Cheddar; 25 Seeded; 27 Ounce.
SS *
PEACE IS =.
THE ISSUE!!
Salute the Summit!
HEAR:
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NORMAN COUSINS
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and Elaine May
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MAY 23 1960 ——
THE io ol
NATION
May 21, 1960 . . 25¢
CITIES INTO TARGETS
Our Misplaced Missile Base:
James E. McDonald
DOES NIXON PLAY the GAME?
Joel Feinberg
Re
OW MANY MORE CHESSMANS?
Stuart Palmer
LETTERS
Letter from Seoul
The etter
extracts are
from which the following
written by an
American resident of Seoul on April 24,
at the height of the student wprisings in
South Korea.—Ep.
taken was
Seoul
Dear Sirs: . ... Why, you may ask, was
it the students who revolted? Why not
an opposition party, or more adult dis-
sidents? The answer is that they are
ones, and the logical ones, to
see that the country is being cheated
of its independence. They study Locke
and Hobbes and Rousseau and the rest
of them in English—because there are
few textbooks in their own language.
Their elders know now that they have
learned only too well what the West
has to teach about political democracy.
Their parents belong to the past, to the
ruling clique, and those who tag along
with it. The opposition is split by un-
fortunate circumstances, including the
death of the most responsible leader.
Moreover, there was a tradition in Ko-
rea of student responsibility in politics.
Under the last dynasty, the top gradu-
ates held the highest civil posts, and it
was their duty, when the King was cor-
rupted, to remonstrate and even bring
about his removal. It is almost as if
this old practice, unused for the fifty
years of Japanese rule, is revived in a
new form.
Frank was in the Ministry Building
where the police were hiding and from
where they opened fire. The Koreans
were most concerned for his safety. He
left the building at the peak of the bat-
tle and urged the demonstrators not to
destroy foreign property, as it would
only get them into trouble. They had
already smashed all the windows in our
car, but several people apologized—
imagine!—when the police were firing
at them. Then Frank drove the car two
miles through the mobs to the U. S.
Army compound, where he raised a con-
voy to go back and rescue the other
Americans holed up in the same Min-
istry Building he had left. He accom-
- plished this trek, inch by inch, without
ever a sign of anti-American feeling....
It has been a relatively orderly revolu-
tion (Frank says he has seen much
worse) but very determined indeed, No-
body thought the youngsters had it in
them. I wouldn’t have thought so
cither. They seem so leisurely, self-con-
the only
cerned, like all young people — and,
oddly, pampered, the one hapa . oe in which
Yael ati: gee lier Prin y's
group in an underdeveloped country.
But they weren’t fooled.. That’s the
great thing. And the country will, if it
ever gets a decent government, owe it
to them.
Georcia FRaIsE
Seoul, Republic of Korea
Sen. Humphrey on Peace
Dear Sirs: I welcome your emphasis
upon disarmament in your editorial,
“The Candidates and a _ Politics of
Peace” (February 6, 1960). The quest
for safeguarded disarmament must be at
the heart and center of American for-
eign policy. Of course, until disarma-
ment is negotiated, we must maintain
and if necessary increase our military
strength. But we must press disarma-
ment negotiations forward now, not post-
pone the effort.
As you know, I have introduced leg-
islation for the establishment of a Na-
tional Peace Agency. I see it as a “Man-
hattan Project for Peace,” mobilizing
the brains and the resources needed to
solve the complex problems of controlled
disarmament, and the equally complex
problems of economic adjustment which
it would entail.
I have also called for the up-grading
of disarmament negotiations within the
State Department, through the appoint-
ment of an Assistant Secretary of State
for Disarmament and Atomic Energy
Affairs.
We should carry on disarmament ne-
gotiations as far as possible within the
framework of the United Nations. Need-
less to say, I have also long been em-
phasizing a greater dedication to the
works of peace—development for peace,
food for peace, health for peace and
education for peace.
Huserr H. Humeurey
U. S. S. (Minnesota)
Washington, D.C,
Negroes and Unions
Dear Sirs: 1 take exception to Dick
Bruner’s article, “The Negro Bids for
Union Power,” in your March 5 issue.
It is superficial and fragmental.... I
take specific exception to the statement
that only six AFL-CIO unions have Ne-
groes in elected positions of leadership.
Of the sixteen Executive Board mem-
bers of our union, two are Negroes....
Each was elected b virtue of his own
ie. Each has been re-elected sev-
times and ha rvived cones
in white opponents. ] bach comes
“
‘
1 f
go
is in the distinct minority, so whitef ’
members elected these leaders of ou
union. The nature of politics in our un
ion is such that these men could noty ~
have been elected by administrative ar
(Continued on page 460)
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
433 @
ARTICLES
434 '@ What We Should Learn from
the U-2
by WILLIAM H. MEYER
Cities into Targets: Our Mis-
placed Missile Bases
by JAMES BE. MeDONALD
How Many More Chessmans?
by STUART PALMER
Pellet of Nihilism
by TERRY SOUTHERN
U.N. — Africa Shifts the
Balance
by JANE STOLLE
New Man on the Campus:
Artist in Residence
by WARREN S. SMITH
And After de Gaulle?
by ALEXANDER WERTH
Does Nixon Play the Game?
by JOBL FEINBERG
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
451 @ Distaste for the Contemporary
by MARTIN GREEN
436 @
439 '@
440 '®
441 'e
444 '®
447 @
448 '@
452 @ The Tinker (poem)
by NORMA FARBER
454 @ No Pardon for Sacco and
Vanzetti
by RALPH COLP, Jr.
454 @ In the Shade of My Hair (poem)
‘by W. S. MERWIN
455 @ The Wrong Road
by BENJAMIN DeMOPT
456 @ Letter from Washington
by STANLEY MUISLER
458 @ Art
by PAIRFINLD PORTER
458 @ Music
by LUSTDR TRIMBLE
459 @ Theatre
by HAROLD CLURMAN
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 460)
by FRANK W., LEWIS
SON
= George G. Kirstein, Publisher
= Carey McWilliams, Dditor
= Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Hditor
= Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
=
= Harold Clurman, Theatre
= Maurice Grosser, Art
= M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
= Lester Trimble, Music
2 Alexander Werth, European
Correspondent
TH
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager i
The Nation, May 21, 1960. Vol, 190, No, 21
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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 21
THE
NATION
EDITORIALS
The Mission of the S-4
Suppose it had happened this way... .
The Russians were jubilant when the Cubans an-
nounced that an airport would be made available to
them for use as a base in the investigation of atmos-
pheric phenomena. Short: of starting an atomic war,
there was nothing we in the United States could do
about it; besides, the Latin Americans had become so
critical of us, for things we had done or left undone,
that we had to limit ourselves to protests. It was on
May Day that the first of the new-type Soviet recon-
naissance planes took off from the Cuban air strip, pre-
sumably to study gusts. Eluding our radar, it flew to
Mexico, refueled and headed north over the border into
the air space of the United States. The airplane was
unarmed and owned by the Soviet Institute of Meteor-
ology. The pilot was Sergei Popoff, formerly a Soviet
air officer but now a civilian; in short, everything was
absolutely correct except that soon the aircraft was over
Cape Canaveral, photographing the missile pads. Sergei
was not afraid — what was there to be afraid of? He
was wearing a Macgregor sport shirt and his emergency
kit bulged with American money, French perfumes (it
is well known that American women will do anything
for perfume), maps and Diners Club and American Ex-
press credit cards. And if the worst came to the worst,
Sergei could kill himself with the hypodermic needle
which the Soviet government had thoughtfully included
in the kit.
Sergei turned and flew over the arsenal at Huntsville,
Alabama, where he secured excellent photographs of
our 1,500,000-pound-thrust Saturn as well as of Wernher
von Braun drawing a diagram on a blackboard. Another
turn, and he was headed for the softly hardened mis-
sile base at Plattsburgh, New York, whence it was only
a short hop back to the Cuban base. But he never
reached Plattsburgh. Operational for the first time,
SAGE got a fix on the S-4 and it was shot down by anti-
aircraft gunners who immediately received a free trip,
with their families, to New York City, including dinner
at Lindy’s and tickets to the Jack Paar show.
Sergei landed unharmed in a Catskill Mountain vil-
lage and was seized by the peasants, who turned him
é
over to the FBI. When Moscow discovered that Sergei
was alive, confusion engulfed the Kremlin (nobody there
had ever envisioned the possibility that the S-4 could
be shot down). The Soviet Institute of Meteorology
issued a statement insisting that Sergei was only a
high-altitude weather man, but this statement was
quickly revealed as a fraud by our own Allen Welsh
Dulles, who waved the photographs of the missile bases
before a joint session of the House and Senate. The
trapped Russians then made a clean breast of the whole
affair, and had the effrontery to plead, in defense, their
traditional fear of attack since the Japanese jumped
them in 1904 and the Germans in 1941. They even had
the gall to compare these attacks with Pearl Harbor.
What was still more brazen about the Soviet attitude -
was Moscow’s insistence that it would continue to in-
vade the American air space from Cuban or other bases
close to our shores. And the Russians, citizens and of-
ficials alike, closed ranks behind Khrushchev. .. .
How would Americans be feeling today had this re-
verse version been the true one?
A Peculiar Moral Climate
Now let us look at the actual reactions to the all-too-
real facts of the U-2 incident. If we are to accept the
reaction of our legislators and publicists, our press and
electronic communications media, as reflecting public
opinion, we must conclude that fifteen years of cold
war have indeed conditioned us to what the New York
Herald Tribune calls a “peculiar moral climate.” A na-
tion gone morally bankrupt could hardly have struck
more grotesque attitudes or taken refuge in more obtuse
apologetics. We admit that we have repeatedly violated
the sovereignty of another nation by “overflight” in-
cursions. Despite the risk of accidental war, we reaffirm
our intention of continuing to conduct such flights. The
record shows that we first denied, then, when caught
red-handed, conceded the essential accuracy of the
Soviet version of what had happened and justified it
on the same grounds of necessity and expediency that
we have denounced others — especially the Russians
— for using. In our strange new world, we maintain
the right to spy as though it were a high moral principle
— “distasteful” is the strongest adjective that the Ad-
ministration has used in qualification. We concede by
implication our inability to pinpoint responsibility for
the doubly nare-brained mission of the U-2 on the eve
of the Summit conference. We permit an agency deeply
involyed in international scientific responsibilities to
be placed in the position of having grossly misrepresent-
ed the facts (“I thought I was telling the truth,” the
agerieved acting head of NASA complained); we place
indispensable allies in a position of peril and com-
promise them diplomatically, and we finally concede a
series of violations of international law, long hidden
from the American people, which, had it been known
earlier, would certainly have reduced indignation over
Soviet espionage by several tens of decibels. When
caught, we attempt to make a virtue of our acknowl-
edgment, although the record leaves not the slightest
doubt that the only reason the acknowledgment was
made is that we were caught. And then, by a kind of
self-brainwashing, we seek to make a scapegoat of the
pilot who, it would appear, should have shot himself to
save the honor of CIA and the reputation of Allen
Dulles, our master spy.
SOME MAY REGARD the recent loss of an Amer-
ican plane in Russia as a warning that the uncertain
peace could at any moment explode in the fury of a
war beyond conception. However, the immediate is-
sue is the survival of free democratic government
operating under civilian leadership in a manner that
openly informs our people and is at least reasonably
responsible to the voters and somewhat responsive
to their wishes.
We are alarmed whenever any arm of government
leads us needlessly to the brink of war, but we should
be equally disturbed by the threat to our form of
government occasioned by a_ well-intentioned
garchy of militarists and sympathizers who operate
secretly and are responsible only to themselves and
responsive solely to their own misconceptions.
The latest incident is an extreme example of the
danger caused by the actions of a clique that could
never obtain prior consent for such deeds from the
American people. No justification can be claimed on
grounds of military necessity. Strength in the power
struggle, or the need for espionage, is no excuse for
foolish acts when the stakes are so high. Opposition
to a Summit, or to negotiation, is even less excusable.
If we are to have any chance to establish peace,
\ t
oli-
THE HON, WILLIAM H, MEYER (D., Vt.) has
built up a reputation for plain speaking remarkable
for a freshman Congressman.
What We Should Learn from the U-2
ie are divorced from n the formulation of
Outside of the Administration and its apologists on
both sides of the aisle, what has been the domestic
reaction to those miserable disclosures? The Wail
Street Journal summed up a nation-wide survey of in-
dividual and newspaper reactions in this way: “It was
just too bad that we got caught.” The quotes amply
substantiate the conclusion. As further evidence, The
New York Times quoted from thirty-four editorials,
among which only the St. Louis Post-Dispatch pointed
out that aerial mapping of a country with which we
have strained relations is something utterly different
from the ordinary run of espionage. Nor were any of the
editorial writers troubled by the fact that the pilot of
the U-2 was obviously reconnoitering and photograph-
ing bombing targets, which makes a travesty of the
excuse that his mission was defensive unless, indeed,
one holds that preventive (or pre- -emptive ) war is a
legitimate form of defense.
The final insult to what remains of the intelligence
and moral sense of the American public is the exhorta-
“close ranks.” Close ranks behind whom? An
as James Reston of The New
is not managing its
tion to
Administration that,
York Times said of the President,
. by William H. Meyer
we must return to our traditional application of the
processes of government. This is the path to justice
and freedom. It is also the way to help lead all the
peoples of the world to spiritual and material prog-
ress. The plane lost in Russia is a symbol of the utter
failure of those who have lost faith in American de-
These misguided usurpers of power, to-
gether with their even less enlightened counterparts
in other nations, will destroy all that we hold dear
unless we make certain changes in government op-
erations.
We must start here by eliminating all unnecessary
Police-state tendencies must be discredited
so as to promote public discussion. The unconstitu-
tional accident which resulted in the building up of
an oligarchy of first-class Senators and Represent-
atives with access to some of the secret information
and who, for this reason, exert an influence that de-
motes the vast majority of the elected representatives
of the people to second-class Congressmen, should be
repaired, It is vital to restore the leadership of the
entire Congress in cooperation with the President
and his eivilian departmental officials. This cannot
be done unless the authority of military men is re-
stricted solely to their proper field of military mat-
ters and unless the leaders of such specialized agencies
as the Atomic Energy Commission, the Central In- |
telligence Agency and. the Federal Bureau of Inves-_ }
mocracy.
secrecy.
ol 4 e -
CMTE eT
a nas 2 ee dl =o
e bin
bh
wh
the
pt
for
onl
lt
Di
pal
r
own departments preliminary to a critically important
international conference? Behind a Democratic leader-
ship that appears to have no inkling of the obligation
of an opposition to analyze, criticize and dissent? Be-
hind the Central Intelligence Agency as it staggers from
blunder to blunder, from disaster to disaster? And
where is the rationale, the stature, the greatness which
the ordinary citizen might aspire to share? Not a single
true or stirring word came from anyone in authority,
for neither truth nor nobility was in them. There was
only one eloquent voice, and that was raised in dissent.
It issued from a room in New York Hospital where
Dr. Leo Szilard expressed “such indignation as I have
rarely experienced. . . . I resent being lied to by my
own government.”
And a Postscript
The temptation was very strong this week to reprint
in its entirety Sir Compton Mackenzie’s article “The
Spy Circus: Parasites with Cloaks and Daggers” from
The Nation of December 5, 1959. But tradition pre-
vailed and we decided not to use it. Even so, we yield
to temptation to the extent of quoting the concluding
sentence from this article by a distinguished writer who
devoted several years to cloak-and-dagger work at a
high level of responsibility and authority. “I owe it to
my conscience,” Sir Compton wrote, “to declare that
the effect of Intelligence work on international under-
standing is perhaps the greatest threat facing peace
today.”
The Next Best Thing
The West Virginia returns will be exhaustively
analyzed and interpreted, down to the last ward and
precinct. But in the end, we suspect, the meaning will
be inconclusive not merely in the sense that the vote
is not binding on the delegation, but because what it
“proved” is not of critical importance. Senator Kennedy
succeeded in knocking the weakest of his opponents out
of the campaign; this much is clear. But the more one
looks behind the scenes, the more equivocal his “tri-
umph” becomes. For one thing, money flowed — and
flowed — in West Virginia, where the word “election”
has long been closely associated with the words
“whisky” and “money.” “There was a hell of a lot of
vote-buying here,’ commented the editor of the Logan
Banner, “the worst I’ve ever seen... . But it was among
the local, not Presidential, candidates.” This was dis-
ingenuous in the extreme. With an exceptionally long
ballot — listed were delegates-at-large, candidates for
the state legislature, numerous propositions and can-
didates for local office — “slating” was the order of
__ the day. Money naturally went to the local ward, pre-
_cinct or district leader 08 the local candidates —
“ey i ’ .
a7 rar Pee *
7 < . Vee A i ’ ‘
who, in turn, arranged the slate. Apart from the fact
that these slates were of great assistance, the Kennedy
campaign had everything it needed that money can buy.
and any
But no matter how much was spent
figures reported can be quadrupled — money was not
the key factor in Senator: Kennedy’s victory. Money
merely made it possible for him to exploit three factors
that were decisive. By all accounts, the Kennedy or-
ganization is a thing of wonder and of beauty; there are
no loose ends, every contingency has been provided for,
there is careful planning and close supervision. But
organization, no matter how efficient and well-heeled,
could not have availed without a candidate. Kennedy
projects an image that voters of all sorts, young and
old, rich and poor, men and women, find immensely
attractive. Oddly enough, Nation observers found that
Senator Humphrey was a bit too “folksy” for the West
Virginia folks: one person interviewed reported having
heard a voter say of him, “That man has more solu-
tions than there are problems.” But there was still a
third factor: possession of the one issue of great emo-
tional appeal. For two weeks, Senator Kennedy kept
insisting that any West Virginian who failed to vote
for him solely because of his religion would be guilty of _
a grievous sin against the American creed.
What, then, did Senator Kennedy prove in West
Virginia? He defeated an opponent who, for all his fine
qualities, never had a chance of winning the nomina-
tion. And the race was between Kennedy and Hum-
phrey and not, as Senator Kennedy tried to make it
appear, between himself and Senators Humphrey, John-
son and Symington. Senator Kennedy also succeeded
in proving what everyone already knew: that he is an
excellent campaigner, that he has fashioned a formidable
organization, and that money is always useful in politi-
cal campaigns. He further proved that he could win a
Democratic primary in a predominantly Protestant
state and therefore, by inference, that religion is not a
bar to his nomination. But Al Smith proved this in
1928. And while Senator Kennedy showed that “satura-
tion” campaigns can be staged im a single state, he did
not prove that he could, even with unlimited funds,
conduct campaigns of this sort im fifty states between
August 1 and the first Tuesday in November.
But in politics, the next best thing to a genuine
triumph is the appearance of one. This, Senator Ken-
nedy has achieved.
Bulldozers in Retreat
i
Conservation is so consistently a losing game in this —
country that the report of a victory for the side of |
_ things as they were is a reason for cheering. In the case’
of the recent reprieve for Walden Pond the cheering
can be hearty, for the ruling handed down by the
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was stronger
435
judges not only halted the Middlesex County Commis-
sioners in their zealous efforts to turn Thoreau’s pond
2S into a community fun spot—all parking lots, scooped
out beaches and bath houses—but ordered that changes
made in the last four years be undone. Trees must be
Y replaced, the grading restored and the whole sylvan
atmosphere recaptured as nearly as possible in what is
now a suburban section of Greater Boston.
This decision makes the commissioners look foolish;
it is also likely to cost them a good deal of money (pub-
lic money, to be sure, but they will have to square
2 themselves somehow with the electorate). Thus, public
servants elsewhere with a passion for bulldozers may be
restrained from making “improvements” until the voices
of protest have been satisfied.
We take a personal pleasure in the outcome of the
> Walden affair. Two years ago The Nation published
x f “Walden on Trial” by Truman Nelson, an article which
a in reprint raised an appreciable part of the $12,000 war
ae chest amassed by the Save Walden Committee that
mg carried the issue to Massachusetts’ supreme court.
he
1 ( e
tS Middletown, U. S. A.
ne Ever since Alphonse Daudet wrote “The Last Class,”
set pieces have been in order whenever a distinguished
academician conducts his last class and retires. But
i: instead of devoting a set piece to the occasion of Dr.
Robert S. Lynd’s final lecture at Columbia University
OUR MISPLACED MISSILE BASES
OVER $10 BILLION in defense
-on May 12 before his retirement
than even the champions of Walden had expected. The
yh PR 4 7
re ny
from Stuart Chase’s review of Meal seboiay which ap- —
peared in The Nation of February 6, 1929:
Our authors lived there for over a year, studying every
phase of the town’s life, with the same detachment and the
same objéctive thoroughness that a good anthropologist
devotes to the habits of natives in the New Hebrides.... |
Nothing like it has ever before been attempted; no such |
knowledge of how the average community works and
plays has ever been packed between the covers of one
book; and I warn you that hereafter nobody has any right —
to make more than the most casual generalizations about
the culture levels of this republic, until he has first read
_and mastered his Middletown.
This is still a fair judgment, thirty years later, as Bob
Lynd concludes his final seminar and settles down to
the uninterrupted task of concluding the study of power
on which he has been at work for so many years. Any
list of the most widely discussed, reprinted and an-
thologized Nation articles of the last two decades would
necessarily include: “Capitalism’s Happy New Year,”
December 28, 1946; “Our ‘Racket’ Society,” August
25, 1951; “Whose Wars?”, December 27, 1952, and the
review of The Power Elite, May 12, 1956—all by Robert
S. Lynd, whose Middletown provided the emerging
American social sciences with a model that has influ-
enced the form and content of a legion of subsequent
studies and whose Knowledge for What? provided a
generation of American social scientists with a yard-
stick by which to measure their achievements.
‘
CITIES INTO TARGETS e « by James E. McDonald
, we Eoont like to. aaotee :
_ American lives.
arises as to whether the program is
not more of a threat to Americans
. a protection for them.
points” must be noted:
ed
funds is being committed to fixed-
base ICBMs of the Atlas and Titan
types. The sole reason for undertak-
ing this costly program is to protect
Yet the question
To appreciate the significance of
our ICBM program, the following
The American policy of de-
rence through the threat of mas-
ive retaliation requires that any
oo ‘McDONALD is Sen
m the Institute of
‘Physics at the Univer,
enemy attempting a sneak attack
must direct an overwhelming first
blow at all accessible elements of
our retaliatory machinery.
2. Whereas Strategic Air Com-
mand (SAC) bomber bases are now
our main sources of retaliatory ac-
tion, completion of the present Atlas-
Titan base construction program
will create twenty-seven additional
retaliatory elements which an enemy
must knock out.
- 3. Introduction of the ICBM in-
tot arsenal of retaliation opened
__ pos ibility of decoupling all
4. Hardening of our ICBM launch- |
ers — i.e, putting them under-
ground — and dispersing them in
such a way as to increase the num-
bers of missiles an enemy must use ~
to knock them out raises by a
hundredfold the total megatonnage
of enemy nuclear missiles that must —
be expected to rain down near any —
city where a nearby SAC base is
used as support for. eurevnding
Atlas or Titan sites.
5. When Atlas-Titan sites: are put
upwind of cities, as is true now in ©
a number of cases, the urban popu-
argets from neg ons will be ante, to pees ni a
loce reatest kill nus
”
4
‘
Be
eee ee ee
be
lat
been gathering ICBM siting and re-
lated technical information from all
available sources. The results are
startling:
Spokane, Washington, is in the
path of prevailing westerly winds.
To safeguard Spokane’s population
from fallout in case of enemy at-
tack on nine neighboring Atlas pads,
all the pads should have been con-
structed east of the city. Instead,
six lie on the dangerous west side
of Spokane!
Cheyenne,
almost unbelievable
present siting policies. A total of
twenty-four Atlas pads will ring
Cheyenne when its large missile com-
plex, based on Warren Air Force
Base, is completed. The proper place,
meteorologically, for all twenty-
four was in the open plains to the
east. Instead, the sites will so ring
Cheyenne that lethal dosages dur-
ing the first few hours after any at-
tack are almost perfectly guaranteed
for the city’s civilians, regardless of
wind directions.
Topeka, Kansas, is another hot
spot. Its Forbes Air Force Base is
getting a squadron of nine Atlas
missiles — and five of them are
being built on the dangerous west
side of the city. Furthermore, the
Topeka missile complex lies less
than 100 miles upwind from the
populous Kansas City area, creating
a hazard for a million Americans.
Plattsburgh, N. Y., scheduled as
an ICBM base, presumably will
have hardened Atlas sites. Portland
and Augusta, Me., will be seriously
threatened by the presence of the
Plattsburgh base; and even Boston,
if the winds were northwest at the
time of attack, might be threatened.
Wyoming, is another
example of
RECENTLY Tucson, Arizona, the
city in which I and my family live,
has been announced as a site for
eighteen Titan missile-launchers.
The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base
will be used for support. Since one
SAC B-47 wing was only recently
removed from Davis-Monthan, the
news of an $80 million construction
project was greeted with elation by
Tucsonans not familiar with the
finer details of nuclear war. A local
a announcer may have put the
_matter eta more __perceptively
iS
MS
Titan: Underground Pad
when he asked whether the news
was “a blessing, or a disaster with
fringe benefits.”
It is relevant to examine certain
details of the Tucson development.
Air Force press releases indicated
that here, as elsewhere, the Titans
will be dispersed in a ring around
the city. No hint was given, of
course, of the tremendous threat of
radioactive fallout that would result
from enemy attack. Instead, the Air
Force argued that since Tucson was
already a prime enemy target due
to the nearby SAC base, the Titan
bases would create no additional
danger. This assertion deserves at-
tention.
ICBM accuracies recently attain-
ed by both the United States and
Russia imply probable circular er-
rors of only one to two miles, even
at a 6,000-mile range. As a result of
this great improvement in accuracy,
only two or three half-megaton war-
heads of the type planned, say, for
the forthcoming Minuteman ICBM
could, in enemy hands, fully neutral-
ize all aircraft on an SAC base that
were not airborne at the time of at-
tack. By contrast, the eighteen dis-
persed Titan silos announced for
Tucson will draw something like
100 to 200 megatons of enemy fire.
Sin,
This great increase in megatonnage
required to neutralize hardened
ICBM bases was stressed by Gen.
Thomas Powers, SAC. Commander,
in a recent New York speech.
How many Tucson citizens will
appreciate that their community’s
target load will go up by a factor of
the order of a hundred when the
Titans are finally let down into their
160-foot-deep underground tubes?
Not many, I fear. And. apparently,
in other communities — similarly
threatened, not one. But public ig-
norance scarcely justifies the failure
of the Air Force to speak out forth-
rightly about the consequences of
bringing in fixed-base ICBMs. How,
for example, can the Air Force and
other federal agencies now set about
the urgent task of educating the
Tucson citizens in the highly com-
plex civil-defense problems created
by the Titans? After all, the Air
Force’s public attitude all along has
been that there is no new danger.
The public-relations problem is a
vexing one for the Air Force and
a source of grave peril to the citizen.
The Air Force has also been as-
suring communities getting ICBM
bases that they need not worry about
“practice firings” of the missiles.
That this argument may be part of
some kind of do-it-yourself kit for
local Air Force public-relations men
is more than vaguely suggested by
a statement appearing in the Janu-
ary 11 issue of Missiles and Rockets:
A major educational task .. . is
that of convincing community lead-
ers of the need for making their town
a prime target for enemy attack. A
telling argument, particularly in com-
munities accustomed te aircraft noise
and associated dangers: there will be
no take-offs from the missile base ex~
cept in anger.
Is this not somewhat like putting
a pistol-shooting target near a group”
of playing children and then telling
them and their parents that there is
little need to worry since the target
is made of non-flammable plastic?
IN OCTOBER last year, before the —
announcement came that our city _
was to be made a Titan base, I had
protested publicly against the ICBM
437
official Air Force reply — distributed
by wire to cities all over the country
near which ICBM bases are under
construction — ignored the fallout
question entirely. Why?
The Air Force reply to my October
protest hinted at the great need to
save money and time in the ICBM-
base program. But the actual nature
of the program makes these argu-
ments doubtful. For instance, the
announcement concerning ‘Tucson
, stated that construction would be-
i gin in about twelve months, and
that completion date would be about
three years off; so to argue urgency
Le is less than convincing. And why
Ry were ICBM bases being put near
. SAC air bases? The complex launch-
ing silos with their cryogenic plants,
‘< power plants and elaborate air-con-
is ditioned underground control centers
have to be built up from scratch,
and hence can make little use of
SAC facilities. Moreover, a squadron
i of nine ICBMs is manned by only
ns 500-600 airmen, so personnel-housing
me burdens are so light that numerous
a small non-SAC airbases in sparsely
“2 populated parts of the West would
a have served quite well for support.
i Since missiles just sit and wait for
re the next war, with no test flights
Rs to wear down countless components,
remote base areas would pose no
insuperable logistic headaches. But
even if millions of dollars were
saved by using SAC fields as sup-
port bases, the savings should be
weighed publicly against the risk to
the human lives involved. Where
have these considerations been clear-
ly pointed out by the Air Force?
MANY PERSONS hint at political
pressure as the probable explanation
_ for the base locations. It seems like-
ly that pressure — originating with
local business interests — has fre-
quently been applied. But it remains
inescapable responsibility of
technically informed Air Force rep-
sentatives to point out to a Con-
sman that putting an ICBM
plex in his district could spell
loom for his constituents in event
of attack, Where is the evidence
that such clarification has ever been
provided by the Air Force? Finally,
’s assume that the Air Force has
C
*
C
i
rer pe)
iy
ained the extreme dangers in-
ye OM
4 fy e
ve Py”
> as Aa oily. haat a a nD,
volved, and yet has to bow to some
Congressman’s pressure. It then re-
mains Air Force duty to place the
actual launchers where they will do
the least harm to civilian survival
chances in the face of fallout haz-
ards. Yet almost the opposite seems
to be the case. As one of my col-
leagues put it,
have come out better if the sites
had been determined by picking
names out of a hat.
There have appeared vague al-
lusions to the complex problem of
selecting sites in terms of soil and
terrain requirements. Again the facts
argue otherwise. ICBM sites are now.
being built on solid rock, in deep
soil, in dry ground, and in relatively
wet soil. An engineer has pointed
out to me that when holes have to
be dug in solid rock, the excavation
costs are high but shoring and con-
crete-pouring are simple and cheap.
On the other hand, when the sites
go into deep soil or sand, excavation
is cheap, whereas shoring and pour-
ing then run high. The final cost,
he noted, runs about the same either
way.
EXPERIENCE IN Tucson shows
that many laymen feel that there is
no point in questioning the placing
of ICBM sites near large cities:
“We'll all be gone in a minnte, any-
way, if the U.S. is ever attacked.”
The prevalence of this notion is
simply another measure of the pub-
lic’s ignorance concerning nuclear
war. First of all, as Bertrand Russell
noted, instant death will be only for
the fortunate few. More important,
the kind of nuclear war for which
these ICBMs are being built may
well involve only (or at least chiefly)
attacks on the retaliatory machinery
itself, and scarcely at all any metro-
politan and industrial areas that are
not in the neighborhood of these
special targets. So survival prospects
for populations near ICBM bases are
quite definitely being reduced by the
siting policies in use. And if, by any
chance, the Air Force is predicating
its siting policies on the assumption
that all Americans have written off
hope of survival in event of attack,
this sk ould be mada kn own publicly.
bis n=
The- re sult debate would
soiree
nares a
the civilian would
Pstsons “coneehed iy the atoptedi ‘i
of ICBM-base locations will do well
to watch the unfolding of a protest
movement currently gathering mo-
mentum in Tucson. The protest will
do no more than ask that the Titans
be located weli to the east of the
city. No similar request, to the
writer's knowledge, has been made
by any other community. Through
petitions, talks to civic groups in
Tucson and other ways, an attempt
will be made to arouse public con- ie
cern over a problem which the Air nu
Force has not even hinted at in an- Ma
nouncing its intent to place two ma
squadrons of Titans in a twenty-mile — Jy
radius ring around the city. If the wo
protest is unsuccessful, national *
pressure for action to change the he
Air Force siting policies will become K
indispensable. If it is successful, Pr
other communities already ringed by M
ICBMs will wish to ask some pointed 7
questions. : K
Indeed, considering the time in- er
volved in the preparation of these 0)
zeroed-in Atlas and Titan bases, it af
should be asked at Congressional M
levels why any more such _ bases
should even be started. The Air tn
Force states that the Tucson com-
plex, for example, will not be finished t
for about three years. The sub- A
marine-launched Polaris, the Hound ;
Dog and Skybolt air-launched bal- t
listic missiles, as well as the Minute-
man, will all be operational sooner
than, or as soon as, the Atlas-Titan
‘
'
¢
bases. The intrinsically high vulner-
ability of fixed-base ICBMs _ will
\
|
‘
make them long-lingering danger
spots, sites which an enemy must al-
ways try to knock out if he tries to
attack our country.. The more of
these we still have buried around uv
the country after the build-up of our
mobile retaliatory force by about
1963-64, the worse off will be our
unprotected civilian population.
Clearly, Congress should explore ,
further the logic of all these points.
And it should do so immediately,
lest hundreds of millions of defense
dollars be spent on bull’s-eyes —
magnetic bull’s-eyes drawing heavy —
enemy fire to those populous areas
in which Air Force | picasa tion —
Enrtd are afew, putting < ir fixed-
. i
Ns tha ta fl re
United Nations
AFRICA’S “independence explosion”
will continue to have repercussions
in the U.N. for some time to come.
By the end of this year, four new
African members will be admitted:
Togo (which has just won formal
independence), Somalia, Cameroon
and Nigeria. British Tanganyika and
the Belgian Congo have been prom-
ised independence. Mali (Senegal
plus the Sudanese Republic) and the
Malagasy Republic (Madagascar)
may soon make a break with France
to follow Guinea’s example into
complete autonomy, and in their
wake may follow other restive mem-
bers of the French Community in
Africa. “The wind of change” that
Prime Minister Macmillan said is
“blowing through the continent”
will some day sweep Sierra Leone,
Kenya and the Central African Fed-
eration out of the British Colonial
Office into the U.N. Also in the path
of the wind are Portuguese Angola,
Mozambique and Guinea.
By 1970, the African continent
may swell the ranks of the U.N. to
a hundred members. The effect of
the addition of twenty names to the
Assembly roll call is preoccupying
everyone here from Secretary Gen-
eral Hammarskjold to the guards
who hoist the flags outside the Sec-
retariat building. Sharing the con-
cern are the U.N. delegations —
and particularly that of the United
States. Will the new members vote
with the anti-Western bloc? How
will the colonial powers adjust to
the situation? Will Latin America
decide that its ,place is with the
“have-nots” and abandon its hereto-
fore dominant ties with the West?
What will the development mean to
the U.N. itself?
Some Western statesmen here find
the answers disheartening. They pre-
dict that the new members will join
the anti-colonial Afro-Asian bloc,
which together with the nine-nation
Soviet group will then constitute an
indisputable majority. They foresee
the fragmentation of the Latin
JANE STOLLE is The Nation’s U.N.
correspondent.
May 21, 1960
American bloc into “neutralists” and
Afro-Asian partisans. All of this,
they say, will work to the advantage
of the Soviet Union. The effect will
be seen not only in the voting on
specific issues, but in the diminish-
ing prestige of the U.N. For they
believe that the Western powers —
particularly the United States — will
lose faith in the organization once
they are in a minority position, and
tend more and more to negotiate
outside that body. The U.N. will
de-
become increasingly what its
tractors are already calling it: a
glorified “soap box.”
THE pessimists see no escape from
this dark future. History, in their
interpretation, has betrayed the U.N.
The organization’s Founding Fathers
acted on the erroneous assumption
that the post-World War II world,
fundamentally, would remain the
same Western-oriented world of the
League of Nations. Even though the
USSR was already recognized’ as a
great and growing power in 1945,
and stirrings were evident in Asia
and Africa, the statesmen who gath-
ered in San Francisco could not have
foreseen the profundity of the East-
West cleavage, nor how quickly
Western colonialism was to come to
an end. Moreover, the pessimists
point out, the headlong rush of col-
onies toward independence before
they are economically viable and
politically mature makes for unstable
governments that are ripe for Com-
munist exploitation. _
But the Cassandras who are think-
‘U. N.—Afriea Shifts the Balance . . by Jane Stolte
ing this way are in a minority here.
The following is a consensus of the
more optimistic thinking that 1s go-
ing on, both in the Secretariat and
among many delegations, Western
included.
It is admitted that the new mem-
bers will gravitate toward the anti-
colonial bloc, where they will find
natural allies who share a common
background of struggle — first for
independence, then for social and
economic evolution. But this pros-
pect, say the optimists, is not nec-
essarily a frightening one.
For one thing, the death of co-
lonialism must ultimately mean the
death of anti-colonialism as a unit-
ing force. Regional problems are al-
ready arising to disturb the ties
which formerly bound together the
victims of imperialism, colonial type.
Despite much Pan-African talk, Af-
rica today is far from united. Pub-
licly, Ghana holds hands with
Guinea, but in private Ghana’s
Kwame Nkrumah and Guinea’s Se-
kou Touré wrangle over their respec-
tive roles in the political and eco-
nomic future of the continent. On
October i Nigeria, seven times the
size of neighboring Ghana, and with
a population more than seven times
greater, will become independent —
another huge X to be added to the
power equation. The entrance of
Kenya’s dynamic Tom Mboya and
Tanganyika’s ambitious Julius Nye-
rere into the power arena, when their
countries become independent, will
put additional strains upon friend-
ships formed in the camaraderie of
the struggle for independence. The
United Arab Republic’s tentative of-
fers of Moslem Pan-Nasserism has
little attraction for Black Africa.
As for Asia, dominated by the
specter of a Communist China, there
is a strong probability that it will
evolve into a neutralism independent
of East and West on the one hand,
and of Africa on the other.
In fine, many U.N. experts fore-
see that the Afro-Asian bloc will
gradually break up into new forma-
tions based on changing political
and economic conditions.
Without doubt, an enlarged Af-
44]
rican contingent in the U.N. will
increase the fragmentation already
apparent in the twenty-nation Latin
American bloc. True,.on issues vital
to the West and to the United States
especially, Latin American support
is generally forthcoming (though
often reluctantly). On other issues,
the West has long since lost assur-
ance of this support. Though Latin
American delegates sometimes put
themselves in an “economically un-
derdeveloped” category in. discus-
sions here, they are really in an in-
termediate stage between underde-
veloped and industrialized, and their
votes often reflect the degree of their
domestic evolution. Fiercely proud
of their own hard-won independence,
they are wary of pressures that
smack of the “big stick.” And their
own history leads them into fervent
support of every African drive to-
ward independence, and of every
proposal to assist new countries striv-
ing for social and economic progress.
This has put them into frequent op-
position both to the European co-
lonial powers and their NATO part-
ner, the United States.
In the Fourteenth General As-
sembly, increased Latin American de-
fections from the United States camp
were largely on resolutions dealing
with Africa’s future. In 1958, Cuba
voted fifty-four times with the
United States, thirty-seven times
against, abstained twelve times; last
cr
5
r.
q
*
‘
¥
fall, the total was: thirteen times
with the United States, thirty-seven
against, twenty-seven
Cuba’s increased defections were not
surprising, coinciding as they did
with Castro’s emergence. But in the
same session of the U.N., Cuba was
joined by Bolivia, Chile, Colombia,
Honduras and Panama in voting
less often with the United States
than in the preceding session.
Of course, the role of the USSR
and its eight “captive” delegations
as stentorian spokesmen for the co-
lonial peoples will not soon be for-
gotten by the new members. With
nothing to lose and a stake in Africa’s
future to gain, the Soviet Union has
voted almost unswervingly with the
Afro-Asian bloc against the colonial
powers. Up to a point, the Kremlin
can expect to reap a harvest of grati-
tude from the U.N.’s new African
members.
THE USE of voting records as the
only criteria for judging a country’s
policy is, of course, somewhat peril-
ous. There is often much more be-
hind an “aye” or a “nay” than meets
the eye. Domestic policies play an
enormous and often ambiguous role
in international decisions. Log-roll-
ing is not unknown; the promise of
a dam or a new loan has been known
to change a “no” to an abstention,
at the very least. Mr. Hammarskjold
noted in his “Introduction to the
Annual Report of the Secretary Gen-
eral on the Work of the Organiza-
tion” (June 16, 1958-June 15, 1959):
. Whatever legal standing the
Charter may provide for the results
of the votes, the significance of these
results requires further analysis. be-
fore a political evaluation is pos-
sible. This observation applies to
the composition of majorities and
minorities as well as to the substance
of resolutions. These resolutions often
reflect only part of what has, in fact,
emerged from the deliberations and
what, therefore, is likely to remain
as an active element in future de-
velopments.
Nevertheless, if the public image
cast by the U.N. is to be assessed at
all, it must be when the countries
stand up. and are counted, On that
basis, the USSR gained an advan-
tage over the United States during |
Africa’s period of political evolution
abstentions..
er een Mee aes oe eee as
by voting Nae Arty on the aa
of the Africans.
But the Western optimists do not
find this shifting balance of voting
power to be a threat either to the
U.N. or to the United States, the
largest contributor and indispensable
supporter of the world body. To the
contrary, they are convinced that
the larger U.N. will be stronger be-
cause it will more truly reflect the
political realities of the postwar
world. There are still great gaps in
U.N. membership (Communist
China, Germany, Korea and Viet-
nam), but millions more people now
have a direct voice in the world body
than in 1945, and U.N. prestige has
gained, not lost, by these additions.
As for a threat to the United States,
Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge
told the Tenth Annual Conference
of National Organizations recently:
As we look ahead it seems certain
that the United Nations will remain
what diplomats call a “power fact,”
with which countries have to cope
whether they like it or not. There is
certainly no reason to fear its growth.
For us it is a priceless asset and an
unceasing opportunity. . . . Our for-
eign policy must have more than
physical strength, vital though it is.
It must also have great and magnan-
imous purposes, and it must find
ways to express those purposes so that
the peoples of the world will under-
stand and welcome them. Economic
cooperation through the United Na-
tions is, pre-eminently, such a way.
Indeed, it can be one of the indis-
pensable ingredients of peace on
earth.
The key word in Mr. Lodge’s
statement is “economic,” and _ his
statement not only foreshadows a
shift in U.S. policy toward the U.N.,
but reflects the increasing weight
that economic issues have already be-
gun to assume in the U.N. itself. The
change is not surprising. ‘Three-
fourths of the world’s peoples who
now live in poverty are determined
to better their condition, and most
of them are, or soon will be, repre-
sented in the world body, and it is
natural that they should turn to it
for help.
The U.N. Secretariat is already
setting the stage for this changing |
role. The Secretary General’s swing
through Africa this ‘past winter cor
fel 8
oe » ne
te niin r) nt, Natro?
T\< Kw ad
lt
inced him — if he needed convinc-
ing — that the steady and peaceful
evolution of Africa from colonial
‘status into viable, stable entities is
yimperative for the maintenance of
international peace and security —
the primary responsibility of the
TUN. Again and again, Hammar-
Nskjold heard pleas in Africa for
assistance — with no _ political
strings attached. “We do not want
‘ exchange our old bosses for new,
African leaders told him. “Give us
men to help us build up our educa-
tional systems, our communications,
our industries. Give us financial as-
sistance.” Little enough can be done
immediately. The U.N. has no capi-
tal-development fund and its excel-
lent technical-assistance program is
limited by lack of money. But the
‘groundwork is being laid now for
greatly expanded facilities with
which to meet the needs of the new,
struggling nations.
ALREADY U.N. expenditures for
_ Africa have risen from $1,800,000 in
Bis2 to $5,000,000 this year; the
budget for next year will be still
higher. The U.N. Special Fund,
which concentrates on resource sur-
_veys and development programs
leading to profitable private invest-
A
ment, will pay greater attention to
' African needs. OPEX, the U.N. pro-
_ gram which provides experts to fill
executive positions until local per-
~ sonnel has been trained, will be ex-
panded. Secretary Hammarskjold
_ will ask the General Assembly for a
“crash fund,” which he will admin-
ister himself, to aid countries such
-as Laos, whose tottering economic
_and political structure may endanger
_ peace in a potentially explosive area.
These are small steps, perhaps,
but they are preparing the way for
the giant stride that the West, with
the United States in the lead, must
inevitably take if Africa’s problems
are to be solved. This is recognition
on the part of the industrialized
Western nations that it is to their
advantage to channel a large part of
their assistance to underdeveloped
countries through the U.N.; in other
ee of Ambassador Lodge.
“of the U.N. Special Fund,
words, to back with banknotes the ©
of the U.N. in massive aid programs.
Mason Sears, United States delegate
to the U.N. Trusteeship Council,
who returned recently from his ninth
visit to the African continent, urged
—as he has often done in the past—
that increased U.S. economic aid to
Africa be channeled through the U.N.
Paul Hoffman, Managing Director
does so
eloquently in his booklet, One Hun-
dred Countries — One and One-
quarter Billion People {see “The
Hoffman Plan,” by Jane Stolle, The
Nation, March 26]. Presidential can-
didates give lip service, at least, to
the idea. Slowly, traditional U.S. ob-
jections to multilateral aid are break-
ing down. No, the USSR would not
be “spending our money for us,” forc-
ing aid to go where we don’t want
it to go. Any aid administered by
the Special Fund, for instance, must
go through the hands of an eighteen-
nation Governing Council — and
seventeen of these nations are
“friendly” to the United States. The
USSR, though vociferous in support-
ing the underdeveloped countries’
plea for a U.N. capital development
fund, now puts up only a thirtieth
of what the United States contributes
to the U.N. Technical Assistance
Program. The Kremlin says it will
open its purse further only when dis-
armament is achieved. But faced
with a full-scale multilateral-aid pro-
gram, the Soviet Union will have
to put up more, or shut up. Facts
and figures flood daily from the
U.N.; the underdeveloped countries
will not be unaware of the original
sources of multilateral aid — given
without political strings and in a
manner favoring no particular donor.
ECONOMIC aid must be accompa-
nied by what Secretary Hammar-
skjold calls “moral support”—sup-
port for the principle of self-deter-
mination, for social advancement, for
racial equality. The underdeveloped
countries are tired not only of being
hungry, but of being treated like
poor relations. Optimists at the U.N.
see a healthy change coming over
the world body in this respect, par-
ticularly on the part of the United
States. Until recently, US. policy
toward Africa in the U.N. was one
fee
of eet loyalty to the European"
Guinea's Touré
colonial powers. In a basic statement
of the American position as of No-
vember, 1953, Assistant Secretary of
State Byroade pleaded for frankness
. In recognizing our stake in the
strength and stability of certain Eu-
ropean nations... which will probably
represent, for many years to come,
the major source of free-world de-
fensive power outside our own. We
cannot blindly disregard their side of
the colonial question without injury
to our own security.
But now that the Republic of
Togo will be speaking with her own
voice, instead of through the Quai
d’Orsay, and Ghana and Guinea and
Somalia have found their tongues,
American ears are proving more
sympathetic to their cause.
THE most important breakthrough
in our attitude was on the question
of apartheid in the Union of South
Africa. Until March, 1959, we had
maintained that the problem of racial
segregation in that country was a _
“domestic” matter, and had voted—
along with the United Kingdom— |
against a resolution opposing it. To _
the great satisfaction of the Afro-
Asian group, we finally reversed our |
position, going so far as to work —
actively in the Security Council last
April for an Ecuador-sponsored reso~
} lution which “deplored” the
breaks near Capetown and Johannes-
burg and requested the Secretary
General to “make arrangements” to
provide that the U-N. Charter be up-
held. The vote was 9-0, with Britain
and France abstaining. On another
resolution, urging the holding of
pourparlers with a view to arriving
at a peaceful solution of the Algerian
war on the basis of the right of self-
E ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
“
:
a
+
* HISTORICALLY the arts have gen-
ae. erally been welcome in the academic
Ps, community, but usually either as
MW guests or as specimens. The arts
could be entertained or studied
ay there, but it was not assumed that
aM the university was to provide a home
:> for the artist himself: hence, “art
i historian” as opposed to “artist”;
Py: “drama” as opposed to “theatre”;
“musicology” as opposed to “music.”
Be These lines are too fine, and many
N a university theorist (like Lessing)
4 has crossed over. Nevertheless, I
think it is a fair historical statement
that the scholarly community has
_. been officially interested in the arts
only after the fact. In 1921, poet-
playwright Percy MacKaye was not-
ing that “the universities . still
concern themselves almost wholly
with the exposition or historical crit-
icism of literature, poetry, drama,
painting, sculpture,” and inquired:
“Tf it be worth while for a univer-
sity to provide opportunity to study
a living author’s work, may it not
be equally worth while to provide
opportunity for the author to create
Lai
_MacKaye was himself the first of
a series of resident artists, the re-
cipient of one of the Fellowships in
Cre ative Art initiated by President
R. M. Hughes of Miami University
(Oxford, Ohio). Hughes, a vaneey,
REN S. SMITH
tre arts” at The Pennsylu
-out-—
NEW MAN on the CAMPUS..
teaches %
Saar ?
Mleteenin ation th
stained. But the Afro-Aétan bloc con-
sidered this a victory for their side,
inasmuch as in the past the United
States had stood with France in op-
position to the same resolution.
So, the optimists feel, the United
States is at last getting “on top of
the story.” And since the story of
the next decade in the U.N. will be
the effect of the underdeveloped
the National Association of State
Universities the establishing of such
fellowships at, perhaps, a hundred
institutions in America, with each
Fellow’s sole obligation simply to
live in the academic community and
create works in his own field.
Both Miami and nearby Western
College have been faithful to this
tradition in their fashion. The novel-
ist, Walter Havighurst, is the latest
of Perey MacKaye’s successors and
has supplied further commentary in
The Miami Years (G. P. Putnam’s
Sons, 1958). Miami also supports a
composer in_ residence (Edward
Gould Meade) who is “exempt from
the system.” But the “research pro-
fessorship” which Mr, Havighurst
now holds, like most such arrange-
ments, as we shall see, falls some-
what short of Hughes’s ideal in that
it requires part-time teaching.
NEITHER did the hundred fellow-
ships in themselves materialize, but
the general change in the artistic
atmosphere of the American campus
would have been unimaginable in
1920, as a survey I have just made
for The Nation clearly indicates.
The change is not complete, but it
has advanced beyond any turning
back, and the process of it has taken
on distinctive American character-
istics, wholly unassociated with Old
Wand precedents.
onses to my questi onnaire in-
dicate, the a the mati
F Pe Pl
ited States ab-
. sity towns of Minneapolis and “Anes
is Arbor are ci urren itly vying
pi epe Sti
posenee
leader of the free world—is all-im-
portant. Both the United States and
the U.N. still have a long way to go.’
But.a United Nations more: soundly
based on political realities than it was
in 1945 will be better equipped to
handle the questions that come be-
fore it—whether they have to do
with peace or with prosperity.
by Warren S. Smith
of the hoped-for decentralization and
dissemination of the arts through-
out the land, whereas a mere two or
three decades ago the arts were
largely bound to the theatres, opera
houses, museums and private col-
lections of the big cities, principally
the older cities of the East Coast.
Significant portions of the American
artistic product can now be seen and
heard on dozens of campuses that
hardly follow any geographical pat-
tern.
The “road,” which theatrical .pro-
ducers had almost completely lost
in the early 30s as an aftermath of
the introduction of sound movies, —
is in process of being reborn in a new
form via university campuses, more
and more of which boast physical
facilities far beyond the physical and
economical reach of New York’s anti-
quated theatre section. There are
not yet enough superior facilities to
make genuine touring of elaborate
productions feasible, but the time is
obviously coming. In the meantime,
solo performers and touring com-
panies of modest scenic investiture
are finding the campus circuit profit-
able. Sir John Gielgud, as a case in
point, perfected his Ages of Man
performances on this route. The emi-:
nent director, Tyrone ‘Guthrie, has
even expressed some desire to settle
down away from. the professional
theatre centers, and the two univer-
commodai ting, him,
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emed so revolutionary at the State
University of Iowa in the thirties
has ceased to be a surprising phe-
nomenon. Even the Ivy League, tra-
ditionally distrustful of the arts as
non-intellectual, is yielding. Yale’s
School of Drama has always been
regarded as a special case, but artists
in residence have become part of the
regular pattern of Princeton, which
has had a creative arts program, un-
der a Carnegie grant, since 1939;
and composer Roger Sessions, though
not regarded as an artist in residence,
occupies an endowed professional
chair there. Now Harvard plans a
‘new visual arts center to be designed
by Le Corbusier.
There are at least thirty-five aca-
demic departments in the United
States which refer to their crea-
tive artists, either frankly or euphe-
mistically, as artists in residence,
resident artists, resident playwrights,
etc., and a good many state approv-
al of the idea and have plans for
the future.
IN EVERY case it is difficult to
judge how much of the creative out-
put is underwritten consciously by
the university and how much is a
voluntary addition to the teaching
faculty’s work-load. Most difficult
of all to assess at a distance is that
of creative writing — although it is
probable that colleges and universi-
ties have more traffic with creative
writers than with any other type of
creative artist. The writer’s primary
tool is language, and he is more like-
ly to be part scholar. Or, where
creativity is not popular with the
_ administration, it is easier to pretend
_a writer is part scholar, and so con-
ceal him in the mass of scholars
where he doesn’t show! This ex-
pedient, one gathers, becomes less
and less necessary. William Faulkner,
at the University of Virginia, is
certainly the most eminent resident
- novélist. But the University of Mich-
igan (to cite only a single example)
has had a series of creative writers
in residence since the twenties, usu-
ally for a single semester each, and
including such names as Robert
Frost, Katherine Anne Porter, EI-
mer Rice and (currently being in-
_ vited) Lillian Hellman.
- Even in the non-literary arts, the
y
term “artist in residence” has limited
significance. The work done by prac-
ticing faculty members is of increas-
ingly high caliber, often as high as
could be expected from an artist em-
ployed specifically to be “in resi-
dence.” The total number of resident
artists, therefore, even if it were
known, would in no way indicate
the extent to which the arts are real-
ly resident in the American university
scene in the sense that practicing
artists have in some measure found
their home there. Certainly there
are dozens, probably hundreds, of
competent creative artists in the
university faculties for every one
who receives support nominally for
being “in residence.” Raymond J.
Eastwood, Chairman of the School
of Fine Arts at the University of
Kansas, feels that a much more im-
portant factor than the resident art-
ist, at least in the trans-Mississippi
area, is “the professional school,
attached to a state university and
staffed, primarily, with professional
artists.”
On the other hand, a title such as
“artist in residence” does indicate
a frank commitment on the part of
the institution, often with pride
(sometimes, we may suspect, even
with snobbery), to support an artist
for the sake of what he produces.
This is true even though the resident
artist may, as it turns out, teach,
say, half time, and so have no more
real subsidy than many a practicing
faculty member. The decision to
engage an artist in residence must
be considered, then, a qualitative
rather than quantitative commit-
ment on the part of a university to
the support of an artist as such.
Where the term “artist in resi-
dence” is specifically not used, two
quite divergent points of view pre-
sent themselves. The one is an as-
at, J
.
vy
ng oy
7
sumption that the university ad-
ministration would be unwilling to
accept publicly the responsibility of
supporting the artist unless he could
be employed estensibly as a teacher
— in which case his creative talents
would also be welcome. The other
(with a suppressed injured outcry)
would have us know that the uni-
versity has advanced beyond the
artist-in-residence concept to the
point where all staff members are
employed primarily on the basis of
their creative output and it would
be unfair to give a special label to
any of them. Robert L. Iglehart,
Chairman of the Department of Art
at University of Michigan’s College
of Architecture and Design, ex-
plains: “I regard the artist-in-resi-
dence arrangement as a transitional
one, associated with the period prior
to real acceptance of art as a ‘re-
spectable’ discipline. I regard all of
our staff as artists in residence.” He
seems to voice the sentiments as well -
of the art departments at Ohio Uni-
versity, Indiana University, Kansas
University, Tulane, University of
Florida, and University of Texas;
and the music schools of the Uni-
versity of Illinois and Oberlin Col-
lege.
In all but a half-dozen cases where
the “residence” label is given to the
artist, he has achieved recognition,
sometimes amounting to internation-
al fame, before his appointment, thus
bringing a measure of prestige with
him. Though the advantages of a
“name” artist are obvious, one must
admire the few departments which
make a policy of providing publicized
opportunities for limited periods to
those who need it most. Stanford
speech and drama department has .
both a “senior” and a “junior” artist,
the latter being a promising un-
known. The University of Virginia
Art Department also has embarked —
on a program involving an unrecog-
nized resident artist.
WHEN IT comes down to the actual
situation, almost all the artists, to —
earn their salt, are expected to give ©
some service in addition to their —
creative contributions to society.
Only a bare sprinkling of them are
completely free to reside and create:
University of Virginia; Miami Uni- ©
ry Sere eye
r aes
versity of Oxford, Ohio; Indiana
University; Stanford; Dartmouth.
Most of the others are considerably
more free to work on their own
than are their conventionally em-
ployed colleagues.
Most of them teach — some at
their own request. Classes are usual-
ly, though not always, graduate or
upper-level. A series of public lec-
tures, demonstrations, concerts, or
recitals is often expected. Perform-
ing musicians usually give some pri-
vate lessons. Almost all are available
for consultation by advanced stu-
dents. A few even serve on faculty
committees.
When these duties amount, as
they do in nearly 50 per cent of the
cases, to half a “normal load,” one
may properly suspect the title of
“resident artist” of being a euphe-
mism, for many a _ conventionally
employed professor in the art areas
can claim as much creative freedom
as this. Nevertheless, most of these
positions appear to be meaningful
in the amount of opportunity they
have given for unhampered work.
Within the academic framework
the resident artists may be regarded
as being well paid. Half of them are
paid the salaries of at least full pro-
fessors — in a couple of isolated
cases substantially more. Surprising-
ly, and in my opinion, encouraging-
ly, almost all resident artists are
paid out of regular salary budgets.
Here and there are an endowed
chair (as at Princeton in music), a
Rockefeller or Carnegie grant (Uni-
versity of Alaska), but by and large
the new American subsidy of the
artist is being paid for by the uni-
versity itself, which means, in many
cases, indirectly by the state. Budget
pinches are therefore reflected in
the program. At Stanford, since the
university discontinued a_ special
grant, artists in residence have been
supported out of the theatre box of-
ficé. The University of Arkansas has
had to abandon its visiting-artist
program altogether.
Most of the appointments are not
of a permanent nature. Moreover the
_ sentiment expressed by department
too long is al-
artist who “resides”
~ most bound to provoke some jealousy
from the regular staff; whereas a
» ih ie
5 hawt ye ee
short-term association, — especially
with a “name” artist, often seems to
be a real morale-builder—“a shot in
the arm,” as one educator put it.
A full university term is the most
common. At Princeton a tenure of
from one to three years is established.
Some stay only a semester or for an
even briefer period. The University
of Georgia has a long roster of emi-
ment artists, each of whom has been
engaged for only a week. At the
University of Delaware a_ string
quartet arrives every weekend and
stays for Monday music apprecia-
tion classes. Boston University in-
vites Broadway directors to direct
an occasional play. These short-term
visitors are naturally variants of the
procedures already generalized.
EXCEPT FOR TENURE, the res-
ident artist’s terms of employment
resemble the regular staff member’s.
Since his field of interest is highly
specialized and his stay relatively
brief, his participation in campus
life outside his own area is likely to
be merely polite. Within the de-
partment, however, the artist must
be accessible to students. I gather
from the tone of my respondents
that this accessibility is perhaps the
one requirement almost universally
enforced.
Departmental comments point to
other benefits of artist-in-residence
programs: stimulation, prestige, ex-
ploitation via TV, rise of enrollment,
attraction of better students, free
concerts, status-relationships with
those who supply the money —
these are the expressed or implicit
rewards of the investment, from lit-
tle Langston University, which is
currently basking in the presence of
the poet laureate of Liberia, to the
University of California at Berkeley,
which is welcoming the renowned
French motion picture director, Jean
Renoir, as a “Regents Professor of
English and Dramatic Art.”
But there is one particularly dis-
turbing problem resulting from the
fusion of the artist into the aca-
demic community. I suppose there
is hardly a graduate school in the
country that has not by this time
debated the problem of equating
creative work with scholarly work
in evaluating advanced academic
i
Lif
ni lie ose i We
aad
depress Sreten : Peeper (in
states the case succinctly: “A Ph.D.
is no indication of an artist’s achieve-
ment, and it is far better not to give
such a degree than to allow the im-
pression to get around that it signi-
fies something it cannot possibly
mean.” In a similar frame of mind,
the Midwestern College Art Con-
ference at its 23rd Annual Meeting
last October resolved “that the M.
F. A. be considered the terminal
degree for teachers of studio courses”
and that “the Ph.D. or other doctor-
al degrees are not appropriate ways
of measuring success in creative
fields.” The resolution specifically
requested that the academic degree
should not influence appointments,
promotions or tenure. The problem
continues to be faced in different
ways. At Vanderbilt University since
early in the century it has been the
policy to engage two creative writers
on its English staff who, although
they are regular professional ap-
pointments, are officially excused
from the degree-race. Miss Clare
Fontanini, sculptor and head of Art
at Catholic University, asserts that
equality of artists and scholars is the
policy of her university; but if this
is sO in practice as well as “policy”
it presents a rare exception.
THE DIFFICULTIES of the arts
in finding a secure academic niche
need not obscure the benefits of
campus artists or their significance
in terms of an emergent cultural
pattern. It would be a mistake, I
think, to assume that the artist him-
self receives merely an endowed pe-
riod of time and freedom from the
pressures of | commercialization.
There are other advantages. The
vastly improved theatre facilities on
many campuses have already been
mentioned. Some institutions offer,
as well, “the best existing recording
equipment,” and studio conditions
and equipment that are close to ideal.
There are trained (and increasingly
mature) students to perform the
play that is written; instrumentalists
and trained voices to perform the
musical composition. There are
skilled directors, conductors, design-
ers, technicians. There are pacdeonens ¥
galleries to display the graphic and
: o 3
; a i bo The N LTC
N
en
College Art Journal, Spring, 1952)
m
st
id
4
nao a
—_ ws =
increasingly intelligent and critical
viewers and audiences, and the fel-
lowship of professional colleagues.
And the resident artist may be ex-
pected to recognize the well-oiled
publicity lines that fan out from uni-
versity departments of public rela-
tions!
A cautious word should be added
about the supposed “freedom” that
the artist has on a campus. Is it real
or illusory? Certainly it is real in
the sense that he may choose both
styles and subject matter without
regard to market-place values. But
we have already noted that the
artist invited to be resident has usu-
ally already achieved that much.
Whether he would be, in every case,
equally free from political or moral-
istic pressures is extremely doubt-
ful. It is difficult to assemble evi-
dence, except after-the-fact, on this
problem. Few institutions, one can
surmise, would harbor for long a
poet or playwright who found cause
to sing paeans to the glory of com-
munism. Some might even glower at
strong criticism. One can only con-
clude that the artist would have the
same measure of freedom in these
matters as the institution allows his
colleagues on the faculty, and this
has been shown to be a highly vari-
able quality across the full spectrum
of the American scene.
EVENTUALLY it may become
clear that the most significant part
of the revolution herein described
is not the change in educational
policy and practice, but the change
in the status of the arts themselves.
In our times the arts have come
upon dismal days. Universally dis-
seminated through mass media, all
_ but the most esoteric expressions of
_ the human spirit run headlong into
_ the question: Will it sell goods?
Even in their past history, the arts
have nearly always been stepchil- -
dren, either unwanted or spoiled. So
now the lure of an independent and
meaningful life on a university cam-
pus, with a measure of security and
] freedom, is not being regarded light-
+ ly. The stakes are high. And the
_ American university is “type cast”
‘as the rescuer that will scoop up
F the arts from the precipice of mass-
v
exploitation and carry them off, at
long last, to their lost home. We are
conditioned, however, to treat all
rescuers on white horses with ap-
propriate skepticism, especially when
the hero’s credentials, as in this
case, are not flawless.
In the process of becoming secure
and respectable the arts may go
sterile. They may become academic.
They may become one more addi-
tional kind of snobbery for the
“diploma elite.” Within sheltered
And After de Gaulle? . . by Alexander Werth a
Paris
SO FRANCE’S “globe-trotting Pres-
ident” is back home once again after
his triumphal tour of London, Ot-
tawa, Washington, New York, San
Francisco, New Orleans, Martinique,
Guadaloupe, etc. And many French-
men are slightly puzzled by the
warmth with which he was greeted
in some of these places, especially
Britain and the United States. Did
not these “foreigners” look at their
distinguished visitor somewhat dif-
ferently from the way in which he is
today regarded in France?
It would be wrong to suggest, of
course, that de Gaulle’s personal
prestige and popularity have serious-
ly declined here, or that a large part
of French opinion does not continue
to feel grateful to him for having
averted, in 1958, the real danger of
the Algiers military and Fascist
putsch extending to France itself.
No doubt, too, it is realized here
that the Fifth Republic can claim
a few solid, positive achievements:
a healthier currency, a bigger inter-
national prestige (thanks to de
Gaulle personally), a normalization
of relations between France and the
various parts of Black Africa now
forming part of the “community”;
the maintenance of a fairly high eco-
nomic standard inside France. But
these positive achievements are off-
set by a number of very trouble-
some problems, chief of which, need-
less to say, continues to be ihe Al-
gerian war. In 195: a large part of
ALEXANDER WER
Nation’s Europea
TH is The
, correspondent.
a v2 :
aE ee ese >
- * \
pre ae 7
fiscated) an account of a clandestin
Pe
halls they may lose their contact Un
with the everyday world and be-
come effete.
But we are a romantic people,
and we have really no choice but
to take the chance. For the reward,
if we win it, will be — we cannot
Say a renaissance, since the fusion
we hope for has never yet been in
civilization as we know it. We must at
say, then, not a new birth, but a ty
birth of something new, which is
far more exciting. Ie
9 ae (te
liberal opinion in France supported nt iq
de Gaulle in the firm belief that he ae
would, sooner or later, end this war. a f
There were times when hopes ran ae
high that the end was in sight; but
each time the Army seems to have
had the last word, and the end is no
more in sight today than it was two
years ago. Some Army leaders have i
even revived the fear that, with a
their “right of pursuit,” hey may :
extend the war to Tunisia. Mean-
while horrible things continue to
happen in Algeria, not least among
them the various “camps d’héberge- 7
ment,’ in which 1,500,000 Algerian Ds.’
men, women and children are now y
“Jiving’—often in quite appalling” ;
conditions. Recently even so_pro-
Government a paper as France Soir
published some terrifying details on
these camps.
In France itself, the President and
the Government are armed with vir-
tually unlimited special and emer-
gency powers. It may be argued, of
course, that these are not yet being
abused; and yet, all kinds of disturb-
ing “little” things are reported to be —
happening: stories of an “auxiliary”
police force composed of Moslems —
alleged to be operating in the 13th —
district of Paris, complete with —
beatings-up and torture chambers |
to which Algerian “suspects” are
dragged at night. Recently again |
number of papers (notably France-
Observateur and L’Express) were e
confiscated on dubious pretexts; a
journalist, M. Arnaud, was arrested
after publishing in a _pro-Gover a
ment paper (which was not con-
.
ie
oe
re
q
f
vee
press conference given by a M.
Jeanson, a pro-Algerian-rebel writer
against whom a warrant had been
issued; Arnaud was arrested for not
reporting Jeanson to the police im-
mediately. Le Monde reported the
other day (without being contra-
dicted) that a new press law is be-
ing seriously considered by the Gov-
ernment with a view to silencing
criticism almost completely.
WHO JIS ruling France? Last week,
Le Monde’s political editor, M. P.
Viansson-Ponté, wrote a remarkable
series of articles called “The Repub-
lic of Silence,” in which he described
how France is being ruled “from be-
hind closed doors.” While it is true,
according to this account, that de
Gaulle issues “general directives” on
certain subjects such as Algeria (and
these are not always obeyed), a con-
stant squabble for supremacy is also
going on. Thus the Monde writer
draws special attention to the fact
that there is serious rivalry between
what is called “the Right Bank” (i.e.
de Gaulle’s secretariat at the Elysée
Palace on the Right Bank of the
Seine) and the various committees
DOES NIXON PLAY the GAME? e e by Joel Feinberg
IF A MAN in private life is accused
of lying, cheating, breaking promises
or ruthlessly seeking to destroy the
reputation of innocent men, he is
expected to reply in one of four
ways. He might deny the facts (“I
was misquoted”; “I could not have
done that, for I was in Europe at
the time”); or he might admit his
guilt, apologize and beg forgiveness;
or he might defend himself by justi-
fying his behavior (“I said what I
knew to be false, but it wasn’t—
strictly speaking—a lie; rather it was
the right and proper thing to do in
the circumstance”); or, finally, he
might offer an excuse.
Excuses can be divided into two
groups: those which completely de-
feat the ascription of responsibility
JOEL FEINBERG teaches philos-
ophy at Brown Umiversity.
— 448
eT eS | ya
, ,
8
A
and technicians centered on the Pre-
mier’s residence, the Hotel Matignon,
on the Left Bank. M. Debré’s per-
sonal loyalty to General de Gaulle is
not questioned, but there appears
to be a singular lack of co-ordination
between the Elysée and many of the
men surrounding the Premier.
Why all these strange goings-on?
The answer seems to be that “the
battle for the succession” has already
begun. At a recent meeting of the
U.N.R.—de Gaulle’s party—the pos-
sibility of the President’s sudden
death—politically called “brutal dis-
appearance”—was openly discussed;
and in the industrial weekly Entre-
prise, M. Albin Chalandon, one of the
party’s leading lights, bluntly wrote
that things would be greatly simpli-
fied if de Gaulle frankly stated
whom he considered his most suit-
able successor! And already the
tongues are wagging, and it is sug-
gested that, under a Constitutional
revision, the creation of a Vice Pres-
ident should be seriously considered.
Thus behind the scenes the battle
for the succession is already being
fought. There seems very little doubt
that the real battle will ultimately
(“T did it all right and it was wrong,
but I was sick and didn’t realize.
what I was doing”; “Someone had
a gun at my back”; “I was only two
and a half years old at the time”),
and those which diminish the degree
of responsibility by citing mitigating
or extenuating circumstances. (Con-
sider, for example, the statement
which has been attributed to Richard
Nixon: “All I can say is that I
was very young .and very ambi-
tious... .”)
If the situation. is less clear in
politics, it is because there is little
agreement about what sort of con-
sideration constitutes an acceptable
excuse. When a politician is accused
of deceit, there are always many who
find a mitigation, if not a total ex-
cuse, in the very nature of his voca-
tion. Thus, politicians tend to be
excused for offenses which would not
, aN i
pags
Se ia oe ee rk ee
take the form of a clash between two
major right-wing forces: the pow-
erful technocracy now _ grouped
round U.N.R. leaders like Debré,
Chalandon, Chaban-Delmas and
other “moderate Gaullists” and, on
the other hand, a large part of the
“classical” Right—probably includ-
ing M. Pinay—and allied with the
“ultras” of Algiers and Paris, includ-
ing men like Soustelle and Bidault.
And again the No. 1 question will
be which of these two forces will en-
joy the fullest support of the Army
and the police.
And what about the French Left
—has it no chance? Here the time
factor is of supreme importance. If
de Gaulle were to disappear soon,
nothing could stop one of the forces
of the Right taking over; if, on the
other hand, the Fifth Republic lasts
long enough to create a sharp mass
movement in favor of a return to a
more “normal” type of democracy,
then the Left might be given a
chance to return to power. Yet even
then a solid Left would be scarcely
conceivable unless a modus vivendi
were reached between the Commu-
nist and the non-Communist Left.
be tolerated if committed by ordi-
nary men in private life.
A familiar response to the moral
condemnation of a political leader’s
conduct is: “Yes, of course he lied
and cheated, but after all, you must
remember he is in politics—what did
you expect?” It is the alleged rele-
vance and legitimacy of precisely
this response which is so confusing
to most of us. Is it intended as an
apology, an excuse, or a mitigation?
Is it relevant at all? Does it have
at least some force?
During the coming year, especial-
ly if Richard Nixon is a Presidential
candidate, concern with these ques-
tions is likely to be greater than
at any time since the age of Pro-
gressives, Populists and the muck-
rakers. No other successful politician
in recent years has acquired such |
widespread and bitter enmity in both
7 t
A
The ' ,
sree VA BON :
4
oes, . - r -
arties as Mr. Nixon. As a Congress-
man, he perfected the techniques of
legislative inquisition and trial by
eadline and used them with more
personal profit than any of his con-
‘freres. No one has used the “soft
‘on communism” charge, or the
insinuation of treason with greater
‘effectiveness. He has been accused
of smearing Jerry Voorhis, of fram-
ing Helen Gahagan Douglas, of
breaking a solemn pledge to Gov-
ernor Earl Warren; he has_ been
charged with abusive and dishonest
personal attacks on Adlai Stevenson.
_ Many supporters of Mr. Nixon
will simply deny these charges.
Others will concede that he was
guilty of certain indiscretions, but
argue that, since he is now a “new
man,” he deserves another chance.
“Others will urge that his youth and
‘inexperience were extenuating cir-
cumstances. With these types of
defense I am not presently concern-
ed. Of far greater importance in the
long run is the defense which will
~ not be made by Mr. Nixon’s official
spokesmen. I refer to the “realistic”
argument that the political game
itself provides a total excuse for
forms of shysterism which would be
inexcusable in private life.
I happen to believe that if a man
_has advanced himself by unscrupu-
lous double-dealing and cruel decep-
tion, then that fact is a very good
reason—a quite sufficient reason—
for not electing him President of the
United States, regardless of his
administrative capabilities, his ener-
gy and his other political virtues. To
express this opinion nowadays is al-
most certainly to evoke the “Yes,
but after all, he is in politics” re-
sponse. It is said that politics is a
rough-and-tumble, inevitably dirty
“same,” that the greatest political
achievements have been the work
of men with “dirty hands.”
:
“PERHAPS the best way to reply
to these claims is to accept the meta-
phor of the “rough-and-tumble
game,” and then compare carefully
our moral responses to such games
with our moral responses to the
“game” of democratic politics. The
taphor is a peculiarly appropriate
think, for two reasons. First
bruising iis
ice hockey, is a highly competitive
activity in which a team is not likely
to win unless it is “aggressive” and
highly “charged up.” Second, both
politics and games are forms of rule-
governed activity.
Now, I suspect that behind the
usual appeal to the metaphor of the
“political game” is the assumption
that, in certain highly competitive
forms of human activity, the rules
which govern ordinary “private”
life must, from the very nature of
the case, be suspended, and in their
place be substituted rules of narrow-
er scope peculiar to the activity in
question—the “rules of the game.”
That this assumption is a mistake,
though a very natural one, can be
seen, I think, if we list the various
kinds of rules which do govern such
games as hockey and football. There
are at least four of them:
I. Rules of Skill. These are tacti-
cal or strategic rules of the sort
Kant called “hypothetical impera-
tives.” They all have the form: “If
you wish to win without cheating,
then you had better do so-and-so.”
Examples of such rules are “Never
turn your back on your opponent”
in boxing, and “Keep your left arm
stiff” in golf. Analogous in the grand
old game of politics are the rules
prescribing blue shirts for television
appearances and regular Sunday
church attendance by Presidential
candidates.
holding, pushing, or even touching ©
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2. Constitutive Rules. These con-
stitute part of the very definition
of a game. In effect, these rules make
a game the game it is, and not.some
other game. The constitutive rules
of ice hockey specify that the game
is played on ice by two teams of
six players, each of whom must wear
ice skates. It is impossible to “vio-
late” these rules and still play ice
hockey; for a “violator” would, by
definition, simply be playing some
other game.
The constitutive rules of the
“game” of American politics include
those which specify terms of office,
how candidates are to be nominated,
how votes are to be counted, and so
on. If we adopt a rule allowing our
President to hold his office for life
and then pass it on by primogeni-
ture, then “by definition,” we will
no longer be playing the grand old
American political game.
3. Regulative Rules. While not
part of the definition of the game,
they regulate the playing by pro-
scribing certain moves. Such rules
are “legislated” by rule makers, and
are in fact changed from time to
time. Their purpose is to make the
game a better game on the whole.
More often than not they have pen-
alties or forfeitures attached to them
and are enforced by officials—um-
pires, judges and referees. Typical
examples: the offside rules in hockey
and football, the balk rule in base-
ball, the pass-interference rule in
football.
There is an important point to
notice about regulative rules. In
games with referees and judges, a
player can deliberately infringe a_
regulative rule without necessarily
subjecting himself to the charge of
“cheating,” without incurring any
moral guilt, without doing anything
which is in the slightest degree —
morally offensive or blameworthy. A
pass defender in football is forbidden
by a regulative rule from blocking,
ig
an opposing pass catcher, except un- _
intentionally in the process of tryin
to catch the ball himself. Suppo
however, that the pass catche
through clever feinting, has managed —
to elude our pass defender, so that _
he is now “in the clear,” with noth-
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a few more yards for a touchdown.
The only way our pass defender can
prevent the other team from scoring
a touchdown is by deliberately and
“illegally” interfering with the pass
catcher; and in this situation that
is precisely what he ought to do.
To be sure, he won’t get away with
it. The referee will impose a severe
penalty on the defensive team. But
however severe the penalty, it will
be preferable to a touchdown by the
opposing team. The regulative rule
against pass interference simply puts
a “price,” albeit a stiff one, on a
type of behavior which, if common,
would make football a less skillful
and less interesting game. At the
same time, the rule leaves players
free to decide in individual cases
whether or not paying the price is
“worth it” for a certain competitive
gain.
Where violations are in their very
nature public and easily detectable,
we never think of viewing them as
unsportsmanlike or of applying to
them such epithets as “immoral” and
“unfair.” It is much more fitting to
regard them as prudent or impru-
dent, and the penalties as “price
tags” specifying the “cost” of be-
havior which, from the narrow point
of view of the game itself, is gen-
erally undesirable.
4. Moral Rules. These differ from
the others in at least three im-
portant respects:
{Moral rules apply not merely to
a particular game or to games in gen-
eral, but to all human behavior. Pass
interference is possible only in a foot-
ball game, but deceit and cruelty are
possible in any form of social ac-
_ tivity. Hence, moral rules must be
stated in much more general terms
than regulative rules.
§{The informal “penalties” or “sanc-
tions” attached to moral rules are
usually such that it can be in the
interest of a person to violate them
only if he goes undetected. A con-
spicuous violation of the pass-inter-
ference rule can sometimes be more
advantageous to a player than strict
adherence. There can be no profit,
however, in bribing opposing players,
gouging their eyes or planting micro-
phones in their dressing rooms, all
in full view of the referees and the
public. Immorality can pay, but only
450
when concealed or disguised as some-
thing more respectable.
§/Finally, moral rules are not mere-
ly useful or helpful; they are of
absolutely overriding importance.
Without such rules, not only games
but most other forms of cooperative
social activity would be quite im-
possible. If there were no pass-inter-
ference rule, or if the rule were gen-
erally disobeyed or not enforced,
then football would be a less interest-
ing game—rougher, cruder and less
skillful; but if the moral rules were
suspended or generally violated, then
there could be no game at all. Where
anything goes, there can be no pre-
dictable patterns, no security, no
confidence in the performance of
one’s fellows; and these are the bare,
minimal conditions for a game or any
other collective enterprise.
While a state of affairs in which
moral rules are universally violated
can benefit no one, a particular vio-
lation of a moral rule can yield con-
siderable benefit to the violator, but.
only on the condition that others
obey the rule. This is what gives in-
fractions of moral rules their special
character as violations of trust. The
violator profits only because there
is general compliance on the part of
others; hence his violation gives him
an “unfair advantage.” A football
lineman who inconspicuously kicks
or gouges his opponent secures a
great advantage over him only if
the opponent is unprepared for dirty
play and unwilling to resort to it
himself. If, on the other hand, both
opposing linemen are disposed to
play foul when they think they can
get away with it, then there can be
no special advantage for either of
them. In fact, both of them are far
worse off than they would be if each
could count on the other’s compli-
ance; for where each competitor
plays dirty, the jungle state—what
Hobbes has called “the war of all
against all” — exists with its attend-
ant dangers for both,
IT SHOULD now be easy to show
that the fact that politics is a “rough-
and-tumble game with its own rules”
neither justifies nor excuses the sort
of double-dealing which has been
charged against Richard Nixon. If
Mr. Nixon is to be defended, this
PET PY Raises. Or ge
, * oo fe” i. ‘
must be done by denying the charges
‘of his enemies, or else by admitting
the charges and citing evidence of
sincere reform. But Mr. Nixon can-
not be excused simply on the ground
that politics is a rough game, for to
do this, one would have to argue
either (1) that Mr. Nixon is simply
a skilled political tactician adhering
strictly to the letter of certain well-
known political “rules of skill”; or
(2) that he has violated only certain
“regulative rules” analogous to the
pass-interference rule in_ football;
that Mr. Nixon happily paid the
“price” stipulated by the rule in
order to gain a personal competitive
advantage.
BUT neither (1) nor (2) will do.
As for (1), there are no “well-known
political rules of skill” prescribing
that one shout “Communist” and
“traitor” whenever he likes, any
more than there are manuals teach-
ing how to win at football or chess
which contain the rule: “Kick your
opponent in the groin whenever you
think no one is looking.” Indeed,
such a “rule” is incompatible with
the very concept of a “game.”
It is even more plain that (2)
will not do. In the first place, if Mr.
Nixon violated any rules at all in
his dealings with Mr. Voorhis, Mrs.
Douglas, Alger Hiss, Earl Warren,
Adlai Stevenson, et al. (and the
charges against him in these cases
have been carefully substantiated
in numerous studies), these rules
could not have been mere regulations
of the political game, for the viola-
tions were not committed openly,.
under the eyes of any referee who
might impose a penalty; and, in fact,
Mr. Nixon paid no price whatever
to secure his gain. Secondly, he was
able to profit from his sharp practice
only because his enemies were either
unwilling or unable to use the same
sorts of methods against him,
Finally, the fact that these were
moral rules which Mr. Nixon vio-
lated is clearly shown by the fact
that if everyone in political life
adopted his methods, then American
politics would be no “game” at all,
but rather an intolerable state of
jungle warfare in which the careers
of politicians would be “solitary,
poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
‘ ue )
an a . oP Nation
gh hts ie a Sig
a ky
BOOKS and the ARTS
Distaste for the Contemporary
Martin Green
WILLIAM GOLDING already has a
considerable, but unofficial, reputation
‘in this country. There has been one ar-
Mticle about him—in the Kenyon Review
-— but the charge carried by his name
in: literary conversations is out of all
proportion to that. To some degree, the
Jack of published criticism may actual-
ly increase that charge: to say the right
“thing about Golding is the most search-
‘ing of current tests of one’s sophistica-
tion. The recent flustered review of Free
Fall in The New York Times Book Re-
wiew was one example of this nervous
excitement.
The achievement claimed for him is
that he is the most original and pro-
found of the postwar novelists in Brit-
ain, the one with something new to say;
; The Lord of the Flies (1955) has been
re-issued in a highbrow paperback series
alongside Rilke, Shaw and Whitehead.
The exact nature of this achievement is
indicated by the vocabulary of his ad-
mirers; he is said to write fables, to make
brilliant use of symbolism, to deploy the
findings of modern thought about man-
_in-society, to have a vision of the evil
inherent in human nature. He is com-
pared to Conrad.
_ The outlines of his career are quickly
» given. William Golding was born in”
1911, studied science and then literature
-at Oxford, was a naval officer during thé
war, and since then has taught and
written. He has produced some poetry
and a play, The Brass Butterfly, but
he is best known for four novels, The
_Lord of the Flies, The Inbantges: Pin-
“cher Martin (published over here as
The Two Deaths of Christopher Mar-
tin) and now a new one, Free Fall.* Of
these, the best known, and the best, is
the first. It deals with the moral evolu-
tion of a group of British schoolboys,
about twelve years old, wrecked on a
tropical island by an airplane crash;
=)
® *Harcourt, Brace. 253 pp. $3.95.
i
MARTIN GREEN, who was born in
London, has taught in England, France
-and Turkey; and, in the United States,
at the University of Michigan and at
T Wellesley, His book on the cultural con-
trasts between the United States and
oe: will be pablshed by Harper
Ul
_ brave and dashing hero,
their life together develops in two di-
rections, one toward a civilized, rational,
parliamentary discussion of common
problems, in imitation of the society
they were born into, the other toward
tribal superstitions and rituals, orgiastic
hunting, dancing and human sacrifice.
The two tendencies clash, and the first
is defeated (this, of course, is the book’s
big shock and challenge), but just as the
last representative of civilized behavior
is.about to be hacked to pieces by his
companions, the adult world returns, in
the shape of a British naval officer just
landed on the island, and in a flash all
the boys revert from howling savagery
to the mundane classroom obedience
which was all they had been capable
of until a few weeks before. This end-
ing, and the relief it brings, is ironic,
for the officer is himself engaged in a
war of far more appalling savagery than
the one he interrupts. The whole action,
moreover, is an ironic reversal of a well-
known Victorian boys’ book, R. M. Bal-
lantyne’s Coral Island, still favorite
children’s reading in England, in which
three boys wrecked on a tropical island
solve all the problems of primitive living
pa a jolly-romantic way, with of course
jf no uneasy a of the primeval in
them. Golding has given his main char-
acters the same names as the protagon-
ists of Coral Island; Ralph, the thought-
ful narrator of the Ballantyne book, is
here the leader of parliamentarism, the
one about to be tortured and slain by
his companions at the end; Jack, the
is here the
leader of those who revert to savagery;
and winsome Peterkin (in Golding called
Piggy) is a fat, bespectacled, sweaty
boy, the butt of the group, who insists
on debate and formality because he can
get his rights only in an adult world.
He is one of those killed by Jack’s group.
The other books do not deserve such
elaborate summary. The Inheritors
takes us inside the minds of those beings
who preceded us in the evolutionary
process; we follow the adyentures of a
tribe of these, and see the advent of the
first human beings (an unattractive
group) from their point” of view. The
creatures whose consciousness we share
cannot be said, stric y, to have any
thoughts or feelings, so the book is a
tour de force technica ei Pincher Mar-
success may be difficult, whatever a
tin is the record of the feverish remin-
iscences and efforts at survival, during
the few days between his shipwreck and
his death, of an unscrupulous and
treacherous naval officer, alone and re-
sourceless on a meager mid-Atlantic
rock. At the end of the story we realize,
by another technical sleight of hand,
that the whole thing has been a horrible
illusion in the mind of a drowning man,
and that he never reached the rock in
the first place. The Brass Butterfly, it
is worth noting, is in the mode which 1s
so often the obverse of the mode of these
three novels; it is an elegant, mannered,
frivolous story of a Roman emperor’s
court in the third century A.D., with an
ultra-civilized, ripely wise, old emperor
(Maurice Chevalier type), his brilliant-
effete poet grandson (the play was first
presented at Oxford, and this character
can best be described as a British under-
graduate) and figures obliquely symbol-
izing modern science and Christianity.
The play’s effective sympathies are all
with civilization and paganism, the em-
peror and the grandson.
IT IS CLEAR, from even this summary,
that Golding is not importantly orig-
inal in thought or feeling. He sees life
in the categories which have been most
common among writers, especially in
Britain, since the First World War;
which by now are. perceptibly losing
vigor and conviction. His world view,
that is, closely resembles that of T. S.
Eliot, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh
and a dozen other typically modern au-
thors.
And I think it can be demonstrated,
even from his new book, that he is not
a significant artist. His admirers will
protest that he must be judged rather
by Lord of the Flies. It is true that that
is a much more successful piece of work,
but it is so for highly special reasons,
and its success does not, after all, tran-
scend the limitations of Golding’s talent;
it is not, after all, about the evil in-
herent in human nature, but about how |
brutal twelve-year-old boys can be to—
each other, and the specious extension
of that conviction (profoundly, obses-
sively felt) to an attitude to life is no
insight but a trick. Free Fall is a better
test case. It is a life story and self-in-
terrogation, told in the first person, by a
man Golding’s own age, an artist, with
an intellectual and religious history pre-
sumably very like his creator’s. In this —
freest of forms, though complete artistic
writer has to offer can find expression;
at least as a test of a writer’s power of
experience this may be taken as. fair.
And a poverty of experience, a poverty
of imagination, is exposed in every line
of Free Fall.
Golding is a rigidly disciplined writer
— his poverty. is not unconnected with
that — and the structure of Free Fall
is beautifully clear. Each part can be
grasped as a thing in itself, and in its
relation to the whole; a relation which
is, mechanically, very economical and
efficient and harmonious. The narrator
tells us his early history, before he lost
his freedom and his innocence, for eighty
pages; then jumps a few years, to de-
scribe his cruelty and compulsion in a
love affair, after he had lost that free-
dom, for fifty pages; then fifty pages
about the experience of torture as a
prisoner of war which reduced him to
self-contempt, returned him to God and
started this process of self-interrogation;
then forty pages on the crucial interven-
ing period of adolescence, the influences
on him of science and religion, and the
decision to rebel against his better self
which, he realizes, lost him his freedom.
THE prose bears the marks of the same
rigid discipline. On the whole it is simple
and flat, with contemporary colloquial
phrases, and metaphors drawn from sci-
entific technology. “He was specialized
and soulless as a guided missile”; “that
sees.as at the atom furnace, by reflec-
tion.” The images are sensually realized
and fully worked out. At other times
there is an odd archaism about the dic-
tion: “Shall I choose a Roman Catholic
to my father? ... I may communicate
in part; and that surely is better than
utter blind and dumb.” And there are
passages of violent imagery, like the
opening sentence: “I have walked by
stalls in the market place where books,
dog-eared and faded from their purple,
have burst, with a white hosanna.” In
every mood, the prose bears the marks
of a scrupulous craftsman.
But it is not the prose of a success-
ful artist. There is no life in his language;
it is all ingenuity, intention and syn-
thetics. The colloquialisms are never the
perfect expression of complex meaning;
the elaborate imagery is never assimi-
lated into a natural speaking voice. Ideas
are worked out too mechanically. A
character described as “skimped in every
line of his body by a cosmic meanness,”
has all the details of his physique ac-
countd for in the same metaphor.
His hands were in his lap, h‘s knees
together. His hair was of a curious
indefinable texture —- growing all
ways, but so weak that it still lay
452
close to his skull like a used door-
mat. It was so indeterminate that
the large light freckles blurred the
hair-line on his sloping forehead.
His eyes were pale blue and seemed
curiously ‘raw in that electric light
for he had neither eyebrows nor
eyelashes. No, madam, I’m sorry,
we don’t supply them at that price.
This is a utility model.
Details are often flatly commonplace,
though at the same time exaggerated, in
a way that is not really redeemed by
the -author’s indication that he knows
they are. Beatrice is described as hav-
ing “huge, unutterable eyes.” And when
he escapes the commonplace it is by
invoking the eccentric. “Now I saw the
very water of sorrow hanging honey-
thick in eyelashes or dashed down a
cheek like an exclamation mark at the
beginning of a Spanish sentence.” Most
limiting of all, an obsessive ugliness of
experience reveals itself continually in
casual metaphors. “In winter you can
see the soil smeared away from the chalk
like the skin from a white skull... .
That potency which is assumed in all
literature was not mine to use at the
drop of a knicker.”
Some of these effects make one be-
lieve that Golding uses other writers’
interpretations of experience as his basic;
material. The physical description quot-
mind one of Dickens. One is reminded
of some other writer on nearly every
ed above, for instance, must surely ei
The Tinker
Really a tinker was it I heard?
Or bells itinerant tingli
from childhood, one nostalgic noon
of smarting warmth when catkins swarmed
the bough? He never reached my door.
He kept to streets not
ringing a two-toned, echo-deaf
E-flat, F, E-flat, F.
He came a route from
His music mended time alive:
on ey ay
page of Free Fall. The intellectualism |
which dominates it all, especially in ~
would-be Rabelaisian scenes, is very
like Joyce Cary’s; for instance, the
figure of Ma, and the scene of her emerg-
ing from the lavatory. The vision of
life (the people, places, events, seen as -
characterizing contemporary experience)
is very like that of Wells. The hero’s
character and his life story are very like
those of Tono-Bungay and The New
Machiavelli; above all, the two women
in his life, one passive, slow-minded, sex-
ually alluring, a victim; the other ener- *
getic, ambitious, rough-talking, an aris- b
tocrat, these are Wells’s two kinds of b
women. All this is not a simple kind of f
imitation; the various reminiscences k
dovetail together beautifully, and offer t
themselves quite convincingly as Gold- y
ing’s own view of life. But there is so © t
|
little new experience here, or new inter-
pretation; so much re-interpretation. The
figure of the rector, for example, is
judged differently from how Wells would fib
judge him, but he is seen with Wells’s
eyes. And where there is no vividness
of experience, the reader can have no \
vividness of response. |
_ The other source of trouble is. that ;
‘the experience in the book which is ’
vivid — the repeated discovery of mean- i
ness and nastiness in others and in one-
self — is so much on one note of pain; i
so much of the thinking is a repeated
demonstration of this one ugly fact of
life; the other things seen and reported
ng forth
quite in view,
.
so long since.
medley of monkey and organ-grinder
and chestnut-man and gas beginning
to sweeten the lamp, that magic hive
of swarming dusk, where Leary’s wand
struck honey two-toned and echo-deaf:
E-flat, F,. E-flat, F,
Once more in trill across the air
let memory click like special coins
which pay the past its due demand.
Come, tinker, true. Turn, wheel, repair
the breach, Sharpen, sparkle the stains
of use, before you round the bend
in. twilight two-toned, echo-deaf;
; E-flat, F, E-flat, F.
ug! iy) oe an ,
aa
‘seem to have been all vitiated for the
writer — at least his report is vitiated
for the reader — by this early obsession.
In consequence, everything in the book,
language, characterization, symbolism,
ideology, etc., divides itself between the
commonplace and the nightmarish.
Here, for instance, is a description of the
alarm clock going off in the hero’s bed-
room, while he was still a child, his
security still unshaken:
All night it had ticked on, repres-
sed, its madness held and bound in;
but now the strain burst. The um-
brella became a head, the clock beat
its head in frenzy, trembling and
jerking over the chest of drawers on
three legs until it reached a point
where the chest would begin to drum
in sympathy, sheer madness and
hysteria.
The intention seems to be richly imagi-
native; the effect is both dull and dis-
turbing. Or here is a description of a
near-mystical discovery of beauty:
The trunk was huge and each
branch splayed up to a given level;
and there, the black leaves floated
out like a level of oil on water. Level
after horizontal level these leaves
cut across the splaying branches and
there was a crumpled, silver-paper
depth, an ivory quiet beyond them.
Here it is not so much the ugliness of
the oil image as the deadness of the
crumpled silver-paper and ivory which
is oppressive.
THE large experiences described take
‘on the same characteristics. The love
affair between the hero and Beatrice is
presented as notably dull and common-
place, but at the same time as so pain-
ful that it deranged them both, mental-
ly and morally. The book’s naturally
evil figure (the one skimped in every
line of his body) becomes a minister of
the Crown and “he finds life as easy as
breathing”; the naturally good figure
‘dies very young — he is last shown rid-
‘ing a motorcycle at 100 m.p.h. up over
the brow of a hill and turning round to
kiss the girl riding pillion as he does so;
again everything is both too predictable
and too exaggerated. The hero’s mem-
bership in the Communist Party is dis-
missed as the simplest kind of self-de-
lusion; the only working-class comrade
had joined as a move to better himself
socially; the others were all either fools
or knaves. He sums up his pre-religious
experience as a whole as the discovery
return for birth, for the shames and
frustrations of growing up.”
The handling of ideas is similar, too
BP . @. *
that “Sex is everything and is a poor
predictable and too exaggerated. The at-
tack on hygiene, liberalism, rationalism,
progress, and the return to mysticism
and dogma, both have nothing new in
them. “And this is my cry; that I have
walked among you in intellectual free-
dom and you never tried to seduce me
from it, since a century has seduced you
to it and you believe in fair play, in not
presuming, in being after all not a saint.”
Such sentiments, in such diction and
rhythms, in 1959, can only seem like a
summary and an echo. The big themes,
of memory and time, of free will and
compulsion, of sin and regeneration, are
summaries and echoes. The treatment of
memory and time is -the>flattest ‘ text-
book application “of a narrative method
we are now all familiar with. There is
a mechanical rigidity in the treatment
of sin (some characters are “good,”
others “evil,” and the hero stops being
“good” and becomes “evil,” in one clear-
cut, irreversible, eternally binding ges-
ture) which is very inappropriate to the
theme of free will. And the technical
tours de force, like the discovery at the
end that the Gestapo cell (where the
hero had suffered the solitary confine-
ment that led to his religious experience )
was really only a broom closet, convey
a disrespect for the reader and for the
art of fiction.
The authoritative inside history of the
American Communist party in the years
when all its patterns were being set, re-
vealing at every step how the Comintern
in Moscow shaped its policy, helped fi-
nancially, and made and unmade its
leaders.
To study this all-important relationship,
Theodore Draper had access not only to
public records and the memories of
“survivors,” but also to a rare cache of
confidential minutes of the top party
committees. As Draper recounts the dra-
matic episodes that took their direction
from Moscow, he makes clear the Rus-
sian factional struggles that accompanied
Stalin’s rise to power and affected the
hs fantastic story —
much of it never told before —_
of the men, the policies,
the undercover battles...
AMERICAN COMMUNISM
and SOVIET RUSSIA
THE FORMATIVE PERIOD
by Theodore Draper
THE VIKING PRESS, 625 Madison Avenue, New York 22, N.Y.
The Lord of the Flies succeeds much
better because Golding is genuinely in-
volved in that experience, has some
complexity of knowledge and vividness
of feeling about boys’ brutality to boys;
also because the simplification and for-
malization which can alone disguise his
lack of other experience is uniquely ap-
propriate to those characters and that
form (the ironic comment on an earlier
fiction). But even there you may easily
detect the author loading the dice, prej-
udicing the issue, insuring the triumph
of greed, savagery, slyness and ‘panic.
In other words, Gelding is a belated
recruit to the ranks of those writers who
have rediscovered for this century man’s
essential savagery; who have triumph-
antly rejected science and hygiene, liber-
alism and progress; who have, in any
account of contemporary conditions,
alternated between effects of common-
placeness and effects of nightmare. He
is so belated as to inherit these themes
in their decrepitude. It is not Conrad
he should be compared to, but Graham
Greene.
In The Brass Butterfly the wise em-
peror exiles the representative of modern
science to China, and thus wins the
West a thousand years’ reprieve from
gunpowder, the printing press, steam,
etc., and from all the “unrest, ferment,
party’s povicies in the United States.
Thumbnail biographies of the leading
personalities—such men as Bedacht, Pep-
per, Gitlow, Wolfe, Browder, Foster, and
Lovestone —enliven the fine historical
writing and masterly documentation of
this absorbing and significant volume.
When Theodore Draper’s The Roots of
American Communism appeared in 1957,
under the auspices of the Fund for the
Republic, ARTHUR SCHLESINGER in
the N. Y. Times called it ‘the indispen-
sable foundation for any understanding
of American Communism.” This new
volume, closer in time to our own era,
is even more revealing and rewarding.
S $8.50
wis
‘Te.
oe
ity of the prosecution witness; the prej-
fever, dislocation, disorder, wild ex-
periment and catastrophe” which they
will bring. This should corroborate Sir
Charles Snow’s recent thesis of the hos-
tility active between the literary and
the scientific cultures, and of its con-
sequences for modern writers. Golding is
perhaps the most extreme example of
that sullen distaste for the contempo-
rary which Snow describes as cankering
modern literary intellectuals and as de-
riving from their rejection of science.
No Pardon for Sacco and Vanzetti
HEARING BEFORE JUDICIARY
COMMITTEE OF THE MASSA-
CHUSETTS LEGISLATURE ON
THE . SACCO-VANZETTI CASE.
Published by the Committee for the
Vindication of Sacco and Vanzetti.
1959.
Ralph Colp, Jr.
NO event in America’s recent past so
persistently quakes present-day Ameri-
can conscience as the 1921-27 trial and
the August 23, 1927 execution of Sacco
and Vanzetti. The latest quake was on
April 2, 1959, when, publicly consider-
ing a bill which would posthumously
pardon Sacco and Vanzetti, a committee
of the Massachusetts Legislature sat on
the podium of Gardner Auditorium on
Boston’s Beacon Hill, listening to and
questioning eleven speakers. This vol-
ume, the stenographic record of that
day, presents better than any other pub-
lication thus far the topical meaning of
the case of Sacco and Vanzetti.
Speaking first, Representative Cella,
sponsor of the pardon bill, “confessed”
to “many moments of doubt, despair,
and discouragement . whether...
we should leave Sacco and Vanzetti to
the ultimate and inevitable vindication
of time and history.” Then, in support
of his legislative action, he quoted a
letter just received from a_ sister of
Vanzetti living in the family house in
Villafalletto, Italy: “It is for the men of
the state today to take heart of the
gravity of the action of their predeces-
sors and to be good enough to recognize
and repair the bad deed with serenity
and open heart without any preconcep-
tions of race or ideas.” After Cella, the
speech of Michael Musmanno — once
last counsel to Sacco and Vanzetti, now
a judge on the Supreme Court of Penn-
sylvania— though floridly baroque in
style, sharply summarized the three sali-
ent defects of the Sacco-Vanzetti pros-
ecution; the prejudice of Judge Thayer;
the prejudice, mendacity and unreliabil-
HRA URE COL. Ir. oo prceinmetosy..
chiatrist, has written historical essays
on both Sacco and Vanzevti ee The
Nation,
udice and ignorance of the Lowell Com-
mittee. “The Lowell Committee,” said
Musmanno, “made so many errors that
I have to doubt that they read the [Sac-
co-Vanzetti trial] record.” Here, for a
generation that did not experience the
case and may not have read the books
of Frankfurter, Frankel and Morgan, is
the cornerstone of the argument for
Sacco and Vanzetti: though tried by all
the forms of law, they did not receive
a fair trial.
IF NOT Sacco and Vanzetti, who then
were the murderers of paymaster Par-
menter and Berardellht? Herbert Ehr-
mann in The Untried Case of Sacco and
Vanzetti (1933) presented evidence that
the culprits were the Morelli gang of
Rhode Island. The Legacy of Sacco and
Vanzetti (1948) supposed that the real
criminals were either dead or would soon
die and the truth would never be
known. Now, in his speech to the legis-
lators, Morris Ernst revealed that Joe
Morelli showed him the manuscript of
an autobiography he had written con-
taining the “real truth and no baloney
about Sacco and Vanzetti.” Ernst also
knew Mancini, who according to hear-
say had been the actual gunman and
who after a brief prison term disap-
peared. Search for Morelli’s book and
In the Shade of My Hair
(Anonymous, from the Spanish)
In the shade of my hair
My lover fell asleep.
Shall | wake him or no?
T was combing my hair
As usual, over and over;
The breeze toyed with it, stealing
Those that were most fair,
In their shade and air
My lover fell asleep.
Shall I wake him or no?
He says that he suffers
From my vast ingratitude,
That my tawny color
Quickens and strikes him dead,
And calling me siren
Beside me he
Shall I wake h or no?
for Mancini and you will make a real.
contribution to justice, Ernst. told the)
legislators.
A number of speakers regarded Sacco
and Vanzetti in the perspective of three §
decades. “Every American historian,”
said Harvard Professor Arthur Schles-
inger, Sr., “has either by implication
or by direct assertion, stated that the
two men did not receive a fair trial.”
Professor John Roche, Chairman of
Brandeis University’s Department of
Political Science, saw Sacco and Vanzet-
ti as victims of the “sordid social fear,”
Stokes-trial obscurantism, race and re-
ligious hate, xenophobia and gangster-
ism, of the “terrible decade” of the 1920s
— “since then the United States has
grown up.” And then the Rev. Donald
Lothrop of the Community Church of
Boston: “I have a strong feeling that]
there isn’t a man in your Committee but f (:
that hasn’t had implanted in his heart
and in his mind, a certain doubt about
the virtue of the execution of Sacco and
Vanzetti. . . . One of the most difficult
things in the world is the recognition of |
error, the confession of guilt... . And |
yet it is the most profound mark of the
religious spirit... .”” Of the eleven speak-
ers, all but one urged the passage of
Cella’s pardon.
PAs
OF THE legislators, who listened to
these pleas, Donlan — most aggressive-
ly anti-Sacco-Vanzetti — asked how
could such institutions aS a jury, a
judge, a state supreme court, a com-
mittee headed by the president of Har-
vard, the Governor of Massachusetts —
who “with a magnifying glass” examined
photos of the bullets that killed Par-
menter and Berardelli and agreed with
some ballistic experts that they came
from Sacco’s revolver — how, indeed,
could all these American institutions
commit an error? Representative Kaplan
was the most objective: “The thing that ff
troubles me... is how we on the Com-
mittee are qualified to come to any real
decision on this matter, which has been
a matter of controversy for legal ex-
perts for the last thirty years.” No
committee member publicly supported
Cella’s pardon. In the end, a statement
signed by a committee majority of
cleven said: “We do not believe it is a
proper function of the Legislature to
pass resolutions which seek to influence
the Governor in the exercise of his ex-—
ecutive powers. ” The statement also—
added: “In saying this, we are not une |
mindful of all that happened in the
Sacco-Vanzetti case. We neither con=
demn nor criticize the action taken b
the court,. re
quashed, the “certain doubt” that per-
haps an injustice had been done was
acknowledged.
.} | The hearing showed that today — as
‘}) during the past four decades — in-
dividuals may divide on Sacco and Van-
| zetti for personal rather than political
| reasons. (The Ford Foundation’s com-
‘| mission to Marc Blitzstein for an opera
‘| based on Sacco and Vanzetti reminds
} us that Henry Ford doubted their guilt.)
and Vanzetti also, as John Dos
Passos said in U.S.A., divided America
]
THE ELECTRIC INTERURBAN
| RAILWAYS IN AMERICA. By
George W. Hilton and John F. Due.
Stanford University Press. 463 pp.
$9.50.
» Benjamin DeMott
IN OURTOWN, as perhaps in Your-
‘town, the rails of the abandoned inter-
‘urban won’t stay down. Like bits of a
blasted wisdom tooth that pierce the
gum, they work up through the asphalt
‘of Pleasant or Main, and give old hearts
‘a turn. How it used to be! Ah, how it
‘used to be! In spring, summer and early
fall (one-half century ago) a crossbench
‘Open car ran back and forth from here
‘to the neighbor village, and the breeze
of its motion had the sweetness of river
‘meadows i in it, and at night the college
|| boys—“fussers” who had visited a cot-
| tage at Smith or mere lads returning
om a pitcher of suds at Dick Rahar’s
sang their longings to the stars. The
a: speed was twenty miles an
‘hour; traffic was light at all times; and
ou did not have to worry about a drunk
at the wheel. Neither had you to worry,
you were a professor strolling home
from the office, about coming on some
si sight—three Theta Delts scrubbing the
‘tailfins of an Imperial with Tide—that
would gravel you for an hour in clichés
about The Conflict of Values: the “boys”
had as yet no need for cars. At first
glance it would seem, in short, that
‘ridiculing old hearts for reading the trol-
Tey rails as signs of a lost Eden is not
re harsh but thoughtless. Life was
mpler and so in consequence were men.
_ Precisely how much simpler is one
br the revelations of the scholarly and
1 peresting ak at hand. This is not
-
7
iv
y - offered ‘of the boom in
into “Two Nations.” One was monied,
conservative and supporting the status
quo; the other was poor,
and reformist. In the hearing Sacco and
Vanzetti divided the Massachusetts
“men of state” into two groups. Both
believed in the same political institu-
tions; they differed only in their ability
to look at the past of those institutions.
One group can look at the past and
publicly admit errors. The other —
though nursing doubts — cannot look at
the past.
The Wrong Road
feeling for the departed age. Although
they see themselves (correctly) as con-
tributors to knowledge of American
transportation, although they offer bat-
teries of charts, graphs, tables, not to
speak of several hundred brief histories
(from birth to bankruptey), of indi-
vidual interurban companies, their af-
fection for the trolley is never out of
sight. They dedicate their labors to a
nineteen-year-old boy killed in World
War II, and they say of him that he
“would have found little in [the book]
that he did not know.” This hint that_
behind the grand facade of scholarship
lies an expanse of boyish enthusiasm is
strengthened by a lovingly amassed and
beautifully reproduced collection of pho-
tographs of streetcars, as well as by
such passages as the following:
The standard wooden interurban
car was a thing of beauty that has
been . . . too little appreciated. In
the truest sense, it exemplified func-
tional design. Almost all the
wooden interurbans have now been
destroyed. Most were burned for their
metal, but a few became summer cot-
tages, roadside stands, or farm build-
ings; barely a dozen have been pre-
served as museum pieces. It is a pity
that so few of these cars were pre-
served, for the best of them were
exemplary pieces of American design.
But neither aesthetic feeling nor nos-
talgia is allowed much place in the text
as a whole. Messrs. Hilton and Due
bring forth not a vision of A Golden
Past, but a convincing record of hu-
man lunacy, of the idle chaos of human
events. They may well have wanted
to produce a record of | ‘another kind,
but the evidence denied them the chance
and, to their credit, they s suppress none
of it.
“One of the classic
_ American past—that is t
e » description —
pstruction ae
liberal-radical
¥ w/
aahagneaae immer
One of the last of
the hard-hitting
big-city editors,
JAMES A. WECHSLER
lashes out at this age of
unthink, know-nothing,
and ‘“‘muddle-of-the-
road’ politics... and
shows, explicitly, what
you can do to change it.
REFLECTIONS OF AN ANGRY
MIDDLE-AGED EDITOR
By James A. Wechsler
Editor of the New York Post
$3.95, now at your bookstore
RANDOM HOUSE
RALPH ELLISON
“The Roof, the
Steeple and the
People"’
GEORGE SEFERIS
translated by
Kimon Friar
W. D. SNODGRASS
eight poems
(uarterly
Review of
Literature ca
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_ THROUGH THE NATION
trolley lines. The boom took place in
the first decade of the century, at a
time when Henry Ford and William
Durant were in desperate and unsuc-
cessful search of backing for the manu-
facture of automobiles. It was marked
by stupidity extraordinary even for a
boom. An Illinois contractor spent tens
of thousands building a line from Amboy
(pop. 1,900) through Lee Center (pop.
250) to an electric pole at a crossroads
called Middlebury. A promoter in 1901
gained considerable support for a scheme
to construct an eight track, sixty-miles-
an-hour trolley line between Jersey City
and Philadelphia—the fare to be a flat
nickel. At one point eleven companies
were preparing to lay track into a town
called Tiffin in Ohio. Work was begun
on the Chicago-New York Electric Air
Line, an interurban that was to follow
an absolutely straight track between
these cities: no grades, no curves that
could not be negotiated at ninety miles
an hour, no crossings with other rail-
roads. (“Even in the flat country of
northern Indiana the Air Line’s con-
struction standards proved to be un-
bearably expensive. One can barely con-
ceive of the expense of the bridges, cuts,
fills and tunnels necessary to drive a
straight line through the mountains of
Pennsylvania.”)
THE rhetoric that accompanied such
projects was, of course, delicious. In
1903 the interurban was spoken of as
“the latest harbinger of a higher state
of civilization.” An aluminum car was
advertised as “The Red Devil” in a
famous newsreel that showed it win-
ning a race with an airplane. Investors
in the Chicago-New York interurban
were members of “The Air Line Stock-
holders’ Association of the World”; there
were supposed to be fifty “camps” of
these stockholders in the United States,
each holding periodic revival sessions
“to rally support for the Air Line.” Fine
condescension for the automobile came
forth from such pioneer interurbanists
as C. H. Henry, who predicted in 1916
that “the fad feature of automobile rid-
ing will gradually wear off,’ and in
1917 announced that the prediction had
come true: the fad was over, the auto-
mobile was in decline. So powerfully did
the rhetoric touch the enthusiast that
none accounted it significant that inter-
urbans began losing money almost as
soon as they began offering regular
service. Net earnings rarely exceeded
$500 per mile of track; fixed charges
were close to $1,250 per mile of track.
When interurbans operated on city
streets they were required to “pave be-
tween the rails for a certain distance,
often two feet on each side,” which in
effect meant that the trolleys were pay-
ing for the roads that encouraged peo-
ple to buy automobiles. In 1917, the
Connecticut Company reported that it
had lost 75 per cent of its short-haul
freight business to trucks; in 1915, the
Air Line—that “extreme example of the
lunatic fringe of interurban projects’”—
went bankrupt. People were aware that,
owing to the competition of cars and
buses, scores of interurban lines had died
after less than five years of operation;
they knew that some, like the Fidalgo
City and Anacortes in the State of Wash-
ington, ran only a few trips, and that
millions had been wasted on similar in-
sane projects—but optimism was slow to
diminish. “Some roads continued to plan
for expansion even as late as the mid-
twenties . when the trends should
have been perfectly obvious.” A few
companies were buying new cars as late
as 1948. Nor were lip readers the only
people involved in the madness. There
were thousands of “nice homes”
throughout America to which the inter-
urban mania brought ruin—among them,
the Van Doren house in Urbana. Carl
Van Doren wrote that the last of his
father’s enterprises was:
. an electric railroad that would
run north and south through Urbana.
. The line would compete not only
with the Illinois Central railroad,
which it paralleled, but with auto-
mobiles and trucks. . . . People put
money into it because |the elder Van
Doren] asked them to; they believed
in him as he believed in it, for his
initial faith was very strong; and
thoughts of these people were to rob
him of much sleep before he died.
The railroad never did prosper, though
it ran for years... . We all witnessed
the dismal, slow disaster without any
power to stop it on our part. It was
eventually ... to take away from him
whatever wealth he had; my mother,
by buying a few houses and renting
them, and by renting rooms in her
own house to university people, saved
them both in so far as they could be
saved. All of this was a heart-rending
spectacle... ..
The whole tale, dry and _ statistic-
ridden as it is, can hardly be regarded
as less than that. To be sure, there are
other ways of seeing it. The “city” plan-
ners of Los Angeles, for example, are
now aware that the decision to drop the
interurban may well have been respon-
sible for their present torments. The
student of transportation is right to
doubt that America, once the world’s
master in the field, ever invented a hap-
pier mode of movement than the cross-
bench open car. And as already indicated,
specialists in nostalgia who are deep in
the period have undertaken to trans-
form the trolley into the key symbol of
the sweet innocence of “the good years”
—to use the label favored in a kitsch
treatise on The Golden Past shortly to
be released. But these alternative re-
sponses are, in the eyes of Messrs. Hil-
ton and Due, scholars who have seen
to the bottom of the story, finally a
shade irrelevant. At the moment when
the automobile was just “coming in,”
why should vast energies have been ex-
pended on another, futureless mode of
travel? Too clear an answer would ob-
scure the truth that all passages of his-
tory are chaotic—so these writers speak
of lunacy. Their stern and orderly book,
like the strips of rail that here and there
in this aimless land still jut up glinting
in the sun, is a useful reminder of the
pathos of many homely American hopes.
LETTER from WASHINGTON
Stanley Meisler
THE BRUISED cultural feelings of
Washington received a fillip of sorts
during the week of April 17, when
twenty-eight writers and artists from
eleven countries assembled for an an-
nual congress sponsored by the capital’s
Institute of Contemporary Arts and
financed by the Ford Foundation. The
roster included Italian Nobel-Prize poet
Salvatore Quasimodo, American poets
Richard Eberhart, Stanley Kunitz and
STANLEY MEISLER is @ wire service
newsman now stationed i in Washington.
Allen Tate, England’s critic-poet Sir
Herbert Read and_ potter Bernard
Leach, French poet Yves Bonnefoy and
Brazilian novelist Erico Verissimo. Keep-
ing close to a prepared schedule, they
ate, drank and partied together, de-
livered lectures, plunged into panel dis-
cussions, declaimed poetry and ex-
changed views on the theme of the con-
gress — the status of the artist. Leach
even potted. While these activities did
not tear headlines from the other major
events of the week (the convening of
the Dashes of the Anieciad n Revolu
tion and the opening of the Washing-
ton Senators’ annual drive to soar high-
er than eighth place), enough occurred
to make Washington cultural buffs puff
out their chests and, for at least a week,
forget Howard Taubman.
For four months now, the capital has
lived under the shadow of Taubman,
music critic°of The New York Times,
who wrote an article last December 27
with a question for a title. “In Culture,”
it asked, “Is Washington a Hick Town?”
Taubman’s answer clearly was yes.
Putting aside comparisons with Lon-
don, Paris,; Moscow or Rome, the critic
suggested that Washington does not
measure up even to Brussels or, for that
matter, a provincial town like Tiflis in
Russia. While finding Washington’s
record in the plastic and graphic arts
quite satisfactory, Taubman described
its performance in music as variable, in
the dance as negligible and in theatre
as poor. As an example of the capital’s
attitude, the critic noted that while
designers have prepared detailed plans
for a new, stately National Culture
Center, few planners have bothered to
discuss who and what will fill it.
Taubman’s article contained the most
perceptive analysis of Washington cul-
tural life recently published and should
have prompted residents to read it
closely and brood. But rather than
brood, the city has chosen to snarl, and
few columnists, lecturers and_party-
goers miss an opportunity these days to
snatch at the tidbits of Washington
culture, hold them high and wave them
angrily toward Taubman. The Congress
of Writers and Artists was that kind of
tidbit, and I attended a couple of pub-
lic sessions to see for myself if, perhaps,
Washington had a much more exciting
cultural life than Taubman imagined.
ONE EVENING 400 others and I filled
a bit less than half of the Interior De-
partment auditorium to hear Eberhart,
Leach, Read, Tate, Verissimo and Brit-
ish critic Robert Conquest discuss the
status of the artist. It became apparent,
after a while, that the panelists were
bored with their status and one another.
Eberhart seemed to speak for everyone
when he suggested that the American
artist may be using up too much energy
searching for status. “The world is a
place of struggle,” Eberhart said, “and
the spirit of man will not be put down
by obstacles.” And Tate clinched the
argument by noting that the status of
the artist cannot be too bad if founda-
_ tions and the State Department contin-
ually spend money shipping them about
the world to talk to one another. “Some-
one once called me an_ international
7
congress bum,” Tite said, chuckling at
his sponsors.
The evening livened only when Her-
bert Read discussed his tour of Com-
munist China last fall and reported
dispassionately on his interviews with
Chinese writers and artists. The au-
dience and his fellow panelists leaned
forward to catch every word as Read
described the physical status of Chinese
writers (he was struck by their elegance,
well-being and high incomes) and then
recounted the gist of his conversations
with them on their spiritual status. He
had asked the leaders of the Chinese
Writers Union if Mao’s “Let a Hundred
Flowers Bloom” policy still continued
for writers. He was assured there had
been no change although, the writers
added, “naturally the blossoms were So-
cialist blossoms and must not be choked
by noxious weeds.” Read then asked
if Doctor Zhivago had been published
in China. His question first evoked a
negative reply, then an embarrassed
flurry of whispers, and finally an admis-
sion that the book had been published
in a limited edition and circulated
among members of the Writers Union.
After reading the novel, the union, which
operates a publishing house, decided not
to issue it for general circulation. Wasn’t
this censorship? Read asked. No, he was
told, any publishing house has the right
to turn down a manuscript. Read noted
that their replies resembled double-
think but their actions actually were
not too different from those of Roman
Catholic bishops who refuse the im-
primatur to anything the Church con-
siders evil.
Read also provided one of the few
live moments at a festival of poetry two
nights later. He, Bonnefoy, Kunitz, Tate
and Quasimodo read some of their poetry
to an Interior Department audience
that now had dwindled to 250. Here I
must confess to a prejudice, for I have
never felt that poets reading their own
poetry provide any new insights. But,
at the festival, both Read and Quasi-
modo offered something new and dif-
ferent, at least for me, and my interest
perked up during their turns. The rest
of the audience, perhaps with the same
prejudice, also awakened at the same
times I did.
Read’s contribution was a few ab-
stract poems, which he insisted were
not nonsense, but had significance, at
least for him. They consisted of words
strung together (“Syntax is the death
of poetry,” Read had said in his pref-
ace) with no discernible meaning but
somehow filled with musical logic. They
were short and fun to hear.
Quasimodo, who won the Nobel Prize
meee) 24) ee Rc
eo UCU Me Ua ae
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THROUGH THE NATION
457
legs, and especially the shoes at the in-
last year, is little known in this country.
A few journals have published individual
poems, but the first major translation
of his works will be published here this
month. The audience, therefore, was
treated to an event, a sort of introduc-
tion of Quasimodo to America. Bonne-
foy, of course, also is little known in
the United States, but, not being a
Nobel Prize-winner, he was less of an
event. Kimon Friar read Quasimodo’s
poems in English translation, and then
the poet, in a low monotone, read them
in Italian. It is difficult to judge a poet
by hearing a few of his pieces in trans-
lation, but Quasimodo impressed me as
a tough-minded Romantic, a lyric poet
searching for beauty but not blind to
Buchenwald or the poverty of the south
of his country. “Poets are not liars,”
he says. And he ends a lyric about the
Italian south by describing his poem as
“a love lament where no love sings.”
Quasimodo and Read stirred the pub-
lic sessions of the congress by offering
something unusual: a new Nobel poet,
a report on Red China, a few abstract
poems. In short, they made news. But
the news they made was meager and
somewhat accidental. Perhaps many
more exciting things went on at the
private sessions of the congress. But I
have visions of endless dull talk and
endless dull parties. Potter Leach, how-
ever, may have been an exception. He
spent his mornings in an apron, conduct-
ing pottery workshops at Catholic Uni-
versity. The vitality of Leach may un-
derscore the basic fault of the con-
gress. Too much talk and not enough
potting. And that may be the trouble
with Washington cultural life, too.
7 ART
Fairfield Porter
THE MIDTOWN GALLERY exhibits
drawings and paintings by Isabel Bishop.
The tiny drawings have an easy careful
accuracy. Isabel Bishop’s name has
been associated with a group of artists:
who favor realism and the human image.
Her paintings show girls on the street,
in the subway, at lunch counters, and
men at drinking fountains. The color
is transparent tan, opaque gray, and in
almost every painting, there is an ab-
-stract triangle or oblong of ac if red-
orange that at a distance, where sub-
ject matter is lost, counts as the part
that holds the painting down. The fig-
ures hurry over subway platforms; the
stantaneous still point of the motion,
Meee a Phi’
» 4 ‘ gis r “
clearer than the faces and bodies above.
They walk in tiers, in Piranesi’s pris-
ons. Underlying the grayly opalescent
transparent bodies and crisp transparent
architecture, are small impastoed hori-
zontal strokes, over gray horizontal
striping. This texture and the acid
triangle of solid red gives each painting
its tactility.
What is real? The canvas surface,
recalled by this tactility, dominates the
illusion and, since representation is
shown to be illusion, Miss Bishop sup-
ports, except in choice and taste, the
non-objective painters who want no part
of illusion, for she emphasizes more even
than the painter friends of Mallarmé,
the illusory nature of objectivity. The
horizontal impasto, parallel to the floor
of the room where the painting hangs,
places one indoors: she will not allow
herself to forget that the painting is a
dream, which convinces by virtue of its
dreaminess. What is real, the room where
we spend most of our time, or the hu-
man imagination? One painting shows a
girl’s face reflected in the mirror of a
subway gum dispenser; to the right is
oo Sate ees
the girl’s head looking toward the mir-
ror. The acid orange of the gum machine
in the only opaque color besides the
ubiquitous gray, and therefore the only
color with materiality. The girl’s head
in profile is almost lost; the image in
the mirror, the most sensitive passage
of the painting, is in many colors. The
materiality of the box that frames the
mirror is bright, strong and ugly, the
girl herself is passing, but her image, her
sublimation, of the thinnest substance of
all, holds you by its subtlety. You are
held by an image of an image. The hu-
man image, and its architectural setting,
which are important to Miss Bishop,
are only half of her subject; the sub-
limated and immaterial half. The other
half is not image, but the wall behind
it. Her paradox consists in saying that
the part of art which represents the
outer world, and which criticism asso-
ciates with reality, is a sublimation; and
that the abstract part that represents
nothing, and that criticism associates
with non-objectivity, is the part that
stands for reality, for the object, for
being awake.
MUSIC
Lester Trimble
THE SECOND program on Leonard
Bernstein’s New York Philharmonic
“Spring Festival of Theatre Music,” de-
voted to four large operatic excerpts,
turned out to be a thorough delight.
It began with the Prologue to Arrigo
Boito’s Mefistofele (1868) and ended
with two acts of Virgil Thomson’s dada
opera on a Gertrude Stein text, Four
Saints in Three Acts (1934). Between
these extremes were three duets from
Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler (1934),
and the world premiere of a nine-min-
ute comic opera by Lukas Foss, called
Introductions and Goodbyes. Yhe latter
had a libretto by Gian-Carlo Menotti,
who commissioned the piece for his
Festiwal of Two Worlds in Spoletto,
Italy. It will be performed there this
summer.
If the excerpt from Mefistofele had
been presented in any other than a his-
torical context, | would have lamented
its presence on the program, for this 1s
not very interesting music, and the
choir of Cherubin and the thunder-ma-
chine is a little silly. Nevertheless, Boito
has his place in operatic history, as an
important figure on the Italian literary
and musical scene of the late nineteenth
century, and as the | brettist for Verdi’s
Otello and ei $ music deserves
= we)
Miata ro
to be heard now and again, if only as
a historical curiosity. And on this occa-
sion its relative naiveté and lack of
pungency made it a useful foil to other
works which were anything but naive
or un-pungent.
It is a pity that operas like Thom-
son’s Four Saints in Three Acts and
The Mother of Us All are not taken up
by managements in this country and
treated as the important repertory items
they deserve to be, rather than as “spe-
cial” operas for erudite or precious
tastes. It is true that a Gertrude Stein
text differs considerably from th® usual
opera libretto. For. this, let us praise
heaven. As Thomson treats her word-
complexes, they are loaded with dra-
matic potency; and they are more easily
comprehended than when read on the
printed page. These operas are not “spe-
cial”; they are simply civilized and lit-
rane. Their level of linguistic, musical
and dramatic taste would serve as a
better example for the American lyric
theatre than does the pseudo-Ameri-
cana (like that of Susannah) with
which we are frequently pepperéd,
‘The musical personality exhibited by
Thomson's larger pieces is, 1 think, a
great deal like that of Char pe icineas .
audacious, icor noclastic, ge bit prolfl rat
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Unlike Ives, however, Thomson is a
thorough professional. He has always
heard his music in performance and has
thus been able to-perfect ways of mak-
ing his statements efficiently, of keeping
them under practical control. His score
for Four Saints in Three Acts sounded
forth the other night with a solidity,
cleanliness and brisk frankness that were
a delight to the ears. Even in a trun-
cated concert performance, presenting
only Acts III and IV, it drew the loud-
est applause of the evening. And the
Stein text seemed to bother nobody.
The duets from Mathis der Maler
were, on the other hand, received with
more iciness than I have witnessed all
season at the Philharmonic. I was sur-
prised, for they contain so much deeply
beautiful music, and received perform-
ances that can only be called inspired.
Perhaps Hindemith’s contrapuntal tex-
tures make Mathis less directly appeal-
ing than the Italian, French, or Ameri-
can stage works, which usually put
emphasis on the voice, rather than on
the orchestra, and stress simplicity of
presentation. Whatever the reasons for
the public response, I found this music
profoundly moving—so elevated, sup-
ple and. distinguished.
The new Foss work, /ntroductions
and Goodbyes, was written for fun, and
it is fun. There is only one character, a
Mr. McC., who first greets unseen guests
to his cocktail party, introducing them
to one another (they mostly have elab-
orate names like Addington-Stitch),
and then, from the opera’s mid-point
on, begins to bid them farewell. A small
chorus (which would be: placed in the
orchestra pit for a staged performance)
emits an incoherent muddle of names
from time to time, imitating the con-
versation usual at such gatherings. The
whole affair is a joke, but for nine min-
utes, it sustains itself well. Foss’s music
is nicely crafted and appealing. I did
not get the point of some passages at
the very beginning of the Overture, and
at the very end of the Epilogue, which
sounded like yulgar parodies of Webern.
But these were very small portions of
the whole. The extended xylophone
solo, which the composer referred to
fondly as “Dry-Martini music,” was
charmingly conceived and effective.
BERNSTEIN’S conducting, through
the whole evening, was nothing short
of phenomenal. At none of his earlier
performances have I gained so strong
an impression of deep, internal identi-
fication with the music he was directing.
His technique is, of course, brilliant,
_ and one always recognizes that. But a
_ baton can reach to the core of an idea,
ate t pe Sw ~
or touch it only on its edge. On this
evening, Bernstein was delving deeply
into things, and even his physical ges-
tures seemed imbued with a new kind
of calm, muscular thrust. The orchestra
responded in full measure. Only once
or twice, under any conductor, have I
heard it sound so spiritually unified and
lovely in coloration.
The soloists and chorus, too, per-
formed with almost unbelievable excel-
lence. The Choral Art Society (William
Jonson, Director) is one of the finest
groups of its kind: not too large; per-
fectly balanced; and capable of the very
purest ensemble diction. The Boys’
Choir of St. Paul’s Church, Flatbush
(Charles Ennis, Director), though not
as exemplary, was, after all, composed
of children. Every one of the soloists
was first rate. McHenry Boatwright ap-
peared as Mephistopheles and Compere
(in Four Saints). Herbert Beattie, Irene
Jordan and Lee Venora sang the Hinde-
mith duets. John Reardon, a young bar-
itone from the New York City Opera
Company, sang Mr. McC., with mem-
bers of the Choral Art Society acting
as the cocktail conversation. in /ntroduc-
tions and Goodbyes. The adult chorus,
Betty Allen, McHenry Boatwright, Lee
Venora, Arnold Voketaitis and Robert
Eckert composed the ensemble for Four
Saints in Three Acts. It: was, as. you
must have gathered, quite an evening
of music.
THEATRE
Harold Clurman
AT THE AGE of twenty-one Chekhov
was already blessed with the gifts of
observation and understanding that
made him one of the masters of late
ninetenth-century literature. A Cowntry
Scandal (Greenwich Mews Theatre),
his first play, is endowed with the signs
of his genius. It has never before been
professionally produced in this country.
Cruder in craftsmanship than his
later work—Chekhoy’s talent grew in
subtlety and depth with every play he
wrote—less delicate in touch and ver-
bal statement, A Country Scandal is
none the less a brilliant achievement.
The strokes of portraiture are more em-
phatic, more highly colored with the
youthful tendency to exaggerate and
overstress, but they are all strokes of
the keenest perception.
This is a comedy full of hurt, a pa-
thetic work which at times is as hilari-
ous as a French farce. The young man
who wrote it understood that the every-
ADDRESS —-
Published by The Writers’ Fund
of America
Fiction with social orientation —
“writing with an edge to it.”
7 Stories in this issue:
A DOG YOU CAN TALK TO
by GEDDES MAGRANE
FAINT SOUND, LOUD ECHO
by EUGENE HUNSAKER
WHY MR. OAKLEY LAUGHED
by BROD VANESDELIN
GOOD MORNING, GOD
Part Ill
by OLIVER GARRISON
Geddes Magrane.is the author of No
Goose So Gray ($1000 prize winning story,
Writers’ Fund, Ine., publication 1950),
A Tight Little Gym For Two (QED 1),
Harlequin B, (QHD 2).
Isugene Hunsaker, For My Uncle Philip
(QID 1).
Brod Vanesdelin,
it’s Dead (QED 2).
Oliver Garrison, Good Morning, God,
adventures in the backwoods of Florida,
serial (QED 1 and 2),
It Won't Sleep: Till
Write for complimentary copy
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2 ee ee ere ee ee re ee ee ee ee ee oe
459
eee 4
—
ewe te
:
day muddle of ordinary folk was a
tragedy to those who feel and terribly
funny to those who think. Although it
reflects perfectly the Russian quality of
the scene it describes — reflects too the
particular historical moment in which
the story unfolds: the eighties of the
last century—the play is universal and
its people are more real, more vivid
and more intimately known to us than
are our neighbors. In fact they are us.
They are a feckless lot. Chekhov
makes us laugh at them; yet they are
never altogether contemptible. Trivial,
they somehow remain worthy. That is
why Chekhov’s realism is not petty nor
what one might call “statistical.” He
sees that all these people are composed
of the honorable traits and needs of
more exalted folk. What gives them
their aspect of caricature is their lack
of purpose: they live in a world without
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MER: ‘‘Notes of the Month’? (South Africa,
Cuba, etc.). HERBERT APTHEKER: ‘‘Mythology
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' THE NATION
333 Sixth Ave., New York 14, N.Y.
CHelsea 2-8400
horizon or direction. They move. in fev-
erish spasms like members truncated
from a body.
As the play progresses we can scarce-
ly fail to notice how much these “be-
nighted” Russians resemble our con-
temporaries—particularly those who ap-
pear most “modern” and sophisticated.
There is however this difference of ap-
proach: if one of our American realists
were to present them, these people
would be made to seem abnormal or,
much worse, too flat and thin in hu-
man texture to touch us, to be poig-
nantly relevant.
The central figure is Platonov, a
young school teacher, good looking,
idealistic but with no specific ideal to
aim at, intelligent but lacking any def-
inite problem with which to grapple.
He is moderately sensual and, being
aimless, he is intrinsically passive. At-
tractive to women who live in the same
airless environment, he becomes a vic-
tim of their yearning; to other men,
however, he seems the ravaging pursuer
of the female sex. This parochial Don
Juan is a lover who experiences little
pleasure and whose every adventure
renders him more abject—flotsam on a
stagnant sea.
Around him are rich landowners with
nothing to buy—except women who do
not desire them. They are men who seek
release in drink or in the fleshpots of
my
a ee hy et h
TA ts Pes Gee a
' 3 wr oy, Oe
‘
‘
Paris (they are ashamed to sin at
home), blue-stocking girls who are
housewives at heart, married women
rendered hysterical by the inanity of
their nincompoop husbands, aggressive
women who can find no partner or prey
equal to them in forthrightness or force.
The rich Jew is scorned because he is
a tradesman, the aristocrat is spineless,
the peasant is brutal and baffled, the
doctor, a drunk uninspired by his pro-
fession, and the good are simple-minded
and utterly lost in a society they can-
not comprehend or change.
All this, I repeat, is communicated
in heartbreak which is not sentimental,
with a sense of the ridiculous which is
not patronizing. Chekhov was a fine
artist, a beautiful spirit and truly mod-
est. :
It is significant that so admirable a
play—which by the way offers many
first-rate acting opportunities—should
be done on the American stage in an
off-Broadway production. And it is no
criticism of the performance we see now
to say that it does not encompass the
play’s full scope. For it is a very know-
ing production. The actors are generally
well cast; Ammon Kabatchnik’s direc-
tion, which points up the comedy, is
firm and aware; the sets by Richard
Bianchi aré remarkably apt in relation
to the circumstances of playhouse, com-
pany and resources.
LETTERS
(Continued from inside front cover)
rangement, for our union does not have
“ y »” . “ »
a “machine” (or, more politely, “team”).
No, these men were elected on their own,
due to their own virtues, by predom-
inantly white electors.
Ray Davinson, Publicity Director
Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers
Denver, Colo.
Dear Sirs: Mr. Davidson wants us to be-
lieve the sixteen Executive Board mem-
bers of his union have the same status as
the Executive Board members of most
unions. They are not, in fact, full-time
functionaries; most of them are plant
workers who hold no full-time union
jobs. They are like the board mem-
bers of most “volunteer” organizations.
They meet every so often and purport
to set union policy between conventions.
But the regional administrative work is
done by district directors, appointed for
that purpose. Since the Executive Board
is not much more than window dressing,
it matters very little whether its mem-
bers were elected by a “machine,” a
iia ig
a
Ph il d s)
Dili i
a? 2 > er 7 5 ha ‘ 4
A’ 0 $ Y Boe
“team” or by pseudo-intellectuals who
read progressive publications.
Dick BRUNER
Bergenfield, N. J.
Jane Addams’ League
Dear Sirs: Roger Baldwin’s excellent
piece on Jane Addams in your April 30
issue speaks of her rise to “international
acclaim as the leader of the most influ-—
ential women’s movement for peace and
freedom.” He speaks, too, of her most
enduring heritage—‘“the ongoing world
union of women she created.”
Mr. Baldwin does us honor to assume }
that his readers will recognize in both
descriptions the Women’s International
League for Peace and Freedom, the or-
ganization of which Jane Addams was
a founder in 1915, international presi-
dent until her death, and to which she
gave her share of the 1931 Nobel Peace
award money. | ‘
- ILDRED Scorr O “M . 2
“if
Al .
Crossword Puzzle No. 868
By FRANK W. LEWIS
ACROSS:
1 It makes a stone stink badly, and
suggests badness itself. (10)
6 See 3 down
10 Omar might be brought up to date.
11 More than one 20 down puts a
load on the family automobile. (7)
12 Isn’t this fellow ever met as a
patient type? (4)
18 Desiring so for improvement in
leaving the course? (10)
15 Covering many things at once. (7)
16 Included for the most part in Poland
and Czechoslovakia. (7)
17 And including Dutch, Germans, and
Scandinavians. (7)
20 When men are doing this with
their locks, they won’t be doing it
much longer. (7)
22 Gas in the water might. (10)
23 That’s the trouble with getting
beached away from the base! (4)
25 Nations might be thrown into dis-
cord by such smears. (7)
26 Assign a reporter? (7)
27 Raise up with a jerk, like some
tramp. (4)
28 Tender name with which one might
close a letter? (10)
DOWN:
‘1 Sounds like ey might be in
order! (6, 2, 3,
2 Eggs change sete a situation where
one might find lots of 12. (7)
| Beitce
ate
eee BPEL
Pa
:
ar
a
ee
eer
7
el
i
3 and 6 Any monkey can make his
own gas-saver! (8)
4 Messengers of a churchwoman be-
longing to a union organization. (7)
Even an ill-bred person looks around
and protects things! (7)
They’re contrary to what is ex-
pected of the state ore is in. (7)
What the answer to this clue in-
volves might be found in England
ten times. (15)
9 Jacob and Orlando? (9)
14 It’s repugnant to dislike a tear! (9)
18 To insist on someone’s getting out
of the habit? (7) :
19 A person does to the gas, relatively
indirect. (7)
20 A cigarette holder might be a prob-
lem to occasional smokers. (7)
21 What goes with some company at
the head of the queue is lean. (7)
24 The object of a healthy jester? (4)
Oo
co 064
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 867
ACROSS: 1 Americanization; 9 Owner-
ship; 11 Blimps; 12 Horrible; 14 Sched-
dules 16) Paths; 17 Abode: 18 Hall-
mark; 20 ‘Chessmen; 21 and 10 Bread-
sticks; 24 Ad lib; 25 Gatehouse; 26
Chinese checkers. DOWN: 1 Amoeba;
2 Ennui; 3 Irreprehensible; 4 Ache; 5
Improperly; 6 Anthropomorphic; 7 in.
cubator; 8 Nesters; 13 Bush league;
15 Chou En-lai; 17 Archaic; 19 As-
pens; 22 Abuse; 23 Itch.
<>”
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IN ENGLISH
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Bunin, I.
SHADOWED PATHS 455 $1.00
Chekhov, A. P.
SHORT NOVELS AND STORIES 382 1.25
Chekhov, A. P.
THREE YEARS 140 40
Dostoevsky, F,
MY UNCLE’S DREAM (Novel) 405 1.50
Dostoevsky, F,
NOTES FROM A DEAD HOUSE (Novel) 340 1.25
Gogol, N.
EVENINGS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF
DIKANKA Illus. 277 1.00
Gogol, N.
MIRGOROD—Sequel to ‘Evenings f
Near the Village of Dikanka’’ 295 1.00
Gorky, M.
MOTHER (Novel) 418 1.50
Gorky, M.
TALES OF ITALY Illus. 295 75
Gorky, M.
CHILDHOOD (Novel) 395 .75
Gorky, M.
MY APPRENTICESHIP 680 1.25
Gorky, M.
ARTICLES AND PAMPHLETS 422 1.50
Gorky, M.
FIVE PLAYS Illus. 570 1,50
Gorky, M.
THE ARTAMONOVS (Novel) 547 1.25
Goncharov, I.
THE SAME OLD STORY (Novel) 440 1.50
Lermontov, M.
A HERO OF OUR TIME (Novel)
Illus. Large format 175 1.00
Pushkin, A.
THE TALES OF IVAN BELKIN Illus, 112 65
Pushkin, A.
THE CAPTAIN’S DAUGHTER (Novel) 164 65
Tolstoi, L.
RESURRECTION (Novel) | 574 1.50
Tolstoi, L.
THE COSSACKS, A story of the
Caucasus. 206 .65
Tolstoi, L.
CHILDHOCOD—BOYHOOD—YOUTH 415 1.25
Tolstoi, L.
SHORT STORIES 413 1.25
Turgeney, I.
A HUNTER’S SKETCHES (Novel)
Turgeney, I.
RUDIN (Novel),
Turgenev, I.
455 1.25
Large Format. Illus. 138 1.00
ON THE EVE (Novel) 180 50
Turgenev, I.
FATHERS AND SONS (Novel) 236 .75
Se MesSle Se Sess SoMa Se SaSaSle SoMa MoM Me Made MaMa de Meee Se Sle
DEAE DE TE TEE TE IE IE TE TE IE IE Te TO Te TE TEE IS EI I
Auezov, M.
ABAI (Novel)
Bazhovy, P.
MALACHITE CASKET. Tales from the
Urals. Illus, in Color, DeLuxe Ed. 250 2.50
Belaev, V.
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In 2 Vols. Set 880 2.50
854 2,00
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THE WHITE BIRCH TREE (Novel)
2 vols. Set 820 2,25
Cherkasov, N.
NOTES OF A SOVIET ACTOR
Fadeyev, A.
THE ROUT (Novel)
228 1.50
Illus. 208 .75
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THE YOUNG GUARD (Novel) 715 1,750
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THOSE WHO SEEK (Novel) 538 1.50
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EARLY DAWN. A story about a young
artist. illus. in Color 370 1.50
Katayev, V.
A WHITE SAIL GLEAMS (Novel)
Large format. Illus. 295 1.75
Kazakevich, E.
STAR (Noyvelette) Illus, 158 35
Kochetov, V.
THE ZHURBINS (Novel) 496 1.50
Lacis, V.
THE FISHERMAN’S SON (Novel) Illus. 578 1.50
Lacis, V.
TOWARDS NEW SHORES (Novel)
2 vols. Set 820 2.25
Leberekht, H.
LIGHT IN KOORDI (Novel) 400 1.00
Leskov, N.
THE ENCHANTED WANDERER AND
OTHER STORIES 346 1.00
Luknitsky, P.
NISSO (Novel) 654 1.50
Makarenko, A.
A BOOK FOR PARENTS 410 1.25
Makarenko, A.
LEARNING TO LIVE. A sequel to
‘Road to Life’’ 655 1.50
Maltsev, FE.
HEART AND SOUL (Novel) Illus. 511 1.50
Mamin-Sibiriak, D,
THE PRIVALOV FORTUNE (Novel) 475 1.25
Musatov, A,
STOZHARI VILLAGE. A story. Illus. 232 75
Novikov-Priboi, A. 8S.
THE SEA BECKONS. Short Novels
and Stories 458 1.50
Panova, V.
LOOKING AHEAD (Novel) 294 1.00
Paustovsky, K.
THE GOLDEN ROSE (Novel) 238 -75
Polevoi, B. ;
A STORY ABOUT A REAL MAN 575 1.25
Prishvin, 'M.
NATURE’S DIARY 364 .75
Rybakov, A.
THE DIRK. A story. Illus. 288 1.10
Serafimovich, A.
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Sholokhov, M.
AND QUIET FLOWS THE DON (Novel)
In 4 Vols, Set 3460 4.50
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3 Vols. Set 1309 2,50
25 STORIES FROM THE SOVIET
REPUBLICS ‘i. 488 1.25
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KUZNETSK LAND (Novel) 440 1.50
Voynich, FE.
THE GADFLY (Novel) 336 1.00
Yefremovy, I.
STORIES. Illus. in Color 260 1,00
Zakrutkin, V.
FLOATING STANITSA (Novel) 368 90
MS MS MoS Se St SL SL ee Ste Sede SSeS Se Ma MawMaS a Sle SMe Ma She
TE TTT TINTS TNT TNT TTT TR RN TN NIN IT
Ilyin, M. and Segal, B,
DO YOU KNOW? A book of everyday
objects and experiences, 12-14 yrs. 278 1.00
Yershov, P.
THE LITTLE HUMPBACKED HORSE
Illus, 104 1,25
SHANA eno ete aM ett
Eisenstein, 8,
NOTES OF A FILM DIRECTOR, Illus, 200 1,50
Obraztsoy, 8.
MY PROFESSION, Soviet Puppeteer
Tilus, 255 1.50
WEA EE VE ECC ONE AED NEEEMEAE
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Grekoy, B.
KIEV BUS.
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THE SOCIAL AND STATE STRUC-
TURE OF THE USSR Ilius, 240 -50
Kalinin, M. I.
ON COMMUNIST EDUCATION.
Selected speeches and articles, 418 .50
Khrushchev, N. 8.
DISARMAMENT, DURABLE PEACE
AND FRIENDSHIP 76 15
Lenin, V. I.
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NATIONAL ECONOMY OF THE USSR.
Statistical returns. 236 75
Plekhanov, G.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
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Plekhanov, G.
UNADDRESSED LETTERS—Art and
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REMINISCENCES OF MARX AND
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Stalin, J. V.
PROBLEMS OF LENINISM 805 1,50
Mee SoM Me Mo Me Me SoMa Mod
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DeLuxe Edition, Large format 175 3.50
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DeLuxe Edition, Illus., with maps 254 1,25
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DeLuxe Edition, Illus., with maps 231 1.50
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ARCHEOLOGY IN THE USSR.
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DeLuxe Edition, Large format. Illus. 430 6.00
WE HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN, Album.
Homage to the dead—a warning to ‘
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GENERAL CHEMISTRY
Khalifman, I,
BEES. A book of the biology of the
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690 4.50
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THE ATOMIC NUCLEUS 412 1.50
Lysenko, T. D.
AGROBIOLOGY, Essays on genetics,
plant and seed-growing, 636 2.75
Dedede det Mao aS he MaMa Ma Ma MaMa Sa MaMa MaMa Me Ma Me Mle Me he 7 3K
SS LEEDS TE AE IE IE LOIS A OE TES AS AE A ee <
Kotov, A, and Yudovich, M.
THE SOVIET SCHOOL OF CHESS 2.25
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nme
ea ae
LETTERS
‘Report from the South’
Dear Sirs: I have almost nothing but
admiration for Dan Wakefield’s “Report
from the South: Eye of the Storm” in
your May 7 issue. Permit me to
underscore one of his comments, and to
criticize (slightly) two others.
In pointing out that Montgomery,
“the cradle of the Confederacy,” was
also the cradle of the non-violent move-
ment against segregation—the bus boy-
cott—Mr. Wakefield suggests, but does
not point up, the paradox: that there
is some direct relation between the de-
gree of the pressure of segregation and
the degree of resistance to it. It is true,
the sit-in demonstrations began in North
Carolina, a comparatively liberal state;
but, what I for one would never have
expected, they have spread rapidly
through the hard-core state of South
Carolina and indeed across the South.
I’m still inclined to see the Deep South
states as the last to accept the new day,
but I’m not as sure as I was about this.
. The demonstrations have made me
more deeply aware that perhaps the
main force making for desegregation is
the will of the Negroes themselves; and
there are a lot of Negroes in the Deep
South.
In one sense. Mr. Wakefield is prob-
ably right in suggesting that these re-
sistance movements—he was actually
referring to the Montgomery bus boy-
cott—do not create among the whites
respect for Negroes, but rather distrust
and hatred. I should limit this by say-
ing “among some whites”; and I should
also point out that respect may increase
even along with distrust and_ hatred.
Perhaps not respect for the total per-
son, but respect for the man as a fighter,
as one whose existence has to be taken
into account. ... In addition, there are
many whites in the South—though I'll
admit they aren’t saying much—who are
proud that the Negroes are rising to
the occasion. . .
Finally, 1 hink Mr. Wakefield isn’t
quite fair in dismissing the “loye”’—to
call it that—between whites and Negroes
as being honest only so long as the Negro
remains “in his place.” I’m not prepared
to write off the interracial relationships
of the South as entirely false or bad.
I’m not so much maintaining that whites
like Negroes and Negroes whites as I
am that both are basically alike, and
that in the South people are inclined to
like people. It’s the possession of a deep
common knowledge of each other that
tends to cause Southern whites and
Negroes studying in Northern colleges
/
to become acquaintances and even
friends. In spite of the divisiveness of
segregation, we know one another better
(and think better of one another) than
we usually think.
I realize that this is a wide-open field
for sentimentality, and that I as a
Southerner am an expert sentimentalist;
but I also feel that in this vague and
shadowy region are solid truths the
South might build upon.
James McBrwwe Dasss
Mayesville, S.C.
[Mr. Dabbs, a South Carolinian, is
the author of The Southern Heritage.
Under the title, “Dime Stores and Dig-
mty,” he commented upon the Southern
“sit-ins” in The Nation of April 2—Eb.]
Broader Horizons
Dear Sirs: 1 guess one of the most im-
portant parts of growing up is an_in-
creasing recognition of events . . . be-
yond one’s immediate environment. Until
now, my quest for knowledge of current
events has been satisfied by the local
paper, radio and a cursory glance at the
Sunday Times. The May 7 issue of The
Nation was the first Pve read. I found
that it wasn’t trying to “sell” anyone or
anything, but gave a concise and refresh-
ing view of the news—the way I would
like to be able to write it.
Dan Wakefield’s article was very en-
lightening, and I have distributed some
extra copies to friends at school.
Ricnarp BERNSTEIN
Eastchester High School
Scarsdale, N. Y.
Invitation to a Walk
Dear Sirs: | have organized myself into
a Committee of One to conduct a March
for Nuclear Disarmament similar to
that held recently in England. I propose
to march from Einstein’s home in Prince-
ton, New Jersey, to New York City, ap-
proximately fifty-three miles. The march
is to take place on the anniversary of
the Hiroshima bombing in August.
Anyone caring to join me please write,
as arrangements must be made for over-
night accommodations along the way.
My address is 4 Johnson Place, Ardsley,
iY. ;
Hersperr SEMMEL
Bitter Harvest
Dear Sirs: In your May 14 issue, you
ran a brief letter by me telling of the
fight against discrimination which some
students at Kentucky State College are
waging. I have since been expelled for
my activities. If my expulsion from
college will pave the road to equality
for my fellow Negroes, I can truly say
that my labors will not have been in iil
vain.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to raise money ll
to appeal my expulsion to the state
Board of Regents. I will be grateful for
assistance from your readers. I am now
living at 548 Georgia Ave., N.E., Roa-
noke 12, Va.
Epwarp B. Kina, Jr.
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
461 @
ARTICLES
464 @ Debacle in Paris
by ALEXANDER WERTH
465 '@ Health Insurance for the Aged: Ani
Which Bill Is Best?
by LEO J. LINDER N
468 @ The Army Pleads for Survival }Ppy
by RALPH CAPLAN
470 @ Dialogues in Cuba
by BARBARA DEMING and
|
BOOKS AND THE ARTS ie
474 '@ The Absorbing Love of Man
by GEORGE A. SILVER
475 '@ The Ashes of Power
by HORACH GREGORY
476 '@ The Kremlin
by A. HYATT MAYOR
wil
a tt
yea
476 @ Art
by FAIREFINLD PORTER
478 @ Music
by LESTER TRIMBLE
478 '@ Habit of Years (poem)
by
WINFIELD TOWNLEY ScoTr f )
479 @ Films
by ROBERT WATCH
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 480)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
INNA
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, Editor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Wditor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Music
Alexander Werth, European
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, May 28, 1960. Vol, 190. No, 22
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Company and copyright 1960, In the U.S.A, by
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at New York, N. Y.
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Affairs, Information Service, Dramatic Index, |
ae ' |
u
:
z
E
=
i
Dita
4
NEW YORK, SATU ed MAY 28, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 22
AUG 29
THE
NATION
EDITORIALS
And Now What?
Now that Khrushchev is back
President returned to Washington, perhaps both men
will take stock of the tragedy that has engulfed them
and us. And make no mistake about it: the break-up of
the Paris conference was more than a failure — it was
a tragedy. On May 1 an “incident” took place that
neither man had anticipated would take place at that
precise time or in that particular manner. The rapidly
spiraling consequences wrecked, in a single day, two
years of arduous effort. In itself, failure of the Summit
conference need not have- been tragic; had the meet-
ing adjourned after a week or so of palaver without
agreement, but with noted and a new date
set, it would have been a disappointing development,
yet not unexpected and certainly not tragic.
Now there is personal tragedy for both men, as well
as a grave outlook for the world. Once the fateful “in-
cident” was known, Khrushchev tried to leave the
President an “out,” but Mr. Eisenhower could not take
it. What the President then did exposed the Soviet
leader in a way that, from the Russian point of view,
could justly be regarded as indefensible. Even Khrush-
chey’s harshest critics concede this. So instead of coming
to Paris determined to salvage something from the con-
ference, Khrushchev came determined to wreck it, and
he succeeded.
Now what? The immediate effect of the Summit
debacle, under these circumstances, is to encourage the
worst elements in both countries. And let’s face it:
they are legion here and, one may assume, in the So-
viet Union as well. Several surveys — notably those
taken by The Wall Street Journal and by Samuel Lubell
— indicate that most Americans not merely tolerate
but approve a “tough line” policy. This majority was
large enough here before the Summit conference was
reduced to a shambles. It is now much larger and even,
perhaps, more obdurate. It is not a pugnacious majority;
it does not want war. But through default in political
in Moscow and the
“progress”
lez i asa consequence of i insistent indoctrina-_
tion, it has succumbed to the “get tough” fallacy which
is the demagogue’s favorite solution to all difficult social
and political problems. How to deal with juvenile
delinquency? Crack down. Use the nightstick. Resort
to flogging. What to do about drug addiction? Don’t
treat the addict; punish him. And so, too, with the
problems of how to get along with the leaders of the
Soviet Union.
Popular reaction to the Summit debacle shows all too
clearly that it is only a minority — as one might ex-
pect — that has thought through the implications of
the terrifying predicament which, in Adlai Stevenson’s
phrase, finds Russia and this country “like two men
in a dark room, each armed and feeling for the other,”
with neither daring to put his weapon down for fear the
other will not. In the long run, this minority view could
be expected to penetrate the visceral elements, but it
has not yet penetrated these elements widely or deeply,
as the current surveys show. Now, with the Summit
conference wreckage all about us, it will be doubly dif-
ficult to get the majority to re-examine the “get tough”
premise upon which it relies. Yet it is not an impossible
task. Surveys can be deceptive; they can be misinter-
preted. We are a free people, says Walter Lippmann,
and one of the advantages of a free society is that it
provides a way to deal with error and correct mistakes,
1.¢., “to investigate, to criticize, to debate, and then to
demonstrate to the people and to the world that the
lessons of the fiasco have been learned and will be ap-
plied.”
The rejoicing now audible among the cave-dwellers
— the idiot’s chorus chanting “We told you so,” “You
can’t negotiate,” “The Soviet air defenses are a sieve,”
“Tsn’t it wonderful that we know so much about Soviet
installations?” etc., — will not last long. There will be
second thoughts, then third ones. But if, as Lippmann
goes on to say, we rally around the President, it will
prove to the world that the blunders will not be cor-
rected and that “our people are satisfied with bad gov-
ernment” — bad government, wretched management
and incompetent leadership. It is therefore — as it has
<*
4)
Bi
always been and will ever be — up to the thoughtful
minority, which never divides on party lines, to demand
the type of leadership from both parties that alone can
bring out the mistakes and correct the errors. But if the
cave-dwellers prevail in both parties, if the election
turns out to be a competition in toughness — in who
can be most beastly with the Russians — the Summit
wreckage will be irreparable. There are-some competi-
tions in which it is folly to engage — and one of them
is a competition in toughness in an age of nuclear
weapons.
Hot Tip
The CIA, though somewhat downgraded in secrecy,
went up in the estimation of Wall Street during the
past week and, should it issue stock, it would have no
difficuity in getting a listing on the Big Board, where
it would rival the electronic and missiles issues in
volatility. From a bureaucratic standpoint, CIA was
always a fascinating stock. Consider these features: its
The U.N.’s ‘Other’ Perspective .
United Nations, May 20
Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold placed the
collapse of the Summit in its proper perspective when
he said that “the problems which would have been
taken up in Paris remain with us and require as
much of our honest efforts as ever.” Nevertheless,
the atmosphere in which these problems will now be
debated at the United Nations has changed dramati-
cally. The smaller countries, which represent the
great majority of the U.N., are less interested in the
problems as such than in solutions which are likely
. to be acceptable to both the United States and the
Soviet Union. Only an agreement between the two
super-powers can dispel the nightmare of total an-
nihilation and focus world attention on the needs
and problems of the underdeveloped countries.
It little matters, in the opinion of a majority of
U.N. members, whether an American plan or a
Soviet plan is good or bad. The only test of validity
is: “Will the other side accept it?”
It is against this background that the world body
is approaching a debate before the Security Council,
and later undoubtedly before the General Assembly,
which may recall the worst days of the cold war. And
it may be in vain that the United States and the
Soviet Union will bring accusations against each
other, because the majority here does not judge
MARIO ROSSI is a U.N. correspondent for several
newspapers here and abroad.
462 ;
‘mediating influence of the participation of all those
— terms of prestige or national interest.”
appropriations were practically unlimited and dis-
closed only to a few Congressmen and these sworn to Jp
secrecy; what it did was not revealed to anyone (Allen
Dulles couldn’t know it all and the President demon- piri
strated that he knew practically nothing) and therefore
the agency was not subject to review or criticism; and
it was getting an enormous new building in which a
bureaucrat could take his ease in luxurious surround-
ings. But then the Russians, using, according to their
account, a major as a computer, brought down the U-2. 7h
CIA stock, as and when issued, plummeted. The bears
pointed out that it had always been a risky stock: so
little was known about it. The name of Allen Dulles
became a hissing and a byword; his job hung by a
thread. But if there was any smart money around, this
was precisely the time to buy, for Khrushchev, all
unknowing, came to the rescue. When he insulted the
President, the CIA was made. Its stock zoomed. With-
in a few days one could make millions on an investment
of $500. Espionage flared into a growth stock which
would make Texas Instruments look like a snail. The
by Mario Rossi :
oth
problems by the same “ideological” standards as do Co
Washington and the Kremlin. The underdeveloped Dic
countries are interested in disarmament, because it Sa
can release the funds necessary for their economic 0
development. But disarmament is predicated upon a Be
measure of U.S.-Soviet understanding, and any de- ry
parture from a climate of understanding is blamed af
more or less equally on the two sides. When the the
virulence of charges and counter-charges before the lp
Security Council will have run its course, and the Ce
smaller nations get their chance to speak before the wh
General Assembly, this “other” perspective may he
dominate: the debates. |
Meanwhile, as Mr. Hammarskjold has stressed, 0
it is necessary and urgent to bring the temperature u
down in order to reduce the ever-present risk of war . a
by accident. “The more constructive work in the l
long run,” he said, “is that which aims at creating i
_a situation in which even occasional sparks do not ly
lead to a fire.” The world organization provides the | |)
framework for constructive diplomatic efforts—“for Ty
public diplomacy and for conference diplomacy on hi
any level which governments may desire.” The Sec- /F
retary General added another important considera- 7
tion: “There is in such non-publicized diplomacy | ],
within the U.N. an additional element of value: the
who are vitally interested in peace, while free from
an immediate involvement in the issues at stake in|
s
7,46): ; Li |
ar bee 4 a AeA
dope in the bureaucratic marts of Washington is that
nothing can stop CIA — the sky is the limit. Allen
Dulles, its patient, self-sacrificing head, could be elected
President if he cared to run. It is indeed a romantic
story of the bureaucratic financial marts, and every-
body must be looking for similar situations which, in
the dark. purlieus of modern government, may well
exist.
The Best and the Worst
During its recent hearings in San Francisco, the Un-
American Activities Committee scored an impressive
headline victory over the pre-Summit news. “Police,
Crowd Battle Outside Red Hearing; 12 Hurt, 52 Ar-
rested,” the screamers read, “400 Cops Fight Mob
Storming City Hall,’ “Clubs, Fire Hoses Used on
Youths,” “Cops Use Clubs, Hoses in Wild Melee.”
Most of the demonstraters were young men and women
from neighboring college campuses (who said this gen-
eration of students is apathetic?) who wanted to get
‘into the hearing room mostly because they wanted the
committee to get out — permanently. The ensuing bed-
lam led Richard Arens, committee staff director, and
others to repeat a weary charge: “They’re a bunch of
Commies.” If they were, then so are the Episcopal
Diocese of California, the First Unitarian Church of
San Jose, Rep. James Roosevelt, Assemblymen John
O’Connell and Philip Burton of San Francisco, the
Berkeley YWCA, 400 leading citizens of Palo Alto
(site of Stanford University), the San Francisco Society
of Friends, several hundred members of the faculties of
the University of California, San Francisco State Col-
lege and San Jose State College, the San Francisco
Central Labor Council (AFL-CIO), etc, etc. — all of
which are on record as protesting the committee’s
hearings or demanding its permanent abolition.
True, many who share the students’ contempt for the
committee subsequently denounced, with some justifi-
cation, the youngsters’ unruly method of showing that
contempt. But it is an old story that the Committee on
Un-American Activities brings out the worst in peo-
ple, as well as the best. On the witness chair, the friend-
ly neighbor turns informer; and the civil libertarian,
prodded beyond endurance by his inquisitors’ tactics,
often is transformed into a ranting maniac who hurts
his own cause. And the effect on the community is the
same: citizen turns upon citizen; civic groups, normally
united in constructive programs, are split down the
_ middle; the press spews venom. Inevitably, the world
is treated to the enlightening spectacle of a couple of
hundred students, sitting with arms locked against the
jets from fire hoses, singing, cheering and howling
while police clubs fly and water runs three inches deep
u over the marble floors of San Francisco’s City Hall.
what purpose? San Francisco provided a dramatic
test. Had the committee sincerely sought to carry out
its sole Constitutional prerogative, 1.e., to conduct in-
quiries for the purpose of improving legislation, it could
have held the hearings in executive. session. There
could then have been no complaints of packed au-
diences, no noisy demonstrations inside the hearing
room, and no clubs, no fire hoses, no bedlam outside.
But there no headlines. The
paradox is that in its publicity hunger, the committee
is driving inexorably for the one headline it doesn’t
want — the one announcing its own demise.
also would have been
Hot Front in the Cold War
A small blessing, which will probably not be widely
utilized, may result from the U-2 incident and its addi-
tional amplification by Khrushchev’s convulsions in
Paris. The American people — those of them who look
beyond the supermarket and the TV show — can now
examine a king-size journalistic package on modern in-
telligence techniques. However heavily loaded this
material is with tribal self-righteousness and melodrama,
it also contains information which concerns today’s
taxpayer, who may be tomorrow’s nuclear casualty.
According to U.S. News World Report, which knows
all and now deems itself free to tell more of it than
it used to, the United States alone employs more than
100,000 people in military intelligence and spends $2.5
billion a year. There is much more of the same in this
and other media of the mass-produced inside-dopester,
but perhaps the most thought-provoking story is in the
May 23 Time, which pictures Francis Powers, the man
of the week, taking off from the U.S. Air Force base
at Adana, Turkey, on April 27 for Peshawar, Pakistan.
There Time pictures him as fidgeting nervously, wait-
ing for the right combination of winds aloft that would
boost him along his 3,5000-mile route to Norway, min-
imal cloud cover, and so little moisture in the upper air
that the U-2 would not leave contrails. Five days of
this, and he took off. But on the operational details of
this crucial decision Time is silent, either not knowing,
or not able to let the masses in on the secret. Time
does remark that “the demands of diplomacy scarcely
figured in the delay,” and this we may well believe.
We may conjecture, also, on the closeness, or lack of
closeness, of Powers’ contact with anyone who knew or
cared about the diplomatic situation at that juncture.
It is perfectly conceivable that some sort of agree-
ment could have been on the way at the Summit con-
ference, and Powers, or one of his thousands of con-—
freres, might have wrecked matters by getting shot
down over the Soviet Union while the talks were in
progress. Or later. The right hand knoweth not what
the left hand doeth; CIA and Air Force are a law unto
themselves, and let the Herters fall where they may.
-
‘aaa acts | 463
Re
And it may be a lieutenant who brings Herter down.
DEBACLE IN PARIS oe . Alexander Werth
Paris, May 20
NOW that it’s all over, it is still hard
to believe that it happened. I have
before me a copy of Khrushchev’s
book, Peace and Friendship, l\yrical-
ly describing the author’s visit to
the United States, whereof 600,000
copies were sold in the Soviet Union
in the course of a single day only a
few months ago. I remember the im-
mense enthusiasm Khrushchev’s visit
aroused in Moscow and the delight
with which Moscow audiences
watched films showing the cordial
Khrushchev-Eisenhower meetings.
At the time, these téte-a-tétes
seemed like the crowning achieve-
ment of the Soviet peace policy.
The cold war seemed over. The
spirit of Camp David was expected
to mark future international rela-
tions. True, Khrushchev was fond
of stressing that the Americans would
never have been so accommodating
had they not been aware of the
tremendous technical advances in
military strength made by the Soviet
Union. Nevertheless, he seemed cer-
tain that the days of “brinkman-
ship,” the “positions-of-strength”
policy, were over and that President
Eisenhower was genuinely opposed
to a return to the cold war.
Khrushchev had been campaign-
ing for a Summit for a whole year.
The U-2 incident might not have
proved fatal, but the subsequent
Eisenhower-Herter utterances that
the overflight had been part of rou-
tine American policy which the
United States intended to pursue,
made it impossible to regard it any
longer as a_ relatively harmless,
isolated incident. The development
produced a tremendous crescendo in
the anti-American campaign of the
Soviet press, which castigated Amer-
ican “banditry” and the “incredible
cynicism whereby international law
is violated.” Walter Lippmann’s se-
vere condemnation of the Eisen-
hower-Herter line was quoted ex-
ALEXANDER WERTH, The Na-
tion’s European correspondent, spent
the war years in Moscow and main-
taims close contact with the Soviet
Union.
tensively not only in Britain and
France, but also in Russia.
According to all international
standards the United States was
wrong, and this fact is fully realized
in Western Europe. Today the
French radio, attempting to explain
the failure of the conference and yet
determined to maintain Western sol-
idarity, says that the United States
in only 20 per cent to blame, while
the Soviet Union is 80 per cent. Ac-
tually, a majority of French and
British opinion believes that the re-
verse proportion is the truer one.
What has been the Russian reac-
tion to the Paris development? It
has been one of extreme bitterness,
with Khrushchev complaining that
Eisenhower wrecked a policy which
was humanity’s hope. Why didn’t
Eisenhower repudiate the spy-plane’s
organizers? Khrushchey, it is argued
by his entourage, deliberately gave
the President the benefit of the
doubt and an opportunity to reduce
the incident to a minimum. Even
after Khrushchev arrived in Paris,
he waited two days for a favorable
move from the head of the Ameri-
can state, but nothing happened.
The Soviet leader concluded that
since the President is “helpless” in
the hands of “war mongers,” it is
useless to negotiate with him,
THERE ARE, I think, several rele-
vant points which should be made.
First, the Soviet leader appears to
be personally outraged by the wreck-
ing of his step-by-step peace policy.
At the same time, the U-2 incident
has now been magnified in the
Soviet Union into a symbol of a
constant threat that one day “a mad
American pilot” might bomb Mos-
cow by “accident.” The genuine
alarm that has been worked up in
the Soviet Union goes together with
a constant reminder that the Rus-
sian military can smash any invader.
It is significant that while Khru-
shchey was in Paris he was ac-
companied constantly by Malinov-
sky who, it is rumored here, supports
a tougher foreign policy aimed par-
ticularly at the liquidatior a
American bases which ring
viet Union. Khrushchev’s explicit
threats concerning these bases have
been interpreted here as meaning
that any further air incidents would
probably result in Soviet ultimatums.
The fundamental question is
whether Khrushchev today is really
the master of Soviet policy. Here
we are in the realm of speculation,
but a number of significant facts
emerge. Recently, Nehru told Presi-
dent de Gaulle that Khrushchev’s
position was weakening inside the
Central Committee of the Soviet
Communist Party, where his “soft”
attitude toward the West was con-
sidered fruitless. The spy-plane in-
cident served to confirm the Central
Committee’s judgment. Moreover,
the opposition to Khrushchev argues
that the Soviet Union is today in a
favorable position to give active sup-
port to the revolutionary move-
ments of the underdeveloped coun-
tries — and that it would be better
to do this than to act the part of
the rich uncle.
Another theory widely advanced
here is that China was hostile to
Khrushchev’s pro-West policy from
the beginning, and was particularly
opposed to the Summit. In this con- —
nection, some experts here argue
that the postponement of the Big
Four talks might be a good thing:
perhaps, they theorize, the next
American administration will be dis-
posed to recognize China, in which
case the Big Four Summit would be
transformed into a much more satis-
factory Big Five.
Khrushchev himself, even while
he was pursuing his pro-West policy,
never quite abandoned an. alterna-
tive one. His entourage recalled how
during his recent visit to Indonesia, —
he pointed out that there were
powers bigger than France and Eng-
land and that the time might come
when the Summit would present it-
self in a different light.
The question now is whether
Khrushchev will maintain the un-
easy status quo until after the Amer-
ican elections — provided, of course,
there are no further Western provo-
wT
ite
cations — or resort to ee ace
tions | de. Bene) and elsewhere,
he e, b 7
mi
seem
in b
whet
press
{inv
teste
the
—
Hl
—
1
NM
aul
bel
fh
SE SE SS eS Pe
4
i
f
i
i
i
_ $200 a year on health costs;
notably Turkey. American bases
seem to be a more urgent problem,
in Khrushchev’s view, than Berlin,
_ whereon the Soviet leader was fairly
reassuring (as he was also in con-
tinuation of the Geneva nuclear-
test-ban talks). In general, one gets
the impression that the Russians
are hoping that Britain and France
will restrain American provocations.
Khrushchev is obviously reluctant
to abandon his peace policy, but he
seems prepared to adopt a much
tougher one if the United States
persists in the flights.
Reports from Moscow show that
the Soviet public is both angry and
extremely nervous. The memory of
the horrors of the last war are still
fresh in the minds of the Russians.
Nevertheless, there are elements of
the Soviet people, and particularly
of the Soviet leadership, which favor
a “limited showdown” with the West.
HEALTH INSURANCE FOR THE AGED
WHICH BILL IS BEST?
NOT IN YEARS has Congress been
subjected to so much pressure as is
being currently applied for and
against health insurance for the
aged. The Wall Street Journal re-
ports that “tons of mail” have been
received by Congressmen. The AFL-
CIO and organizations of the aged
on one side, and the American Med-
ical Association and private insur-
ance companies on the other, are
in direct conflict on the issue.
The pressure arises from the fail-
ure of our social security arrange-
ments to furnish adequate. health
care for the people who need it most
—the people over sixty-five. These
older people use about two and a
half times as much_ hospital care
as persons under sixty-five. Even
aside from hospitalization, the av-
erage elderly couple spends about
one
out of every six pays more than
$800 a year in medical bills.
The aged, moreover, have less’
money to meet their greater need.
- Almost two-thirds of the 16 million
Americans over sixty-five have
_money incomes of less than $20 per
week (including social security in-
come). Old-age insurance benefici-
Mi
a
ie
Committee on Social Legi
hee} ers G
aries, receiving an average of $72 a
month, are in no position to meet
big health costs. The result is that
millions of our aged either do with-
out medical care, despite their need,
r “go broke” paying health bills.
Private health insurance doesn’t
LEO he LINDER, a New
orney, is chawrman of the
ona Lawy
eG, ld. .
“
meet the problem. Most insurance
companies simply will not insure
persons sixty-five or over; those
that do charge premiums of $7 to
$10 monthly, which most older per-
sons cannot afford. So more than
half of the aged have no private
insurance coverage at all, and those
who do have limited protection,
TO DEAL with this problem, there
are now four different measures be-
fore Congress. They break down in-
to two different basic approaches.
On the one hand, there is the
Forand Bill (the storm center of
the current debate), and a new bill
introduced by Senator McNamara
(D., Mich.) with the joint sponsor-
ship of fifteen other Democrats.
Both these bills would operate with-
in the present social security sys-
tem. On the other hand, there are the
Administration’s “Medicare Pro-
gram for the Aged” and another,
essentially similar, proposal offered
by Senator Javits with the co-spon-
sorship of seven other Republican
Senators.. The Administration and
i a He ‘the child sitting on its fat
- « by Leo J. Linder
the Javits bills would by-pass the
social security system and _ provide
federal grants for state programs to
:
subsidize private health insurance.
LET’S take a closer look at these
measures.
The Forand Bill would give all
who qualify for monthly benefits
under the OASI (Old Age Surviv-
ors’ Insurance) provisions of the
Social Security Act additional bene-
fits to cover the cost of up to sixty
days of hospitalization and up to
120 days of nursing-home care, plus
certain surgical benefits. It would
cover not only the 11 million per-
sons sixty-five or over who are now
receiving OASI benefits, but also
the 2 million under sixty-five who
receive these benefits as survivors
and dependents. The Forand Bill
would not, however, cover the 5
million aged persons who are now
excluded from OASI.
~The McNamara Bill would ex-
clude under-age (i.c., under sixty-
five) OASI beneficiaries, but cover
not only the OASI-covered aged but .
also the aged who are not so cov-
ered, provided they earn less than
$2, 000 annually. It would pay for —
the first ninety instead of sixty days
of hospitalization, 180 (instead of —
120) days of nursing-home care,
substitute for surgical benefits home
health and diagnostic out-patie
services, and pay for eis €
sive drugs.”
On the whole, McNamara’
_ posal is better than Forand’ sin. a .
erage and benefits. It would be u
;
“6
et = : 2S pam ige” a .
fair, however, ‘not ‘to see that
shoulders. Rep. Forand deserves the
credit for the initial push.
The bills are alike in that they
both build on the present efficient
social security system, whose ad-
ministrative cost runs about 2 per
cent—much lower than private in-
surance. And since social security
is a federal system, everybody in
the country qualifying is benefited.
Both measures would be financed
in the same way that social security
benefits are financed. The govern-
ment estimates that Forand Bill
benefits would cost $1.1 billion,
which would be met by adding .025
per cent to both wage and payroll
tax rates. The McNamara proposal
would cost about the same, insofar
as coverage of OASI beneficiaries
is concerned. The additional costs
involved in the McNamara _ plan’s
coverage of the non-insured aged
are estimated at $370 million, and
this sum would be met from gen-
eral revenues. But since the govern-
ment is already spending for this
purpose approximately $240 million
out of general revenues, the Mc-
Namara measure would add only
about $130 million to our general
tax bill. Beneficiaries pay no premi-
ums under either bill; the premiums
are paid by the whole working pop-
ulation in the form of taxes.
LET’S NOW look at the Adminis-
tration program and Senator Javits’
bill.
The Administration’s “Medicare”
proposal would provide federal
grants to states for state programs
to enable individuals sixty-five or
over to purchase from private in-
surance companies a “major medi-
cal expense insurance policy.” The
state programs would be open to all
the aged, regardless of whether or
not they are OASI beneficiaries,
who in the preceding year either
had paid no income tax or whose
gross income (including social se-
curity and pensions) had not ex-
ceeded $2,500 ($3,800 for a couple).
The individuals would pay a premi-
um of $24 a year.
The benefits cover a “ten-point
program,” including 180 days of
hospital care; a year of nursing-
home care and home-care services;
surgical, physicians’ and dental. policies and pay premiums ranging
466
services; physical restoration and
private nursing; drugs up to $350
a year, and laboratory and X-ray
services up to $200 a year. On its
face, the benefits are broader than
those offered by either the Forand
or McNamara proposals, as Vice
President Nixon was quick to point
out. But there is a big catch: the
benefits are subject to a deduction
of the first $250 ($400 for a couple),
as well as 20 per cent of costs over
these amounts.
According to Secretary Flemming,
the average annual health and med-
ical expenses of aged persons in
1957-8 were $177 ($210 at 1960
prices). Thus, the $250 deductible
provision is expected to eliminate
the cost of “average expenditures”
which would have to be borne by
the insured. About 15 per cent of the
aged (2.25 million persons), Dr.
Flemming estimates, had “total med-
ical expenses on the average of $700
per year” ($840 at 1960 prices).
These people would have to bear the
following average costs: $24 premi-
um plus the first $250 plus 20 per
cent of the excess over $250, or an-
other $188. An average burden of
$392 for annual health and medical
care would be imposed on a group
two-thirds of whose members have
a total annual income of “less than”
$1,000. Few could carry it.
“Medicare” would also cover pub-
lic-assistance recipients of qualify-
ing states without any premium
payment or other deductions. But
the federal government is already
making grants to the states for pub-
lic assistance — including provision
for medical care. Thus, the effect of
the Administration’s proposal would
be to expand the public-assistance
program—conceivably by injecting
private insurance policies and costs
into it. What possible sense is there
in subjecting the public-assistance
program to private insurance costs?
“Medicare” would involve an es-
timated governmental cost of $1.2
billion, with the federal government
contributing about half from gen-
eral revenues, the other half being
supplied by the participating states.
Senator Javits’ plan also depends
upon state operations. It would
have the aged purchase insurance
"oe" 7 PEELE ef rae ke
from 50c to $13 a month (the latter
figure applying to those with in-
comes of $3,600 or more annually).
Senator Javits also would have the
federal and state governments sub-
sidize the private insurance com-
panies by putting up $1.1 billion
(the federal share coming from gen-
eral revenues) to meet the differ-
ence between premiums paid and
the actual cost of the insurance.
In my judgment, the “Medicare”
and Javits proposals are both basi-
cally unsound. In both, coverage
depends upon a state enacting the
necessary legislation. Under “Medi-
care,” the states’ cost would be $600
million annually; under the Javits
Bill, $640 million. Many states are
in financial difficulties; some would
finance the additional burden
through higher sales or other re-
gressive taxes. And, as we have seen,
both programs depend upon indi-
viduals purchasing policies and pay-
ing premiums, while the “Medicare”
plan suffers the additional disad-
vantage that its benefits are seri-
ously restricted by the “$250 de-
ductible” and the 20 per cent “co-
insurance” * clauses.
Administratively, the two Repub-
lican measures, by-passing the ex-
cellent social security administra-
tion, would set up a new and com-
plicated structure involving the
federal government, the fifty state
governments and as many of the
1,150 different voluntary health in-
surance organizations as would in-
sure under the program. The result
would be hundreds of different pol-
icies and premiums subject to the
heavy administrative costs of pri-
vate insurance subsidized at govern-
ment expense,
THE A. M. A. has denounced the
Forand Bill as the “entering wedge”
of “socialized medicine” and Presi-
dent Eisenhower has taken up this
allegation, “I am = against compul-
sory insurance,” he has said, “as a
very definite step in socialized med-
icine.” The charge is untenable. Un-
like the British system and, indeed,
unlike many private-group hospital
insurance plans, neither the Forand
nor the MeNamara Bill disturbs
physician-patient relationships, nor
does either limit beneficiaries to re-
ant
Se - a OS SS Se Ss eS SS SS
re:
4
.
ricted panels. Both provide for
payments to any hospital, nursing
home or surgeon selected by the pa-
tient within appropriate administra-
tive regulations.
Actually, opposition to “govern-
‘mental action” to meet hospital
costs makes little sense. A govern-
ment memorandum shows that the
country’s total hospital bill for 1955
was about $6 billion, of which 44
per cent was paid by government
funds (i.e., for the care of veterans,
members of the Armed Forces, Con-
gressmen and other officials; the
maintenance of hospitals for tuber-
‘culosis and mental diseases, and
medical expenditures under the So-
cial Security Act). is thus too
late to object to governmental help
in meeting the costs of hospital care.
The Eisenhower Administration
insists that the solutions to the
problem of health care for the aged
must be found “voluntary” ac-
tion and reliance upon private in-
surance. The whole argument con-
cerning “voluntary” action has an
_air of fantasy. When we use general
revenues to subsidize private insur-
ance, as the Administration pro-
poses, we are using “compulsory”
_ taxes to finance * ‘voluntary” plans.
Actually, the so-called “voluntary”
pension systems financed by em-
ployer contributions depend upon
the tax deductibility of these con-
eetitions; thus, they reduce gen-
_ eral revenues and cast a heavier tax
: burden on all of us. These “volun-
tary” actions are actually subsidized
Wy compulsion.
am IS too late to question whether
; meeting the health needs of its older
_ citizens is a proper function of gov-
ernment. That decision was made
when we enacted the Social Security
Act twenty-five years ago. We then
determined as a nation that gov-
-ernment has a responsibility for old-
"age -security. For a generation we
_ have been applying, and still apply,
_ vast compulsion to over 70 million
persons who pay social security
_ taxes, and we have set up, through
such compulsion, an efficient sys-
_ tem which is now generally accepted
as part of the institutional fabric of
our society. No new aa in-
thn
pital expense to benefits already
being paid out to older people.
The real question is: how should
we finance the needed additional
benefits? Extraordinarily enough,
the Administration and the Javits
proposals, bad as they are, do con-
tain one element of greater equity
than is to be found in the Forand
and McNamara bills. This is the
idea of financing from general rev-
enues rather than from social se-
curity taxes. Secretary Flemming, in-
deed, points to this as a superiority
of the Administration’s approach.
“Medicare,” he said, would “divide
the cost equitably among the entire
population by providing for financ-
ing the federal share out of general
revenues... .”
The “Medicare” and Javits pro-
grams thus both reach out beyond
the $4,800 fixed as the maximum
taxable income under the Social Se-
curity Act. This makes sense; taxa-
tion according to ability to pay
should never exempt higher income.
Under the Social Security Act and
under the Forand and McNamara
bills, income over $4,800 bears no
tax burden for providing OASI ben-
efits. And unearned income, divi-
dends, interest and capital gains, of
whatever amount, bear no such tax
burden at all.
Why shouldn’t the whole addi-
tional burden involved in health in-
surance for the aged be financed
from general revenues? The fact is
that there is a cost which must be
. The question is: whose taxes
should be increased to meet this
cost? Why should the increase come
only on earned income below $4,800?
Isn’t the burden. of the country’s
aged population a burden upon all
of us? And shouldn’t we all carry
the burden in proportion to our
ability to carry it?
Of course, to increase social se-
curity taxes rather than to defray
the cost from general revenues
serves the interests of high-income
recipients and those who receive in-
terest, dividends and capital gains.
It is understandable that they
should insist that the general rev-
enues not be touched. But why do
labor leaders and progressives take
the same stand? They do so because
ey have long ago been sold on the cerned with social responsibilities; it _
‘ ther mLass
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“Perhaps some day a kind of voluntary
program for—uh—voluntary illnesses.”
so-called “contributory principle.”
Workers pay for their own benefits.
The financing of social security is
based upon so-called “actuarial”
principles relating benefits paid to
taxes received. The taxes stop at
$4,800 and the benefits are based
on average wage income up to
$4,800. If you increase benefits, you
must increase taxes.
THERE IS, however, nothing in-
evitable about this. Our govern-
ment could, for social security pur-
poses, tax all income without limit
or up to any desired limit and still
gear benefits to a $4,800 top—or to
any other figure. What we do de-
pends upon the decisions of social
policy that we make.
Actually, we have long ago aban-
doned any strict relationship between
taxes and benefits. In order to help
low-income workers, we weight the
formula, fixing monthly benefits in
favor of the lower-income worker.
Thus, the primary OASI benefit for
a person with an average monthly
income of $100 is $59 monthly, while
the primary benefit for one with an
average monthly income of $200 is
only $84. Again, a worker with de- |
pendents receives higher benefits
than a worker in the same wage
bracket who is without dependents. is
We do these things because they | “f
are ene eee We are not ,
miums. Pracial insurance is not con-—
cannot be, without jeopardizing its
solvency. Social insurance, however,
involves governmental policy, op-
erating on the whole of society; so-
cial insurance can adjust policies and
benefits as social needs require.
SO FAR, we have been contrasting
two methods of financing the needed
health-care benefits for the aged. One
is through general revenues, the
other is by increasing the social se-
curity tax.
There is a third alternative: lift-
ing the ceiling on social security
taxes. Total earnings covered by the
social security program in 1959 were
$249 billion, of which $201 billion
was taxable. The balance of $48 bil-
lion was untouched by social security
taxes because it represented per
capita earnings above $4,800. The
present tax rate of 3 per cent for
both wage and payroll tax, or a total
7
of 6 per cent, applied to this $48
billion would yield $3 billion—three
times the Forand and McNamara
bills’ costs. If we merely increased
the ceiling from $4,800 to $6,000, we
would make another $17 billion of
earnings taxable. At 6 per cent, this
would yield $1 billion, or approxi-
mately the Forand-McNamara cost.
Thus, there is no need to increase
the payroll tax from 3 per cent to
3% per cent; new legislation could
be financed by extending the tax to
a higher’ bracket. Significantly,
Speaker Rayburn has suggested as
much.
The Forand and McNamara pro-
posals, for all their virtues, are ob-
viously inadequate to meet a cost of
$3-$4 billion for a complete medical-
care program for the aged. Is the
only solution to be found in the ulti-
mate increase of the social security
tax not by .025 per cent, but by
i 7 aS i oe a ee
. vin *
A sl (See
>». is
four times as much? Considering the
large burden which these taxes al-
ready constitute, and the fact that
they are due for a 50 per cent in-
crease over the next eight years even
without any new legislation for the
aged, clearly other solutions must be
sought.
Many people would agree that fi-
nancing out of general revenues is
the most equitable solution. But they
are afraid to press the argument be-
cause they think that to do so would
kill the whole program. Yet the Re-
publicans have not hesitated to pro-
pose financing their old-age health
measures through general revenues!
In politics, as in life, you should
fight for all you think you ought to
get and settle for the least that is
worth taking. While politics has been
defined as the art of the possible,
what is possible depends in part upon
the targets of those waging the fight.
THE ARMY PLEADS for SURVIVAL.. by Ratph Caplan
Fort Benning, Ga.
LT.-GEN. ARTHUR G. TRUDEAU,
the Army’s Chief of Research and
Development, stated a few weeks
ago that an army must be able to
do three things—“move, shoot and
communicate.” The General found it
necessary to make the statement be-
cause, in the minds and hearts of its
members, there is one other thing an
army must do: it must exist. And it
is no secret that nuclear develop-
ments have threatened the existence
of the Army by promising to render
it obsolete, just as they have threat-
ened the existence of mankind by
promising to render it dead. The
threat is most palpably evident in
the relative prosperity of the Air
Force, once a minor Army branch,
and the Navy, which once played the
role of a sort of hired carrier, design-
ed to take the Army where it was
going and support it once it got there.
These offspring now flourish like a
green bay tree of pre-strontium-90
RALPH CAPLAN, a former Ma-
rine, 1s editor-in-chief of the maga-
zine Industrial Design.
468
see a
vintage, while the Mother Service is
neglected.
In an ambitious move to dramatize
the Army’s continuing importance
and its increasing needs, the Depart-
ment of the Army this month con-
ducted Project Man, a_ three-day
conference and demonstration held
here “to acquaint key members of
the Executive branch of the govern-
ment, senior commanders, industry
and informational media with
the needs of a modern Army.”
Project Man gets its name from the
words M(odern) A(rmy) N(eeds),
but also from a peculiar humani-
tarian emphasis that finds Man at
the core of modern warfare just as
he was in the bow-and-arrow days.
What is Man that the Army is mind-
ful of him? He is, quite simply, “the
ultimate weapon,” a definition that
found its way into each _ visitor’s
night-table literature and out of the
mouths of Secretary of the Army
Brucker, Chief of Staff Lemnitzer,
and even a young Ranger captain I
met at the bar.
In his welcoming speech, General
-Lemnitzer expressed pleasure at the
ey
yg _ yo i,
i
~* Pe
we ,
iy -
opportunity to “stress the continued
pre-eminence on the military scene
of our-ultimate weapon, today’s sol-
dier.” This was the key refrain dur-
ing Project Man. When the killing
power of a nuclear warhead was de-
scribed, the description was enriched
with the warning that we must not
become complacent about atomic
power: after all, only Man could
wage war. (Why, without Man,
there was hardly any point in even
having war.)
Another theme without variation
had to do with inter-service rivalry.
Whenever an Army helicopter or
amphibious carrier appeared, some-
one was on hand to point out that
these were not competitive with the
more sophisticated equipment of the
other services. In discussing the need
for new and better air vehicles, Gen-
eral Trudeau modestly explained:
“We don’t want to fly very high or
very fast. But we would like to move
quietly over the nap of the earth.”
For me, Project Man commenced
the afternoon of May 2,when the Cur-
tiss-Wright company plane in which—
I was riding descended on Lawson
The Navion §
A 7 if
| Army Airfield. One of the reporters
sitting near a window yelled, “There
must be some brass landing. They
have an honor guard and a band.”
Not until we stepped off the plane
did we realize the reception was for
us. The band played Semper Fidelis
and a general shook my hand and
said, “We're sure glad you could
come.” “So am I,” I said. I was. It
was so much like a dreams-of-glory
fantasy that all I could think was
“Gee, the kids back home’ll never
believe this.” (Some of them didn’t.)
The band swung into the theme
from the movie Bridge on the River
Kwai and we were ushered into
buses. We had each been sent a
memorandum (in duplicate, natu-
rally) telling what to pack (“Each
guest should provide his own sun-
glasses. .. .”’) and an itinerary de-
tailed after the manner of armies
everywhere:
1530-1550 Open
1550-1600 Load on Buses
1600-1605 Enroute
1605-1610 Unload Buses
All three days’ activity was metic-
ulously scheduled this way, and
furthermore the schedule was ad-
hered to. Indeed, the entire affair
was superbly engineered. It is no
easy task to herd some 600 visitors
-— many of whom outrank you one
way or another — around a military
base the size of Fort Benning; and
_ the officers in charge did it with the
courteous firmness that is the Army
at its semi-social best.
WE ARRIVED at Building 2756-A,
registered, and signed a paper re-
lieving the Army of responsibility
for any injuries we might incur. Then
a colonel introduced himself and led
me to the nearby bar. He said that
Project Man was an important en-
-terprise for the Army, and he hoped
Id enjoy it and learn something.
We were joined by a Washington
reporter who said, “It’s about time
the Army did a little public rela-
tions, and I’m glad to see it happen-
ing. The Army’s been taking a ter-
_ rific pasting.” Other reporters agreed
that the Army had been getting a
_ bad press, and were equally pleased
_ to see that now it was doing some-
thing about it — courting the press,
_ for one thing.
P
May 28, 1960
. <
J aw
ison 2
~
‘The Army also purported to be
courting industry, although it was
not easy to identify the aggressor
in that particular romance. Most
industry representatives at Project
Man were receptive to the Army’s
case for more and better equipment,
because their business is selling the
equipment; they were, in effect, co-
sponsors. It would be unkind to say
that they were shills; the euphemism
in vogue during Project Man was
“allies.” But they were hardly dis-
interested allies. It was as though a
child were defending his need for an
electric train to an adult audience
consisting of his parents and three
salesmen from F.A.O. Schwartz.
THE Army-industry alliance was
shaken briefly in a speech by Sec-
retary Brucker, however. Having
pointed out that Man was not only
a tactical weapon, but actually a
strategic - weapons. system, Mr.
Brucker turned his attention to those
weapons that are made and not born.
In supplying them, immdustry “must
not allow the desire for profits to
assume greater influence in its plans
and activities than the desire to
serve the nation faithfully and
well,” he said, adding: “I have al-
ways considered any contract be-
tween the armed forces and an in-
dustrial supplier as a sacred cove-
nant for the good of America.” To
some industrialists this sounded sus-
piciously as though the Army
thought it deserved weapons wheth-
er it could pay for them or not.
“We’re not buying any of that,” one
said afterwards. A military writer
regarded this as the worst sort of
civilian cynicism, and said so. I
tried to remember the “true faith of
the Armorer” as described by Un-
dershaft, the weapons-manufacturer
in Shaw’s Major Barbara. Later I
looked it up: “To give arms to all
men who offer an honest price for
them, without respect of persons or
principles.”
At the heart of the Army’s argu-
ment was General Hugh Harris’ dec-
laration that, despite the advent of
nuclear warfare, “the traditional role
of the Army has not changed great-
ly.” His speech was followed by a
live-firing demonstration, showing
how a rifle company might conduct
a night defense operation, using ar-
tillery, flame tanks, illuminants and
rockets with nuclear warheads. Like
the other Project Man demonstra-
tions, it was accompanied by a run-
ning narration delivered in what I
came to think of as The Army Fo-
rensic Style—a loud, high-pitched
technique somewhere between Oral
Roberts and a radio fight announcer.
Obviously, the Fort Benning speech
coach is no exponent of Method
Acting. In the narration, as well as
on the field, a hypothetical enemy
was efficiently beaten. Later on I
asked a two-star general what the
enemy might have been doing while
we were scoring all those direct hits.
“Tt’s a problem,” he admitted.
“No one has ever hit on a realistic
way to simulate war. If you just
imagine an enemy, you have to
imagine his moves. On the other
hand, if you assign a unit to be the
enemy, you can’t use real firepower.
Also these things get competitive,
and although soldiers are supposed
to ‘stay dead’ once they’ve been
‘killed, a lot of them keep popping
up to seore points for their side.”
A WORD about generals. I had nevy-
er met one before, and here were
dozens all about me. As they sat
clustered in the bleachers, I watched
them, fascinated by how much they
look like generals. Their faces had
all the components of virile energy:
the tanned leathery skin, the clear
eyes, the crisp authoritative mouth,
the close-cropped, lead-gray hair.
But there was also something dis-
turbing in their faces and in their
very presence in the bleachers among
the rest of us, something alien and
inappropriate: humility. For the du-
ration of Project Man, they had
voluntarily subordinated their com-
mand to the collective interest. It
was not unselfish. It was done in
the hope of establishing that theirs
was not an outmoded calling. Like
the Rangers, who had put on a dis-
play of courageous athleticism in
hand-to-hand combat, the generals
were strong men of proven ability,
touchingly gathered in the convic-
tion that no H-bomb could make
their ability irrelevant. It was hard
not to wish that they were right.
Either way, the romance of their
469
competence seemed a sad, sad waste.
Without any question, the most
important single contribution to
Project Man was the appearance of
the President of the United States.
He sat thoughtfully with his head
cradled in one hand as the latest
equipment rolled by. After a demon-
stration of the speed with which a
missile could be set up for firing, the
narrator explained that it would not
be fired from its present position
because “if it were, everyone behind
it would be burned to a crisp.” The
President, who was sitting directly
behind it, laughed comfortably.
Later, at a firepower and airmobile
assault exhibition, he shook his head
admiringly as a guided rocket hit
the target, and occasionally stuck a
protective finger in his ear during
explosions.
At the conclusion, . Secretary
Brucker announced: “The paradox,
bo Vj
Mr. President and‘ladies and gentle-
men — the paradox is that none of
this would be possible without
Man.” It is sobering to think we
have a Secretary of the Army who
believes this is a paradox. Mr.
Brucker gave the President a cast
statuette of an infantryman, and
promised that we would each get
one that evening. Then President
Eisenhower—to the apparent sur-
prise of the officials—mounted the
rostrum. He gave the best speech I
have ever heard him give. Although
it was spontaneous, it had none of
the embarrassing syntax of his press
conference utterances; and although
it was not brilliant, the platitudes
were from the heart and not ghost-
ed. It was sincere, assured and movy-
ing, in much the same way that
Project Man itself was moving.
Whenever I am in a strange place
I am seized with a compulsion to
pe " 4 s F 5 i
; aleve AL ree .
f a o Peete, F crw, th ay Pe *
ss ‘a “_ , “ - ae
use the facilities, simply because
they are there; and when we came
to a twenty-minute open period I} tht
thought of getting a haircut or a} wi
shoe shine, or using one of the type- | “!
writers in the press room. Finally I} «
settled for the PX. Needing nothing, } te
but wanting to bring home some-| |
thing military, I bought a tube of | «
hair dressing called “Top Brass.” | it
I needn’t have done it, for when I } (i
got back to my room there was a } jit
small, white box on my pillow. In- | lw
side was my infantryman statuette. } 4
The front of it read, “Project Man”; | In
the back of it was an advertisement | p¢
for the Sperry Gyroscope Company. } w
The next morning I asked whether |
the President’s statuette also carried | m
a commercial, and I learned that it |
did. Well, nobody gets something | ¥
for nothing any more, which—any } '
way you look at it—is what Project } -
Man was all about. rl
DIALOGUES IN CUBA e « by Barbara Deming :
In all my thirty-eight years on
The New York Times, I have never
seen a big story so misunderstood,
misinterpreted, and badly handled as
the Cuban revolution.—Herbert Mat-
thews.
BEFORE my recent three-week stay
in Cuba, I had never played the role
of journalist, and I had certainly
never tried to play the role of ama-
teur ambassador; but after a few
days there, I found that I was exert-
ing myself in both roles. The fact
that I did so tells something about
Cuba at this present moment. Noth-
ing is more possible than to engage a
Cuban these days in earnest con-
versation about the new regime, and
about the misunderstandings between
his country and ours. You have only
to ask one question of a stranger
sitting next to you in a bus, and be-
fore a minute is out, the bus will
be a hubbub of discussion — every
passenger eager to add his word. The
only obstacle to communication that
BARBARA DEMING has had fic-
tion, poetry and criticism published
in many national magazines.
470
ihe a a —_— 2 — %
I encountered (aside from the fact
that I speak a minimum of Spanish,
and not all Cubans speak English)
was that they are so eager to talk to
Americans about what is happening,
that I sometimes found myself try-
ing to listen to two or three people
at once. No one was indifferent.
What is happening there is not some-
thing to which they passively sub-
mit, but something in which the
great majority of Cubans feel active-
ly engaged.
There is no blind following of
Castro. Those who are most en-
thusiastic freely describe him as
“loco” about some particular proj-
ect, or term him “Superman” for
wanting to think about everything
himself. “We make jokes about
everything, in Cuba,” a young vol-
unteer government worker told me.
“Our joke about Castro is, we call
him our kid. ‘That kid, he’s working
too hard,’ we say. It’s very, very
strange; we feel responsible for him.”
That attitude is also strangely con-
tagious — so much so that, at the
end of a week, having by then strong
feelings about Cuba’s relations with
the United States, I found myself
stepping into a taxicab and telling
the driver that I would like, please,
to talk with Fidel Castro.
When I admitted that I had no
idea where Castro might be found,
the driver pulled up to the curb and
consulted some men who were chat-
ting together. They advised me to
ask directions at the main police
station. There the matter was dis-
cussed again in an astonishingly in-
formal fashion. I was advised to ap-
ply for an interview at the INRA
building where, after explaining
something of my purpose before a
casual jumble of reception desks, I
was suddenly taken in tow by a
stranger who turned out to be an —
engineer, there this day to submit a —
rural electrification project to the
government. Overhearing my expla-
nations, he had decided that I had
“good feelings” and so took it upon
himself to steer me to the appropri-
ate officials. It was not, of course, as
easy as all that. The men in ques-
tion were naturally busy. But I
was asked to come back again; and
=
ee ee le, lee ee Ulm CO,
the difficulty of getting to see Castro”
(rata 1
, The N ATION
N
was explained to me in the simplest
human terms: he’d been up working,
the night before, until 5 A.M. Mean-
while the engineer led me off to meet
some other people, of the press and
radio, who might be able to arrange
the interview for me.
It should be apparent to the
reader by now that one widespread
impression among us is mistaken:
Cubans may be loudly critical of the
present policy of our government,
but they are not hostile toward the
American people. Nor is their friend-
liness simply the friendliness of a
people who want tourists. It is quite
unstrained. No Cuban with whom I
spoke treated with scorn my deter-
mination to try to see Castro. And
when I finally did manage an inter-
view in the manner that a num-
ber of people had begun to suggest
— by catching his eye in a public
place and asking whether I could
talk with him — the attitude of the
small crowd that soon surrounded
us was curiously protective. After
Castro left, many of them stayed
round me for an hour more — ask-
ing me about myself and elaborating
upon the words he had spoken.
* * *
The specific event that had caused
me to prolong my stay in Cuba was
the speech Castro made on March 6 at
the funeral for the men killed in the
explosion of the munitions ship, La
Coubre. He had declared that he
couldn’t help suspecting that those
who had tried to halt all shipments
of arms to Cuba (which is to say,
U.S. officials) were somehow re-
sponsible. His words had filled me
with confusion. Back home, I had
seen him described in public print
as a little dictator in the making.
But the vision of him in this role had
been dissolved for me by then —
confronted as I was by a population
enthusiastic, yet without fanaticism.
From one person after another I had
heard, in effect, the same words:
“For the first time we are full of
hopes, we feel that life is possible.”
Even those few people with whom I
had talked who were critical of Cas-
tro acknowledged that he was help-
_ ing the great majority and that his
_ regime was absolutely honest. A
_ taxi driver who was furious at him,
_ because he, the driver, depended on
ourists for a living — “And they’re
wt
ie
Revolucion (Havana)
not coming, they’re not coming!”
and Castro was to blame — de-
scribed him, in his wrath, in these
terms: “This island has always been
called a paradise. Now he wants to
actually make it one. He wants to
make it a gol-den saucer, a gol-den
saucer!” (I told the cabbie I had
never heard that. expression. “It’s
my own,” he said proudly.) The day
of the funeral speech, however, re-
vived in me the old doubts. Why
should Castro mouth such suspi-
cions — even while he admitted that
he had no proof?
I had not been staying in Havana
itself up to now, but now I moved
in, and my second night there I sud-
denly had a chance to voice the ob-
jections of an American to Castro’s
charges. I wandered by chance into
a crowd of people on the Prado who
were being solicited for contribu-
tions for arms for Cuba. Everyone
who donated something was allowed
to speak a few words into a micro-
phone, and a TV camera mounted
on a truck would catch his picture
for watchers throughout Cuba. Still .
troubled by my doubts, I hesitated
to make my own contribution, but
the eager faces of the girls asking
for donations made my hesitation
seem foolish, and I gave a few pesos.
Instantly a number of people stand-
ing in line to take their turns at the
microphone, waved and smiled at
me. “You are an American? That’s
- wonderful! Thank you, thank you!”
— and all beckoned to me to say
something too. One after another of
these people was crying a little
speech into the ‘rophone, Even
little children squeaked out some-
; AAP,
' Ac.
hae:
eed aes
thing with no shyness. (Fiery or-
atory, I noticed, is a national habit
here.) I instinctively shook my head
as they invited me to say my word.
Then I decided that if I had a pro-
test to make, FE should make it here.
So I asked the man who was passing
the microphone whether he could
translate for me, and I said: “Here’s
to Fidel Castro, and here’s to your
revolution. But may Castro come to
speak less violently against the
United States, and it may yet change
its heart toward him.” I rather ex-
pected my words to be disliked, but
when I looked about me, people
waved at me and cried again “Thank
you!” and the next day, when I went
to the Western Union office to send
a cable, the head of the office hur-
ried toward me, beaming, hand out-
stretched: “I want to thank you for
your cooperation with the Cuban
people. If I am not mistaken, I saw
you on television last night.”
* * *
That night, too, I began method-
ically to ask everyone I found who
could speak English: why did Castro
make such violent charges? I had
started asking this question on the
day he made the speech, and the
first answer I had been given had
seemed strange to me. “Don’t you
see? He was so hurt!” a young wo-
man had explained to me. It had
seemed strange to hear the state-
ments of a head of state explained
in such personal terms. And, I told
her, most Americans felt that, in the
face of Castro’s abuse of us, our
government had behaved with as-
tonishing restraint. In the coming
days, however, I was to hear repeat-
edly the same expression, “You must
understand, he was hurt,” and to
mark a look of wonder that I could
not appreciate that human fact.
Over these next two weeks — while
I persisted, too, in my attempt to _
manage a conversation with Castro
himself — I had long conversations
about the relations between our two
countries with scores of Cubans from
all walks of life. —
They would usually speak first of q
the refusal of our government to sell
Cuba arms, and of the strong pres- |
sure we had put on other govern-
ments to refuse them also. “Why are
we not to be allowed to defend our-
’ , .) oo a 3 a Ma Re eR SF Oa a Cae ee
; ea . yay wee ee
*
a
’
selves?” they would ask. Then they to enter the country. No such mis- girl opened orie of the boxes to show | ®
would bring up the raids over Cuba takes seemed to occur, they pointed me a diamond ring among the pesos a
by planes flying from airfields in out, when anyone tried to enter contributed. il
; Florida. There was not a day, I was whom the United States had named And so they look about with pride oo
told, when at least one plane did a Communist. And the United States and relief at the difference between ot
not come over. Many acres of sugar knew, they all said, that Batista’s the two regimes, and cannot under- mn
cane had been destroyed by fire men were not idle there. Men known stand why we are suddenly full of po
bombs (“and sugar is our liveli- to be plotting against, say, the gov- protests about this one. They all
hood”); sugar mills had been at- ernment of England, would never be conclude that the United States does th
tacked; even 100-pound bombs had given such freedom : not want Cuba to be independent; :
that it wants her to remain in the il
It seemed unreal to all these peo- position of a colony. Ba
ple that we should be indifferent to * * ~ de
been dropped; and a raid on Havana
on October 21 had caused the death
of two people, the wounding of al-
most fifty. The United States did the aeLEe of these men now in our By now I knew to what they re- i
little to prevent these flights. I as- midst; and it seemed unreal, too, ferred when they explained Castro’s e
sured them: Our government natu- that we should be indifferent ee the words about ‘the United States in d
rally deplored the raids, but it wasn’t ee between the oe Fegime terms: of; “hurt.” Te still seemed to h
easy to prevent them. How was one er : 7 oe ae are oe me a strange explanation. Did they i
to keep a pilot from lying about his 1S 1X eM a4 Cause, still, o era not expect diplomacy of their Prime |
destination? Again the response was wonder. Person after Lae eda iets Minister? When I finally did, by
a look at me and a smile — as though remark, to me howsamamue i was chance, late one afternoon, catch 5
I were a child. If planes had been 1° be able to look ae a soldier i 2 sight of him standing on the side- bi
making similar raids into Canada, policeman without fear. And in t re walk outside the Sevilla Biltmore :
they said, they couldn’t help feeling °Y°° the youth wo ae ae Hotel, I stepped up to him and ask- .
that the U.S. government would S™&€tS ae 3 aed aye lag ed my questions directly of him. _
have managed by now to stop them. "°° on cs lit a 7 I introduced myself as an Ameri- :
Beciv aint eA Gee OL Race ee the Catholic priests wit can distressed at the poor relations
a 3 P whom I talked explained to me with existing between our two countries. W
would bring wp the subject of the feeling: Army barmgeks ate being 7 did understand; [cold Him nace
Batista henchmen to whom we allow converted into schools all over the he had cause for bitterness; but, I 9p
asylum: Ventura, Laurente, Masfer- jj .,q. (This is onewef the ‘changes gaid. fie angry ronds were! lone th
oe Rane) fe eee bt people talk most about.) And the him friends in the United States — ke
political refugees, they would say; jnilitia that one sees everywhere is eyen those who might well be his to
they oe known eae killers and sa- voluntary — “the first completely friends. For several minutes his an- oy
dists. There is a gesture in Cuba voluntary army in hjstory;” the swers to me were a prolonged echo hy
where the speaker touches the corner priest boasted. “The army can no of all I had been hearing from other w
of his eye, meaning: I have seen it. longer threaten the people of Cuba. Cubans. “How would you feel—?” ha
This Bertin wae repeated for me The people of Cuba are the army.” he asked me, and again: “How would iN
many times. There is scarcely a per- It is not only the disappearance you feel—?” naming again for me all Y
son to whom one speaks whose fam- of terrorism that they speak of the damaging acts, or omission of f%
ily has been untouched by Batista’s with wonder. Terrorism under Ba- acts, that had been named for me (0
eepfusers) “bens 17/000 (bans. were tista was matched by corruption. by one person after another. “How
murdered by them, In;Havana-alone The facts of this, too, are vivid in would you feel?” His hand touched th
they castrated 300 men and boys, so every mind. Over and over someone’ my arm. His appeal to me was per-
people said. Some of the tortures | ouiq name for me the exact figures sonal—quite as though I had been m
, they perfected are almost unspeak- oF ome monstrous example of graft. trying, say, to reconcile him to a th
able. One woman told me with emo- | TJnder Batista, a social worker told mutual friend who had disappointed it
aye! Hon ot the treatment dealt ott to her me, it used to be that a man would him. to
i Beyer, A Batista henchman had had go into the government and within I reiterated: I understood why he i
7 ep PRUE and down on the six months you could count on his was bitter. But wasn’t he letting bit- an
¥ boy’s stomach until everything in- being a millionaire. It was something terness confuse his own actions now A
ae | side him was broken. The fellow re- sj-qnge, she said, if this didn’t hap- _—when he went so far as to accuse he
5 sponsible “is now a leader of the jen, One of the first things the heads _ the United States of complicity in the me
, ‘anti-Communists’ in Miami,” the of the present government did was munitions-ship explosion, of actual [¥
? woman told me. “There is your anti- to seduce their own salaries. Pride crime? He was quick to deny this: §%
Communist man! You must try to jn this new honesty is one of the he had not accused them. “The peo- t
understand why we are so hurt.” most conspicuous elements in the ple around me, advising me, would x
> When the Batista men were men- revolutionary movement. A man_ never have let me say such a thing. h
F tioned, I would urge the difficulties pointed out to me the little boxes [I said that I had no proof. But,” he hy
of forbidding asylum. And it was being passed about for contributions added, “I have a right to wonder.” h
through a mistake, I would point for arms. “And nobody touches a_ A right to wonder out loud? I asked.
out, that Pedraza had been allowed penny!” he cried; “this is holy!” A The point was, he tried to explain, —
472 The “ A’ 1ON-
‘
that if the United States had. not
attempted so persistently to block
all sale of arms to Cuba, such a thing
could never have happened. United
States hostility had created an at-
mosphere in which the crime was
possible.
I told him that I had recently read
the speech he had made in October,
1953, before the court which tried
him for his early rebellion against
Batista. (This speech, published un-
der the title “History Will Absolve
Me,” [ recommend to anyone wish-
ing to make a considered judgment
of Castro.) I said that I had often
heard Americans worry that he
might be a potential Mussolini or
Hitler; I had decided that one who
spoke as he did in that speech never
could become another such figure.
But listening to his words at the
funeral, I had not been sure. Again,
he looked at me hard.
The crowd had pressed us close
together by “now, and someone be-
hind me was holding onto my waist,
with warm hands, as though I were
a child she or he were helping to
speak up. It seemed to me, I said,
that in his fight against Batista, his
genius had been to win new adherents
to his cause from the ranks of the
opposition. That is how his army
had grown. And in a recent talk to
school children, I reminded him, he
had urged the children, in their deal-
ings with the children of those who
spoke against the revolution, to “win
them over with friendliness, not with
contempt.” Was he not forgetting
that principle in his dealings with
the United States?
In the beginning, he answered me
now with emphasis, he had done just
this—had tried to ask for under-
standing. But how was he to hope
to reach the people of the United
States, he asked, when between him
and the American people was the
American press? He spoke with a
hopelessness conspicuously sincere. I
persisted: it was not impossible to
communicate with the American
people. Must he not continue to try
to make himself clear—thinking al-
ways, when he spoke, of those Amer-
icans who cou/d understand him? He
had gone on trying for a long time,
he said. I asked, must he not keep on
trying still? He looked at me then
and shrugged his shoulders forward
“May 28, 1960
‘
i
eloquently. “You would like me to
be like Christ,” he said. I answer-
ed: “I would like you ‘to be like
Gandhi in his conversations with the
British.” “The people of Cuba. are
like Gandhi,” he answered quickly.
I had referred once more to his
funeral speech, when he suddenly
put his hand on my arm again:
“Don’t you see? It is not to the
United States that I am talking. I
am talking to the people of Cuba.”
He spoke now at length and with
feeling: “Don’t you understand? I
have to build up in the Cuban peo-
ple a national conscience. I have to
teach them what their true situation
is. I have to make them aware of
what lies before them, to be done
and to be suffered. How did George
Washington have to speak to his
soldiers at Valley Forge?”
He was elaborating upon _ this
theme when two N.B.C. men, who
had found their way through the
crowd, asked him if he would grant
them a televised interview the next
day. He tried at first to decline; he
was terribly busy; also, he spoke
awkward English, and he might not
say things well. I asked whether
there couldn’t be a chance for him
to see the interview played back
first, before approving it. Impossible,
the reporter said, shortly. Castro
turned to me suddenly now and pat-
ted me on the shoulder: “She’s a
good girl. She advises me not to get
angry.”
The newsmen then, pencils in
Cartoon Bp Mieropito ‘aevane)
ZOOLOGY LESSON
“The flamingo lives in Florida marshes;
when airplanes pass, it buries its head.”
hand, began to ask some of their own
questions. The revolution, Castro
tried to explain, was not really
against the interests of the American
people. It was true that a very small
group of them would lose something.
“We can’t help this,” he said. “You
had a revolution once. There were
changes, weren’t there? And didn’t
the British lose something?” “We’re
reporters,” said the N.B.C. man.
“We're here to ask you questions.”
Castro looked surprised. But he went
on: the revolution was hurting the
interests of a small group of monop-
olists. “Are you against monop-
olists?” asked the newsman quickly.
“T’m not against!” Castro cried, with
a helpless emphatic gesture; “I am
for the Cuban people.” (I noted that
this outcry was omitted from the ac-
count of the interview in next morn-
ing’s Havana Post, an English-speak-
ing publication there.) “We are in
favor of the Cuban people. We are
against those who are not,” he was
simply reported as saying. Nor was
there any account of what had been,
for me, the heart of his self-explana-
tion: his comparison of his own role
to that of Washington at Valley
Forge.
I came to believe that afternoon
that Castro’s words are not really
weighed in terms of a reaction to
them in the United States. I came
to realize also that his very lack of
diplomacy in speech, so disastrous
where the relations between our two
countries were concerned, had for
his Cuban audience a special value:
“Would you want him to be a
hyprocrite?” people had been asking
me all these days. Batista had in-
deed been a “good politician,” quite
able to keep his mouth shut when
it was diplomatic to do so. With
Castro, Cubans feel secure in the
knowledge that whatever comes into
his head, he will say. When this leads
to some exaggeration, they make al-
lowances: “Remember, he is young.”
The point is: he is not trying to
keep anything back from them.
They feel that they share, for the
first time, in what is going on. An
edge of pride is no doubt involved,
too. As the French wife of an exiled
Haitian newsman said, with delight:
“They have had to speak carefully
for so long. This is an important
-~moment for them!”
473
—
an
ay
a
‘a
BOOKS ane We ‘ARTS.
The Absorbing Love of Man
ON THE SOCIOLOGY OF MEDI-
CINE. By Henry E. Sigerist. Milton
I. Roemer, M.D., editor. MD Publi-
cations. 397 pp. $6.75.
ON THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE.
By Henry E. Sigerist. Felix Marti-
Ibanez, M.D., editor. MD Publica-
tions. 313 pp. $6.75.
George A. Silver
HENRY SIGERIST was a man who
felt deeply that medicine was a social
service, and history became for him a
means of promulgating this belief. As
evidence of this approach, the selections
in these books are excellent; in addition
they are _astutely chosen to illuminate
his varied interests and the depth and
range of his knowledge. (The volume of
historical essays was actually compiled
by him a year or so before his death.)
As he said of Paracelsus, so it can be
said of him:
He was a scientist in search of a
philosophy of medicine. He
wanted to understand the world
which he was living and man’s part
in it in health and disease.
Dr. Sigerist was both a scientist
and a scholar, but he was able to
transmit his own excitement as a com-
mon touch because he devoured life with
great appetite, cramming experiences of
several careers into his sixty-five years;
his clear and simple style of writing re-
flects his own eager wonder and zest:
What I wrote I have lived, and
it has enriched my life so tremendous-
ly that I thought others might bene-
fit from my experience.
His grasp of language was prodigious.
Although his native languages were
French and German, he learned to write
English with ease and grace and did
all the writing of his maturer years in
that language. Thus he was able to
transmit the sense of continuity which
is the hallmark of a dedicated historian.
Whether -he wrote of tea or truffles, of
doctors or patients, of drugs or regimens,
we see how they relate to the magic of
the past and the folly of the present.
Some of his appeal as a historian lies
‘in his serious courtesy to men of distant
“unscientific” times:
GEORGE A, SILVER, M.D., is chief
of the Division of Social Medicine at
Montefiore Hospital in New York.
I... strongly felt that such a man
was not a fool [Paré] and that a
treatment that he applied and con-
stantly found efficacious could not
be a mere superstition.
They [the Mandeville papers]
give delightful sidelights on the prac-
tice of medieval surgeons.
This feeling for the quality of another
time he carried over into a tolerance for
the different and untraditional in our
own time. Not only was he politically
very much of the Left — a position de-
rived from his philosophic Marxism and
strong Socialist ethic — but he saw de-
sirable values in unconventional treat-
ment (onions for burns, the efficacy of
spas), in new orientation of medical edu-
cation and practice and, of course, in
internationalism of science. He writes
vividly of the importance of understand-
ing difference and treasuring it.
Much of Sigerist’s appeal derives
from his absorbing love of man and his
works. He wanted to know all about
every man. From his earliest student
days he grasped at the elusive omnis-
cience of language. He qualified in
Oriental studies at the Sorbonne before
he studied medicine. All his life he rest-
lessly traveled, always studying more
languages.
For the last fifty years I have de-
voted one half hour to language
studies every morning, learning and
practicing Greek, Sanskrit, Arabic,
Russian — whichever I happened to
be interested in at the moment or,
needed most for my work.
On a long table in the “Casa Serena”
(his home in Switzerland during his
last years), were newspapers and maga-
zines he read currently in English,
French, Italian, German, Spanish, Rus-
sian and Chinese at least, with added
publications from friends in a dozen
other languages. As he mastered a lan-
guage he learned to enjoy the literature,
adding to the pleasure of a famihar
translation by reading the original.
Language, literature and social aspira-
tions became tied together in his mind
and gave him appreciation and respect
for the varied cultures he came to know,
During his life he visite d every corner
of the world and wrote
sensible travel essays, oF penetrating
reviews of medical rr ice or social
e charming and
policy. But invariably he tried to be
friendly and understanding. His criticism
was never unfeeling or patronizing. So-
cial comment and criticism is applied in
a personal form, so that the problem is
seen not abstractly, but in human terms.
And I also wish that I may be .
granted to end my life at home and
not in the hospital... . Many exami-
nations and treatments are impos-
sible or at least very difficult outside
of a hospital. But it is a dreary place,
nevertheless, with its sterile-looking
rooms, bare walls, high beds, and the
necessary but rigid routine that
makes it so difficult to rest... . How
much nicer it is to be sick at home
where we have our books, where the
cat takes the place of the hot-water
bottle, and where we may count on
a decent cup of tea.
THE DISTINCTION between these
two collections is largely artificial, since
historical and _ sociological elements
mingle and interweave in the essays in
both books. The “History” has the ad-
vantage of having been selected by
Sigerist himself, and obviously it is a
collection of memorable, congenial and
substantial work. (“The Physician’s
Profession Through the Ages,” “On Hip-
pocrates.”) But the “Sociology” has
important virtues in that the scholar’s
mind can be seen at work, ranging over
the political and social issues of our and
other times, or displaying the image of
new countries reflected in a sensitive in-
telligence. (“The Place of the Physician
in Modern Society,” “Nationalism and
Internationalism in Medicine,” “From
Bismarck to Beveridge,” “Report on
India.”)
These essays breathe the spirit and
mind of the great teacher and_ social
philosopher I knew and revered. His
voice and gestures appear unbidden at
certain passages, and the deep perspec-
tive of his insight. For example, looking
at the special position of the sick,
sympathy did not blind him to the real-
ities of human relationships. So of social
security he says: \
With this institution [social secur-
ity|, the worker acquires a right to-
He is no more at —
help and care... .
the merey of society, .. . The priv-
ileged position which he enjoys as a
sick person is one which he has...
earned through. his abe ee”
But ue he adds: Ms SAS
a
The Nati
*
1
df
ple
aha
oth
phe
del
pu
Cau
unt
His
to
=
q
Ni
ty
Wut
aI
Ni,
“Ate
iL
Mh
A
y
“rs er ts ' . yarn ov
‘The firmer the privileged position
of the sick, the sooner will the in-
clination appear to take that position
voluntarily, to escape from the strug-
gle of living into sickness.
And he tempers this:
It is . . . necessary to avoid using
the vulgar word malingerer. .. . A
man who has succumbed before the
stress of life, who can find no other
way to save himself than to flee into
the safety of illness, is a wounded
creature.
And so:
The stigma of sinfulness and the
stigma of being less worthy [former
connotations of illness] have been in
large measure removed from the sick,
but a new burden... the stigma of
. being an antisocial human being
and . in many cases a criminal
[has been placed on them}.
These two volumes are the distillate
of powerful intellectual experiences ap-
plied to the medical scene. Through the
glass of history we are brought to see
the earnest search of generations of
other minds to help and heal mankind.
In that glass we see too the blind and
brutal things man has done — can do
— to subvert this help and healing. And
in it all is the picture of medicine today
and the shape of medicine tomorrow.
DURING his last years, Sigerist paid a
price for his outspoken leftism, his firm
defense of academic freedom, his es-
pousal of radical medical (and _ social)
causes. His academic position became
untenable. The great Institute of the
History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins
to which he had given brilliant form
The Ashes
THE GLORIOUS FAULT: The Life of
Lord Curzon. By Leonard Mosley.
Harcourt, Brace & Co. $5.95.
a
TS i SSS
Horace Gregory
POSTERITY is not kind to Lord Cur-
zon (1859-1925), the first and last Mar-
~ quess Curzon of Kedleston. Biographies
_ of his contemporaries, whom he regard-
ed as lesser than himself, give him swift,
brief mention; often as not, his name re-
‘4 mains unlistéd in indices. Once known
wherever English was read or spoken—
HORACE GREGORY is a poet, critic
and biographer. His most recent book is
‘The World of James McNeill Whistler
(Tho as Nelson & Spay:
and direction was left behind and he
secluded himself in Pura “to write un-
interrupted.” He never completed the
twelve volumes of medical history and
sociology he had set himself as the goal
of his life’s work. He liked people and
conferences and talks and visits too
much to lock himself in the harsh grip of
of the study until the huge work was
done.
Some say the material we have is really
the Sigerist History and Sociology and
that we should be content, but I don’t
believe it. I see how the doctor’s job is
illuminated in new and unexpected ways
from one essay to another (“The Physi-
cian’s Profession,” “University Educa-
tion,” “Thoughts on the Physician’s
Writing and Reading” and “The Place
of the Physician in Modern Society”),
but I wonder how much more he might
not have added in later discussion. I see
the patient in “The Special Position of
the Sick” and in “Living Under the
Shadow” and I wonder what more he
might have been able to add. Perhaps
if he could have stayed in America, in
the midst of activity and with a stream
of visitors and students, he might, par-
adoxically, have found the time to
work on his great dream. As it was he
fled the isolation of his retreat. From
Pura he went to Italy, Belgium, Eng-
land, Russia, China, always off some-
where to see what was going on — to
be doing something, not to write.
But the writings Sigerist did leave
are meaningful, important and timely;
these essays, like his great lectures in
Civilization and Disease, like American
Medicine, Man and Medicine and The
Great Doctors (recently reprinted as a
paperback) offer lessons he taught that
are yet to be learned.
of Power
“a great Viceroy of India,” he was called
—the very archetype of the Tory dip-
lomatist, statesman, politician; today he
re-emerges as none of these, but rather
as a symbol of past errors, not quite
ridiculous, yet in his last years of defeat,
a little less than tragic.
Curzon was like a character drawn out
of British fiction, the English milord
who glittered in society: Trollope antic-
ipated his arrival in Silverbridge, the
Tory son of a Liberal Prime Minister,
who married an American heiress (Cur-
zon’s two wives were American heir-
esses); he was also anticipated by the
hero-villains of “Ouida’s” early novels,
and it is no surprise that Curzon and
“Ouida” heartily admired each other;
nor is it strange that Elinor Glyn, the
lady novelist on a tiger rug, became
Curzon’s mistress. In Evelyn Waugh’s
Vile Bodies, Lady Metroland resembles
the type of American heiress who be-
came Curzon’s second wife.
Leonard Mosley has written a lively,
partisan, anti-Curzon biography — be-
cause Curzon fascinated him, as well he
might. The book has an air of adven-
turous excitement which is appropriate
to the great rise and fall of Curzon’s
fortunes. Mosley calls Curzon “feudal,”
and that is not quite accurate, for Cur-
zon was less feudal than Victorian
Gothic, overtly towering in his ambi-
tions and talents, an offense to the archi-
tecture around him, a bit monstrous in
Edwardian days, and more than a shade
inhuman. Whenever he did the right
thing (the restoration of the Taj Mahal
in India and the “Stately Homes” in
England are examples of his rightness),
he had the fatal knack of making it
seem wrong.
WHAT was wrong with Curzon? So
much seemed right for him to make a
masterly career. He was the son of the
Reverend Lord Scarsdale, was educated
at Eton and Oxford, and had little ready
money—circumstances which are often
a spur to actual achievements. He was
both an industrious and precocious boy,
and in that sense a step ahead of his
generation. He was attractive to women,
another mark in his favor. True enough,
his spine was crippled by an early fall
from a horse, but since he courageously
wore a leather harness which held him
straight, his injury need not have de-
formed his behavior. Men have suffered
illnesses and have outridden pain to their
greatest accomplishments. Even the sa-
distic-masochist pattern in his behavior,
hinted at by his biographer, cannot ex-
plain his fall at forty from Viceroy of
India—to the Foreign Office, and then to
positions in the Cabinet where the office
of Prime Minister always eluded him.
His flaw was a moral flaw. That ‘his
ambitions were completely wordly is
clear enough. His marriages were con-
trived (on his part) for the sake of
money, and had an air of strangeness
in a man as romantic as he. At Balliol,
he amassed more skills at gaining prizes
—the Lothian Essay Prize was one—
than in true scholarship. He was myopic
in his reach for prizes and honors; he—
mistook notoriety for fame, display of
power for actual power, and like many
men of wealth, he became possessed by
power madness which he lacked the art
to conceal. That was why he found. so
few friends among his immediate asso-
ciates in the Cabinet. His enemies feared
475
him less than his friends; they saw him
clearly as the weak spot in the Tory
party. Because his drive for power made
every man his enemy, he betrayed and
lied to his associates with the greatest
ease.
Curzon’s appointment as Viceroy to
India was the true turning point of his
career: at the Durbar the sight of mil-
lions bowing at his feet gave rise to the
power madness that seized him, blinded
him. His quarrel with the British Army,
his underrating the political shrewdness,
of Kitchener (who like so many modern
generals was a political general), were
signs of Curzon’s blindness. He returned.
to England unaware that the rest of his
life would turn into an extended career
of humiliations, outwardly glorious in
the honors he won, inwardly corrosive.
Because they were less visible than the
occupancy of 10 Downing Street, the
honors of running the Foreign Office had
become humiliations. It was as though
the twentieth century had conspired
against him.
The Kremlin
THE KREMLIN. By David Douglas
Duncan. New York Graphic Society.
168 pp. $25.
A. Hyatt Mayor
THE PHOTOGRAPHER of Picasso’s
private life has now turned his camera,
loaded with the brightest Kodachrome,
on the Kremlin. Strange and strenuous
as it was to spend a day with Picasso, it
is stranger still to accompany Mr. Dun-
can as he looks at the midnight sun set-
ting behind the fantastic black towers,
or as his strobe lights strike the brocades,
the silver, gold, ivory, sables, pearls and
rubies that centuries of Tsars have
hoarded in the strong dim rooms of the
Kremlin. Though Mr. Duncan was not
allowed to move any object or even to
_ open any exhibition case, he got remark-
ably clear photographs, which Jan
Schwitter in Basel has reproduced bril-
lantly. These eighty-three color plates
take us close to the incredibly clumped
and encrusted riches of ancient Russian
ceremonial, and make us experience
them more vividly than the elaborate
and very clearly drawn. lithographs of
the nineteenth-century folios by Vel’tman
and Solntsev. Mr. Duncan’s text at-
tempts to startle even more than his il-
Justrations, but this does not really mat-
A, HYATT MAYOR is Curator of
Prints at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art. |
476
J
Te ee cee, ete ae
ter, since Arthur Voyce wrote an ex-
cellent English account of the Kremlin
in 1954, Still, ir is a pity that Mr. Dun-
can felt that he had to orchestrate his
prose in Time-style, with bass drums
and vox humana, because the plain un-
varnished chronicle of the Kremlin is
quite enough to stand one’s hair on end.
Every government housed there has been
as close and as secret as Mr. Khrush-
chev’s. Revolutions do not change the
basic habits of a people, especially a
people as conservative as the Russians.
PROBABLY no complex of buildings in
the world has concentrated so much of
a people’s life for so long a time. From
the mid-1300s (a little after the death
of Giotto and Dante) until 1713, when
Peter the Great transferred the capital
to St. Petersburg, the walls of the Krem-
lin enclosed the secular and ecclesiasti-
cal governments of Russia as well as
the direction of its artistic life through
the imperial workshops for painting,
weapons and goldsmith work. It was
therefore inevitable that the Soviet gov-
ernment should establish itself there and
should keep the buildings in perfect
order: every revolutionary government
seeks to prove its legitimacy by taking
over and preserving the symbols of tra-
ditional power. As soon as revolution-
aries lay down their guns, they pick up
trowels and begin to restore national
monuments.
In the nineteenth century the Tsars
who, like everybody else, had read Sir
Walter Scott, followed the antiquarian
patriotism of the time by repairing the
neglect of the eighteenth century, and
by turning the Kremlin into even more
of a stage set for the drama of their an-
cestors. Thus the ancient Tsars’ private
apartments became an amateurish Rus-
sian Williamsburg, the surviving monu-
ment being blurred with repaints, im-
ported antiques and imaginative recon-
structions. Recently, the excellently
trained and intelligent Soviet art his-
torians have stripped off these embar-
rassing additions to reveal the beauty
of the ancient architecture and the
somber, tender glory of the Byzantine
wall paintings.
Ancient Russian architecture and dec-
oration disconcert us by their smashing
opulence, their packed outburst of com-
plexity. Such high spirits might appeal
more to Turks and Syrians than to
Frenchmen and Englishmen, just as the
Russians themselves seem to be more
relaxed and deft when dealing with the
East than with the West. To under-
stand Russian art we
tradition very different from ours, one
that took over a le; dership of Greek
a
$n Me ay iD
lust penetrate a
tne
orthodoxy when Byzantium fell, and fy,
therefore could throw itself into the §;
Greek Revival, in about 1800, more to-
tally than we, who inherit Greece only
at second hand. And during the Middle
Ages, the Tartar Golden Horde had
turned Russia toward the nomad art of
bright color and scattered pattern, thus
shutting the country off from the ex-
perience of Gothic architecture, which
taught the West of Europe that a domi-
nating vision can fuse structure and
decoration into one simple flow.
Although the Kremlin is built of brick
and stone, the old Russians, like the
eighteenth-century Yankees, felt more
at ease with wood, which their exuber-
ance carved and turned, extended in
verandas, threw up into rooms as tall
as silos, and blew into onion domes,
with every board painted in colors that
make a Bucks County barn look drab.
Some of the wooden churches remain, §)
though nothing is left of the wooden
palaces, one of which had 3,000 windows.
Yet if the old Russians had not had
their fling with wood, they never could
have used brick and stone with that
captivating madness which stops us in
our tracks with admiration when Mr.
Duncan photographs it in the eerie
arctic light.
ART
Fairfield Porter
THROUGHOUT May the Chalette
Gallery is exhibiting a collection of
Constructivist painting. This show cov-
ers the history of Constructivism from
the pioneers — Malevich, Kandinsky,
Van Doesburg, Vantongerloo, Mon-
drian, Lissitsky, etc—to the present;
the youngest are Agam and Ris, both
of whom were born in 1928. But why
not Rheinhardt, Bolotowsky and Xce-
ron? When it closes in New York, the
exhibition will travel around the coun-
try; according to such part of the sched-
ule as has been settled, it will be in
the Cincinnati museum from July 1 to
October, at the Chicago Arts Club in
November and December, and from
January 15 at the Walker Art Center
in Minneapolis.
The catalogue of the exhibition be-
gins with a quotation from Appolin-
aire: “But it may be said that geome-
try is to the plastic arts what grammar |
is to the art of the writer.” This is fol-
lowed by a preface written by Michel
Seuphor, one of + fifepons exhibi-
tors, notable, ie an angry denunei tion
bie ATs. OR IT a
‘of the “vogue of informal, lyrical, erup-
tive painting. . . . Thus the surrealist
menace of the twenties reappears in
another form. For ten years we
have witnessed this release of torrents
of mud and of intestinal matter in
which remains of viscera, a whole vis-
cous mass in the process of decomposi-
tion, can sometimes be made out.”
Against this visceral matter, produced
by a “failure of adaptation to the en-
vironment created by the century,”
Seuphor opposes “a return to simple
rules, to the limitation of means, to a
certain deliberate poverty” where “cold
reason, the most arid calculation, will
suit art’s purpose perfectly. . . . I see
a return to rigor . . . the artist’s per-
sonality expressing itself in spite of it,
and almost in spite of himself.” “I be-
lieve that it is . . . much more diffi-
cult to make an abstract painting than
a successful figurative painting.”
ALMOST all the paintings are geomet-
rical; that is, the shapes are bounded
by straight edges and arcs of circles.
And the exceptions, like Arp’s irregular
Scurves or the coarse, neat textures of
‘Kandinsky, which are not precisely
geometrical, still have such sharp or
-contrasty definitions of shape that they
count as artificial instead of natural,
‘as isolated instead of part of an ambi-
ence, and therefore they belong to an
ideal world of mathematics, and not to
-an empirical world. Albers and Va-
arely believe that modern techniques
make it possible and desirable that a
work of art be no longer unique, but
can and should be ultimately machine-
“made and _ indefinitely reproducible.
“And so these abstractionists take sci-
ence as the precedent for their art—or
at least engineering. They do not make
‘the distinction between science and art
that has been expressed very clearly by
Suzanne Langer in her essay “Abstrac-
f tion in Art and Abstraction in Sci-
ence”: that artistic abstraction is unique
and scientific abstraction is general.
In some paintings of this school, no-
ably Albers’ (though not in this show),
and Agam’s “kinetic” paintings, with
_their fluted bases covered with triangu-
las vertical ridges that make the under-
: ying pattern of ellipses shift as you pass
_—in these paintings there is the pleasure
_ of optical illusion, as if expressing a re-
bellion against the self-imposed disci-
pline. By teasing the spectator, the
inter gets his revenge against his own
-gativism. The colors remain in the
Memory as red, white and blue, with
e black, and less yellow and green.
e exhibition resembles a congress of
1 oR —_ ae ee
neat. And still, in spite of the austerity
of each painting, the total effect of this
display of the flags of personality is more
rich and various than an average “ab-
stract-expressionist” exhibition, where,
though a single painting has more va-
riety, a whole show presents a monotony
as of the sea. Here sharpness clarifies
personal difference.
Even without the ferocity of the mani-
festo, these paintings express a ferocity
only secondarily directed against the
spectator. It is first of all directed by
the artist against himself. But the spec-
tator, whose tendency is empathically
to identify with any work of art, will
feel this tightness in himself.
IT IS the pretension of the Construc-
tivist that he sees more profoundly than
another artist: he sees below appearance.
He believes he is closer to reality. Re-
ality is geometry. Constructivism im-
plies the comment about realistic art
that it is not real enough; about Im-
pressionism that it is too feminine, too
concerned with subtleties; and about
Cubism, that it is not pure enough. Inso-
far as the Constructivist sees the reality
below the surface in a Platonic way he
adheres to the traditional view that
spirit and intellect are higher than ma-
teriality, and that the aim of civilization
is the development of a disembodied in-
tellect. This requires sublimation, which
in turn requires repression. The repres-
sion is the origin of the rigidity of line
and immaculateness of surface. The firm
lines, the colors that are not colors seen,
but colors intellectually understood, the
general quality that any Constructivist
painting can be reproduced, and even
completely explained verbally, devalues
the bodily life of the sensations. The
painting substitutes a new life of sen-
sation based on the world of sublimated
art. And finally, repression exists as a
method whereby one adapts oneself to
worldly and external reality. What
Seuphor denounces is the disorderly
world of the body. What he believes in
is “adaptation to the environment cre-
ated by the century”: he believes that
what exists most truly now, the reality
underlying present appearance, contains
the moral imperative to adjust. “Pov-
erty, coldness, aridity” are all his words;
the poverty, coldness and aridity of the
state of soul of a person who Suppresses
his instincts. And the rigor is justified
by his belief that it is “more difficult
to make an abstract painting than a suc-
cessful figurative painting,” because in
the former case you fight your instincts
instead of using them. Value is meas-
ured by the artist’s suffering.
All this sounds very negative. What
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do these paintings have? For they do
have something, or one would not bother
to look at them. For one thing, the
artist’s personality expresses itself in
spite of the rigor, “through the meshes
of a discipline that he imposes on him-
self.” For instance, there is a great deal
of difference between the personality of
a painting by Mondrian, in which a rec-
tangle of yellow is carefully and exactly
banished to the edge of the canvas by a
central square of blankness, and a paint-
ing by Nicholson, with its weak friend-
liness, also expressed in rectangles. Or
between Vantongerloo’s few horizontal
bars, so ingeniously and spaciously ex-
tending the width of the canvas, and
Malevich’s flashy scatter of quadrilat-
erals. Or consider the delicacy and pre-
cise lyricism of Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s
rhythmical arrangement.
THERE is truth in the observation that
this painting is “Communist.” The com-
bination of radicalism with a disclipin-
ing of the individual, the desire for ab-
solute order, the polemics associated
with the movement, the simplification
of problems to black and white, or to
colors as invariable counters abstracted
from actual sensation, in the way that
Marx abstracted capitalism from the
machinations of individuals in the mar-
ket—all this is like Communist abstrac-
| tion of the idea from the particular. And
the three countries where Constructivism
| counted most were the three countries
| where Marxist ideas had the most in-
,
tense life in the decade following the
First World War: the Netherlands of
Pannekoek, the Germany of Rosa Lux-
Seuphor’s preface even has a Trotskyist
literary style.
The limitation of this painting is, in
addition, the limitation of painting that
is not primarily a painter’s painting (the
painter in Mondrian was repressed al-
most out of existence) but rather an
engineer’s or architect’s or industrial de-
signer’s painting. Man is pushed away
—insofar as he will not adapt to the
machine—as he is pushed away from a
hallway by Gropius, where one expects
to see ball bearings roll, but where peo-
ple have only a statistical life, and
clothes are like mechanical constrictions.
And though this painting comes out of
radicalism and revolt, it is in the anoma-
Jous position of so much modern archi-
tecture and Marxism-in-practice. Archi-
tects, Constructivist painters and Marx-
ists all base their activity on an aware-
ness of a condition in building, art and
social relationships, where the dead hand
of the past is an obstacle to the fullest
478
embourg and the Russia of Trotsky.
expression of human possibilities. But
in practice, they do not think of chang-
ing the environment to suit men, but
want to fit man to their vision of the
essential nature of the environment.
They believe their more profound un-
derstanding entitles them to a position
of leadership. But they assume only
positive values for the technical revolu-
tion; they admire the mechanical world
and the sublimated life of cities, of which
they fancy themselves in more efficient
control, and the dead hand of the past
symbolizes, finally, only personal rival-
ries. It does not symbolize a basic mal-
adjustment of things to people, but of
people to things, which they believe they
could adjust better than the academies
or the capitalists have done. These three
are alike: the practical Marxist who is
less indignant at the inequities of cap-
italism than at the successes of capital-
ists; the modern architect whose con-
tribution to the problems of planning is
a new whimsicality and whose skyscraper
thickens the traffic congestion; and the
Constructivist painter who elevates his
secular suffering above the spectator’s
pleasure in sensuality.
MUSIC
Lester Trimble
IF THE American Ballet Theatre’s sad
little three-week season at the Metro-
politan Opera House proved anything,
it was that the company, in its year
and a half of inactivity, has fallen into
such aesthetic tatters that no miracle on
heaven or earth could stitch it back to-
gether in less than two years of hard,
well-directed labor. There is real tragedy
in this situation. No one watching the
valiant attempts of this group of beau-
tiful and gifted dancers (many of whom
had never before danced together) to
weld themselves inté a company in a
bare few weeks could have failed to sym-
pathize with them—and to protest the
circumstances which led them into such
an undignified dead end, and allowed
them to be so exploited.
A repellent quality of cynicism and
ignorance is also involved. Our govern-
ment has never had any interest in the
arts. When a ballet company or a sym-
phony orchestra has gone on the rocks
for lack of money, federal, state and
municipal governments have held hands
off, Assistance to the arts, it has always -
been said, would be undemocratic: it
undermines freedom,
In recent years, however, a new idea
/
.
f
alta . A
Oye Pe np Rte POLY Re Poe
PRP ETL eee ae
Ly
a
ae
~
has glimmered in Washington: art can
be a useful commodity—as propaganda.
This was not original with our adminis-
trators; they stole it from the Russians.
But it brought into existence “The
President’s Special Program for Cultural
Presentation,” under the administration 9"
of the American National Theatre and
Academy (ANTA). Through this’ pro-
gram, we have sent various artists and
troupes of artists abroad to represent us.
Sometimes they have been our best;
sometimes they have not.
We have never been so disgracefully
misrepresented as we are in this in-
stance. As I write, the American Ballet
Theatre is in Portugal, beginning a six-
month tour which will end with eight
weeks in the Soviet Union. Perhaps some
friendly parts of Europe will remember
that our best ballet does not really look
like this. But to send this company to
the Soviet Union, where dance has been
lovingly nurtured. with government
money for two centuries, where the ballet
tradition is held up with high serious-
ness and pride—to send this disfigured
image of ourselves to that country is
unthinkable.
There would be no point is asking the
President what he had in. mind when
he instituted “The. President’s Special
Program for Cultural Presentation,” He
has probably never heard of it. But we
deserve an explanation from the ANTA
administrators as to just. what they
thought they were doing when they de-
cided to bring the American Ballet
Theatre out of limbo and send it, still
Habit of Years
Pointillist, the morning:
We lay late in our
Habit of years, slowly —
Hands, eyes — waking warm,
And watched the sun mount, coming
Over pillared poplars’ tall brass
Thrust to new sky
Where in the windowed morning
Everything stood aged, strong —~
Grass tough with fall;
Darkly flaming, the maturer flowers of fall
Lolling against stiff air:
Everything burning in a
Spiral of returning up
To the whirling suck of the sun,
Yet so close, so still; so slowly.
Then we found —
Wind-flung through the open door —
By the bedside a drift of leaves
Night-minted while we slept:
So smooth to the bare foot
As not to seem out of place
On the floor of our room.
i
~Winrirty Towniey Scorr |
== 5 = e-= *
i > ae IN AT
wet, to Europe and the Soviet Union.
We deserve, also, that they should halt
this travesty before it goes any further.
Among the drearier performances I
witnessed was Dialogues, choreographed
by Herbert Ross to the music of Leonard
Bernstein’s Serenade for violin solo,
strings and percussion. It was as com-
plete a mishmash as I have ever seen
on a ballet stage. What it was supposed
to mean, I have no idea, and from what
I have read of my colleagues’ observa-
tions, they don’t either. Notes scribbled
on 7 program read: “embarrassing
corn”; “leave it at home.” The printed
notes ‘said that it was based on Plato’s
Symposium. (Mr. Ross, by the way, and
his prima-ballerina wife, Nora Kaye, are
forming their own ballet company, to be
called “Ballets of Two Worlds.” Miss
Kaye severed her twenty-year relation-
ship with the American Ballet Theatre
as of the final New York performance.)
Miss Julie, a strong work by the
_ Swedish choreographer, Birgit Cullberg,
was one of the few ballets that approach-
Q ed a satisfactory level of performance.
Erik Bruhn, of the Royal Danish Ballet,
gave a sensual, dart-like impersonation
of Jean, the butler. Sallie Wilson, as
Kristine, the cook, was nicely bucolic.
The title role was somewhat lightened
_ by Claude Bessy, though her perform-
ance was not without telling moments.
Anton Dolin’s little conceit, Pas de
- Quatre, I found amusing, though it was
_ distinctly overlong, slack and shoddy on
the edges of performance. Fancy Free,
: a Jerome Robbins-Leonard Bernstein
_ ballet that used to be delightful, looked
_ simply tired and gross. The World War
II sailors in this version had thickened
‘ in the waistlines and heavied on their
feet. The Combat, a William Dollar bal-
let I have always detested, was well
enough danced by Lupe Serrano, one of
the company’s brighter lights. Dvcouy
~Tudor’s Jardin aux Lilas, despite the
i that Miss Kaye, Mr. Bruhn and
5
1
Miss Serrano held it together, displayed
little of the poignancy that is its pri-
“mary quality. Lady from the Sea, a
Birgit Cullberg opus based on Ibsen,
_ was distinctly Aatetior to her Miss Julie,
lacking both the originality of move-
Baerit and pungency of characterization.
_ And so it went.
fb THIS whole affair of the American Bal-
. let Theatre’s sponsorship by ANTA will
i have repercussions, and I hope they will
_ go beyond ANTA’s misjudgment and
_ to the heart of the matter: the American.
-government’s position vis-a-vis the arts.
ta
_ I see nothing wrong with using artists
i
that any first-rate artist can lend
a 43 e ’ r ’
implements of propaganda, to the
Te eae ee
prestige to his country simply by exist-
ing, and by showing himself abroad. But
the picture of an anti-artistic govern-
ment using its talented citizens without
giving them any meaningful support,
without even exerting proper discrimina-
tion in its exploitative choice, offends
me beyond description. When we need
an atomic submarine, we are taxed, and
Washington pays for the scientific tal-
ents needed for its creation. If our gov-
ernment wants to show off the American
Ballet Theatre as the apex of American
ballet art, let it sustain the company
and make it into the first-rate ensemble
it could be. Then let it represent us.
I realize that if the government were
to support one company, a clamor would
arise from every corner for a similar
application of largesse. Splendid! Sup-
port them all! Since Washington wants
art for propaganda, let it nurture art
and pay for it. Then, at least, hypocrisy
and exploitation will be removed from
the relationship. Then, dedicated and
infinitely valuable artists like those in
the American Ballet Theatre will not
have to choose between starvation, jobs
in restaurant kitchens, or the species of
maltreatment they are now undergoing.
FILMS
Robert Hatch
OUR INSTRUCTORS, in a spectrum
as wide as from E. M. Forster to
Mickey Spillane, have taught us that
there is a connection between violence
and sex. Automobile wrecks are aphro-
disiac and gunfire will speed some peo-
ple to bed. That, too, is the motif un-
derlying Hiroshima, Mon Amour.
At first it does not seem so, and I
think it may be held against the pic-
ture that it leads us deliberately down
the wrong path. The film opens with
a close-up of two nude bodies entwined.
The woman’s voice keeps repeating, in
French, “I have seen everything in
Hiroshima”; and the man’s keeps an-
swering, in French with a strong ac-
cept, “You have seen nothing in Hiro-
shima.” Meanwhile the shots of. their
intimacy, rendered almost reptilian by
the extreme close range, are repeatedly
broken by details of the most appalling
horror taken from the documentary
records of the first atomic city. The
picture, it seems, is to be a plea for
life, set in the spot that has become the
world symbol for absolute death.
Eventually, the camera moves back
a little from the bed and we learn that
- many . . 6% a é . z
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August 6, 1960.
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THROUGH THE NATION
:
the woman (Emmanuelle Riva) is a
French actress engaged in playing a
nurse in an international peace film
and that the man (Eiji Okada) is a
young Japanese architect whom she
met the previous evening. There follow
scenes of the film company on _loca-
tion in one corner of the city; parades
of protests have been staged for the
cameras of the international company
and extras made up as victims of radi-
ation are much in evidence. It is clear
that Hiroshima, Mon Amour will some-
how tell us that we should embrace one
another in love and joy and renounce
our powers of ultimate destruction.
MEETING
WORLD PEACE and Problem Areas
GERMANY AND THE MIDDLE EAST
DR. EMIL LENGYEL
World Traveler and Foreign Correspondent
Professor of History and Economics, NYU
SUNDAY, JUNE 5, 2 P.M. to 5 P.M.
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But. it does not. work out so. The
her portion of the film .com-
pleted, is supposed to leave at once
for Europe. Instead, she goes to the
home of her new friend and, amidst
further paroxysms of passion, begins to
show signs of emotional stress. Then
begins a conversation— more accurately
a monologue—that goes on for dream-
intangible hours. and carries the couple
in trance for miles through the ap-
parently empty city. It comes out that
the woman’s first lover had been a
German soldier in Nevers. during the
war. Partisans had killed him on the
last day; they had dragged her from
his bleeding body and shaved her head.
She had gone quite mad and her par-
ents, turned brutal by shame, had hid-
den her in a cellar.
actress,
Eventually she recovered, sneaked
off to Paris in the night and there, ap-
parently, achieved success as an actress
and contracted a happy marriage. (The
architect is also happily married—his
wife is away on holiday.) One gathers,
however, that her emotions have been
arrested—until now when, in a city
torn by the most extreme lesions of
war, she meets a man about whose race,
background, experience, language, even
name she knows nothing, and the past
returns for her.
THE re-enactment and recollection of
her first love presumably have a thera-
peutic effect. A torrent of emotion
bursts from dykes vigilantly guarded
for fifteen years, and at the end we are
entitled to suppose—the picture has be-
come increasingly dream-like—that she
will return to Paris in a far healthier
state. We forget everything, she says.
“T am forgetting you, just as I have
forgotten my first love, just as men
everywhere have forgotten Hiroshima.”
There is a bleak solace in this not en-
tirely novel, or entirely accurate, in-
sight.
The audience, meanwhile, has en-
dured the atrocities of Hiroshima and
waited patiently for an hour or so to
discover what they are supposed to
feel. I never did find out. As a story
of individual lives the picture thwarts
me because it is too fragmentary: what
is the truth behind this woman’s legend
of herself? I see no reason to believe
that she tells, or knows, the truth. In
the case of the man, nothing emerges
except that he takes a masochistic
pleasure in being identified with the
dead lover. As a story of war’s holo-
caust, the picture cannot overcome the
disparity between the mass torments of
Hiroshima and the heroine’s individual
hurt. The very fact i. she seems to
see the city as symbolic of what hap-
pened to her makes the equation only
more grotesque. She was bereaved and
punishment was heaped on her bereave-
ment—that is clearly moving, but a
world war is not required to give it
focus.
The director, Alain Resnais, says:
“Hiroshima, Mon Amour is based on
memories. . The schism arises be-
cause we have the obligation and the
will to remember . . . but in order to
live we must forget.” This may be an
inept translation, or it may be what
it seems to be—a rather lofty way of
saying nothing very remarkable. The
picture strikes me as a rather sensa-
tional treatment of some only partly-
digested psychological commonplaces.
TOSHIRO MIFUNE, who carries the
title role in The Rikisha Man, is re-
membered here with awe as the bandit
in Rashomon. Mifune is a man who ex-
plodes a part—he eats like a tiger,
roars like a baboon, flings his assailants
about like a demented laundry man
sorting wash, and expresses contrition
with an abasement that suggests acute
melancholia. As an ‘actor he is perhaps
a little flamboyant, but as an athlete
he is a one-man gymkhana.
The present film is baffling—not dif-
ficult but offering no clue as to why di-
rector Hiroshi Inagaki should think the
times apt to the moral treacle of War-
wick Deeping. When the picture opens,
the rikisha man, having just broken up
a theatre because it would not give him
a pass, befriends a dear little tyke of
boy who has been knocked down. by
his chums, This leads to patronizing
friendship from the parents, a young
officer (the time is the Russo-Japanese
war) and his gentle wife. The officer
then gets his feet wet and dies, and the
mother is left to raise her anemic chick.
Always in the background, always
sweaty and selfless, our hero plays foster
father to such good effect that the boy
matures into a university student of
outstanding priggishness. At this point
the rikisha man, who has been asked
not to show so much familiarity toward
his protégé, discovers in himself an au-
tumnal physical yearning for the mother.
Stricken by the beastliness of such a
sentiment, he takes to drink and dies
in a snowbank,
There are a couple of good, extrovert
scenes: one in Which the rikisha man,
employing the curious floating lope of
his trade, outruns a group of schoolboy
athletes; one in which he plays virtu-
oso changes on an enormous drum, But
the tone of neo-Victorian pas
washes the picture right off € sere
.
Crossword Puzzle No. 869
By FRANK W. LEWIS
11
12
13
14
15
7
22
24
25
26
27
28
me
a | oo ee
i. =e
ee
ee
eee
ACROSS:
A radiant look right opposite the
middle! (5)
Being stupid is somewhat more than
right. (6)
One should abhor money, since this
holds an influence on activity. (7)
It’s not a bad social position, never-
theless! (7)
The way some Rough Riders served
in the brush? (9)
ore works might be bound so.
Comical spot in what shouldn’t set
in with the well. (13)
The first ingredients of feminine
construction. (5, 3, 5)
Do the short form? (It means the
same thing.) (5)
A time in an otherwise dull con-
dition? (9)
It would be awkward walking with
only one cheese! (7)
In the last icicle, one is reminded
of something spring-like. (7)
A minister went ahead and got
confused, evidently. (6)
See 2 down
DOWN:
and 28 Pierced to shreds, but the
cause was evidently dull. (5, 2, 5).
Unsubstantiated stories, but ‘they
eae Cora happy. (9)
ay 28, 1960
2
,
Pee
See 23 down
Thurber’s was in the garden. (7)
7 Sterne character of dramatic
portance. (6)
or) |
im-
8 Still admonition is made with dif-
ficulty in the 13. (5)
9 Tens and hundreds, according to
the bills, of Quakers and such. (13)
It’s the custom to turn over a card
with the man who gives it to you,
since he probably has a lot. (4, 3, 6)
The heart of 15 that is about to
show a connection. (9)
Rookies might be found under it.
(7)
Hire the weather man on television,
perhaps. (7)
Verses on a foolish person getting
up town? (6)
This fruit might be inexpensive. (5)
and 5 A novel place to look for
18
19
20
21
2a
shells, since none was left here.
(jn.
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 868
ACROSS: 1 Knottiness; 10 Iranian; 11
Cartons; 12 Hail; 18 Digression; 15
Omnibus; 16 Silesia; 17 Teutons; 20
Parting; 22 Effervesce; 23 Ache; 25
Anoints; 26 Ascribe; 27 Hike; 28 En-
dearment. DOWN: 1 Knight of the
Bath; 2 Ovation; 3 and 6 Tailwind;
4 Nuncios; 5 Secures; 7 Ironies: 8
Disentanglement; 9 Wrestlers; 14 Ab-
horrent; 18 Unfrock; 19 Stepson; 20
Package; 21 Incline; 24 Scar.
—s*
RESORTS
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ON ORANGE LAKE
WINDY HILL oven may 2itn
A pleasantly informal vacation in friendly at-
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Tel. Newburgh: JO 2-1232
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A VIEW OF THE NATION
| AN ANTHOLOGY: 1955-1959
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This handsome, hard-cover book, edited by
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Press, puts together in convenient form some
of the best articles which have appeared in
The Nation in the period 1955-1959,
The book’s rich variety is indicated by the
classifications used by the editor in the table
of contents:
@ The American Writers
‘@ Popular Culture
®@ Social Problems
‘@ War, Peace and the Military
‘@ The Economics of Life
The authors represented include J. Bronow-
ski, Kenneth Burke, David Cort, George P.
Elliott, Harry Golden, Robert Hatch, Jose-
phine Herbst, Myron Lieberman, Carey Mc-
Williams, Eve Merriam, Stanley Meisler,
Walter Millis, Kenneth Rexroth, M. L.
Rosenthal, Harvey Swados, Wade Thomp-
son, Dan Wakefield and a host of others
who, we are certain, will give you as much
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¥
WHY KHRUSHCHEV WRECKED THE SUMMIT
June 4, 1960 .. 25c
OVERFLIGHT BY SATELLITE
Are the U-2s Obsolete?
Donald W. Cox
Harold J. Berman a
Ak kK kk ke kok
FINANCING OUR SCHOOLS
FEDERAL AID OR LOCAL TAXES?
Harry W. Ernst
LETTERS
Reappraising the Students
Dear Sirs: Following publication of your
“Campus Report No. 3,” on May 16,
1959, I wrote a letter, which you print-
ed, asserting that the present genera-
tion of students was more persuasively
liberal than my own was. ... I have
just finished Mr. Wakefield’s article,
“Eye of the Storm,” in which he tells of
the student sit-in demonstrations in the
South (The Nation, May 7, 1960). If
you were right and I was wrong last
year, where the hell did these kids in
the South come from? I think you owe
it to yourself, let alone to your readers,
to reappraise the situation in the light
of the very evident capacity these
youngsters have for action... .
Estuer Bloom
New York City
[We had already begun to reappraise
the situation with “Campus Report No.
3,” the subtitle of which was “Tension
Beneath Apathy.” The truth is that if
student behavior has changed markedly
in the last three years (and all develop-
ments would so indicate), the potential
must always have been there. To this
extent, Miss Bloom is right.—Enpitors |
The Big Steal
Dear Sirs: Donald Cressey seems to have
written his review of The Thief in the
White Collar |The Nation, April 30]
from a perch so high in the ivory tower
that he is no longer able to focus on re-
ality. He bemoans the fact that Ameri-
can businessmen are able to “rationalize”
their thievery and that they do not have
the high moral fiber of the Hindus who
in 1943 starved rather than kill a sacred
animal. He sees only an end result, and
ignores the basic cause.
To act from a sense of high moral
purpose, one must first have something
in which he can believe. The only creed
which finds any currency in the world
of Business and Success is “Screw you,
Jack—I got mine.” . . . Thievery is
blandly condoned in every walk of life.
A President steals time from a nation
by spending most of it on the golf links
and the rest of it in a cloud of rosy
platitudes. A Vice President claws his
way up a crooked ladder, displaying a
bland and open contempt for the whole
human race. A whole segment of our
scientific community steals hope of nor-
mal life for generations yet unborn,
A Pentagon is stacked to its ‘multi-
corridored roofs with frantic medal-
spangled anachronisms who will do
anything to keep their creaky establish-
ment going. Manufacturers hire old
soldiers whose only qualification is that
they “know Joe.” At the lower echelons,
the sight is of kickbacks and bribery
in high places... .
The inevitable reaction? If “they”
can do it on so large a scale, where’s
the harm in a “little” stealing?
Aex APpOsTOLIDES
Los Angeles, Calif.
Ignorance
Dear Sirs: Re your editorial on gas-
germ warfare [“Easter and the Chemi-
cal Corps,” April 30], I take issue with
you over whether chemical and biologi-
cal weapons are any more “fiendish”
than, say, land mines, or even the molten
lead of yore. War continues to be hell.
... All the experts, be they for or against
the employment of CBR weapons, seem
“to agree that the Russians have exten-
sive capabilities in them. As_ things
stand, we remain unprepared to defend
ourselves from these weapons, and our
plans for the employment and develop-
ment of our own agents, especially the
more humane ones, are inadequate. The
problem to be solved seems to be one
of public hysteria caused, for the most
part, by ignorance....
MicuaEL D. MAREMONT
Kalamazoo, Mich.
Dictionary of Diplomacy
Dear Sirs: In the belief that public
evaluation of recent events has been
hindered by a lack of clear definition of
terms, the following preliminary ones
are offered pending further reconnais-
sance:
U-2; Airplane employed for peaceful
weather observation. Derivation:
U-boat, underwater craft used for
peaceful oceanography, c. 1914.
Altimeter: Weather instrument.
To misinterpret: To believe something
on the day it is said.
Barometer: Weather instrument.
Bipartisanship: Doing two things at
once. Cf. “bi-lingual,” “bi-focal,” “by
and by.”
Camera: Weather instrument.
Secrecy: National defense (Russian).
Silencer: Weather instrument.
Keeping the door open: A way of get-
ting what you want while appearing
not to want it. Cf. John Hay, “Open
Door Policy”; Lady Macbeth, “I hear
a knocking at the south entry; retire
we to our chamber; a little water
clears us of this deed, Get on your
Ai
y x
night-gown, lest occasion call us, and
show us to be watchers.”
Poison pin: Weather instrument.
Responsibility: Being the person who
has to make up a new story when si-
lence is no longer possible. Cf. Nathan
Hale, “My only regret is that I have
but one lie to give for my country.”
H-Bomb: Weather instrument.
Amos MarspEN
Chicago, Ill.
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
481 @
ARTICLES
484 '@ Why Khrushchev Wrecked the
Summit
by HAROLD J. BERMAN
Overflight by Satellite
by DONALD W. COX
Ward Heelers on the Campus
by PAUL S. WEINBERG
Federal Aid or Local Taxes:
Financing Our Schools
by HARRY W. ERNST
Throwing Money into Space —
or Schools? ‘
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
493 @ What Is Wrong with Durrell?
by KENNETH RHXROTH
493 '@ Great-Grandsire (1804-84)
(poem)
by (PADRAIG O BROIN
The Writing Teacher
by BENJAMIN DeMOTT
An April Walk (poem)
by ‘(PAUL GOODMAN
Evidence and Absolutes
by ARNOLD S. KAUPMAN
Sad Young Men
by GHORGH WILLIAMS
Architecture
by WALTER McQUADED
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 500)
by FRANK W. LUWIS
NUNIT
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, Dditor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Bditor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Music
Alexander Werth, Huropean
Correspondent
486 @
489 '@
491 @
492 @
494 @
495 '@
496 @
497 '@
498 @
HNL
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
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in Readers Guide to Periodical Literature,
Re Digest, Index to Labor Articles, Publio—
Affairs, Information Service, Dramatic Index,
J ie
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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 23
THE
NATION
EDITORIALS
The Blitz That Failed
The strategy of the early Monday morning “surprise
attack” on Democratic critics of the Administration’s
handling of the Summit conference was clear enough.
Catch the opposition off guard by a swift attack, with-
out notice, in full force and — by the savagery of the
attack — seize the initiative, keep the opposition off
balance, and (with good luck) spike their guns. It was
the classic, “rule book” counter-offensive formula. Sen-
ator Dirksen led off with a “soft on communism”
tirade directed against Adlai Stevenson for his “crow-
bar and sledge hammer” speech in Chicago. But the
dirty work was left for Senator Hugh Scott, who sug-
gested that Mr. Stevenson and Senator Kennedy should
“relieve themselves of the curse of the suspicion of ap-
peasement,” and who called both men “turnquotes” —
a phrase which, in the excitement of the early morning
assault, registered with many sleepy Senators as “turn-
coats.”
But the blitz failed. Recovering from their rather
stunned initial reaction, the Democrats quickly rallied
and, with hastily summoned reserves, proceeded to give
Senators Dirksen and Scott a brutal drubbing. Few is-
sues of the Congressional Record this season make
more lively reading than Vol. 106, No. 93, devoted to
the Monday, May 23, debate. Senators Carroll, Sym-
ington, Morse, Monroney, Muskie and — once he had
been notified of Senator Scott’s sneak attack and rushed
to the Senate floor — Senator Kennedy, made mince-
meat of what Senator Carroll accurately characterized
as “a raw, partisan, political piece of chicanery.” In the
end, Senator Dirksen sought to mollify his Democratic
critics by expressing undying “love” for them as friends
and colleagues. His opening speech, he said, was “just
plain politics, spelled with a capital ‘P’”’ But the
_ Democrats wouldn’t buy it. The response, said Senator
| Kennedy, was grudging and evasive; there was nothing ,
~ amusing about an indirect charge of disloyalty. Sen-—
ator Scott, to his credit, was more manly than Dirksen;
ologized. Bruised and battered, neither Dirksen
“VE ae Oy ~e Ss
=
nor Scott will be anxious to return to the “apostles of
appeasement” theme soon. As Senator Monroney
pointed out, the Monday morning blitz was all-too-
reminiscent of “another Senator who once waved papers
and shouted ‘I hold in my hand.’ ... We are tired of
that sort of procedure. Mr. President, Americans are
tired of the attacks which are strictly for. the purpose
of diversion, in an attempt to light another fire, to try
to direct attention somewhere else.”
The lively debate suggests strongly. that Senator
Monroney may be right — that in the Senate at least,
the ghost of the late Senator Joe McCarthy has finally
been exorcised.
A Debate, But About What?
Thanks in no small measure to Adlai Stevenson and
Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the Nixon strategy of
sealing off a full-dress debate on the issues raised by
the Summit debacle is not likely to succeed. The timing
and vigor of Mr. Stevenson’s sharp attack disrupted
the “rally-round-the-President” exhortations of Sen-
ator Lyndon Johnson and like-minded Democrats, and
led directly to the Senate debate on May 23. Governor
Rockefeller’s equally well-timed statement of May 24,
in the words of one commentator, had “the impact of
a wet towel on Senate Republicans anxious to keep
brickbats hurtling at Democratic critics of Ike’s Summit
policies.” On its merits, the statement was excellent;
the need for “an open and honest exercise of reason” —
that is, for debate — has rarely been stated with greater
cogency. In effect, the Governor seconded Mr. Steven-
son’s contention that “we cannot sweep this whole
mess under the rug in the name of national unity.” So
there may be a debate. But about what?
And at this point both Mr. Stevenson and Governor
Rockefeller are a bit vague. An investigation — as by
tL o~?’
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — is not a_
debate; it may be used as a device to stifle debate.
Nor will a carping, point-making attack on the Pres-.
ident’s leadership be of much value. A debate that
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_ minor proportions; if it is not debated, it may not
_ matter how the other issues are resolved.
i The Other Summit Conferences
‘s
centers on “blunders,” “timing” and “tactics,” or on
how to be tougher with the Russians, will not meet
Governor Rockefeller’s demand for “an act of national
self-examination . ... an act of realism ... of renewed
and reasoned dedication.” Nor is there any point in
encouraging Messrs. Morton and Butler to engage in a
smearing contest. And, finally, we need to be clear that
it is not a debate on the details of foreign policy that
is needed. A public as large, as varied, as widely scat-
tered as the American electorate, cannot follow with the
required close attention a debate on American policy
as related to fifty or sixty nations. Nor can “the Berlin
question” be debated in a vacuum. What can, and
must, be debated are the assumptions, the principles,
the values which should determine American policy.
As in any large organization, so with the federal
government: policy is indispensable. We should, there-
fore, debate ends, not methods or techniques. It is for
this reason that The Nation stated in an editorial
(“The Candidates and a Politics of Peace,” February
6) that peace is the key issue. We understood then, as
we understand now, that everyone is for peace; no one
is asking for a debate on the advantages of peace. We
propose something else. If, as we are constantly re-
minded, war is unthinkable, then we must start think-
ing in other terms. War is in the process of destroying
itself, and us; yet we continue to act as though war
were the ultimate guarantor of national security and
survival. War is militarily unthinkable because no one
—neither the chiefs of staff of the USSR nor of this
country — can today formulate a rational strategy to
win a war fought with nuclear weapons. So the issue
becomes: shall we continue to adhere to policies which
can lead only to a war which we say is unthinkable —
or shall we plan for peace? Stated another way, are we
to continue to fight the “hot front” of a “cold war” by
any means, no matter how corrupting, or dishonorable,
or self-defeating these means may be? Is the arms
race to be steadily accelerated? Are we to continue
preparations for a nuclear war that would destroy us
and the Russians too?
The voting public can grasp an issue of this kind
precisely because it turns, in the last analysis, on moral
principles. This is the issue that should be debated,
not whether Lt. Powers should have been permitted to
take off on the “overflight” of May 1. If this issue is
debated, the other issues will assume their true and
One — they called it the “Little Summit Confer-
ence” — was held in San Francisco on May 13-14. No
heads of government were present, but among the speak-
ers were officers of the American Friends Service Com-
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mittee, civic leaders, professors and an economist from —
the Bechtel Corporation, a heavy-engineering firm
which has done missile-construction work in the San
Francisco area. Also Albert Bigelow, wartime naval
commander and skipper of the Golden Rule; William
Davidon, nuclear physicist at the Argonne National
_ Laboratory, and Dr. Linus Pauling of California In-
stitute of Technology. On May 14, 3,000 persons
marched in a “Peace Walk” to San Francisco’s Union
Square. While they stood in silent memory of the vic-
tims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, “not a baby squealed,
not a breath seemed to stir the air.”
The other “Little Summit Conference” was held in
Madison Square Garden in New York City under the
auspices of the National Committee for a Sane Nu-
clear Policy. The paid attendance was about 17,000;
the speakers were Norman Thomas, Walter Reuther,
Rabbi Israel Goldstein, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Dr. Harold Taylor, Orson Bean, Harry Belafonte, Nor-
man Cousins, Charles Pickett, Governor G. Mennen
Williams of Michigan, and former Governor Alfred M.
Landon of Kansas. Telegrams were read from Senator
Humphrey, Senator Javits and Adlai Stevenson. After-
wards, Norman Thomas led 5,000 of those at the meet-
ing in a peace march to the United Nations Plaza.
While they were demonstrating, the big Summit
foundered. But it is just possible that the demonstra-
tions at the grass roots (or on city pavements) will
grow, and the heads of government will listen.
Happy Days Are Here Again
The Summit crackup may be a tragedy in the eyes
of eggheads, world-improvers, bleeding hearts and such-
like deviants, but if there were tears elsewhere, they
were tears of joy. SUMMIT FAILURE A MARKET
TONIC, was the headline on the first page of The
New York Times financial section. BULLISHNESS
REVIVES was the subhead, and the caption explained,
FIREWORKS IN PARIS SHIFT SPOTLIGHT TO
SHARES OF MILITARY SUPPLIERS. On the other
side of the country, appealing to a humbler audience,
the Los Angles Mirror-News carried a roaring full-page
advertisement for a technical school: THE SUMMIT
HAS FAILED — WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO
YOU? TREMENDOUS UPSURGE IN ELECTRON.
ICS. BILLION DOLLAR PAYROLL. 110,000-EM-
PLOYEE INDUSTRY IN SO. CALIF. BOOMING!
Returning from Paris, General Thomas D, White, Air
Force Chief of Staff, recalled saying earlier this year
that America’s deterrent power was so great “no ra-
tional decision could be made to attack us.” Now,
testifying before the Senate Appropriations Commit- —
tee, General White added an amendment: “To meet
change,
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More missiles would certainly be additional insurance.”
Just a few billion dollars more to defend the free world
and unite its capitalists and workers in the indissoluble
bonds of the hopped-up armament boom.
Taking note of this social phenomenon in Congress,
Representative Charles A. Vanik (D., Ohio) found it
“indeed a strange paradox that bad news for the world
should be such good news for the stock market.” An-
other Congressman, Robert W. Kastenmeier (D.,
Wisconsin) speaking on the Department of Defense
appropriation bill while the Summit conference was
being given the works, called for long-range defense
planning “and for that study most overwhelmingly
essential to the future of humanity, the study of the
means and technique and implications of disarmament.”
The latter he is not very likely to get, but as for long-
range defense planning, let the Congressman be of
good cheer: the matter is in competent hands. Speak-
ing on “Defense Electronics”
of the National
at the annual convention
Federation of Financial Security
_ Analysts Society, John J. Rutherford, Director of Long
Participate i in politics. The encouragement offered was,
Range Planning of Sperry Gyroscope Company, Divi-
sion of Sperry-Rand Corporation, gazed into the crystal
ball and liked what he saw. The security analysts,
listening with “rapt attention,” liked it too. The long-
range planner estimated total Pentagon spending in
1970 at three levels. In the event of a Korea-type limit-
ed war during the sixties, the Pentagon would spend
$77 billion and the gross national product would be
$788 billion. For a mere continuation of the arms race,
the respective figures would be $56 billion and $747
billion. But suppose “disarmament” supervened? Mr.
Rutherford did not avert his eyes from that possibility,
but he obviously did not believe that Mr. Khrushchev’s
scheme for total disarmament stood much of a chance,
because in 1970 the “disarmed” Pentagon would still
be spending $34 billion (as compared with $41 billion
today) and GNP would be $708 billion. We could live
on that if we had to, but isn’t that extra $80 billion
| worth fighting for?
> The Aerojet Project
The Nation has been so consistently critical of mis-
_sile-makers that it is a pleasure to be able to praise one.
Aerojet-General Corporation of Azusa, California —
and points north — is a cold-war baby; it started as a
_ gleam in the eye of Dr.
heodore von Karman, the
_ aerodynamicist, in 1939 and is today, courtesy Depart-
ment of Defense, the largest rocket engine-maker in the
| country (1960's estimated sales, $500 million).
Back in 1958, someone at Aerojet had a good idea:
rs
to encourage citizenship by encouraging employees to
strictly nonpartisan. The company made it
e for some 15,000 employees to make contribu-
Gross wondered whether all these people were worth
tions to the political party of their choice; it also en-
couraged them to register as voters (in California
registrars can be sent directly to plants). Some 2,000
employees who had not previously bothered to register,
now did so at booths set up in the plant. In 1958, ap-
proximately 81 per cent of the company’s 15,000 em-
ployees contributed to the political party of their private
choice; the $25,000 raised was divided fairly evenly be-
tween the two major parties (about $300 went to the
Prohibition Party that. year appeared on
the California ballot). Once the program was under
way, checks were sent to the two major parties twice
weekly, and all parties — including the minor ones —
endorsed the project and praised Aerojet for the fair-
ness with which, aided by plant committees on which
union representatives served, it was administered.
Now the Ford Motor Company has initiated a similar
project. While a caveat should be noted — such con-
venient spoon-feeding might weaken political parties
if sustained over a long period — Aerojet is to be com-
mended for its initiative in projecting one of the best
of current industry programs designed to encourage
political participation. With 255 Ph.D.s on its staff,
Aerojet should be able to come up with some other
good ideas not directly related to missile-making.
which
Passing the Buck, 1960-Style
The House Appropriations Committee recently called
for a reduction of over 3,000 employees in department-
al headquarters of the Department of Defense, which
impelled Congressman H. R. Gross (R., Iowa) to rise
with a caveat. “I want to commend the committee on
its insistence that personnel be reduced,” said Mr.
Gross, “but at the same time I want to point out that
you are not going to accomplish anything if you are
simply going to turn around and appropriate the money
for the Defense Department and the various military
establishments to hire consultants and management —
experts.” The Iowan then proceeded to give facts and
ae on the growing military practice of “contracting
out.” For example, the well-known management firm
of a Allen & Hamilton received a $95,000 contract
for a study of the adequacy of existing Army and Navy
ammunition facilities. One would think, Mr. Gross sug-
gested, that on the rosters of the ordnance divisions of
the Army, Navy and Marine Corps there would be of-
ficers or civilians capable of making such a survey.
Again, the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) re-
ceived $5,465,000 for various scientific and technical
studies and evaluations for the Department of Defense.
IDA was found to be paying 129 of its 241 employees
from $14,000 to over $30,000 each a year, and Mr.
more than career government scientists and engineers,
Mr. Gross paid special attention to bs Air Force,
ee
which pays out over $34 million annually for outside
intellectual services, including $13.5 million yearly to
its private think-factory, the RAND Corporation,
while largely turning over control of its ICBM program
to Thompson Ramo Wooldridge and its subsidiary,
Space Technology Laboratories. And still Mr. Gross
did not desist from his ferret-like probings. The Office
of Navy Management, he pointed out, has grown from
a staff of eight in 1953 to a present staff of seventy-one,
of whom thirteen are GS-15 and above in Civil Serv-
ice rating, yet the Navy was paying a college professor
$70 a lecture to conduct classes in management devel-
opment.
Stull another expert was hired by the Navy to
teach “effective writing” at $53 per-hour (page 8925,
Congressional Record, May 5, 1960); the Air Force
hired the wife of an Air Force officer to do two portraits
for the Air Force Academy; the Academy itself em-
ployed two experts to explain “merchandizing pro-
cedures, philosophy of merchandizing, and efficient sales
and operation” of the cadet sales store; and Head-
quarters, Air Materiel Command, employed a retired
supply officer, who was apparently tired of being re-
tired, at $40 a day to “counsel civilian employees
concerning retirement plans and to prepare employees
psychologically for retirement.’
It would appear from Mr. Gross’s data that the
personnel of some of the military agencies have gone
so far in shedding responsibility that, in simple human-
ity, the government should spend another few millions
for seeing-eye dogs to escort them to and from their
arduous labors.
Why Khrushchev Wrecked the Summit. . Harota J. Berman
WE ARE apparently unable to un-
derstand the impact of our govern-
ment’s position regarding the U-2
flight upon Khrushchev’s policies
and upon his personal position of
leadership. This is one of the gravest
aspects of the present crisis.
We express bewilderment that
Khrushchev should make such an
issue of espionage. All countries prac-
tice espionage. Espionage is not con-
sidered to be a violation of interna-
tional law, or even of international
morality. But of course the issue is
not espionage; that is only a small
part of the charge which he has
made against us. Nor is the issue our
intrusion into Soviet airspace, al-
though that is, clearly, a violation
of international law, regardless of
what may ultimately be decided con-
cerning outer space. The issue is,
rather, our government’s continued
defense of this violation of interna-
tional law, its refusal formally to
state that it regrets the U-2 flight
and will take appropriate measures
to see that it does not happen again.
So far as I know, not a single
American commentator has pointed |
out that it is customary in interna-
HAROLD J. BERMAN of the Har-
vard Law School faculty is the au-
thor of Justice in Russia and other
books on Soviet law.
484
, iA, ae ene oe :
tional relations for a state which has
committed a violation of interna-
tional law formally to apologize and
to declare that it will take appro-
priate measures to call to account
the persons responsible. The United
States has on occasion demanded,
and has on occasion given, such
apologies and declarations, and the
International Court of Justice has
on occasion required them. A lead-
ing treatise on international law
states that where there is an inter-
national delinquency, “at least a
formal apology on the part of the
delinquent will in every case be
necessary.”
Khrushchev’s initial statement
that he assumed the President was
unaware of the particular flight, and
his request for an apology and ap-
propriate punishment, were not de-
signed to insult and humiliate; they
were standard operating procedure,
“according to the book,” designed to
make continued normal diplomatic
relations possible while taking full
advantage of our embarrassment at
being caught.
By refusing to perform this cere-
monial obeisance to international
law, the President put Khrushchev
in an extremely difficult position,
both at home and abroad. Nor was
the difficulty substantially alleviated
when the ee oy in
ae
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Paris—too late—that he had order-
ed the flights to be “suspended.”
The Soviet leader is not perturbed
about the flights; he has watched
them for four years, and it is quite
possible that he now has the means
to stop them by rockets. He is per-
turbed because the President has de-
fended the flights—defended them,
in fact, as a necessary means of pro-
tection against “surprise attack” by
a “closed society.” Thus our govern-
ment has not only publicly chal-
lenged Soviet sovereignty over its
airspace but has added the public
accusation that the Soviet Union is
a totalitarian society and that its
leaders are planning aggressive war.
TO Khrushchev this was “perfidy”
—and he responded by attempting
to destroy the President’s reputation
as a world leader in the struggle for
peace. For the demand that the
President apologize in person, face
to face, was indeed a deliberate hu-
miliation, reminiscent of the ancient
Anglo-Saxon law that one who in-
sulted another had to hold his nose
and call himself a liar.
We were unable to predict this
response in advance, and we are un-
able to understand it now. Why, we
ask, did Khrushchev insist—why
does he still insist—upon nish cere=
mony ote an Ap olae punishment |
ty ie asin ae
1
?
i
ey)
i
_ explanation which deserves consid-
(presumably a reprimand would suf-
fice), and a solemn official declara-
tion by the United States (and not
merely an executive order by the
President in his capacity as a mili-
tary leader) that the U-2 flight was
in violation of international law and
that such flights will not occur
again? Until we understand the an-
swer to this question we shall not
understand either Khrushchev or
his policies.
OUR government plainly miscalcu-
lated the Soviet reaction to our
policy (and I emphasize again, not
the policy of espionage, not even the
policy of aerial intrusion, but the
policy of open justification of espio-
nage and aerial intrusion). As Mr.
Nixon explained in a_ television
broadcast before the Summit meet-
ing was to take place, he did not
expect that our defense of such
flights would cause the meeting to
collapse because, as he put it, “Mr.
Khrushchev is a realist.”
And when the Summit meeting
did collapse, our official explanation
—echoed by the press—was that its
collapse was not, could not have
been, due to our refusal to apologize.
It is considered absurd to suppose
that a “realist” like Khrushchev
would base his actions on our failure
to perform a ceremonial act. It is
assumed that “he wrecked the con-
ference because he wanted to wreck
a.)
But why did he want to wreck it?
After all, it was he, and not we, who
had pressed for such a meeting. The
soothsayers now tell us (as they
told us after Hungary) that the
“Stalinists” suddenly regained con-
trol of the Kremlin; or the military;
or even that the Chinese are dictat-
_ ing Soviet foreign policy! More sober
commentators argue that Khrush-
chev knew that the West would
grant no concessions on Germany,
so he was glad to have this pretext
for calling the meeting off.
Any or all of these speculations
may turn out to be true. All of them,
however, are based so far on the
_ merest shreds of evidence, and each
of them must overcome serious coun-
ter-arguments. But there is a simpler
eration. The President’s refusal to
en lip service to Soviet sov-
ae we ay ed
ee
ereignty over the airspace above the
territory of the USSR, his insistence
that we committed no wrong in send-
ing an airplane over that territory,
struck at the foundations of Khrush-
chev’s policy, both foreign and do-
mestic, and of his personal position
of leadership of the Soviet Union
and of the Communist world.
TWO principal techniques of Soviet
foreign policy in recent years have
been Khrushchev’s personal diplo-
matic negotiations with the heads of
state of the great powers (especially
President Eisenhower) and_ the
strengthening of the legal framework
of Soviet international relations gen-
erally (especially through commer-
cial and other treaties and participa-
tion in United Nations agencies).
Through both techniques the Soviet
leadership has sought to achieve
legitimacy for the Soviet regime and
recognition of its status as a great
power, to remove the danger of a
Western effort to liberate the East-
ern European countries from its con-
trol, to reduce the possibility that
revolutionary advances (in the Com-
munist sense) in Asia will produce
Western military intervention, to ex-
pand Soviet influence over the minds
of people everywhere, to develop
profitable trade relations with other
countries, and to reduce military ex-
penditures so that a great deal more
energy may be devoted to domestic
economic progress.
Copyright * The Observer’ (London) 1960
“On the other hand, this particular missile was very
Particular violations of interna-
tional law by the Soviet government
—as, for example, in Hungary in
1956—should not mislead us into be-
lieving that Khrushchev attaches
little value to international law in
general. Soviet objectives, at least
in the short run and possibly also in
the long run, can be achieved far
more easily if a single body of norms
and procedures is applicable to all
nations than if a double standard
is applied to the “free world” and
the “Soviet bloc.” It is likely, for
example, that the general applica-
tion of international legal norms will
result in our ultimate recognition of
the government of East Germany
and even that of Communist China.
Similarly, the general application of
international legal norms would lead
to a relaxation of our controls on ex-
ports to Communist countries. It is
partly for such reasons as these that
Soviet jurists for several years have
been stressing that there is one body
of international law uniting coun-
tries of different social and economic
systems, and that “difference of
ideology does not exclude agreement
and collaboration.”
International law may, however,
restrict, and not merely facilitate,
the achievement of Soviet objectives.
Partly to reduce this danger, Soviet
theory has always stressed the con-
cept of sovereignty as the corner-
stone of international law. Interna-
tional law is considered to rest pri-
The Observer (London)
good for the money.”
marily on treaties and agreements
entered into by sovereign states. The
cardinal sin of international law is
considered to be the violation of a
nation’s territorial integrity. In this
(as in many other matters) the So-
viet Union has adopted an attitude
which is ultra-conservative, even
Victorian. ;
SEEN IN this light, President Eisen-
hower’s assertion of our right to send
reconnaissance planes over the So-
viet Union challenged not only
Khrushchev’s status as an equal in
the Summit conference, but also the
very basis of the entire Soviet effort
to build an international order which
would remain stable while the Soviet
Union grew stronger. The President
had betrayed his “friend” by espous-
ing different standards of interna-
tional law for “open” and “closed”
societies. The distinction would per-
mit us to send over Soviet territory
not only reconnaissance planes but
planes “armed with lethal weapons”
(as Gromyko put it).
In his internal policy, also, Khru-
shchev has pressed for an increasing
rationality in the Soviet social and
economic order, an increasing le-
gality, controlled by his effervescent,
impatient, ingenious and sometimes
ruthless personality. The substantial
increase of the legal security of So-
viet citizens during the past seven
years, especially in the very broad
realm of political speech, has always
been understood to depend in part
upon the security of Soviet interna-
tional relations. If the United States
asserts its right of espionage and of
aerial intrusion, there is bound to
be a tightening of controls at home.
Stalin’s myth that the Soviet Union
is infested with capitalist spies must
seem now to some Russians to take
on an aura of reality. Thus our gov-
ernment’s statements challenged not
only Khrushchev’s foreign policy,
but also his domestic policy.
It also challenged his personal po-
sition of leadership in the Soviet
Union and in the Communist world.
Undoubtedly there are many Rus-
sians, as well as many Czechs, Chi-
nese and others, who consider Khru-
shchev’s policy to be based on
wishful thinking—just as there are
many Americans who consider any
efforts to reduce the sources of So-
viet-American conflict to be a prod-
uct of our own wishful thinking. In
both countries, negotiations seem to
many to smack of softness. One has
sensed a sigh of relief in many quar-
ters in the United States at the
thought that the illusions of “peace-
ful coexistence” are now shattered
and we are back to the intellectually
more comfortable posture of open
hostilities. Thus the “Stalinists” in
both camps play into each other’s
hands.
KHRUSHCHEV knows when to
jump, and he may well avoid a per-
sonal political defeat — indeed, that
may be the ultimate significance of
his invective in Paris. But it is criti-
cal that we learn to understand that
the impact of our intransigence is to
stimulate his intransigence, the im-
wy . oe
pact of our disregard of the forms
of international law is to stimulate
a similar disregard on his part, the
impact of our assertion of the right
to send airplanes over his territory
is to stimulate an assertion by him
of his right to violate our airspace,
and the impact of our discrediting
of him and his policies is to stimu-
late him to do everything possible
to discredit us and our policies.
The President found it morally
and politically impossible to say he
did not authorize the flight when in
fact he did, and to apologize when
in fact he is not sorry. He could lie
about the flight initially to “cover”
for Intelligence purposes, but he
could not lie to maintain the cere-
monies of international law. Con-
gress, and the electorate, would not
have understood this. But these cere-
monies—given the weaknesses of the
sanctioning processes of international
law—are necessary to avoid the
humiliation of other nations and the
discrediting of their leaders. By de-
fending the U-2 flight, we have
added insult to injury. Khrushchev
is indeed a realist—he knew that
this insult would undermine his po-
sition at home unless he returned
blow for blow, and his position
abroad unless he took his case to
every available international forum.
The same factors which made it seem
impossible for us to apologize made
it seem necessary to him to wreck
the Paris conference.
Our task now is to begin to re-
habilitate Khrushchev and interna-
tional law.
OVERFLIGHT BY SATELLITE . .. by Donata w. cox
‘BIG BROTHER’—who was every-
body’s watchman, if you remember,
in George Orwell’s 1984—is watching
all of us now. He has been looking
us over ever since he was flung into
orbit on April 1—and no April Fool
DONALD W. COX is the author
of many books on space, including
Spacepower and the forthcoming
Stations in Space (//olt, Rinehart
and Winston),
486
joking about it, either. And now,
since last week, Big Brother’s still
bigger brother—the Midas satellite
—is watching us, too.
In the sinister shadows of these
remarkable vehicles now orbiting the
earth, the fuss raised about the es-
pionage activities of the earth-bound
U-2 seems a piddling exercise in
futility.
Originally, the first American spy-
in-the-sky satellite was to be called
Sentry, but — to pacify the State
Department — this harsh-sounding
name was soon dropped and the less
sensitive title of Discoverer was sub-
stituted. Several test satellites fly-
ing under this latter nomenclature
have already been placed into polar
orbits by our Air Force during the
past year.
Our civilian space agency, the
National Aeronautics and Space.
Administration (NASA) is techni-
9 eal é Na’ rION-
hy!
cally not involved in the business
of military space-reconnaissance,
since its Congressional charter limits
it to peaceful and scientific explora-
tions. But NASA has found itself
in a serious dilemma since the suc-
cessful launching of its first meteor-
ological earth satellite (Tiros I) on
April 1. For this weather-spying
satellite that was perfected mainly
to scan large areas of the earth’s
cloud cover has also exhibited sev-
eral overtones of the military Midas
and Samos satellites.
When tthe reliable Thor-Able.
rocket left its pad at Cape Canav-
eral with the 270-pound, drum-
shaped Tiros I nestling inside its
protective nose shroud, few observ-
ers realized at the time that it would
create so many revolutionary re-
percussions a few days later. The
strange looking payload, built by
the Astro-Electronics Division of
R.C.A., was incrusted with 9,200
tiny solar cells which supply the
“power to transmit the magnetic
taped photo images back to earth.
Whirling around in an orbit at an
average altitude of 450 miles, Tiros
is constantly photographing the sun-
ny side of the earth with its two
cameras. One is a wide-angle device
utilizing half a Vidicon tube to take
pictures with a resolution of about
a mile and a half. It will take
___a strip of overlapping pictures which
_ show an area approximately 135
miles long and about 800 miles wide.
The smaller, narrow-angle camera
_. has a resolution of about 1,500 feet
and will take pictures about eighty
miles in width. This camera should
be able to take “blip” pictures of
runways and missile bases with ease,
if the contrast is right. It is this
camera which enables Tiros I to
play a dual role — acting as a sci-
entific boon to meteorology as well
as a military spy.
ON APRIL 4, three days after the
launching, the United States made
a chivalrous gesture. Dr. Hugh Dry-
den, Deputy Administrator of
_ NASA, told a Congressional com-
mittee that America would share the
by Poy
em
Tiros’ ominous import for the world.
For the satellite had brought into
the open a latent problem that has
been with us since the advent of the
recently concluded International
Geophysical Year: whether or not a
nation has the right to fly satellites
of any type over the territory of
another nation without permission.
The problem was not acute as long
as satellites and sputniks were pure-
ly “scientific”; such: “peaceful”
flights are a sort of unwritten exten-
sion of an international gentleman’s
agreement reached in Rome in late
1955, before the IGY began.
Since neither the United States
nor the Soviet Union has so far
denied the right of other nations to
fly space-spying satellites over their
respective territorial boundaries, we
can now anticipate that the issue
will come up — and sooner rather
Sais.
e eccrine :
than later — during forthcoming
U.N. meetings. The Soviet Union
cannot long ignore either Tiros I or
the more recent Midas.
It is possible that the USSR has
already taken a dim view of Tiros
— and acted upon it. At present
we do not know why the Soviet del-
egates called a halt to the negotia-
tions on disarmament, but isn’t it
suggestive that Mr. Zorin’s walkout
at Geneva came immediately after
Tiros was successfully launched?
All leading Soviet newspapers
printed reports of the successful
launching of Tiros I, noting that it
would fly over Soviet territory and
that it was capable of sending pic-
tures back to earth.’ Although the
Tass dispatches did not elaborate
on the implications, it is: fairly ob-
vious that the Kremlin leaders, and
most intelligent Soviet citizens, must
be deeply concern ed over the mil-
Hawaii.
surface os a 400-mile altitude
Pry ea ve AF AD. | :
s i 2
We are not going to reach a “mu- |
tually beneficial understanding”
with the Soviets on the peaceful uses
of outer space — the goal set forth
recently by Dr. T. Keith Glennan,
the head of NASA — as long as
Tiros continues to take photos of
Mongolia, China and the Soviet
Umon, countries which up till now
had been protected by their tron
and bamboo curtains.
BECAUSE the quality of the Tiros mr
photos transmitted back to earth
surpassed the fondest expectations
of NASA officials, some of them re-
luctantly admitted — on the fourth
day after launching — that we had
placed a “blurry-eyed spy in the
sky.” After many denials, agency of-
ficials conceded, on April 5, that
Tiros “might” be obtaining rud-—
imentary photos of objects on the
earth’s surface. It was reliably re-
ported that considerable anxiety was
being expressed within the NASA,
the State Department and the Cen-—
tral Intelligence Agency over this
embarrassing situation. ;
No high government official
wished to take the responsibility of
admitting publicly that we had ac-
tually ushered in the era of “open
skies” under the guise of a peaceful
weather satellite. Once again, as
with Hiroshima, we had created a
monster with which we were not
adequately prepared to cope. im
All the statements that have been
tumbled out of NASA headquarters
minimizing the idea that Tiros might
be an embryonic spy-in-the-sky have __
failed to convince the world — par-
ticularly after the first photos of the —
Mediterranean and Red Sea areas —
were released and published all over —
the globe. The first NASA state- —
ments denying the satellite’s spying
potential were made before the
agency had had a chance to stidy
the details of the Tiros pictures, e
pecially those that were sent by ai
mail from the second tracking eal
receiving station at Kaena Point,
Even though the satellite had been en
put through extensive ground tests,
prior to launching, to make sure t
the cameras would not be able
detect specific features on the eart
c
488
was fairly obvious that no simulated
test on earth could duplicate the
real situation as it developed in
space, :
As a result of urgings from the
State Department and the CIA,
NASA suddenly became extremely
secretive about the photos that were
piling up in its offices. On April 5,
NASA officials announced that it
had classified all pictures taken by
the narrow-angle camera and would
not release any until they had been
analyzed by Intelligence experts.
But if Tiros is just a scientific ven-
ture taking only pictures of cloud
formations, why the sudden secrecy?
Were the so-called “blips”
showed up on pictures taken by the
narrow-angle camera just radio
static, or were they something else?
ON APRIL 8, a week after the
launching, Dr. Glennan announced
that the satellite had successfully
taken wide-angle pictures of the So-
viet Union and Communist China,
but that they were being withheld
from the public for “security rea-
sons.” Simultaneously, he announced
that a small timer had failed to func-
tion properly within the drum-
shaped satellite, preventing the
small-angle lens from transmitting
photos back to earth.
This announcement certainly
helped the NASA out of a ticklish
situation that had developed. It
meant that no further close-up pic-
tures of military installations and
missile bases could be taken — and
the justification for sharp Commu-
nist complaint was theoretically re-
moved. The temporary mechanical
failure inside Tiros made it possible
for NASA to argue that it wasn’t,
it really wasn’t, “in the spying busi-
ness.”
But the cold reality, that Tiros
ha inaugurated the “open sky” era
earlier than the date planned by
either the State Department or the
Department of Defense, could not
be erased by all the NASA denials
and explanations. The clear resolu-
tion of the photos telemetered back
to earth established beyond cavil
the true identity of this double-pur-
pose vehicle.
For some strange reason, NASA
waited five days to announce the
that —
early functional breakdown of the
narrow-angled camera. The official
excuse was that the agency’s public
information office had not been in-
formed of the event. This hardly
seems plausible, considering that the
offices of the agency officials are
just down the corridor from their
public information office.
Until the timer started to work
again last month, Tiros could not
take pictures over the Northern
Hemisphere when it was out of the
radio range of the two receiving
stations at Fort Monmouth, N.J.
and Kaena Point, Hawaii. None of
the pictures it has taken since has
been released.
After making some 1,300 orbits
of the earth, Tiros I is expected to
burn up in the upper atmosphere
about July 1, 1960. Until then it will
be able to continue taking close-up
pictures of the earth and its cloud
formations with its narrow-angled
camera — and more close-up shots
behind the iron curtain.
ON APRIL 8, the same day that
Dr. Glennan was testifying before
Congress about the Tiros satellite,
Secretary of State Herter held a
news conference that ranged from a
discussion of nuclear-test bans to
Castro and the South African race
riots. Five of the thirty-nine ques-
tions aimed at the Secretary were
concerned with the diplomatic im-
pact of the launching of the Tiros
satellite.
Although the Secretary said that
no nation had objected, so far, to
the launching of this or any previous
satellite, he seemed to be unsure of
himself as to what steps the State
Department should now take, if any.
In fact, he seemed to miss the main
point of a ticklish question which
assumed that we had a right to
“launch satellites that could take
any kind of picture that we are
technically capable of taking over
any country, and that, furthermore,
any country has that right over our
territory.”
This was the crucial “open sky”
question that implied our right to
launch the Samos reconnaissance
satellite and the Midas early-warn-
ing satellite over the Soviet Union
without worrying about any vocal
/ ae ? T=. ory |
ea
a anne i
-
ae
objections from the Kremlin. The
Secretary admitted that he didn’t
think that the launching of military-
reconnaissance satellites, which could
take photos all over the world, had
“been a matter of discussion in any
form as yet.”
But why not, Mr. Secretary?
WITH THE imminent launching of
the first Samos reconnaissance satel-
lite (the newest name for the earlier
Sentry space-spy), and last week’s
successful launching of Midas, the
State Department should be making
plans to hold meetings with our Al-
lies and with the Soviets on this
sensitive and urgent issue. Mr.
Herter’s implied denial that there
was any issue is a sad commentary
on the apparent lack of top State
Department policy thinking in this
vital area.
The Secretary admitted to the
press that his department had not
made any request of NASA to with-
hold any Tiros pictures on diplomat-
ic or security grounds. Yet on the
previous day, the space agency had
announced that it was not releasing
certain pictures on security grounds.
Who gave this order to NASA if not
the State Department?
Secretary Herter also denied that
Tiros I had photographed any por-
tions of the Soviet Union or Com-
munist China. Yet NASA spokes-
men had repeatedly said that the
opposite was true; and two days
later Dr. Glennan, himself, displayed
a clear photo of Lake Baikal, Siberia,
taken by Tiros, over a Meet the
Press television show — and it was
shown all over the country.
Dr. Glennan announced on the
Meet the Press program that the
photos had been flown in from the
Hawaii tracking station on Friday,
April 8 — the very day that Sec-
retary Herter was holding his news
conference. Although ~ audiences
were given a quick flash of the Lake
Baikal photo on their home screens,
there was enough to indicate what
the more sophisticated Samos re-
connaissance satellite would be able
to accomplish in photographing mis-
sile-launch sites and ground-support
installations within the USSR and
Communist China. Also indicated
was the potential of the Midas sat-
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ellite for the almost instantaneous
detection, through infra-red rays, of
missile launchings.
One newsnian proposed that a
book of Tiros photos be given to
President Eisenhower for presenta-
tion to Khrushchev for the then
forthcoming Summit meeting at
Paris. The presentation, the news-
man explained, would be a return
gesture for the photos of the moon
taken by Lunik III and given to the
President by the Soviet chief on the
occasion of the latter’s visit to this
country. The NASA chief said he
would consider the suggestion. Pre-
sumably, it was never carried out,
DR. GLENNAN refused to comment
on the question of our right to put
a military satellite up over the So-
viet Union; the question, he said,
was not in his jurisdiction. He did
point out, however, that the Soviets
don’t need to put up a similar mil-
itary reconnaissance satellite to dis-
OP Cage
<a
cover the whereabouts of our vital
missile and SAC bases, since all one
has to do to obtain such knowledge
is to look over the files of The New
York Times.
Before the next Tiros “weather”
satellite is launched in October,
1960, and before we ever launch our
first Samos satellite (either openly
or secretly), we can expect that the
Soviets will protest the orbiting of
any more spies-in-the-sky over their
heads unless some sort of interna-
tional agreement is reached.
Last week’s successful launching
of Midas II dispelled any last doubts
that advanced technology has ren-
dered the manned U-2 spy plane
obsolete. Interestingly, Communist
radio stations termed the Midas
launching a “provocation,” yet they
have not yet — at least as of this
writing — complained about Tiros,
which since May 10 has again been
taking detailed cloud pictures over
the Soviet Union.
Thus a “weather” satellite which
plays a dual role as a military re-
connaissance weapon orbits over the
USSR without complaint from the
Kremlin, while the overtly military
Midas, which has not yet flown over
Russian soil, draws shouts of “proy-
ocation.” The inconsistency gives
some indication of the complica-
tions to be expected when it comes
to determining national “rights” in
outer space.
The next Tiros, which will be a
more sophisticated version of the
current one, will be called Nimbus,
and will have two advantages over
its predecessor. It will be earth-ori-
ented instead of space-oriented,
which means that it can take pic-
tures of the earth continuously and,
secondly, it will be placed in a polar
orbit which will cover all latitudes
instead of being restricted, as_ is
Tiros I, to the Equatorial and North-
ern Temperate Zones.
AS LONG as there was no Big
Brother orbiting overhead to chal-
lenge its protective wall of secrecy,
the USSR could turn a deaf ear to
President Eisenhower’s “open sky”
plan which he first enunciated be-
fore the United Nations five years
ago.
The Russians had nothing to gain
by acquiescing in this plan. After
all, they could shoot down any un-
friendly reconnaissance aircraft that
invaded their homeland. Shooting
down a spy-in-the-sky satellite is
not quite so simple, however.
The irony of the present space
situation is that instead of our being
able to trumpet our Tiros success to
the rest of the world as a huge prop-
aganda victory, we find it necessary
to soft-pedal the real significance of
our latest cosmic efforts.
AND there is another irony. This
lies in the possible Russian ability
to interrogate our satellites while
they are in orbit over our homeland
— and thus receive free the benefits
of our own spy system. This pos-
sibility is in keeping with a remark
made by Premier Khrushchev to
Allen W. Dulles, chief of the Central
Intelligence Agency: “I think we
have the same agents in the same
places. Maybe we should get to-
gether and not pay them twice.”
Who knows, perhaps the cosmic
Big Brothers of the early sixties
will be working. for more than one
master? Then WHO can accuse
WHOM of spying on WHAT?
Yes, Tiros, Midas and satellites
still to come are mirrors in space,
reflecting back not only fleecy
clouds, typhoons and cyclones that
nature has wrought, but also the
material changes that man_ himself
has wrought en the surface of the
earth. What man does with the
weapons of destruction poised on
their launch pads around the world
that future spies-in-the-sky will un-
cover and watch — this is the su-
preme challenge of our times.
University of Pennsylvania
~ NUMEROUS labels have been ap-
plied to the present crop of college
.
ia
'
youth: beat, unsilent, silent, beatnik
and so on. Such generalizations are
_ PAUL S. WEINBERG, a student at
the University of Pennsylvania, is a
former editor-in-chief of The Daily
Pennsylvanian,
nonsense, of course; it can hardly be
expected that students at one insti-
tution will necessarily adjust to the
values prevalent at another. The Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, for exam-
ple, has its own peculiar set of values.
Forty-five per cent of Penn un-
dergraduates belong to fraternities,
and staff the campus’ two remark-
ably powerful _ political _Pparties—
¥
;
& r
Ae
ew __
Fi WARD HEELERS on the CAMPUS e © by Paul S. Weinberg
~Campus and Franklin. A so-called —
Independent Party was formed this
year by a group of disgusted non-
fraternity students, but it has not
yet had an opportunity to test its
strength. If precedent means any-
thing, it will fail.’
The established parties expect the we
membership of each member-frater-
nity to “get out the vote” on elec-
ASS. (oue
¥
a
f
tion day in return for rewards from
a highly intricate system of patron-
age which would distress the reform-
ers of the early twentieth century.
Patronage is distributed among the
fraternities in the form of class of-
fices, membership in senior honor so-
cleties, newspaper editorships, chair-
manships for important social week-
ends, student government positions
and managerships of athletic teams.
Annual elections are the arena for
campus politics, as twelve offices are
distributed through sophomore, junior
and senior years. Freshman class
elections are usually free of politics,
since they take place in the fall, be-
fore any of the freshmen have joined
fraternities.
DECISIONS pertaining to patronage
are usually determined by the party
chairman. Fraternity representatives
learn from him how the pie will be
cut; the apportionments are rarely
contested openly, for party and fra-
ternity reach an entente in privacy.
Regular party meetings feature long
speeches commending the wisdom of
the party leadership and formal rati-
fication of the private deals which
have already been decided. The at-
traction at gala party meetings is
beer, distributed free after business.
Candidates for office are elected
by popular appeal—and for “appeal,”
a distinguished career in athletics
serves infinitely better than schol-
arship (which is seldom an issue as
long as the candidate measures up
to the required “C” average). The
most recent contest for senior class
presidency was between the captain
of the football team and the captain
of the soccer team. Neither had for-
mer experience in student govern-
ment and it is quite accidental that
the winner has proved to be an in-
corruptible, indefatigable worker.
Elections have been corrupt
enough to alarm Machiavelli. The
political representative of each fra-
ternity is permitted to collect ma-
triculation cards—the credential for
voting—from his brothers and casts
votes in behalf of an entire house
himself (he might cast as many as
one hundred ballots). Expired ma-
triculation cards are saved from for-
mer years and used as_ though
valid. Ballot-box stuffing is com-
mon practice; in the most recent
490
ane
OO CREE RT Lips er Na
’
election, total votes cast outnum-
bered what might be predicted of
a college election. The present senior
class president was elected by less
than a dozen votes—what he won
was a ballot-stuffing contest. In the
sophomore class election, the vic-
torious candidate for president was
expelled from school for “malicious
academic cheating” shortly after his
triumph at the ballot.
POSING A hypothetical case, we
might find student Smith thoroughly
disinterested in campus politics un-
til his junior year. Most of his time
has been spent playing football or
some other sport; he has made many
friends, maintained at least a “C”
average, joined a fraternity, submit-
ted to having the political repre-
sentative in his fraternity vote in his
behalf (or at least tell him which
candidates to vote for), and he has
been frequently mentioned and
photographed in the school news-
paper and on occasion by the com-
mercial press. At the same time, his
fraternity has faithfully supported
the candidates designated by the
party. One day the party chairman
suggests that Smith might be a de-
serving candidate for an elective of-
fice. Our naive, honest football player
is shortly nominated and elected.
Once in office, he may become a
tool for the party chairman who
uses the elective office to further
party patronage, an iconoclast who
persists in trying to do his job or,
more frequently, an apathetic office-
holder who refuses to be manipulated
but also refuses to work.
The campus elections are devoid of
issues. Candidates do not run on a
platform and party chairmen are
amused when itis suggested that
their organizations represent nothing
constructive. In fact, the “purpose”
of the Campus Party, according to
its constitution, is to “foster the best
interests of the fraternity system.”
Early in January, Penn’s student
governing council cross-examined
the head of the Campus Party for
two hours. At one point, council
members suggested that, at least for
the sake of euphemism, the party’s
constitutional purpose be the fur-
thering “of the best interests of the
University of Pennsylvania and all
its students.” The party chairman
seemed incapable of grasping what
this suggestion meant.
On the men’s student government
board sit sixteen “wheels” represent-
ing classes, a variety of “activity”
groups, religious organizations and
lesser representative bodies (i.e., the
Inter-Fraternity and Dormitory
Councils). For the most part, these
representatives know pitifully little
about current affairs. During a heat-
ed discussion of the controversial
loyalty-oath provision of the Na-
tional Defense Education Act, one
student leader, a star football player,
member of an honor society and a
fraternity president, admitted that
he had never heard of Leon Trotsky
and was thus incapable of discussing
an undergraduate organization with
alleged Trotskyite affiliations.
Penn, in bold contrast with insti-
tutions such as Antioch, where stu-
dents determine faculty promotions
and salaries, has a long tradition of
non-intervention in academic af-
fairs. Philip Jacob, Professor of Po-
litical Science, apologized for em-
ploying a platitude when he once
declared that at the University of
Pennsylvania “a_ professor’s class-
room is truly his castle.” Indeed, it
is such a citadel of resolute privacy
that departmental chairmen never
sit in to assay a subordinate’s teach-
ing ability. Genuine faculty alarm
greeted last year’s effort of The Daily
Pennsylvanian, the student news-
paper, to evaluate instructors in its
“Guide to Courses” last year. The
guide irreverently reported, inter —
alia: . .
Music 5 is rated by a Greek choru i
ie Lhe 1 f
Bis.
Pa
eta
aC;
the
Pees acer
murmuring “GUT, GUT, GUT” in
an awesome crescendo. R.—is pic-
tured as incredibly close-minded, dis-
organized and even, as one angry
student contends, “a disgrace to the
University.” The course is without a
text, without interest, without chal-
lenge and would be better without
R.—as well. Reminiscent of a circus.
The publication of equally irrev-
erent appraisals of faculty members
is customary on many campuses. At
Penn, however, the atmosphere gen-
erally discourages open student de-
bate on such subjects as the quality
of the education they are getting.
The university’s dean of men has
stated explicitly that student gov-
ernment is free to raise issues and to
campaign for reform in all areas of
undergraduate life, including the
academic. However, it is unlikely
that this freedom will mean anything
as long as the “successful” Penn un-
re,
he Pi ‘ ms
+ . -
dergraduate continues to affect a
sophisticated indifference to any is-
sue worthy of the name. (In fairness,
it should be noted that there is a
vocal minority of “serious” students
here who live with broader horizons,
who interest themselves in national
and international problems, and who
cast a critical eye on what is going
on in their own school. Unhappily,
they are excluded from the univer-
sity’s political arena.)
The undergraduate schools here
are dominated by the famed Whar-
ton School of Finance and Commerce,
a fact which may contribute to the
materialistic spirit which pervades
the campus. The idealists tend to
retreat, leaving the aggressive politi-
cian free to manipulate undergradu-
ate life in the direction of fostering
“the best interests of the fraternity
system.”
Most observers believe that if
there is any hope for betterment, it
rests with Gaylord P. Harnwell,
eminent atomic physicist who -be-
came president of the university
upon the retirement, seven years
ago, of Harold Stassen. Commanding
sympathy, support and respect from
students, faculty and administrators
alike, President Harnwell has been
forcing the university to investigate
itself. Five years of introspection
have so far cost the university $700,-
000 in academic improvements. Rob-
ert H. Pitt, dean of admissions, says,
“We are getting a new kind of stu-
dent.” Another academic officer re-
marks happily, “Our students are
becoming more interested and ma-
ture.” Perhaps President Harnwell’s
introspective habits will filter down,
one day, to the undergraduate level.
On that day the corrupt politics of
the university campus may become
an anachronism.
FINANCING OUR SCHOOLS
FEDERAL AID or LOCAL TAXES? e « by Harry W. Ernst
ees.
(EPA har eS
Washington, D.C.
CONGRESS is hurrying in this, its
172nd year, to catch up with Aris-
totle, who in 300 B.C. advised
politicians that “the primary func-
tion of any legislative body is the
education and training of its youth.”
But the reason for Congressional
haste isn’t a love of the classics. The
rising cost of maintaining our pub-
lic schools is pinching pocketbooks.
The House, with a nervous glance
toward November, finally pressured
aid to education.
its tail-wagging Rules Committee
into permitting a vote on federal
Judge Howard
! ‘Smith (D., Va.), the crafty chair-
man of that “traffic cop” committee
_ which blows the whistle on most
|e liberal legislation, was forced to
a
a
He
_ make a tactical retreat.
Hanging over Judge Smith’s ea
| HARRY W. ERNST, former edu-
cation editor of the Charleston (W.
Va.) Gazette, is now on leave study-
Congress on a grant of the Amer-
Political Science Association.
pared miracles, babi ay, is
moreover, was the threat of “Calen-
dar Wednesday,” a seldom-used but
potentially effective parliamentary
technique. On Calendar Wednesday,
the roster of committees is called,
and House action on bills which
the Rules Committee refuses to let
go may be requested. The area re-
development bill, which President
Eisenhower vetoed, was rescued from
Smith’s firm grip last month by this
device—the first time it had been
used in a decade.
It is probable that Judge Smith
and his conservative committee ma-
jority gave the bill a rule for two
compelling reasons:
{/House Liberals are hinting broad-
ly that they may resort to Calendar
Wednesday again and again at this
session if the Rules Committee sits
on upcoming labor legislation, in-
cluding a, minimum-wage bill. A
series of Calendar Wednesday de-
feats could seriously cripple the —
Rules Committee’s power. —
{That unpredictable worker of
.
a ghey
Tai
breathing down the necks of Con-
gressmen who must put. theirs on
the chopping block in November.
Practically every poll on the subject
reveals that people want federal aid
for their schools. So election-year
pressure is on Congress to produce.
In fact, one prominent pollster
says his interviewers across the land
agree that two domestic issues over-
shadow all others in the minds of
potential voters: The problems of
their aging parents [see “Health In-
surance for the Aged: Which Bill is
Best?” by Leo J. Linder, The Na-
‘tion, May 28] and the releritlessly
rising cost of public schools.
The local and state governments |
are now paying 96 per cent of the
public school bill. Since 1949-50, lo-
cal receipts (primarily from property
taxes) for support of schools have —
risen 162 per cent; state receipts, 154 —
_per cent. The costs of operating the —
‘nation’s elementary and secondary —
schools alone have been rising about —
$1 billion a year in the last decade,
That resistance is growing to » fur-
4
e
ther increases in state and local taxes
is indicated by a 20 per cent drop
last year in the approval rate for
school-construction bond issues,
I realize that it is not considered
quite nice to refer in America to
anything like a class struggle [said
Sen. Joseph S. Clark (D., Pa.) in a
recent lecture at George Washington
University]. That is too Marxian.
In America, it is considered nicer to
pretend that what’s good for General
Motors is good for the country. .. .
Yet the tax issue is at heart a
class issue. The brunt of federal tax-
ation falls upon the corporations and
the upper-income families. State and
local taxes fall far more heavily
upon the average-and-lower-income
families. . . . This is what the great
political issue between the “spenders”
and the “savers” really amounts to.
And, what’s even more frustrat-
ing to the embattled taxpayers, taxes
are climbing just enough to enable
the schools to stand still. The cost
of education is expected to dou-
ble in the next decade to prevent
the blessings of a higher birth rate
from stepping all over each other in
the classrooms. High school enroll-
ments alone will increase almost 50
per cent compared to a 40 per cent
increase during the 1950s.
MEANWHILE, the shifting base of
our national wealth has left our tax
structure as hopelessly obsolete as
the bow and arrow. Real property
used to constitute 75 per cent of our
wealth; today it is only 25 per cent.
School districts, however, still de-
pend on the property tax for more
than half of their revenue. The tax
is often applied with little relation
to ability to pay. And as the local
tax base shrinks, state legislatures
are forced to assume an increasing
share of the educational budget,
largely through discriminatory sales
taxes.
Senator Clark explained why the
property tax is becoming the enemy
of the people:
. While the rich man pays local
property taxes on what may be a
tiny fraction of his accumulated
wealth, the average-income man pays
on what may be two to ten more
times his accumulated wealth. As
it affects individuals, a more inequi-
table tax system could hardly be
492
Throwing Money into Space — or Schools?
With but one dissenting vote, the
House Committee on Science and
Astronautics, on March 30, favor-
ably reported out a bill (H.R. 10809)
authorizing the appropriation of
$915,000,000 for the National Aero-
nautics and Space Adminstration for
fiscal 1961. The lone dissenter was
Rep. Ken Hechler (D., W. Va.);
there follows an extract from his of-
ficial minority report. — Enpirors
If we are to move forward in the
space effort, of course we are going
to need people trained in the natural
sciences. In other fields we are also
going to need social scientists who
can point the way for mankind to
reduce human poverty and suffering,
to secure disarmament and _ better
international understanding — and
ultimately to maintain a_ lasting
peace. And as automation produces
more and more leisure time, we shall
need more people trained in the
devised. And because the property
tax is thus inversely related to the
ability to pay, its limit is reached
early — when it strikes too hard at
the resources of the lower-and-mid-
dle-income groups who bear the brunt
of it.
Corporations, of course, pay their
share of property taxes. But with the
growth of large concentrated in-
dustries, corporate real property 1s
distributed most unevenly across the
land. One of the largest industrial
plants in the world, located in my
Commonwealth, pays property taxes
to only one small school district. It
does not contribute to the support of
the schools to which most of its
employees send their children, be-
cause they live across the district
line.
States and local communities vary
widely in their ability to raise pub-
lic funds for schools and for a host
of other services which the people
have demanded since World War II.
Interstate competition for new
plants tends to put a lid on the tax
efforts that even the more prosper-
ous states might make. But in trying
to meet public needs, local and state
debts jumped 211 per cent between
1948 and 1958 compared to an in-
crease of less than 10 per cent in the
federal debt.
humanities as well. Perhaps more
training in the humanities would
help raise the moral tone of society
also, because it could certainly stand
some improvement.
What does all this have to do with
an important authorization for the
National Aeronautics and _ Space
Administration? Simply that I hope
through my negative vote to drama-
tize the fact that aid to our educa-
tional system is more important to-
day, and will prove to be more im-
portant in the 1970s and the years
to come, than what we vote today
for space or defense. Of course, we
need both education and the urgent
current expenditures, and my vote is
simply intended to emphasize the
relative importance of education.
Therefore, until an adequate fed-
eral aid to education bill is passed
I will vote in committee and on the
floor against space and defense au-
thorization and appropriations.
Uncle Sam now provides only four
cents of every educational dollar, al-
though he collects seven of every
ten tax dollars. And only he can fair-
ly tap for all states — through
corporate and personal income taxes
— the national wealth that tran-
scends state lines. Besides, it’s cheap-
er and more efficient to let Wash-
ington do it: the National Education
Association points out that Uncle
Sam keeps only 44 cents per $100
to pay for the cost of tax collection;
states take an average of $1 per $100,
while local governments keep $5 to
$10 per $100.
THESE are the pocketbook pres-
sures pushing Congress toward en-
actment of a school-construction bill,
at the minimum. Ideally, a federal
aid-to-education program should be
-large and flexible enough to permit
local school districts to spend the
money according to their particular
needs, with a minimum of bureau-
cratic interference. But the realities
of Congressional life make such an
approach almost impossible at this
session. Even a moderate school-
construction bill, however, would be
a step forward compared to that —
(Continued on page 500) |
BOOKS and the ARTS
What Is Wrong with Durrell?
CLEA. By Lawrence Durrell. FE. P.
Dutton & Co. 287 pp. $3.95.
Kenneth Rexroth
SITTING DOWN to write this piece,
I have little relish for the job. For a
good many years now I have been a
devoted, persistent fan of Lawrence
Durrell. When Justine came out in Eng-
land, I wrote a fairly long and very
laudatory review for The Nation. It
seemed the promise of a_ thoroughly
adult job. The characters were a dis-
tasteful crew, but certainly they were
grownups; the plot was as complex as
any of Conrad’s, and since the succeed-
ing three novels were announced as
treating the same cast through the eyes
of three different characters, the whole
project promised to be a fabulous net-
work of motives, false motives and
‘imaginary motives. The style was satu-
‘rated with a whimsical, self-mocking
irony, “fine writing” making fun of it-
self. Altogether, I felt on sure ground
‘when I prophesied a big work by a
(mature man, one worthy to be set along-
side Ford Madox Ford’s Tietjens series,
‘the promise of a novel which would be
“fit reading for a male over thirty-five.
(Certainly there aren’t very many such.
ow, at least this one male over thirty-
five is a disappointed man,
_ What happened? In the first place,
‘I think a purely mechanical mistake.
' Durrell sold Justine before the rest of
‘the work was completed, and for the
‘next three years had to produce a book
a year against an inexorable deadline.
aybe Dickens or Dostoevsky could do
Bais; they hated it and groused about
‘it, but they produced masterpieces that
ay. It is obvious that Durrell could
ee Times have changed. Writers are
ar more self-indulgent and tempera-
'mental nowadays — they are artists,
and rigorous business arrangements up-
set them. Durrell felt frustrated and
| hemmed in. Each year he put off writ-
| ing and then wrote carelessly, perhaps
‘even defiantly. What had been complex
a subtle and ironic turned into some-
ing flimsy, schematic and flashy.
__ Plotting, which at the start was care-
1 and wise, became sensatfonal. It not
became sensational, it became friv-
ENNETH REXROTH, poet and crit-
s the author of Bird in the Bush,
nila pebhed by New Directions.
olous and irresponsible. Perhaps it
makes a good hot item for the paper-
backs to suggest that the Egyptian
Copts and the Jews are in a plot with
the Nazis to betray the Arabs and Brit-
ish in Egypt and Palestine — but this
is the kind of yarn we associate with
Talbot Mundy, not with a serious
writer. It is all too easy to envisage a
young Egyptian officer in charge of a
border post, reading that book between
hours of duty. This kind of childish
meddling with the lives of the imnocent
should be left to Steve Canyon and
Terry and the Pirates. The word for it
is cheap — as well as dangerous. One
step more and the word is malicious.
The writing has decayed in the same
way. Pain and disaster emerged at first
from the necessary relationships of the
characters; in the later books it is ap-
plied from the outside. Clea’s disaster
with the fish is not tragedy, it is sensa-
tionalism, on a par with the highly
sophisticated sadism of the pseudo high-
brow French and Italian movies. Fur-
thermore, its gratuitousness shows; they
do this so much better in Japan where
sentimental agonies have a long tradi-
tion of great skill. Gone too is the subtle
mockery of fancy writing, The narrator
of Clea has decided that now he can
really “write,” at last he is an artist.
You won’t get far in the book before the
horrible suspicion sneaks over you that
Durrell agrees with him. I'll take De
Quincey.
WHAT is wrong with this writer? He
has terrific talent, he is no longer a
young man, he has learned all the lessons
there are to learn. Is it an incorrigible
bohemianism? Perhaps. I went back and
reread The Black Book. All the Alex-
andria tetralogy is there, writ small. It
is one of the first and best books of its
kind — that long spate of tales of the
life and loves of the Underground Man
that have become the characteristic
literary fad of the last twenty years. It
is a tale of a wretched warren of loath- .
some characters, and like Dostoevsky’s
manifesto, Letters from the Under-
world, like Les Liaisons Dangereuses,
like the life and letters of Baudelaire, its
moral point is that all such people can
do is debauch, in rotten frivolity, the
ignorant and trusting innocent. This, in
a sense, is the point of the first of the
kind, the immensely fashionable parent
‘ . es
of the whole genre, that other Justine
by Sade. The trouble with The Black
Book is that you can never be sure of
Durrell’s intention. Did he know what
he was doing? How close is he, really,
to his characters, the closeness of the
artist who understands all, or the em-
broilment of the participant who under-
stands nothing?
In his preface to the new edition of
The Black Book Durrell speaks of it
as an attack on Puritanism and identi-
fies it with the genre of Lady Chatter-
ley’s Lover. But Chatterley is not’ an
attack on Puritanism at all. It reeks of
Puritanism and crippled, self-conscious
sex — and of the personal spites and ill
tempers of Lawrence as well. Only an
adolescent, recently escaped from the
Epworth League, could think of it as a
pagan manifesto of sexual freedom. So
too, The Black Book is a tour de force
of ingrown Puritanism, and so too, I am
afraid, is the Alexandrine tetralogy.
While the four parts of the novel
were coming out, Durrell published
Bitter Lemons, Esprit de Corps, Stiff
Upper Lip. These are all concerned with
his own life as a diplomatic representa-
tive of Great Britain. They all have the
same fault, a blissfully unconscious, but
none the less absolute ethnocentrism. In
Bitter Lemons the Cypriots are happy
childlike innocents, misled by “dema-
gogues” and the “envenomed insinua-
tions of the Athens Radio.” It never
occurs to Durrell that they might just
want to be free. Only the most un-
worthy motives are ever ascribed to
either the Turkish or Greek leaders,
who are always portrayed as “outside
Great-Grandsire (1804-84)
John ‘Splatter’ Byrne—immense of foot—
Farmer in County Down, one morning
walked
To town to buy tobacco, tea, and sugar,
A five-gallon crock for skimming
cream he’d ordered.
Into the crock he packed the morning’s
booty.
Crossing the bridge he stopped to
light his clay:
Elbowed from parapet, the crock and
goods
Smashed among the river’s rocks and
spray.
‘Sweet Hell go with you!’ And stalked
away.
Pappaic O Bron
ato = =.
pe AE} rt) * ee ie.
agitators,” interested only in Lavan
themselves at the expense of naive and
friendly school children. The English,
on the other hand, are seen as silly,
bumbling, out of date, but oh so sane-
and wholesome and always concerned
only with the good of the charges that
God has entrusted to them. We’ve heard
all this before; in fact we can hear it
almost any day when a Southern Con-
gressman is sounding off, and what day
is one not? Stiff Upper Lip and Esprit
de Corps are unforgivable. They are
written in the most dreadful imitation
of P. G. Wodehouse, a favorite author
of Durrell, by his own admission. (He
reads him in Bitter Lemons during
negotiations with the Cypriots over their
freedom.) It is a bad imitation and so
vulgar it makes your flesh crawl. These
two books of purported humor explain
much about what happened to the
splendid plan announced in Justine.
Possibly, carefully read, they explain
everything. British diplomats are noble
and silly, Indians, Negroes, Egyptians,
are sly and rascally children, uniformly
portrayed in terms of a Soho pickpocket
— the only “native,” you feel, reading
these disgraceful books, Durrell has
ever known personally. This, of course,
is not true; he has lived most of his life
in the Levant. What is wrong with him?
What is wrong with Englishmen?
Meanwhile he has published some-
thing else.
hae Bh a ac) ye i
re Phe. PAS
Grove Prose 3 Baniohe
out his Selected Poems and there are
rumors a Complete Collected Poems
will be along eventually. These are great
poems, lovely, temperate, with every
subtle cadence so carefully controlled, so
excruciatingly civilized. They reek of the
Levant at its best, with all of its best
reeks. There is little self-consciousness in
them, and little Puritanism, but lots of
the weary sensuality and fleshy joy of
Greek and Turkish and Egyptian life
and love and food and drink. These
poems, not Justine, really transfuse in-
to the pale British bloodstream the
wistful lewdness and wisdom of that
great bad Greek, the poet Cavafis, who
was one of the most consummate evil
livers in all literature. Durrell’s poems
avoid Cavafis’ more lurid sin, but they
perfectly transmit his smile and _ his
impeccable taste. I think the poems
answer the question, “What’s wrong
with this initially so ambitious work?”
Closeness, or embroilment? Durrell is an
old and loyal friend of Henry Miller. So
loyal in fact that he recently edited an
anthology presenting poor Henry as a
Thinker; it would seem that Durrell
really believes Miller thinks. This is a
fine friendship, well tested through al-
most thirty years and it is not fortuitous.
Like Henry Miller, Durrell is suspi-
ciously like some character in his own
fictions.
The Writing Teacher
COPEY OF HARVARD. A Biography
of Charles Townsend Copeland. By J.
Donald Adams. Houghton Mifflin.
306 pp. $5.
Benjamin DeMott
IN THE early thirties, when Charles
Townsend Copeland retired from Har-
vard, the country had few men who
could have been described as teachers
of creative writing; now it seems to have
thousands. Practicing poets and short-
story writers who cannot tell a Comma
Splice from a Modal Auxiliary have
been herded into academic captivity to
staff Fiction 1-2 and Sonnet 3-4. Scores
of respectable institutions have set up
hierarchies of writing courses, steps in
passage toward the Ph.D. in Original
Genius. And masses‘ of undergraduates,
inspired most recently by the example
of Mr. W. D. Snodgrass (who climbed
BENJAMIN DeMOTT is Professor of
English at Amherst College. His The
Body’s Cage, a novel, was published
by Little, Brown.
a few of the steps in question at Iowa
State on his way toward a Pulitzer
Prize), are at this very moment ha-
ranguing deans to waive some distribu-
tion requirement so that their own ascent
can begin.
The responsibility for this curious turn
of events can be variously assigned, but
probably no one of his time, with the
possible exception of George Pierce
Baker, should bear a larger share of it
than the subject of the fair and sym-
pathetic biography at hand. It is pos-
sible, of course, to regard Copeland’s
influence on the Craze for Creation as
largely accidental—a consequence of the
chance appearance, on the Harvard scene
during his career, of a considerable num-
ber of men of talent who in point of
fact needed no teaching. (Among the
writers Copeland taught were T. S. Eliot,
Van Wyck Brooks, John Dos Passos,
Robert Sherwood, Walter Lippmann, S.
N. Behrman, Stanley Kunitz and Oliver .
La Farge.) People
would argue that me
come famous have to b
take this view
i are to be-
Peipcated some-
' é ata
soe eit
Sia
where, that they are bound therefore to
have teachers, and that, inevitably, a
measure of réclame falls upon the teach-
er who has the largest number of them
in his classes in a given period. The point
of view is reasonable in most instances,
but a trifle irrelevant here. Before Cope-
land made his “record,” there were no
records; neither was there much belief
in the possibility that writing could be
taught. The Harvard professor was him- }
self the origin of the myth of the great
writing teacher, the figure who helps
the artist Find Himself in youth, or who
tacts with editors and publishers who
trust his word. And if there had not
been such a myth and men to further it
—Bernard DeVoto to speak of Cope-
land’s “black magic” as a coach of talent, }
Eugene O’Neill to acknowledge debts to
Baker—the likelihood is strong that the
boom in writing seminars would not }
have taken place, and that a second and
third generation of notable writing teach-
ers—Roethke, Strode, Stegner and others
—would not have appelreds
SINCE this is the case, the chief in-
terest of Copeland’s life to bookish peo- }
ple who did not know the man lies in his
teaching. What were the methods of this
Pioneer? Could they be used again? Can
writing teachers of this time duplicate |
his (apparent) feats? Happily, this
biography contains much matter rele-
vant to these questions.
One of Mr. Adams’ chapters bears the
title, “Copeland the Catalyst,” a phrase
expressing an aim that all those now
functioning in this special field doubt- |
less share with their Harvard original.
And the likeness of aim is by no means
the only obvious similarity between
Copeland and his heirs. True, the sage
of Hollis Hall knew misfortune and luck
on a scale unfamiliar to any writing |
teacher of this generation: he languished
seventeen years as an instructor, yet in_
his forties had a highly organized claque
that met every year in New York—the
mit
10!
pre
pho
"amt
Min
rat
Fish
that
has
ent
tern
som
at the very least possesses certain Con- |
coll
Eng
oth
“they
past
not
him:
hen
felt
wat
the
Som
achi
hon
i
toh
and
Charles T. Copeland Alumni Associa- f
tion. True, his tastes were, like those of
any literary man of his time, far dif-
ferent from those of instructors in 1960. |
(He liked good “reporting,” cared little
for Symbolism, and seems to have prac-
ticed the Intentional Fallacy with fine
enthusiasm both in his readings and in}
his criticism.) But in other ways Cope-
land was very plainly one of the clan.
Indeed it could be argued that he ing
vented the writing teacher's Essential
Style—in that he was ill provided wit
academic credentials Cdogicets se rly
publications), was intimate with som
eae, at pains to keep u
ARE Tha N
\p connect ric a
Cin® ey
with the “outside world,” and inclined
to emphasize his familiarity with the
great (his apartment walls bore signed
photographs of John Barrymore, Mad-
ame Modjeska, Joseph Jefferson and
Minnie Maddern Fiske, and one under-
graduate claimed to have seen Mrs.
Fiske descending Copeland’s stairs “with
that look about her of a woman who
has just been made love to”),
Where he loses contact with the pres-
ent generation, as it seems, is in his de-
termination to exercise in his teaching
something that may as well be called the
courage of hostility. The emperor of
English 12 apparently did not tell any
of his students, even his favorites, that
they were likely to become writers. His
position was that students were students,
not great souls in embryo, and that he
himself was a grown man and a teacher,
hence a person entitled to judge their
work with full candor and force. If he
felt the need to abuse a piece of student
writing, he acted on it without weighing
the possibility that the author might
someday, by accident or otherwise,
achieve literary success, and without
agonizing about the pain inflicted by his
honesty.
He insisted that his students come
to his rooms and read their work aloud,
and as they read he writhed, grimaced
and mocked their pretensions infuriat-
An April Walk
The end of music is
stillness and the end
of love being alone.
Rest absent from me O
Creator Spirit awhile
so I may my long-held
illusions and ideas
reconsider as I
follow this quiet path
where weedy it winds brown
among the dogwood pink
and white, evident
trodden in former times
but now not many come
into the sacred wood.
Here I shall not meet
Adam, and I can listen
to the loud prophet-birds:
“Naa! naa!” they caw, “do not
doubt your lust and art!
Caaw! caaw! you can’t anyway!
they have made you at last
not less than you are!
Aanh! aanh! go on! try
to fashion into facts
the useful thoughts you have
for the Americans.”
Paut GoopMAN
ingly. Dean Briggs, who in the view of
many was Copeland’s superior as a
teacher, predicted that Copeland’s stu-
dents would always remember:
... those hours they spent alone with
him—the silences on Copey’s part, the
sudden cries of anguish . . . the snorts
of disgust, sometimes even, the feigned
snoring—and rarely, oh how rarely,
the sudden and delighted smile! And
the interruptions while you read:
“Write, ‘What a swag-bellied sen-
tence!’” or, “Write, ‘March of the
elephants!’ ”, “Write, ‘What a jaw-
breaker!’” or, perhaps, a single word
_i $6 ‘Pish!’ ” ,
In sum, Copeland coddled no one, saw
his task as that of discouraging rather
than encouraging, showed his audience
that the quality of a sentence mattered
intensely to him, and tried not to con-
fuse social relations with his judgment
of literary accomplishment.
THE behavior and disposition of mind
thus described may well intrigue present-
day teachers of writing, who more and
more often find themselves regarded as
friendly advisers about Life or Women,
rather than as sternly impersonal arbiters
with a right to be enraged by messy
sentences. But the temptation to see
Copeland as a hero, a man who refused
to pander to the masses, needs to be
resisted. Santayana, who called him “a
public reader by profession, an elocu-
tionist,” went on to say with an edge
of scorn that:
. . . he could move his audiences by
declaiming, with disciplined voice and
restrained emotion, all the most
touching or thrilling popular selec-
tions from the Bible to Kipling. This
was a spiritual debauch for the hungry
souls of the many well-disposed waifs
at Harvard living under difficult con-
ditions; and these Copeland made
his special friends.
And Copeland himself admitted that his
choice of readings was not determined
by reference to the rigorous standards he
invoked in rejecting bad student writing.
In 1909, after attacking part of the
young T. S. Eliot’s paper on “The De-
fects of Kipling” (the attack had some
justification, perhaps, but to the eye
of a man who has read twenty to thirty
thousand student papers in the last nine
years, Eliot’s little essay, written when
he was a junior, seems not less than un-
believably good), Copeland, who in-
variably read aloud great quantities of
Kipling, declared that the poet “is no
favorite of mine—I am a pianola that
often resents the music it plays... .”
The impression left by this eschewal, on
the public platform, of the rigor of the
private classroom, somehow works to
make the rigor suspect.
To say this is not to deny for a mo-
ment that the dead-voiced teacher of
literature, the subtle explicator who for
some reason cannot get into the act of
the poem before him, is the inferior of
the gifted reader; one indication of lit-
erary “decline” is that the word “read-
ing’—as in, say, A Reading of George
Herbert—now is understood to mean
some fifty thousand well or badly chosen
words about the design of the poems,
not a demonstration by a living voice
of their qualities of delicacy and gentle-
ness. Neither is it to deny that the writ-
ing teacher who encourages every “sen-
sitive,” half-talented snippeteer probably
sets loose on the land more Cromwells
than the occasional unmuted Milton is
worth. The point is simply that the con-
fusion of standards which a career like
Copeland’s appears to embody does raise
for the writing teacher—and perhaps for
others as well—matters a shade deeper
than those questions about the useful-
“One of the most original and
arresting poets in world literature in
the early twentieth century...”
ROMAN JAKOBSON
VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY
THE BEDBUG AND SELECTED POETRY
al
paper/$1.55 cloth /$4.00
MERIDIAN BOOKS, INC.
12 East 22 Street, New York 10
Edited and introduced ‘by
Patricia’ Blake, these trans: ~
ENT eed) Eee ele
EU goa eS Pe |
Mayakovsky’s satirical -play
and numerous poems (with
ECA ae SSE Tiee Ch COMET
been “awaited. ever..since
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his statement..“Here was’
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MARHOBCHHK
ness of The Method that were mention-
ed before. Chief of these matters is that
of the moral implications of teacherly
rigor. Rigor can never be overpraised,
people say; but perhaps this is true only
in the case of the man who never allows
himself to be placed in a situation where
his decisions are as empty as those of a
pianola. And it is doubtful whether there
are many such men, and whether any
teacher knows himself well enough to
be sure that he is one of them, rather
than a mere bully.
Reflections of this sort can hardly
stand as an answer to the question about
the possibility of today’s writing teacher
equaling Copeland’s achievements; prob-
ably there is no answer except that the
aspirants had better be characters who
love to swat the swag-bellied sentence.
But the act of stimulating such reflec-
tions, and of providing evidence of the
difficulty of sustaining strong-minded
and impersonal principles of judgment
anywhere save in the classroom itself,
is in every sense worth while. Its effect
is to remind the teacher of the truth that
to serve an Ideal is only to fight another
of those wars between self-discipline and
hypocrisy that no one but a fool ever
wins. As a short history of this war the
life of Charles Copeland is instructive
and touching, and Mr. Adams earns
good will (of a kind he has not hither-
to appeared to value) for the clarity
with which he sets it forth.
Evidence and Absolutes
POLITICAL MAN. By Seymour Lipset.
Doubleday & Co. 432 pp. $4.95.
Arnold S. Kaufman
WHEN people talk of Democracy, their
voices ring with conviction and self-as-
surance, They express perplexity only as
to how those who disagree can possibly
deny obvious facts. Sometimes, indeed,
they may try to convert the benighted,
but the argument always consists of
appeal to a few well-chosen anecdotes,
rather than to systematic evidence. It
is this disposition — not for discussion,
“There is no excuse,”
writes Snow, “not to know that
this is the one way out through
the three menaces which stand
in our way—H-bomb war, over-
population, the gap between rich
and poor....The worst crime is
innocence,...we have very little
time.” $1.75
Cambridge University Press
496
ah tic da aaa) “ei ile otek Sl ganliaall
but for opinionated argument — that
makes Seymour Lipset’s book so valu-
able. His argument moves at the level
of systematic evidence, not sporadic
anecdote.
The book contains. a hard knock for
one or more of almost everyone’s cher-
ished convictions about democracy.
For those free-enterprising “Marxists”
who think that capitalism is ultimately
the only really important condition of
a functioning democracy, Lipset points
out that on the evidence capitalism is
only one cause, and not a very important
cause, of democracy. For those who
view the working man as by nature
tolerant and freedom-loving, Lipset
soberly emphasizes that on the evidence
“authoritarian attitudes are ‘normal’
and expected” among lower economic
groups. To the fast-diminishing group
which views fascism as the death-throe
of bourgeois domination, Lipset asserts
that on the evidence there have been
Fascist movements of the Left which
cannot be explained on this basis. He
questions whether a high degree of par-
ticipation in political life is, on the
evidence, a good thing. He suggests
that it is not the American intellectual’s
superior knowledge or _ intelligence
which makes leftists of so many of
them, but rather their sense of social
inferiority. To the business conservative
who demands greater union democracy
he points out that the fulfillment of this
demand may be incompatible with their
other basic demand for “union respon-
sibility.” And so it goes through the
book. The shibboleths of one group
after another are questioned on the basis
of evidence. As a philosopher I do not
feel competent to assess: these many
claims. All I can my is that iy are
§ y a
F Pi
ce ad
j
eo
I
fs
ea
backed by some evidence, and they
provocatively force one to think again
about things which are far too casually
taken for granted.
BUT WHEN Lipset moves from the
analysis of evidence to the expression
of opinion broadly philosophical, his
thinking does move off the rails. He
tells us that democracy is not only or
even primarily a means to some end;
“It is the good society itself in opera-
tion.” And the definition of democracy
is one thing about which Lipset himself
expresses little perplexity. Democracy
in a complex society is two things: (1)
a set of constitutionally established
procedures for replacing one group of § |
governing offcials with another; and
(2) a social mechanism which permits
the largest part of the population to
participate in this choice of governing § }
officials. qi
Now this definition is neat, realistic
and, above all, methodologically sound
(than which there can be no greater
virtue for most contemporary sociolo-
gists). Lipset’s priorities are fine for
some parts of sociology. But when they
are imported into moral discussion they
are enervating and misleading. To call
the implementation of his conception of
democracy “the good society in opera-
tion,” is simply absurd. To offer his
definition as the best definition of de-
mocracy is morally outrageous.
Procedures for selecting governing
officials are certainly indispensable in a
good society, but the identification of
the two ideas is grotesque. The good
society has ultimately to do with the
aesthetic and fraternal dimensions of
human experience, and with the extent
to which respect for the human being
and his natural potentialities are re-
flected and advanced by all our social
institutions (not just the political, but,
for example, the medical, the housing
and the penal institutions).
And the best definition of “democra-
cy” is surely to be determined not by
our beliefs about what happens, pres-
ently, to be the case, but by our aspira-
tions for something which is not and
may never be the case. “Democracy”
is not just another word, to be sub-
jected to the sterilizing prescriptions of
methodologically passionate social scien-
tists. It is the focal concept around
which revolves a constellation of opin-
ions ranging from highest aspiration to
most practical policies. If we see de-.
mocracy as a means of developing human
potentialities, then one definition and}
one set of implementing institutions are
indicated. If we see democracy as pre
marily a means of maintaining oale
order (as. do- i and Lipp
i, ne sf ‘ 2) /
iia pe
)
)
:
i
|
mann, for example), then another defi-
Mition and an alternative institutional
“emphasis is dictated.
_ It is Lipset’s failure to tear himself
| loose from the parochial moorings of
.| so much of contemporary sociology that
seriously impairs an otherwise provoca-
‘tively brilliant assessment of the con-
ventional wisdom about democracy.
ARNOLD S. KAUFMAN, who teaches
‘philosophy at the University of Michi-
“gan, is now completing a book on the
problems of responsibility.
’
{
y
|,
| Sad Young Men
;
)
:
THE NEW PROFESSORS. Robert O.
_ Bowen, editor. Holt, Rinehart and
_ Winston. 218 pp. $3.50.
,
n
WHEN the private diaries of Stendhal
“were published a few years ago, Morris
Bishop, reviewing the work for the
Saturday Review, remarked sadly, “I
“must confess that I did not know that
Stendhal was such a fool.” Stendhal,
| owever, had the saving grace of genius
— a grace denied the nine young pro-
fessors whose essays of self-analysis and
_profession-evaluation make up this book.
To be sure, all these professors are not
tarred with the same brush; they range
in rank from full professor down to in-
Structor, in religion from Mormon to
Roman Catholic, in politics from con-
| servative to extreme left-wing. But when
| you come right down to it, they are all
brothers under the mortarboard.
_ For one thing, they are not new pro-
fessors at all; they are only young. Es-
$ays not very different from theirs were
appearing in the Bulletin of the AAUP
thirty years ago, when these young men
t . . . .
were still pupils in the public schools.
Apparently, the American professor, as
a type, has not changed much in a
generation. He is still complaining about
‘low salary and overwork; he is still
troubled by the conflict between de-
mands that he do research and require-
‘ments that he teach; he is still troubled
‘by problems of academic freedom and
the dictatorship of trustees and ad-
inistration; he is still disturbed by the
‘competition, the log-rolling, and the
toadying that are normal among col-
lege faculties; he is still made unhappy
by the wheel-spinning of committee
LORGE WILLIAMS, author of Some
My Best Friends Are Professors
lard-Schuman), is Professor of
The Rice Institute, Houston.
George Williams
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work; and withal, he is still well-mean-
ing, idealistic, and glad that he is a
professor.
Like their professors before them,
these young professors have no unified
conception of their function. One of
them does suggest (p. 68) that what is
“required is nothing less. than a funda-
mental re-relating of the role of academia
to society’s life as a whole and particu-
larly to its need for leadership.” But
this suggestion, backed up by no specific
recommendations, is less than helpful.
Another of these young men hopes (p.
97) “to be only a good teacher, to do
what is morally right (insofar as this is
possible), to only cast my vote in-
telligently at every election and to ful-
fill my other local civic and_ social
duties.” Unfortunately, however, he
neglects to tell just what constitutes a
“sood teacher,” the “morally right,’ an
“intelligent vote,” or a “civic and social
duty.” Pretty obviously, these men,
who would like to see academia estab-
lish a leadership in America, are vague
and confused as to where they want
to lead us. Perhaps that is one reason
why canny politicians, burly labor lead-
ers, and ordinary American status-seek-
BEST PLAY
—N.Y. Drama Critics Circle 1960
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498
ers care so little for academic eggheads.
A final uniformity about these young
professors. is their intense concern for
themselves, their profession and_ the
problems of their profession — balanced
by almost no concern for the students
they are supposed to teach. Generally
speaking, mere students don’t figure
either as human beings or even as ab-
stract problems in these essays. An Eng-
lish teacher (Glenn Leggett, of the Uni-
versity of Washington) and a chemistry
teacher (Jay A. Young, of King’s Col-
lege) do devote, between them, three
pages of their combined fifty-three to
methods of teaching. But only Shepard
A. Insel (a psychologist of San Fran-
cisco State College) seems to understand
clearly the principal function of the col-
lege professor. “My task,” says Profes-
sor Insel, “is to indicate my trust and
support [of the student], and encourage-
ment of him and his capacity as an
ethical, thinking person in his own
right, to reach whatever conclusions are
meaningful to him in the light of his
data and experience, and my satisfac-
tions lie in the opportunity to ac-
company him and his venture.” Bless
the man! It is heartening to find that
at least one out of nine young profes-
sors realizes that professors owe their
first obligation to their students just
because students are young human
beings who deserve infinite care and
consideration for no other reason than
that they are young human beings. This
book is worth twice its price to any
professor who will read Professor Insel’s
essay, and take it to heart.
ARCHITECTURE
Walter McQuade
WASHINGTON, D.C., is a large hori-
zontal city with very white buildings
and a massive coffee break. Most of the
white buildings are official ones —
Grecian granaries for government cats
and mice — built in a placidly histori-
cal architectural style. They have a cer-
tain quietude; they might have been
designed by the same _ conservative
craftsmen who do the steel engravings
for currency and bond certificates.
But if Washington is dull visually, it
is also gracious. It has an expansive
atmosphere, unique for such a populous
American city. Despite its starched
buildings it is informal; when you reach
a vista to the White House, you also
see boys playing ball on the lawn before
you.
Metropolitan Washington has changed
little in architectural character since
the thirties, which is astonishing, for it
has been growing fast; it increased from
968,000 in 1940 to 1,464,000 just ten
years later, and the new census will
show another considerable jump. Prob-
ably a great deal of credit for the stabil-
ity in atmosphere should go to the boa
of beautiful trees which is flung over
the District, and this traces back to the
even more important fact that the city
was planned. Wide streets were laid out
centuries before they were needed, and
this pattern has regulated the growth.
Actually, the scar tissue lies outside the
District, in Virginia and Maryland,
where the developers’? houses cluster
around their lay cathedrals, the shop-
ping centers. Within Washington itself,
it is easy to become annoyed with
Pierre L’Enfant’s plan of 1791 because
of its grandiosity. For a tourist city,
Washington is a difficult place to find
your way about in. But the annoyance
simply cannot last in the general, sooth-
ing spaciousness of pattern which Wash-
ington does have. A fancy plan is bet-
ter than none. I am told that there is
a genuine move from the suburbs back
into this city, back in under the pro-
tective umbrella of L’Enfant.
As in most American cities, immense
road-building plans are rolling in Wash-
ington, and many Washingtonians are
apprehensive as to the environmental
damage implied. Look at old Boston,
they say, and they’re right to be wor-
ried. Some very bitter paragraphs could
be written about the thoughtlessly de-
structive highway programs in almost
every American city. I was in Wash-
ington, however, not to look at roads,
but at buildings; this column will be the
first of several which should result from
my trip to the peaceful, pompous city.
THE first building is one opened last
fall, the gigantic National Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception, which — sur-
mounts the campus of Catholic Uni-
versity. In contrast to the whiteness of
the rest of Washington’s large buildings,
the immense blue and gold emblazoned
Byzantine dome of this mammouth sits
up against the sky with a carnival ef-
fect, very lively. Its companion in sil- —
houette is a Romanesque bell tower, —
spindly and delicate. The very unlike=—
J ; Rae ’
‘ . i al Th INA‘ LON
=e
,
s of the pair of classic clowns make
engaging as you approach from
SThen you drive up the hill, behold
le whole mass of this mild monster,
d are made to consider the love,
labor and expense with which it has
be m put together. Like cathedrals of
\ | the European past it was begun long
ago, in the misty reaches of the twen-
,
4
‘}
-
a
¢
t
. | fies; its architects, Magginnis and
Walsh, are both dead now, and this
+ |great work is by no means complete
» | ven today. This is the second largest
{| @hurch in the United States, (surpassed
» | nly by the also incomplete Cathedral
; }6f St. John the Divine, buried in Man-
» | Hattan’s upper West Side). Its walls are
lifflike; it doesn’t even have a steel
frame. Sitting there on its stone plat-
rm the church is a mixture of styles,
it the very bulk of it, and its sim-
Plicity—to say nothing of the mighty
ome — twice the size of St. Marks in
epee makes the Byzantine win easily.
The great room inside is quite beau-
iful. As sheer space, the nave (100
eet high at the crowns of its arches)
would be stirring; but the structural
Walling material, exposed for the pres-
ent, also comes off very well. It is
| simple brown brick, repeated hun-
ireds of thousands of times, and it gives
he tall round arches which march down
he length of the church a feeling both
of scale and of unpretentious roughness.
Because the large stained-glass windows
Nave not yet been inserted (clear glass
is temporarily installed), plain. daylight
alls on the enormous brick walls, and
‘this too gives a feeling of sad simplic-
y, of noble humility, to the great room.
5 | ch
pa re
Roughness is a quality to be cherished
in a church, perhaps because it is easy
to relate humility to religious feeling.
Too many churches today, especially
ones which imitate the past, end up
having the same perfectly polished, un-
responsive finish as the lobby of a new
office building. Polish might have
represented something in centuries past,
devotion to God, but it is more me-
chanical today, devotion to Detroit.
The Shrine in Washington is now
completely shaped, as I understand it,
but its weathering outdoors and final
finishing indoors will make it or break
it, retain its spirit or Jose it in senti-
mentality or pretentiousness. (Un-
fortunately, those majestic brick walls
are going to be sheathed in marble.)
Downstairs, underground, below the
transept, are a number of relatively
small rooms beneath the ceiling of the
exotically arched and groined crypt,
low, like a catacomb. These spaces in-
clude several chapels and altars, one
opening off the next. When I was there,
several of these rooms still had struc-
tural brick walls and ceilings exposed
in this low space, and I found it a
rather stirring reminder of the covert
past of this triumphant religion. But
most of the spaces already had been
finished, or over-finished. One chapel
even had an over-all, continuous egg-
crate ceiling with fluorescent fixtures
above it—fine for bus terminals and
elevator cabs, but a terribly bland busi-
ness for a church.
ANY imitative design, like the Shrine,
is in great danger of smug mildness, no
matter how academically exquisite it is,
and imitating the past in architecture
can also seem terribly cynical. At pres-
ent, this slightly unfinished church has
a certain innocence; but as it is com-
pleted, it soon will need some art that
would sting the senses a little, be vio-
lent enough to make the vast place
a
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The NATION
333 Sixth Avenue, N.Y. 14, N.Y.
genuinely dignified, passionate, religious.
The Metropolitan Museum has plenty
of things in its Renaissance lockers that
could help do the job, but modern imi-
tations out of today’s religious art cata-
logues cannot. You can fake an old
church with some success, sometimes,
but not old art. The risk of new art is
necessary.
As an example of what the building
is too likely to receive,’ there is a set
of mosaics standing before one curved
wall in the crypt, mostly representing
saints and the Virgin. These are quite
pretty, but they have about as much
conviction—of any sort, religious or ar-
tistic—as illustrations from the Ladies
Home Journal. The building upstairs,
however impressive in its way, will not
be able to resist an over-all application
of such cosmetics. The Shrine, unless it
keeps its guard up, may not be a shrine,
really, but a great big tourist attraction.
The ancient liturgy of the church,
that magnificently comforting ritual of
the Mass, properly has resisted change
through the ages. It has prevailed and
accrued. Architecture is more outward,
however. To preserve the same vitality
it has to change and grow. At Ron-}
champs in France, several years ago,
Le Corbusier built the most advanced
modern building in the world, a visceral
piece of architecture — and the most
nearly genuine church since the original
cathedrals.
Financing Our Schools
(Continued from page 492)
1958 hodgepodge. of Congressional
hysteria, the National Defense Edu-
cation Act, which did little more
than provide for the public schools
small additional sums for test tubes
and for the mastering of foreign
tongues in a desperate effort to keep
up with the Khrushchevs.
The educational bill most likely to
succeed in Congress this year is one
bearing the name of Rep. Frank
Thompson, Jr. (D., N.J.), which
would provide $1.3 billion for four
years and require dollar-for-dollar
matching with state and local funds.
It would build 40,000 classrooms.
The classroom shortage is now esti-
mated at 140,000.
On May 26 the House narrowly
passed the Thompson bill after ac-
cepting the amendment traditionally
offered by Rep. Powell (D., N.Y.)
which would withhold funds from
school districts resisting desegrega-
tion. The fact that the bill passed
despite the Powell rider indicates
how anxious Congress is to vote
some education aid. Perhaps the
rider will ultimately kill the bill,
since Southerners control the com-
mittees through which it must pass
on its second trip through the House.
But Speaker Rayburn and Senator
Johnson, who want the Presidency
for Texas, may be able to salvage
some education legislation—with or
without the rider,
A far more liberal bill, providing
$917 million a year for two years to
:
Yes ie
Si ae a
be used for both construction and
teachers’ salaries, was passed by the |
Senate early in the session. It prob-
ably will be scuttled in favor of the
Thompson compromise bill in an ef-
fort to win House approval and
avoid a Presidential veto. Vice Pres-
ident Nixon, with an eye to Novem-
ber, reportedly is bringing pressure
to bear to assure its enactment.
Another quarrel between the Sen-
ate and House will concern the for-
mula for distributing federal aid to
the states. Sen. Lister Hill (D., Ala.),
respected chairman of the Senate
Labor and Public Welfare Commit-
tee, and President Eisenhower re-
portedly favor an equalization for-
mula based on the ability of states |
to finance their schools. This ap- |
proach, of course, would favor the
poorer states. But House education
leaders, backed by the National Edu-
cation Association, want a distribu-
tion formula based solely on the
number of school-age children in
each state. A compromise probably
will be reached with the Senate sacri-
ficing teachers’ salaries and the
Hotise accepting a modified equali-
zation formula.
Such is the labyrinth of legislative |
confusion from which a very modest }
program of federal aid to education
may emerge in this election year. |
Once education gets its foot more |
firmly planted in the federal door,
however, no telling what will happen
in the years ahead, hi
*
ba ih ak es
Crossword Puzzle No. 870
By FRANK W. LEWIS
16
17
19
25
29
30
ne 4, 1960
| ee
atartaik
ACROSS:
Six and 22 across have lost their
extremely confused client, and left
the range. (5)
The town type were of Bremen. (9)
Do they show the Roman slant? (7)
Special delivery (on holiday, per-
haps). (7)
12, 18, 14 and 24 across Evidently
it takes a lot of factory workers to
ea a satisfactory glow. (4, 5, 4,
5, 4
Making a profit out of screen ma-
terial? (7)
The person they’re mainly concern-
ed with should appear first. (7)
Concerning the troubles of the out-
ermost regions? (7)
Making no mention of it shows one
to be of little stature. (5)
Only part of the story of pied pie
does. (7)
and 27 Perhaps the practical one in
the bonnet doesn’t make a good
purchase. (1, 3, 2, 1, 4)
Stretch the cure of it, or the mak-
ing? (9)
Red hot that is put in to cook. (5)
DOWN:
It looks like the first person is not
out, alternatively, but is in the
area. (4, 5)
A good catcher, it might be grant-
ed. (7)
and 26 Forget the money, even
though it cost so much to build! (8)
Might be wild, and yet add up to
distinctive flavor. (7)
5 By foot, this is the way to look
around the water. (7)
6 and 22 across Secret society to set
apart for particular use. (11)
7 The components of 4 as specified
by the clue thereto. (7)
Because it is a subject of much
discussion to the Church of Eng-
land? (5)
15 Cow, in a rather domineering man-
ner. (5)
18 Where Joe sent a lot of people, evi-
dently, but what ships do to each
other is not hard. (9)
20 To call in question the suggestion
of royal power? (7)
21 Genuine 8 concerning the end. (7)
22 Lowers a sort of 1 across around
me. (7)
23 One might find the position of Gemi-
ni a picture, if the subject is not
present. (7)
24 Pull away what’s left, by the sound
Of it, (5)
28 African jazz groups might give one
to each soloist. (4)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 869
oo
“ACROSS: 1 Abeam; 4 Obtuse; 11 Hor-
mone; 12 Station; 13 Underwood; 14
Hoops; 15 Complications; 17 Sugar
and spice; 22 Ditto; 24 Inanimate; 25
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2°and 28 Bored to ‘tears; 3 Apocrypha;
6 Unicorn; ‘7 Ernest; 8 Shrub; 9 De-
nominations; 10 Used car dealer; 16
Implicate; 18 Untried; 19 Charter: 20
Odessa; 21 Peach; 23 and 5 es the
Beach.
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THE FUTURE OF a
SUMMITRY :
Geoffrey Barraclough
HHEREECCHOSHOHOCEC ESE COOEES }
Notes for the Overweight
REDUCING AD ABSURDUM
David Cort
— CHARADE
OF CIVIL DEFENSE
Stanley Meisler |
1
LETTERS
Sen. Symington on Missiles
Dear Sirs: Thank you for bringing to
my attention the article, “Cities Into
Targets,” by James E. McDonald,
your May 21 issue.
No single one of the various factors
taken into consideration in choosing a
missile site is necessarily controlling.
The factors of logistics, nearness to com-
mand centers, nature of topography and
geology, and prevailing winds are among
those which carry some weight.
If the prevailing winds should be the
controlling factor, as Mr. McDonald
believes, he makes a significant case.
In his interest in presenting his thesis,
however, he seems to discount the sig-
nificance of the weapons themselves. If,
in fact, the weapons in operational quan-
tities are sufficient and our warning sys-
tem is developed adequately and in time,
the likelihood of any fallout is sharply
diminished, regardless of which way the
wind blows. The deterrent to any attack
is increased by the number of hardened,
dispersed, large megatonnage weapons
known to be on the alert.
It is a little difficult to follow the pre-
vailing-wind thesis as regards movable
targets, which would be more likely to
encourage saturation-type attacks.
In conclusion, I would favor both
stationary-hardened-dispersed — missiles
and mobile missiles—in such quantities
and state of readiness as to constitute
an effective deterrent.
&
Sruart SYMINGTON
U.S. Senator (Mo.)
Washington, D.C.
Catawha’s Theatre
Dear Sirs: Warren Smith’s piece, “New
Man on the Campus: Artist in Resi-
dence,’ in your issue.of May 21, was
particularly interesting to us because of
its inclusion of theatre programs... .
Foundations to the contrary, the im-
pact today and the estimation in the
future of American arts and letters is
hardly improved by subsidizing men who
have already made their mark, however
small it may be (and to be pitiless about
it, most of the artists-in-residence pro-
grams seem to favor small-mark men).
If the “breed is to be improved,” to
borrow the horseman’s phrase, it will
be through the development of new
talents — “Those who need it most,”
Smith observes.
Our theatre has just closed the tenth
production in its Contemporary Series
of new American plays, most of which
have been premieres. During at. least
an important segment of production prep-
aration time, the playwrights have been
“in residence” here, and participated in
extensive pre-rehearsal conferences. .. .
The series has been a success in all
respects, including the box office. The
wide-ranging search for plays and the
playwrights’ expenses are underwritten
by a grant made to the department of
Drama and Speech by the Office of
Communications for the United Church
of Christ. We are currently looking for
another new play for production in
April, 1961.
Burnet M. Hoscoop, Chairman
Drama and Speech Department
Catawba College
Salisbury, N.C.
Picketing Sing Sing
Dear Sirs: On Thursday, May 12, Pablo
Vargas was carried to his death in the
electric chair, struggling, screaming, and
protesting his innocence to the last.
Outside the gates of Sing Sing, six
persons, including myself, picketed in
silence, against the death penalty in
general, and this execution, in particular.
. To my knowledge, this is the first
time within recent years that Sing Sing
has been picketed to protest an execu-
tion. I feel that this kind of protest, if*
done with dignity and humility, is ex-
tremely valuable; and I personally pro-
pose to make it my business to take
my place outside Sing Sing on each and
every Thursday that the State of New
York plans to carry out its heathen
sacrifice. If any of your readers from the
metropolitan area or Westchester Coun-
ty would care to join’ me, I can be
reached at: 195 Willoughby Avenue,
Brooklyn 5, New York.
James B. Oscoop,
The Prison Committee, N. Y.
Yearly Meeting of the Relig-
ious Society of Friends
(Quakers)
New York City
Massive Nonsense
Dear Sirs: Our whole policy of massive
retaliation depends completely on im-
mediate nuclear-weapons control. The-
oretically, we prevent the explosion of a
bomb in New York City tomorrow by
advertising the fact that this will mean
immediate and complete retaliation.
Against whom? Against the Russians, of
course, and we continue hopefully with
the conviction that the Russians fear
their own death, and therefore will
respect our life. However, the feasibility
sof this continues only as pone. 8 ! there
i it A i
‘es “7 of teh * "' « ene ge AL “a
is only one possible aggressor; for if ten
nations possess even the simplest atomic
weapons, and a bomb is exploded
New York City — then whom do we
strike? Now we have lost the power of
threat — unless we retaliate against the
whole world, which might anger God,
even if He is on our side.
Unless the nuclear-arms race is frozen
now, massive retaliation becomes mas-
sive nonsense.
Ronatp Zacuary GELLER
Newark, N.J.
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
501 @
ARTICLES
504 '® The Future of Summitry
by
GEOFFREY BARRACLOUGH
506 '@ U.N. Stage for Disarmament
by FREDERICK KUH
507 ‘@ Charade of Civil Defense
by STANLEY MEISLDR
510 @ Not Running
by MILTON VIORST
511 '‘@ Reducing Ad Absurdum
by DAVID CORT
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
514 @ Anger on Two Fronts
by EDWARD W. ZIEGLER
514 '@ In the Harbor (poem)
by MAY SWENSON
515 @ Deep in the Unfriendly City
by M. L. ROSENTHAL
516 ‘@ In the Head of One Man
by ROBERT PAUL WOLIT
517 @ Art
by MAURICH GROSSER
519 @ Films
by ROBERT HATCH
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 520)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
SOT IUC IM
George G. Kirstein, Publisher
Carey McWilliams, Editor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Wditor
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Music
Alexander Werth, Buropean
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, June 11, 1960. Vol, 190. No. 24
The Nation published weekly (except for omis-
sion of four summer issues) by The Nation
Company and copyright 1960, in the U.S.A. by
the Nation Associates, Inc., 333 Sixth Avenue,
New York 14, N. Y, Second class postage pald
at New York, N, Y,
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,
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 24
THE
NATION
EDITORIALS
Can Khrushchev Swing the °60 Election?
Under this caption, Frederic W. Collins pointed out
in the September 12, 1959, Nation that Mr. Khru-
shchey’s visit to the United States could have domestic
political results as weighty as they are incalculable.
“The Democrats have not yet gained an issue,” wrote
Mr. Collins, “but the Republicans have lost one which
they had cherished for nearly two decades — the issue
summed up in the word Yalta.” At Paris, Mr. Khru-
shchev gave that issue back to the Republican can-
didate, but he also imposed the burden of disappointed
hopes, for peace is what the more sensible section of
the electorate wanted and still wants, and peace they
certainly haven't got. Moreover, this group of voters,
by the fact of their intelligence, are aware that the
debacle at Paris was not entirely of Mr. Khrushchev’s
making, although he certainly made a generous con-
tribution. On this basis, has the Republican candidate
— presumably Mr. Nixon — gained on balance, or
lost? Unfortunately, the question is not likely to be
_ resolved on rational grounds. The argument that seems
to be gaining momentum is that because Khrushchev
hates Nixon, it is the duty of the embattled American
voter to spit in Mr. Khrushchev’s eye and vote for
Mr. Nixon. “The people of America,” declared Jack
Porter, a Texas Republican, “are not ready to let a
_ Bolshevist dictator tell them whom to elect President
of the United States.” According to Mr. Porter, Mr.
Khrushchev wants a Democrat in the office, therefore
all good men must repair to the standard of Mr. Nixon.
Of all the idiot notions in politics, the most idiotic
is that one should elect a President, or for that matter
Ba dog catcher, in terms of what a foreign power, re-
garded as the “enemy,” thinks — or says it thinks —
about him. The Nation does not advise its readers on
- whom to vote for; they are perfectly capable of mak-
ing up their own minds. But if it could reach its non-
readers, like those who wildly cheered Mr. Porter’s
- proclamation, it would exhort them to leave Mr.
_ Khrushchev out of it. A good many Americans don’t
Jove Mr. Nixon, and it has nothing to do with Mr.
‘hrushchev’s not loving him. Suppose Mr. Khrushchev
Hl d swing around, as he does not infrequently, and
Lessa
‘
o™%
recall the animated debate he had with the Vice Pres-
ident in Moscow, and the fact that it was conducted
in rather friendly fashion? Would that be an argument
for voting against Mr. Nixon? If the election is to be
this basis, the Soviet Premier could
elect either candidate by bestowing the kiss of death on
his opponent. Let’s not be suckers.
conducted on
Nemesis
It is said that every man is to some extent the author
of his misfortunes, that he is stricken not only by the
blows of fate but by his own failings. President Eisen-
hower is a melancholy example in our time, and to
our cost as well as his own. All his life he has been a
favorite of the gods, the beneficiary of the famous
Eisenhower luck, enhanced by his personal qualities
— for if we are part of the causation of our woes, we
must also be responsible in some measure for our
successes. His was a fabulous career, and in some ways
inspiring. When the ills of old age overtook him, he
gave an example of fortitude to his countrymen, and
indeed to the world. People everywhere sensed that he
was a man of good will as well as a man of good fortune,
and in the adulation they showered on him in his long
journey to India they showed their gratitude and the
hopes they reposed in his beneficence.
Then his luck ran out. It might have held — he was
so near the end of his second and last term. The final
act was about to be performed — finis coronat opus.
The way had been prepared at Camp David. The
world did not look for a resplendent achievement in
Paris, merely some progress toward what undoubtedly
was, by inclination and temperament, the President’s
goal: world peace. Little was required, actually, and he
could have departed in a blaze of glory. That little was
not bestowed by fortune or, on the President’s part,
diligently prepared for; yet, for all the negligence and
blunders, an outcome so disastrous could hardly have
been predicted. It was as if the gods finally had enough
of the President’s faults; at the end they punished him
for all he had done, all he had left undone, and for all
their gifts of the past. And if he looks within, not in
those moments of public exculpation when he is more
__ ages ay “3 a 7 Ps” ee > *
r
’
the actor than the man, but in lonely self-examination,
he must see much that he brought on himself.
The press and the radio would have it that Khru-
shchev “humiliated” Eisenhower. That castigation
Eisenhower could well bear, but worse is to come. The
trip to the Orient, a drummer’s journey among shaky
and restive Allies, is a greater humiliation than any an
enemy could inflict. The subsequent outlook is for a
Presidential campaign in which Ike will dutifully go
through the motions in a vacuum of productive ideas,
beset on the one hand by unloosed chauvinists and flag-
wavers and on the other by the disappointed partisans
of peace. There will be little solace for him in Gettys-
burg, as things look now.
The Key Question
To date the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has
successfully ducked what Under Secretary of State Dil-
lon has correctly stated to be the key question in the
U-2 fiasco: the question of Intelligence. The investiga-
tion has proceeded on the unchallenged assumption
that the work of CIA is not subject to any kind of
Congressional control nor, as Senator Fulbright puts it,
“to the check of public opinion.” Mr. Dulles is the one
man in government who can testify before a Congres-
sional committee and then decide what part, if any,
of his testimony should be made public. With the ap-
proval of the Executive and Legislative branches and
the virtually unanimous approval of the American
press, he is his own censor. Sixteen Senators know the
hy ( role that CIA played in this unhappy affair; but their
eo colleagues do not, and neither does the public. If this
a degree of secrecy is the price tag for espionage of the
"ye U-2 variety, the price is too high. As Rep. William
H. Meyer pointed out in The Nation of May 21: “The
immediate issue is the survival of free democratic gov-
ernment operating under civilian leadership in a manner
that openly informs our people and is at least reason-
ably responsible to the voters and somewhat responsive
to their wishes.”
But the price is much higher. “There is no point in
our pretending,” Senator Fulbright states, “that the
black arts of Intelligence operators do not now, and
have not throughout recorded history, involved viola-
tions of every Commandment. They do. Lying, cheat-
_ ing, murder, stealing, seduction and suicide are part of
the business in which all great nations participate —
not because they want to, not because they believe
_ these acts are moral, but because they believe such
activities are esceteal to their own self-preservation.”
_ This is the way it may once have been, Senator, but
it is so no longer. In today’s world, espionage of the U-2
variety is not merely illegal, in the sense that all es-
pionage is an invasion of sovereignty, but it can con-
m Sripote an act of war, As Senator ‘Humphr
dee
ra
ao ee " eae pare aan } ,
pointed bh basin of f th pi Pact ic Deeks n,” namely
~ es W mi
out, if the Strategic Air Command spotted by radar an
enemy plane flying at high altitude, the results in view
of our fear of surprise attack, might be very serious in-
deed. And not only is the danger involved inordinate-
ly great, but this type of espionage is, as the record
shows, essentially self-defeating. Mr. Herter and other
witnesses concede that it was never anticipated that a
U-2 mission might fail “under quite these circum-
stances.” But espionage missions will always fail under
circumstances that are not anticipated. That is the
predictable risk attendant upon such activities. And
the price, in most instances, is out of all relation to the
value of the information obtained or its lasting utility.
In this instance, the failure of a mission that might
have triggered a war — in fact, it triggered the wreck-
ing of an important conference — gravely damaged
American prestige, committed the President to a public
defense of the dirty business of espionage —and the
Russians will now shift their missile bases.
Intelligence is not necessarily synonymous with
espionage. In the light of events, our political Intel-
ligence is woefully defective; we cannot have too much.
Intelligence in the sense of relevant information col-
lected and analyzed by experts. But cloak-and-dagger
espionage is a constant threat to national security and
world peace; it is a form of warfare. Whether espionage
of this type should be continued is a question that
should be reviewed by the entire Congress, not by six-
teen Senators, and not behind closed doors. There has
been no phonier setting for a Congressional hearing
since the McCarthy high jinks than the session at which
CIA sleuths “cased the joint” before the appearance of
Mr. Dulles. Pictures were removed from walls which
were then tapped to detect hidden microphones. Heavy.
drapes were placed before the doors; then screens were |
placed in front of the drapes. Assured that the room was
sound-proof if not leak-proof, the “master spy” ap-
peared, testified,
transcript.
The key question of Intelligence — its proper role
and function — can be investigated and debated with-
out these trappings and stage props which went out
with the novels of E. Phillips Oppenheim.
The Still, Small Voice of Hawaii
Daniel K. Inouye, who represents Hawaii in Con-
gress, is a Democrat, a lawyer, a Methodist and a war
hero; he served with the famous 442nd Infantry Regi-
mental Combat Team in World War II and holds the
Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star, Purple Heart
with two oak leaf clusters, and other decorations. Born
in Hawaii, he is the son of Japanese i
vividly aware, as well he might be, of the existence —
as he puts it — of a country which “lies on the y eatel : n
Gh ina. In suppe
ee et
a Oo a ok by T iN
and then decided to suppress the
migrants, He is —
abe
{do
dia
tha
fear
Ch
Chi
har
hal
of his contention that we need a new China policy, he
recently placed in the Congressional Record a remark-
able speech by George Chaplin, editor of the Honolulu
Advertiser, before the Honolulu Chinese Chamber of
Commerce.
Since the Chinese have the world’s fourth largest air
force, a regular army of 2,500,000 men (with millions
more in reserve), and a navy which, while relatively
small, is still the largest of any Asian nation, Mr. Chaplin
thinks it might be a good idea to include them in future
disarmament negotiations. To the tiresome contention
that we dare not recognize China even indirectly for
fear of the awful effect it might have on the overseas
Chinese, Mr. Chaplin replies that these
Chinese are talented and skilled people, many with
. ; large commercial holdings. He finds it hard to imagine
|) that they might suddenly divest themselves of their
holdings, abandon the commercial practices in which
they have demonstrated such skill, and embrace com-
munism.
Both Mr. Inouye and Mr. Chaplin concede that
_ there are no easy answers to the question of recogni-
tion, but insist that the time has come to start evolv-
ing a new policy toward China. Is it too much to hope
that some of the self-acknowledged experts on China
in Congress who represent constituencies in Kansas,
Texas and Kings County, New York, will pay some
attention to the voice of Hawaii?
overseas
Boris Pasternak
Man Is Born to Live not to Prepare for Life—Pasternak
Pasternak has had his last wish—he died in his native
land which was his great love, the center of his being,
the inspiration of his art. “Leaving my motherland,” he
_ pleaded in a letter to Khrushchev, when he was under
i= threat of exile, “will equal death for me, and that’s why
_ I ask, do not take this final measure.” The Soviet press
_ vigorously denounced his winning of the Nobel Prize
} and attacked him as “a malevolent Philistine,” “a
__ libeler” and “a pig” who, by “dirtying” the place in
I which he eats and lives, has done what “even pigs do
|
.
it
ie Se oS
not do.”
Now the slander and denunciation have ended. The
- poet is no more, and report has it that the Soviet press,
if so vociferous in its vilification of him when he was alive,
has been almost silent on the occasion of his death. Per-
hg & haps it is better thus—one should not speak unkindly
of the dead. In truth, if it had not been for the cold war
and the part Doctor Ziwago played in it, the American
press would be almost as silent as the Soviet press over
__ his passing. Before the novel appeared, Pasternak was
hardly known in this country, although he was unques-
tionably one of the great poets of our time. Hence it
was particularly distressing that in so many of the re-
vie eetor eee} in the free world, political con-
Die VW
siderations appear to have been the primary criteria in
artistic judgment of his novel—the very criteria which
we so righteously and properly condemn when they are
used by Soviet critics in appraising the artistic merits
of belles-lettres.
However, despite artistic lapses, Doctor Zhivago did
revive the noble tradition of the Russian past that lit-
erature is the conscience of the nation. And the central
figure personifies this tradition in his proud conviction
that no ruler, no political party, should have power over
the conscience of man in his struggle to work out his
own destiny.
But Pasternak’s claim on the admiration of posterity
will probably not rest on Doctor Zhivago. The time will
come when the Soviets will proudly list Boris Pasternak
as perhaps the greatest poet of the first incredible forty
years of the existence of their country.
Ernest J. SIMMONS
Massey for President
The “Midwest Volunteers for Nixon” sprang to. their
stations recently amid a certain understandable confu-
sion as to whether they were supposed to bring out the
vote for Mr. Nixon, Abe Lincoln or Raymond Massey.
The organizing session at Chicago’s Sherman Hotel was
advertised as a meeting of the Rail Splitters; there was
talk of trail-blazing, sod-busters, hoe-downs and —
for the fall — an “overland trek” into the Lincoln
country around Springfield. The allusion to a “trek”
scared some among the audience; were they supposed
to walk to Springfield from Chicago, or maybe go by
horseback, clattering down the turnpikes and removing
their tall hats as they came to the overpasses? Not at
all, the speakers assured them; they would “trek” by
car (Lincolns, no doubt). Presumably what made this
an “overland trek” was that jet travel would be fore-
sworn for the day, and there would be a couple of
Conostoga wagons in the caravan.
The Rail Splitters were further entertained by a
dozen Northwestern University students, including six
pretty girls, wearing black, oslcloth capes, Union Army-
style hats and carrying placards attesting to the fact
that Mr. Nixon was at least a reasonable facsimile of
Mr. Lincoln. These students, explained James Broe,
one of the speakers, were the “Wide Awakes,” rem-
iniscent of the volunteer citizens of a century ago
who are said to have played a big part in the election
of Mr. Lincoln. But Vol. 5 of James Truslow Adams’
Dictionary of American History (Scribners, 1940),
notes: “ ‘Wide Awakes’ was a name first used by an
anti-foreign, anti-Catholic organization which flourished —
around 1850. In the campaign of 1860, Republican
marching clubs under this name arose everywhere.”
A little history is a dangerous thing, especially in the %
hands of a public relations man. 4
»
i ee
THE FUTURE OF SUMMITRY
London
NOW THAT the dust of Paris has
had time to settle, it becomes pos-
sible to see the Summit-that-wasn’t
in some sort of perspective. By all
standards it was a sorry affair; but
we are concerned here with the situ-
ation after the event and with events
still to come, not with what hap-
pened to wreck the conference. That
exonerates us from reviewing once
again the thorny story of the U-2
incident and of Mr. K.’s behavior.
What matters is to add up the debit
and the credit, and see — if we can
— where we go from here.
Oddly enough, there is a credit
side, or at least there are mitigating
factors which allow us to say that
things are not so bad — or need not
be so bad — as they seemed when
the journalists in Paris were packing
their valises and Mr. Khrushchev
was flying off to meet Comrade
Grotewohl. It was, it seems, a sad-
dened, perhaps even a chastened,
Mr. K. who touched down in Ber-
lin, and the world breathed again
when he made it known that there
would be no unilateral peace treaty
: with East Germany and no forcing
x of the Berlin question, at least un-
til a future Summit had had another
- try. At any rate the bridges, though
perilously weak, were not entirely
down. Nor was it nothing that, even
at the height of his anti-Eisenhower
aoe tirade, Khrushchev affirmed that
the Soviet Union was willing to
continue the Geneva talks on dis-
armament and the suspension of
nuclear tests, and was hopeful of
agreement on the latter.
Since then, there has been still
one other plus factor which may
count in the balance, and that is the
positive reception given in_ the
United Nations to the compromise
resolution put forward by the four
“non-committed”
‘Council — Ceylon, Tunisia, Ecuador
and Argentina — calling for a re-
sumption “as soon as possible” of
discussions at the Summit. This res-
I = a
GEOFFREY BARRACLOUGH 1s
the author of History in a Changing
World and other books.
members of the
olution is important, first because
it is a plain indication that uncom-
mitted opinion is already weary of
the sterile debate as to rights and
wrongs, but more important still
because it gives plain notice that,
if either side is slow-footed about a
resumption of talks, it will stand to
forfeit the sympathy of the uncom-
mitted nations. And that is a risk
neither the Kremlin nor the State
Department can afford to take.
But it would be totally unrealistic
to think that these credit items in
any way balance the formidable
debit ledger. Even before the con-
ference members had arrived in
Paris, there was little genuine ex-
pectation that the meeting was go-
ing to produce results of substance;
but on both sides it was believed —
such, at any rate, was my impres-
sion when I returned the previous
week from Warsaw, with one-night
stops in some of the Western capitals
— that it would prove to be the first
of a series of fairly frequent top-
level meetings which at least would
maintain contacts and gradually re-
duce tensions. Today even that
prospect is dim. Mr, Khrushchev
might speak — whatever his motives
and calculations — of a new meet-
ing in six or eight months “in a new
more favorable atmosphere”; but
nothing that has happened since
the conference broke up on May 19
gives reason to hope that the atmos-
phere will be more favorable. What-
ever else, the Russian attitude at
Paris was a psychological setback;
and with mutual suspicion multiplied
a hundredfold,
under what conditions the powers
concerned will be ready to get to-
gether again. We forget too easily
the months of preparation that were
necessary, the obstacles that had to
be overcome, before the Paris con-
ference could be convened. Who, in
present conditions, is going to un-
dertake that work again?
The measure of the harm that has
ensued is the degree to which the
pressures against ‘any form of agree-
ment and any step to reduce the
armaments race have been rein-—
forced, In England “the immediate
i
4 wi)
i eee ies
it is not easy to see '
cay -winkt ‘the ¢ sold var,
by Geoffrey Barraclough ef
result was to strengthen Mr. Gaits- Ro
kell’s hand in the tussle over defense §
policy within the Labour Party; and pic
though we do not need to lose much Un
sleep over that, because unilateral ath
disarmament was never a feasible Sor
policy anyhow, as a sign of the times the
it is symptomatic. To the outside § te
observer, however, the repercussions an
in the United States seem far more mT
ominous. That American opinion wh
would rally to the President, ir- a
respective of party, was one thing, the
and no one would have wished or io
expected otherwise. But the way it on
has hardened against further negoti- fa
ations with Russia is another. When fo
statesmen start bandying about ac- th
cusations of “appeasement” (a non- th
sensical word, in present-day con- Ww
texts) reason flies out the window. n
i
WHETHER or not Mr. Stevenson in
made the statements to a Paris news- \
paper of which he has been accused, {
is a matter of small importance. r
What is important is that the sug- in
gestion — if he made it — that the \
United States might make conces-
sions on Berlin in return for an
atomic test ban and that disarma-
ment should be sought on the basis
of the Rapacki plan for mutual re-
duction of forces in Central Europe, —
was not a proposal of which anyone.
should need to feel ashamed. We all
know, in our sober moments, that
compromise of this sort will be un-
avoidable, if there is to be any ad-
vance out of the jungle. We know
also that if they had been made
a month ago they would have been
treated on their merits. Indeed there
were many inspired rumors that this
sort of compromise — _ including
probably a reduction of the size of
the Western garrisons in Berlin —
was docketed away among the pro-
posals which some at least of the
statesmen took with them in their
briefcases to Paris. The plain fact
that has emerged is that there are
powerful interests which have no-
intention of advancing out of the
jungle; and for them the debacle at
Paris has come as a ‘Site They
still believe that the Fates
—_—"JTI Vea = =
|
th na ho
red of reason tells us that this is
a contest in which both sides can
only lose; and they still believe that
a harsh and inflexible policy toward
Russia will pay dividends.
i
‘
:
'
t
;
Still more unfortunate is the sus-
picion that the dichards in the
United States are matched, on the
other flank, by the diehards in the
Soviet Union.\ Unlike the secrets of
the White House and the Pentagon,
the secrets of the Kremlin are not
an open book, and few of the stories
put about by our Kremlinologists,
who have been enjoying a field day,
are altogether credible. But that
there are pressures on Khrushchev
no less powerful than the pressures
on Eisenhower is a well-accredited
fact, which was widely discussed be-
fore the Paris meeting. That is why
| the U-2 incident, which played into
the hands of the Soviet intransigents,
was an act of injudicious folly, if
_ not worse, in exactly the same way
as Khrushchev’s tirade, which played
into the hands of the American in-
transigents, was a blunder of the
first order. The sad fact is that Fi-
senhower was Khrushchev’s “friend”
an the very literal sense that he per-
—sonally, among the leading figures in
Washington, was the one — per-
haps the only one — who was seri-
ously prepared to think in terms of
_ practical measures to reduce tension.
| And it is probable, if we knew the
|} facts, that we should realize that
much the same is true of Khrushchev
in Moscow. If the outcome is a per-
manent shift of power and influence
and initiative from Khrushchev on
the one hand, and from Eisenhower
on the other, to the men with iron
faces and wooden heads, then we
are in for a new ice age to be fol-
lowed by a new inferno.
mh BS
AND YET the hard facts of the
international situation — the cir-
cumstances and calculations which
eventually got both sides to Paris
almost in spite of themselves — have
not in the meantime changed one
Biot, The operative impersonal rea-
sons for reducing tension are as
valid today as they were one month
ago; it would be an error of first
account, because not all the
af sail ee
Dy - *
agnitude to leave these: reasons —
da n the world - — in Rus- _ attempt to throt
4 uf. bs ly ake
sia or in the United States or in
both together — can wish them out
of existence. The first and most
obvious is the
nuclear war — a dread too wide-
spread and too powerful for states-
men to ignore. The second is the
realization that neither side is go-
ing to crack. The third is the nuclear
stalemate which exists and will exist,
no matter how hard the chairman
of the Atomic Energy Commission
argues that a resumption of tests
may enable the United States to
snatch a precarious and momentary
lead. The fourth is the ever greater
drain on national resources by the
cost of nuclear weapons, and the de-
sire to check this drain in order
that a greater proportion of the
national wealth can be used for nec-
essary development at home. And
finally there is the fact that “com-
petitive coexistence” is already a
reality — that East and West are
both committed, in prestige as well
as money, to the competitive strug-
gle for the uncommitted nations in
Asia, Africa, the Middle East and
Latin America. It was these facts
that drove the four Great Powers
to the Summit;.and they have not
vanished overnight, though on both
sides the wreckers — those who fear
the hazards of East-West negotia-
tions far more than they fear the
bloodier risks of hotting up the cold
war — have won the first round.
Sooner or later these facts, and
others like them, will begin to tell.
The signs today, unhappily, are that
it will be later. For the immediate
future the pressure for harsh inflex-
ibility will be the stronger. But it
will not be long before the cost be-
gins to count. Wall Street may re-
joice at the prospect of increased
defense expenditure; but those who
foot the bill will soon think twice
— particularly if the billions of dol-
lars and rubles and pounds and
francs poured down the drain bring
nothing more tangible than frozen
fatapttiey: For England, poised on
the edge of still another balance of
payments crisis, the return to cold
war and bigpert military budgets
could be the last financial straw. And
in| Russia, whatever Mr. Khrushchev’ s
military ol ke think, an
e down on on-
universal dread of ,
‘men appear too readily to have
sumer demand could soon prove that ,
Khrushchev’s policy, not theirs, was |
right. And what of the United
States? Will its citizens go on for-
ever believing the horror stories
cooked up to get them to foot the
nuclear bill? Harsh economic facts
alone, the common sense of dollars
and cents, mean that sooner or later
East and West must get together. —
NEXT time, however, it had better
be in earnest. Today we are all so
busy being self-righteous about Mr.
Khrushchev’s bull-necked discour-
tesy, that it is easy to forget that
the Russians, though they may bear
the blame for the ultimate fiasco,
are certainly not alone in bearing
the responsibility. If we look back
over the checkered events which,
almost contrary to expectation, final-
ly ended in the agreement to meet
in Paris — the prevarications, the
totally unnecessary delays, the ma-
neuvers to avoid discussing Berlin,
the anxious pre-conference confer-
ences — we shall find little to be
proud of in the Western record.
The Khrushchev period has offered
opportunities enough for serious ne-
gotiation. Now, when it is perhaps
too late, and Khrushchev’s oppo-
nents appear to be in the saddle, we .
are beginning to see the opportuni-
ties we missed. If in his struggle to
break with the Stalin era and to
transform cold war into coexistence,
Khrushchev has been defeated by
his opponents at home, the respon-
sibility is partly ours; for it was our
niggling response that caused them
in the end to conclude that this
policy was not bringing the results
he promised. Next time, if there is
a next time, we had better go to the
Summit with clean hands, and not —
worry so much about the color o
the other fellow’s. And the other |
inescapable conclusion is that v
had better not go at all, unless v
are in earnest about what we wa
and the price we are prepared |
pay. There were, and still are,
‘ iL
*)
sibilities of compromise which vy
pay both sides handsome divider
but there never was, and never »
be, a possibility — as our sta
lieved — that the Russians will
ep an uneven bargain.
U. N. — Stage for Disarmament. . by Frederick Kuh
Washington, D.C.
A STRUGGLE over the United Na-
tions’ role in any future disarmament
arrangements has split the Eisen-
hower Administration and opened a
rift between the Allies and the U.N.
The stakes in this unpublicized con-
test are high, including the future of
the U.N. itself. The world organiza-
tion will be crippled if, in the years
ahead, it is denied a hand in super-
vision of any disarmament plan.
Further, the United States and its
Allies are courting a new major
moral, psychological and political de-
feat if they either straddle the issue
or oppose outright a U.N. share in
managing disarmament, thus letting
the Kremlin appear as the champion
of the U.N. and of the smaller pow-
ers whose interests are involved.
There will be those who object
that the debacle of the Summit con-
ference-that-never-was has paralyzed
East-West negotiations on disarma-
ment to the point at which it is fatu-
ous to quarrel over the U.N. role.
To be sure, even before the rupture
in Paris, the ten-nation disarmament
talks in Geneva were completely
stalemated after the first ten weeks.
It is also true that the Paris fiasco
thwarted the expectation that the
Big Four would agree on fresh in-
structions to the ten. The West had
intended to invite Nikita Khrush-
chev to join in directing the Geneva
conferees to single out a few specific
areas of disarmament for immediate
agreement. Among these areas were
a ban on outer-space vehicles carry-
ing nuclear explosives, reciprocal ad-
vance notification of the launching
of long-range missiles (to avoid war
by accident), and resumption of the
abortive 1958 negotiation of meas-
ures to prevent surprise attack.
Granted, then, that one of the
tragic results of the Big Four meet-
ing is that the ten-nation gathering
seems condemned to sluggish po-
Jemics and impotence for the foresee-
able future. After its reopening this
month, the conference will probably
continue into July or August, when
FREDERICK KUH is on the staff
of the Chicago Sun-Times.
506
the delegates will throw the whole
issue back to the eighty-two-nation
U.N. Disarmament Commission.
But neither this procedural delay
nor the more serious political setback
of the Summit’s collapse justifies the
cynics in writing off the prospect for
limited disarmament agreements.
People everywhere will continue to
press their leaders to put brakes on
the arms race. Aside from the risk
of war, millions realize the idiocy of
pouring hundreds of billions of dol-
lars into military preparedness in-
stead of diverting a slice of those
huge funds into the underdeveloped
countries and into medical care, edu-
cation, housing, roads, irrigation and
public power at home.
SEEN historically, significant forces
are bound to reassert themselves for
getting on with serious disarmament
negotiations after the present chilly
intermezzo. In the medium run,
whether those negotiations shall be
put under the U.N. umbrella, or out-
side, is by no means academic.
Secretary General Hammarskjold
has twice publicly indicated his anx-
lety over the outcome of this issue.
On April 28, he appeared in Geneva
to remind the ten-nation conference
that the U.N. carries the primary re-
sponsibility for disarmament. Three
weeks later, on May 19, at a press
conference in New York, he renewed
his challenge to those who want to
keep the U.N. out of the disarma-
ment business. That was two days
after disruption of the Summit con-
ference, at which disarmament was
to have been the first topic. He ap-
pealed to all U.N. member states to
use their organization to overcome
the Paris setback.
Mr. Hammarskjold is even more
worried than these generalities sug-
gest. On March 8, he flew to Wash-
ington to confer about the problem
with Secretary Herter. That was six
days before the Western Powers
presented their disarmament plan to
the Soviet bloc in Geneva.
Mr. Hammarskjold had _ been
tipped in advance that the West
would propose the establishment of
an International Disarmament Or-
> iy
ganization (IDO) outside the U.N.
IDO would supervise all conven-
tional armaments which each signa-
tory power would place in storage
depots within its own territories.
Parties to an eventual disarmament
agreement would submit to IDO de-
tails of all their military expendi-
tures. It is to IDO that each of the
powers would give prior notification
of launching of space vehicles.
WHEN Mr. Hammarskjold sat in
Mr. Herter’s office in Washington
three months ago, he argued strong-
ly for making IDO accountable to
the U.N. The two men have since
been conducting an intensive secret
correspondence on the subject, ac-
cording to State Department sources.
The Secretary of State is now known
to share the conviction that the U.N.
should supervise the IDO.
But Mr. Herter has met powerful
resistance at the Pentagon, which
violently rejects the idea that the
U.N. should “poke its nose” into
issues affecting our national security
and strategy. The military are all
the more opposed because of the in-
creasingly uncertain balance of pow-
er in the U.N. General Assembly due
to the influx of new nations, the
establishment of the Afro-Asian bloc
and the increasing independence
shown by the Latin Americans [see
“U.N. — Africa Shifts the Balance,”
May 21].
The Pentagon—with clandestine
support from a few members of Sec-
retary Herter’s staff—is also opposed
because of its fears concerning Com-
munist China and East Germany.
Political advisers of the Defense De-
partment surmise that if Red China
and the German Democratic Repub-
lic ultimately belong to IDO, it will
prove impossible to keep them out
of the U.N. Officials of U.N. say it is
unrealistic to imagine that Commu-
nist China would associate itself fy
with a general or partial disarma- f,
ment treaty in coming years with-
out becoming a member of the world
body.
Mr. Hammarskjold’s anxiety con- |
cerning the U.N.’s exclusion from _
IDO does not extend to its exclu- |
. fi . i") iy
‘ oi
v 2 ie
L ee
= 4 4
~ sion from a nuclear test-ban treaty
(if and when signed). This is be-
cause such a treaty would not deal
with the central issue of disarma-
ment, and would involve directly
only a handful of states rather than
the world community.
Neither side has so far won in the
conflict between Mr. Herter and the
Pentagon. President Eisenhower, the
supreme judge in the Herter vs. Pen-
tagon fight, rendered a verdict in
favor of golf. He seems certain to
turn the issue over to his successor
as unfinished business.
-
a
__IN THE light of these developments,
it seems inconsistent of Mr. Eisen-
hower now to ask the U.N. to estab-
lish a new “open skies” system as a
precaution against surprise attack.
For under the U.N. Charter, the In-
ternational Disarmament Organiza-
tion is much more a U.N. responsi-
bility than is aerial reconnaissance.
The U.N., after a confidential study,
estimated that the President’s
scheme would cost $1 billion a year
to operate. It is highly doubtful that
enough U.N. members are ready to
supply this kind of money.
Ea
ae
EOE OD LI SR FE
is not the only adversary of a U.N.
roof for disarmament. The French
are also against it. De Gaulle is still
smarting under three rebuffs from
the U.N.—itts telling stand against
_ the 1956 Franco-British invasion of
_ Egypt, its refusal to support the
_ French war against the Algerian in-
_ dependence movement, and its re-
' buke to the French for exploding
: _ nuclear bombs over the Sahara. Fur-
:
}
7)
‘
_ ONCE A YEAR America dances
“in a comic ballet against the back-
drop of a world of terror. The dance
masters call their creation, Operation
Alert, fitting it snugly into a con-
tinuous show entitled, Civil Defense.
This year’s show. took place May 3.
In New York, Civil Defense au- .
The U.S. Department of Defense .
: qualified the Men’s Bar “at!
orl-Asto tor ia east as a Cs
thermore, de Gaulle is deeply op-
posed to subordinating France’s
sovereignty to any suptanational or-
ganization.
Italy is supporting France; how-
ever, lacking the French grievances
against the U.N., the Italians are
emotionally less involved.
The arguments in favor of assign-
ing the U.N. a supervisory role over
any future disarmament arrange-
ments, even if limited to specific
points, are impressive:
1. To deprive the U.N. of this re-
sponsibility would maim the world
organization. It would be robbing it
of an issue which belongs to it under
the Charter and under dozens of
resolutions passed by its members.
2. The deprivation would be all
the more damaging because the
course of history is already—and
rightly—removing another major
function from the United Nations—
the U.N. Trusteeship system, which
is dying of inanition.
3. To have the U.N. and IDO ac-
tive in disarmament, operating in-
dependently, would be _ inefficient
and confusing, and would be a stand-
ing invitation for troublemakers to
play off one body against another.
4. If the five Western Powers’
plan to create a peace force under
CHARADE of CIVIL DEFENSE . . 6s stantey Meister
shelter area, and 100 men continued
to sip their highballs as three myth-
ical nuclear bombs hurtled toward
the city. At Yankee ea bleach-
erites cowered under the stands
while more affluent Rastomets re-
mained in their cot ortable grand-
stand seats. ee tee.) )
Several Manhattan f
ork, but one ea n
if
ens PL Eee ne ORD. hee
. - J * 4 Lae
K :
‘spent the day elsewhere. Only
. from the oe to his secret comme :
ns ror .
IDO were to become reality, it would
further minimize the importance of
the U.N. in world affairs, especially
since armed power—once reposed in
IDO—would accumulate there.
The Russians are already extract-
ing political and propaganda mileage
from the West’s inclination to keep
disarmament and IDO outside the
U.N. The Soviets are far from pure-
ly idealistic here. They have a sharp
eye on their veto power in the Se-
curity Council, which would enable
them to block any unwanted changes
in disarmament policy or in the con-
trol structure.
However, by insisting on the U.N.
umbrella for disarmament, the Rus-
sians are in clover. The underdevel-
oped countries of Asia, Africa, the
Middle East and Latin America —
and smaller nations everywhere —
resent being left on the bank of the
stream while the major powers nego-
tiate disarmament arrangements
profoundly affecting all others, too.
At his farewell news conference
in New York on May 28, after the
special “U-2” Security Council ses-
sion, Andrei Gromyko told reporters:
“The United Nations can play an
important part in the solution of the
disarmament problem. The Soviet
government continues to stand for
such a role for the U.N. in interna-
tional affairs, especially in disarma-
ment.”
Thus the West, and particularly
the United States, by their inde-
cisive or negative attitude on this
issue, are assisting Moscow’s posi-
tion among the Asians, Africans, neu-
trals and smaller countries generally.
400 employees ‘ “automatically dead”
and kept them on the job. ie
In Washington, Congress igno c
the drill, and President Eisenhor
official
top government scu
service new
ee Wins
7
4 Lp
post in Virginia—Leo A. Hoegh, Di-
rector of the Office of Civil Defense
and Mobilization. The State Depart-
ment set a new record as 4,000 em-
ployees tucked their secret papers
into safes and rushed from the build-
ing in eight minutes (previous rec--
ord: twelve minutes). Fifty-five
schools stayed out of the drill, serv-
ing as polling places for the District
of Columbia’s Presidential primary.
At 2 P.M., the sirens in Camden,
N. J., alerted citizens to prepare for
a possible second signal to take
cover. Across the river, in Philadel-
phia, where the Civil Defense sys-
tem does not include such an alert,
residents heard Camden’s sirens and
hurried off the streets. At 2:15 P.M.,
Philadelphia’s sirens blared away for
the first time—the signal to take
cover. But Philadelphians assumed
it was the all clear and rushed back
into the streets.
In Los Angeles, the drill included
the evacuation, on paper, of 150,000
residents of western San Fernando
Valley. If the drill had been real,
Police Inspector Lee German an-
nounced, the result would have been
“the greatest traffic jam ever cre-
ated on the face of the earth.” But
Pinckneyville, Illinois, simulated the
real thing and had no such problem.
As a gesture of patriotism, the town
evacuated its entire population of
3,299. During an actual nuclear at-
tack, of course, Pinckneyvillites
would be expected to stay put.
BUT NOT everyone danced on
May 3. Little bands of protesters
refused to perform in several places,
most conspicuously in New York,
where it is a criminal offense to
ignore a Civil Defense drill. Five
hundred persons demonstrated in
City Hall Park; when 150 defied po-
lice orders to take cover, patrolmen
moved in and arrested twenty-six at
random [see editorial, The Nation,
May 14, page 415]. City College,
Brooklyn College, Queens College,
Hunter College and several New
York high schools also were the sites
of protest demonstrations. College
officials reacted with hints of pos-
sible disciplinary action.
Student protests were not con-
fined to New York City. Eight stu-
dents from Wesleyan University and
three from Hartford College paraded
before the state capitol in Hartford,
Connecticut, bearing signs that
cried: “Civil Defense Breeds Mili-
tarism” and “There is Still Time,
Brother.” ‘Thirteen students from
Haverford and Bryn Mawr colleges
joined marchers in front of Phila-
delphia’s City Hall. In Schenectady,
New York, twenty Union College
students refused to take shelter.
Operation Alert 1960 probably
had more protest and comedy than
the six previous national Civil De-
fense drills, but, for the most part,
Americans once again acquiesced and
performed the few steps assigned
them. Yet the increase in protest
and comedy reflected a_ swelling,
inner grumbling within the nation,
a growing feeling that whether or
not Civil Defense makes sense in
theory, the Civil Defense we have
in practice makes none. To even the
most stalwart defender of the prin-
ciple, American Civil Defense must
seem sometimes ludicrous,
times maddening, and most times
non-existent.
IN THE first place, the goals of our
Civil Defense planners are hidden
by confusion. The average Ameri-
can is not quite sure whether he is
expected to hide in his basement
or run from his house, and neither
is the Office of Civil Defense and
Mobilization. For years, the gov-
ernment emphasized evacuation
from target areas: maps with es-
cape routes were distributed, high-
way markers were nailed up, evacu-
ation centers were designated. But,
in the past two years, it dawned on
planners that the _ thirty-minute
flighe of a missile from Russia to the
United States would not give eight
million New Yorkers, for example,
enough time to drive calmly into
Connecticut and New Jersey. Plan-
ners hit on a new device of defense
—the fallout shelter.
In theory, the shelter would save
all those who had not been directly
hit by a bomb. The theory supposes
that the living, after two weeks,
could creep out of their shelters and
survive in an area without edible
food or potable water. “What kind
of world would they come up to?”
Gov. Robert B. Meyner of New
some-~
Jersey has asked. “What would they
use for air? What would they use
for food? What would they use for
hospitals? What would they use for
streets? What would they use for
people?” The government acknowl-
edges the difficulty, but hopes that
after several weeks state and federal
forces could move in with supplies.
But, even assuming that shelters
will perform a limited function, the
plain fact remains that almost no
one is building them. Rogers S. Can-
nell and Richard B. Foster of the
Stanford Research Institute recently
estimated that it would cost $50 to
$100 billion a year for the next ten
years to build enough shelters for
survival. The Eisenhower Adminis-
tration has been in no mood to
spend that kind of money on Civil
Defense, and it is doubtful that its
successor would contemplate spend-
ing it either. “There will be no mas-
sive federally financed shelter con-
struction program,” OCDM Director
Leo A. Hoegh announced two years
ago. Instead, he proposed that the
government build a few prototype
shelters and convince Americans to
use private funds to build their own.
But few, if any Americans, are
spending weekends bricking together
dark, wet shelters (although, in the
wake of the Summit debacle, a few
construction firms have launched a
sales campaign for their services as
expert shelter builders; see reproduc-
tion of advertisement on next page).
Hoegh has received from Congress
only a little more than a third of the
$29 million he has asked for this
program during the past two years.
Rep. Albert Thomas (D., Tex.),
chairman of a House Appropriations
subcommittee, told Hoegh quite
bluntly: “The great trouble with
Civil Defense is . . . the people back
home are not too interested in the
proposition.”
As a result, Civil Defense officials
have found themselves with an ac-
claimed shelter theory, but no shel-
ters, and a discredited evacuation
theory, but lots of evacuation facili-
ties. So, to take advantage of what
it has, the OCDM, in essence, now
advocates both theories, It urges the —
public to evacuate if there is time i
and to seek shelter if there isn’t.
The resultant confusion ean b
detected by glancing at the Civil
Defense guide issued last year for
the Washington, D.C., area. The
guide first offers a huge map de-
tailing the various evacuation routes
into Virginia and Maryland. Then
it offers directions on how to obtain
designs for a home shelter. Some at-
tempt is made to comfort confused
readers by promising that, during
an attack, the government would
sound a steady, five-minute alert
siren only if it felt residents had
enough time to evacuate. If it felt
there was no time, the government
would immediately sound a warbl-
ing, three-minute take-cover siren.
But a disquieting note is added
the course of a discussion of driving
on the evacuation route. “When the
take-cover signal sounds,” the guide
says, “pull your car off the road
quickly. Leave keys in the vehicle.
Take such essential survival items
as you can carry. Go to shelter im-
mediately in the nearest building.
Carry your portable radio with you.”
The note implies that Civil Defense
officials envision many persons end-
ing up halfway between their home
shelters and their evacuation centers.
In the view of Sen. Stephen M.
Young (D., Ohio), you could expect
little else. “Anyone who has seen or
been in the everyday rush-hour
traffic jam in Washington can easily
imagine what would happen if every -
car in the District of Columbia were
simultaneously to begin the trek out
of town,” Sen. Young said after
reading the guide. “The idea is too
ridiculous to contemplate. It is
doubtful there would be time enough
to reach one’s car, much less to drive
it out of the city.” Faced with
OCDM’s own doubts and Sen.
Young’s logic, the Washingtonian
would have an awesome decision to
make if the sirens or CONELRAD
advised him he had enough time
to run away. Should he leave the
possible safety of his fallout shelter
to seek the certain safety of the
evacuation center? Should he rush
toward certain safety knowing there
was a chance he would end up in
the middle of the street with no
safety at all? Did it really matter
what he did?
_ Wastefulness and inefficiency have
ed down Civil Defense workers
almost as much as the lack of a clear
program. Their most vocal critic by
far has been Sen. Young. Last year,
the Senator noted, John Pokorny re-
ceived $12,834 a year as Cleveland
Civil Defense Director and “his main
achievement, if not the only one, is
to have the sirens sounded every
Monday at J2:15 P.M. to the an-
noyance of people living in my com-
munity.” On March 15, a subcom-
mittee of the Newark, New Jersey,
City Council, after a year-long
study, concluded that “the record
of our Civil Defense agency is a sad
one of inefficiency and waste.
It is our considered opinion that to
continue the present Civil Defense
operation in Newark is indefensible
from any reasonable viewpoint.”
But the most amazing record of
bumbling has come from Washing-
ton, D.C., where the local Civil
Defense people work under the noses
of the President, the OCDM and
Congress. The situation finally
prompted the Senate Investigating
subcommittee last year to step in
and hold hearings. “To sum up what
appears to me from what I have
heard this morning,” Sen. Henry M.
Jackson (D., Wash.), the acting
chairman, concluded, “we really
don’t have Civil Defense here in
the District of Columbia.” And he
quickly added: “Maybe we don’t
have it in other communities
throughout the country.”
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Robert Emmet Dunne, assistant
counsel of the subcommittee, testi-
fied that during a December, 1958,
inspection he discovered that of
524,800 pamphlets, leaflets and
comic books on civil defense the
local Civil Defense agency had ac-
quired a year to two years earlier,
442,000 had not been distributed.
In addition, the local agency had
bought 100,000 air-raid warden arm-
bands several years before, and still
had 81,000 lying around. Dunne also
found that the agency had spent
$42,750 for walkie-talkies in 1951
and 1952 and most of them were
now beyond repair.
STRANGE tales of ineffectiveness
also crammed the day’s testimony.
In one example, John E. Fondahl,
the Washington Civil Defense di-
rector, revealed what an unexpected
twist in practice drill can do:
Back around 1955 or 1956 [the
subcommittee counsel asked], you
had an alert insofar as Civil Defense,
a practice, in which the President of
the United States took part. Am I
right in that? ..
Fondahl: Yes. The President did
take part in one national exercise;
yes, sir.
Q: During a portion of the exer-
cise, the President all of a sudden
declared martial law; am I right?
Fondahl: There was a declaration
of martial law involved in that exer-
cise; yes, sir.
Q: Did your office know that mar-
tial law had been declared by the
President? .
Fondahl: We, as I recall, in that
exercise, we got the message on that
towards the close of the exercise.
Q: Do you know why the Presi-
dent declared martial law?
Fondahl: 1 presume for the pur-
pose of testing out what would ac-
tually happen in the event that such
‘a thing were to come about.
Q: I am not asking for any pre-
sumption. Do you know why he de- _
clared martial law?
Fondahl: No, sir.
Q: Do you know why your com-
munications broke down and you
didn’t find out about it?
Fondahl: Well, our facilities didn’t
break down. I don’t know why we
didn’t find out about it earlier.
Q: Well, do you know? Can you |
tell me now... ?
Fondahl: I can’t recall at this’
509
date ... just what did happen.
Q: In other words, you can’t tell
me today why your agency wasn’t
notified that martial law had been
declared, can you?
Fondhal: . .. No, sir.
The comedy, the waste, the bun-
gling have their root, of course, in
public refusal to accept Civil De-
fense wholeheartedly. It may be, as
New York’s Governor Rockefeller
has implied, that this refusal comes
from an unwillingness to face the
tensions of the world realistically.
If so, a vital question must be an-
swered. Would Civil Defense make
sense if people pitched in, Congress
appropriated billions, the President
set intelligible goals, and all the
comedy, waste and bungling wither-
ed away? The answer lies in logic,
not in laughter, in examining theory
rather than practice.
Rockefeller, the most intellectual
advocate of strong Civil Defense,
detailed his argument in the April,
1960, issue of Foreign Affairs. Since
Russia can attack any place in the
United States within minutes, Rock-
efeller wrote, American offensive
power is not enough to deter ag-
gression. Instead, he continued, de-
terrence must depend on four fac-
tors: “a. capacity to retaliate; b.
ability to protect our allies; c. wale
ingness to use these capabilities:
and d. knowledge on the part of the
potential aggressor that both our
retaliatory force and our civilian
population have the protection to
survive an attack.” The fourth fac-
tor involves Civil Defense, and
Rockefeller maintained it is based
on a moral and a strategic position.
“We properly recoil before the
horrors of nuclear war,” he said in
his discussion of the moral issue.
“But we cannot afford to assume
that it could not happen—all the
less so as our whole strategy is based
on the threat of it... . It is our
heavy responsibility as public of-
ficials and as citizens to save the
lives and to protect the health of
our people. A lagging effort cannot
be excused by our conviction that
nuclear war is a tragedy and that
we must strive by all honorable
means to assure peace.” Strategical-
ly, he continued, we must remove
temptation from an aggressor who
510
fa he 7 galt ale hen cii i 1” inlet
oe RAS ts viele he
might risk an all-out war if he
thought he could destroy our most
valuable asset—the people. Since, in
Rockefeller’s view, advance prepara-
tion, particularly shelters, would re-
duce casualties from fallout, the na-
tion must take these preparations
to eliminate the temptation.
But Rockefeller’s argument con-
cerns itself so thoroughly with the
psychology of an aggressor that it
ignores the psychology of the United
States. How would all-out Civil De-
fense affect the American people?
Americans obviously would develop
-a false sense of security; they would
create what Sen. Young, Gov.
Meyner and Gen. Curtis E. LeMay,
on three separate occasions, have
called a Maginot Line concept.
Shelters, as we have seen, would
protect an individual only from fall-
out. Using Civil Defense estimates,
the three mythical bombs that
struck New York City during Op-
eration Alert would have killed
3,935,490 persons and injured 1,098,-
410 persons instantly. Theoretically,
not one of these persons could have
been saved by a shelter; they would
have been killed by the initial blast
and heat. Later radiation, according
to the estimates, would have killed
1,405,000 more people and injured
1,345,000 others. Even in theory,
these are the only victims who might
have been saved by shelters. When
Rockefeller suggests a shelter may
save your life, he actually means, as
these figures demonstrate, that it
may insure the survival of some
part of the species Man, a very dif-
ferent and much less comforting
concept.
A terrifying assumption underlies
Rockefeller’s argument. While focus-
ing on deterrence, the Governor’s
theory assumes that, if war came,
victory through survival might be
possible. Rockefeller’s words har-
monize with the ponderous theoriz-
ing of other Foreign Affairs contrib-
utors who talk in terms of numbers
and percentages instead of horror
and anguish, as if war were a chess
game. At the moment, these atti-
tudes control only political leaders
and military strategists, but a gigan-
tic Civil Defense would implant
them into the civilian population.
When we concentrate on numbers,
survival and victory, as Rockefeller
does, and drive from our minds vis-
ions of writhing bodies and scream-
ing flesh, then war becomes think-
able. In the nuclear age, war must
be unthinkable. “There is one and
only one defense against nuclear
war,” Gov. Meyner has said, “‘and
that is peace.”
We have a farcical and harmless
—if expensive—Civil Defense these
days. But should our government
listen to the cry of Rockefeller and
create a lavish, efficient Civil De-
fense, an acceptance of war and a
faith in survival would storm the
consciousness of America. The an-
nual dance called Operation Alert
would be less comic then.
NOT RUNNING
Washington, D.C.
A GRAND tradition in American
political life came to an end here
recently. The Socialist Party, at its
national convention, voted not to
run candidates in this year’s elec-
tions.
There had once been glorious days
for. the Socialist movement, when
the devoted were convinced that an
American plebiscite for a new, col-
lective society was just around the
‘corner. It started with Eugene V.
Debs’s first candidacy in 1900 and
MILTON VIORST is on the self ;
of o Nas a pg
a
Ke
ee.
Feet
«> by Milton Viorst
reached its peak in 1920, when Debs
collected almost a million votes, But
the euphoria did not last. In 1956,
the slate of Darlington Hoopes and
Sam Friedman, on the ballot in only —
four states, received a total of 2,126
votes.
At this year’s convention, a hard
core of delegates wanted to con-
tinue running a ticket, but not be- |
cause the chances of success seemed —
greater than in 1956. They argued,
quite simply, that a party without _
candidates was not a party. But a
two-thirds majority, with the 195€
disaster in mind, was convinced t si
to pes a slate pela be foolist
ie .* ick le . T
a
le ee ed el ee
oe
_ Jt would appear that the erosion
of the Socialist Party over the years
constitutes less a condemnation of
' socialism than a tribute to the suc-
cess of American capitalism. The
party had to admit, in its own plat-
form, that “American capitalism
has proved resourceful beyond the
expectation of Socialists in the past.”
Affluence, it appears, has made
American labor capitalistic; the
_ American working man has rebuffed
the Socialist movement.
Again and again, speeches from
the convention floor lamented that
a “hoodwinked” labor had betrayed
its own cause; and again and again,
speakers proclaimed that labor, now
in league with the two capitalist
parties, must be brought back into
the fold.
And the Socialists have not given
up hope for the future. Indeed,
urged the majority, it was precisely
because of the future that the party,
limited in money and manpower,
could not afford to waste money on
| a ludicrous election campaign. Lead-
ing thé majority was Norman
Thomas, the ageless incarnation of
democratic socialism in the United
_ States. He had opposed running a
slate in 1952 and again in 1956. Now,
} in an impassioned speech from the
ae .
we
eae
THE PLEASURE of eating to reple-
tion, once reserved to the very few,
is so available in America today that
_ millions now are as bloated as a
} senior wife in a Sultan’s harem —
_ and hating it. The statistics say that
half of American men, and three-
- quarters of American women, are
_ overweight; this would seem an ex-
_ aggeration, as one looks about. Still,
a lot of people have no more figure
_ between chest and hips than a
market hog; and a lot more insist
i that they are too fat. This condition
| DAVID CORT is the author of Is
There an American in the House?
Lc ree) Most of his ee
convention floor, he proclaimed that
“The same energy can yield better
results for socialism elsewhere. .
The only way is to create a mass
-“movement — through working in
labor and civic organizations. There
is no hope for socialism- otherwise.”
Thomas, theologian as well as pol-
itician, is at least as deeply commit-
ted to peace as he is to socialism.
Each time he speaks, he hammers
away at the futility of the struggle
for a Socialist society as long as it is
uncertain that any society may long
endure. The party, he said, can
campaign this year for peace, and
support candidates who favor peace.
(When one young delegate offered
a resolution stating that “Peace can- ~
not be assured until the profit sys-
tem is abolished,” he did not even
receive the dignity of defeat; his
resolution was ignored.) Socialists
must not waste their votes, even if
they must choose between the les-
ser of two capitalist evils. It was
time, Thomas said, for “political re-
alignment.”
To most of the delegates, “politi-
cal realignment” meant, ideally, a
reorganization of political forces in
this country, with labor, the farmers,
Negroes, other minorities and the
“liberal and peace forces” forging
REDUCING AD ABSURDUM . . by Davia con
has led to the result that about half
the population will read anything
on how to reduce.
In this context, what everybody
knows is never mentioned, and
should be. First, one of the major
anticipations that keeps many peo-
ple going is the next meal; it is a.
large part of what they mean by
happiness and they should not light-
ly be deprived of it. Second, an
adult’s ingestion and enjoyment of
food is not especially _ attractive to
other adults. Some “backward” peo-
ples, such as the Balinese, recognize
this by politely turning their backs
on the other diners when they eat.
In short, human Q tend to be
a about their own eam: :
‘ =
I just want to be a Socialist.”
inhumanity. But I also suspect an
ficial review of publicized reducing
diets will confirm such suspicion.
a union to combat “conservatism
and big business, the militarists and
nationalists and stand-patters.” The
more realistic acknowledged, how-
ever, that the realignment more
likely would mean that the Socialist
Party will make a bid to become ~
the left wing of the Democratic
Party. The platform — adopted as al
an “educational” document, since :
there will be no candidates to pro- |
claim it — paid due obeisance, in |
its preamble, to the vision of a So-
cialist society. But the program it
outlined in detail would certainly |
gain the assent of Senators Hum- —
phrey and Morse, and perhaps even eit
of Senator Kennedy. cent
Thomas insisted that the party
would retain its traditional role as a
dais for dissent. It will, he said, ex-
pose falsehood, bring honest argu-
ment to key issues and, with great
selectivity, support candidates. But
Sam Friedman and a small band of
old Socialist war horses went down
fighting. For a party, Friedman in-
sisted, all issues but socialism are
side issues. Supporting liberal re-
form was fine, he declared; but was
it socialism? Or, as a California del-
egate lamented: “I don’t want to be Le
a Humphrey or a Kennedy Socialist.
as
& Y
aien
ey
as
and quite unenthusiastic about other
people’s eating, unless they are mag-
nanimous chefs or great-hearted
mothers of families, for whom the — oa
consumption seems a compliment to
their product.
The Puritanical disapproval a
fatness in others is especially forth-
coming from people who are them- 4
funny gata saddening to thin people
says something about man’s helpless
element of the same thing in the
specialists’ advice to the overweight
on how to reduce. The most super-
This matter has gone so far
i
rT ee
wild that should I now cruelly in-
vent a farce diet (say, caviar for
protein, peanut butter for fat, but-
tered popcorn for carbohydrates, vi-
tamin pills and plenty of bourbon
sour mash whisky), any publisher
could easily sell 50,000 copies of
the book. If there is any deficiency
in this diet (journalistic, not die-
tetic),,it would be only that it is not
funny enough.
THE CRUELTY and irresponsibil-
ity of offering one single, standard
dietary solution for everybody is
obvious. What a person eats is, in
many important respects, his life.
But every individual is different
from every other individual. No
doctrinaire solution will work for
them all. Each individual has con-
ditioned habits of eating, of taste,
of appetite, of expenditure of energy,
of nervous rhythms and, most im-
portant of all, of metabolism. Few
modern doctors have the interest,
time or genius to find out all about
any one individual; and many are
themselves overweight. But the in-
dividual has the time and interest
and, at least about himself, perhaps
the genius. After all, it’s his life.
If he still prefers professional ad-
vice, here is what he will find:
Avoid fats, says Dr. Stanley M.
Garn in The Nation’s Children (Vol.
II). “I am struck by [children’s
diets’| resemblance to the diet ...
used to create obesity in rats. Frap-
pés, fat-meat hamburgers, bacon
and mayonnaise sandwiches, followed
by ice cream.”
Eat fats, says Dr. Richard Mac-
karness in Eat Fat and Grow Slim.
“Fat is the least fattening of all
foods because it turns the bellows
on the body-fires in a fat person and
enables him to mobilize his stored
fat... helping him to burn up more
efficiently the food he eats.”
Avoid potatoes, says practically
everybody since the pioneer William
Banting in the nineteenth century.
Eat potatoes, says Dr. H. L. Mar-
riott in the British Medical Journal,
so long as they are boiled, steamed
or baked in the jackets.
Don’t mix foods, says Dr. William
Howard Hay, in such “appalling
mixtures” as bacon and eggs, meat
and potatoes, bread and cheese or
wre
toast and marmalade, This -smono-
trophic diet has its most devoted
followers in Hollywood.
“Nonsense,” says Prof. John Yud-
kin in This Slimming Business, to
the foregoing. Foods, he says, are not
exclusively protein or carbohydrate.
Bread has some protein; and the
amino acids from both bread and
meat simultaneously are required to
convert the protein into good tissue.
Avoid plain water, say Gayelord
Hauser and some doctors. Says
Hauser: “Plain water is responsible
for many overweight, puffed-up
bodies.” Instead, he advises lemon
juice, cider vinegar, etc., “to dis-
solve the fat.”
Drink lots of water, says Dr. Mac-
karness. Dr. Yudkin adds: “All
healthy people, even fat people,
have a pretty perfect mechanism
which regulates very exactly the
amount of water and of salt which
the body retains.” Apparently the
body is extremely insistent on main-
taining a certain proportion of fluid-
ity and salinity.
Avoid alcohol, says nearly every-
body.
Drink alcohol, says Dr. Mackar-
ness. “There is the intriguing possi-
bility that alcoholic drinks . . . may
step up metabolism to an extent
which more than compensates for
the calories taken in as alcohol... .
Probably all alcoholic drinks except
those like beer, which contain large
amounts of carbohydrates, are slim-
ming.”
THERE is no need to take sides in
any of these religious wars. The lay-
man, however, would be justified in
thinking that somebody didn’t know
what he was talking about.
The most suspect are those who
treat the human body as if it were a
standard blast furnace, where cer-
tain elements in fixed proportion are
poured in, subjected to a uniform
process and culminate in a uniform
product, absolutely and_ precisely
predictable.
If this were true, reducing diets
would long since have become a dead
subject. But it is said that they are
instead the one subject guaranteed
to bring any social group alive and
quivering. Actually, this must apply
only to groups conversationally
dominated by women. I hear very
few men seriously discussing reduc-
ing; I have never done so. But it is
true that one must be ready to dis-
cuss the weight of any lady one
knows well; in America one must
never say, “But I like you fat.” To
an American woman, flesh means
only carbohydrates.
The subject is so entrancing that
it is likely to appear in any issue of
Woman’s Day, McCall's, Reader's
Digest and most recently, of all
places, in U.S. News and World Re-
port, whose April 11 issue gave eight
fairly unprofitable pages to an in-
terview on reducing, with a specialist
who looked overweight, if not quite
obese, to me.
His comments can be divided be-
tween the debatable and the unde-
batable. Of the latter: “Overweight
people are more likely to die of heart
disease. . . . A young man doing
light work .. . probably should get
around 2,400 calories a day... . It’s
a mistake to go on a stringent reduc-
ing diet. . . .” Of the debatable: “It
is very desirable to divide your food
supply approximately equally in the
three meals. . . . Any amount of al-
cohol is bad. .. . There are only one
or two explanations of the man who
stays thin. One is, he isn’t absorbing
the energy, which is unlikely; or
two, he is expending more than it
looks as though he’s expending. .
To use up one pound of body pe
you have to walk about thirtysfive
miles. . . .” He is absolutely op-
posed to eating meat fat.
Meat fat is to me a prized del-
icacy; I also love quantities of beer;
peanut butter and mayonnaise are
the blessings of civilization; and I
have weighed about the same for
thirty years. Furthermore, any ur-
banite who suddenly walks thirty-
five miles is going to lose a lot more
than a pound; he may lose con-
sciousness, too. The doctor and my-
self are evidently not members of
the same animal species. Anyway, he
certainly doesn’t know anything
about my species.
But an experiment was conducted
in England by Sir Charles Dodds
of Middlesex Hospital which moves
this subject up to a height where we | |
begin to get a view. He rounded up |
two groups of people, ‘ne whoa
ss 4 a
» 4 7 ~The N
pi
x ‘en
a
ath
fa
tun
fest
fe!
hl
ie
weights had been increasing,’ the
other whose weights had remained
fairly level for some years. Both
groups were asked to double or triple
their intake of food for a period.
If you believed U.S. News and
World Report, you would expect
both groups to gain some weight.
The first group, indeed, did. The
second gained not at all.
There are better lessons here than
the mere destruction of dieting the-
ories. The first group, one must con-
clude, could deal with a surplus of
calories only by storing them as sur-
plus fat. For some this may have
been aggravated by a suspected ab-
normality of being unable to convert
any carbohydrates at all into energy,
so that all bread, potatoes and sweets
turn into fat and never do the body
any good. For these people, the
result of eating is still an unsatisfied
feeling, more eating and more fat.
Of the second group, it must be
assumed that the challenge of surplus
calories put their metabolism into
high gear. The juices were present,
ready and willing to tear the stuff
apart. They rushed to the attack
with a cheer and the self-confidence
of Caesar’s legions on a good day.
The first group’s legions were non-
existent (unlikely) or disorganized
or asleep. (I will add my suspicion
that the second group, feeling an
uncomfortable loginess, also increased
their overt exercise, while the first
_ group succumbed to the lethargy, to
which they were already partly
habituated. )
The useful point of this experi-
ment is that it demonstrates that
different people are different, and
shifts the emphasis to metabolism,
the subject doctors do not like to
_ talk about because they scarcely un-
derstand it.
oe. ee
Aye
aie
_METABOLISM is a very interest-
ing subject. A shrew, for example,
_ must eat every few hours or die of
starvation; it has a maniacal me-
tabolism. Some passerine birds eat
several times their weight every day,
_ but an obese wild bird is unthink-
| able; it would not be able to get
airborne. Strains of wild birds and
animals with inefficient metabolisms
have long since been eliminated. In
domesticated animals, metabolism
controls production of milk, eggs and
paté de fore gras.
It is, however, possible for a human
being with an imperfect metabolism
to survive handily, since human
brains. have almost eliminated the
challenges to physical efficiency. Two
sets of cells in the brain of all mam-
mals are concerned with appetite. If
these are destroyed in rats, the rats
do not know how to stop eating. In
other words, these nerve centers
transmit the news from the stomach
that it has had enough, and turn off
the appetite. It is possible that an
excess of alcohol and cigarette-smok-
ing deaden the message from the
body that it would like some food
now, please.
A decent respect for the mysteri-
ous orchestrations of the body was
a remarkable quality of a recent
three-part serial on alcoholism in
The New Yorker by Berton Roueché.
This quoted a Chicago doctor on
some individuals’ peculiar sensitiza-
tion to particular foods, especially
the grains, wheat, corn and rye, that
incidentally provide most alcohol.
These become “addictive” foods, like
alcohol. It also relates alcoholism and
other food addictions to defects in
the endocrine gland system — thy-
roid, parathyroid, pituitary, adrenal,
gonad, pancreatic islets of Langer-
hans. The adrenals, for example, are
essential to carbohydrate metabo-
lism; their failure creates a body need
for blood sugar. The failure of other
ductless glands seems to produce
other compulsive food needs. This
kind of talk gets us somewhere.
But the individual need not be-
come the guinea pig of science; what
he most needs is to find out about
himself, empirically. In ordinary
common sense, the individual ought
to increase or decrease his allotment
of only one food for perhaps a week
at a time (potatoes, bread, sweets,
fats, meat, etc.), leaving the rest
of his accustomed diet exactly the
same. During this period he should
weigh himself every day at the same
time, preferably just before break-
fast. If he docs not soon know what
his particular metabolism can handle
and what it cannot, he must be very
peculiar. The lessons he learns will
apply only to himself; he should not
be encouraged to write a book ad-
vising anybody else how to get fat
or thin. Especially if he has an M.D.
BUT THE individual weighing him-
self in the morning and trying to
remember what he ate yesterday
ought also to weigh two other fac-
tors. The first is whether he feels
well. If he does, the reason may be
that what he ate yesterday was good
for him. (Or it may simply be that
it’s a beautiful morning or he’s in
love or he’s due for a raise. )
He should also try to remember
how he enjoyed what he ate. An
animal makes the best use of what it
likes, 1.e., what seems to taste good,
what is all-around welcome news
to the mouth, nose, stomach, brain,
glands and nerves; but of course if
this also adds weight, he had better
do without it, if he really doesn’t
want to add weight. Otherwise, ex-
cluding what he knows very well he
ought to avoid, the individual ought
to eat precisely what he likes best,
if in reasonable quantities. All his
life he is going to think about the
next meal. Very well, let him think
about it pleasurably and selectively
and intelligently, and then eat it.
Too many of the diets I have
looked at seem to me to reflect the
prescriber’s antisocial disapproval
of other people’s having any fun.
This pompous sadism, of which we
are all a little guilty, is a philosophi-
cal, sociological and dietary disaster.
To tell anybody to drink only skim-
med milk is a dirty, rotten trick.
513
*
3
_
* a
i
BOOKS and the ARTS =
Anger on Two Fronts
THE STAGES OF ECONOMIC
GROWTH: A Non-Communist Mani-
festo. By W. W. Rostow. Cambridge
University Press. 179 pp. $3.75 cloth;
$1.45 paper.
Edward W. Ziegler
“ENTREPRENEUR” never needed a
qualifying adjective until now. There
was only one kind. He was the crafty
chap who performed the catalytic func-
tion in the growth of industrialization.
He was always thought of as a private
citizen with an eye for a fast buck.
He was the man who — by wile,
stealth and perspicacity — changed the
economic metabolism of entire nations
for his own enrichment.
Sooner or later the question was bound
to arise: “Can the entrepreneur be that
simply described? Is he really just a
man after personal profit?” W. W. Ros-
tow has recently phrased new answers
to those questions, and a burst of out-
rage has greeted his answers. For Rostow
suggests that, outside of America and
Western Europe, the catalytic function
has been performed less for personal
profit than for national dignity.
Therefore, Rostow reasons, there are
at least two distinct types of entrepre-
neurs—the private and the public. There
has been Andrew Carnegie; there has also
been Nikolai Lenin.
This simple notion has caused a flurry
of angry criticism among both private
enterprisers and Communists for the
reason that this analysis suggests what
common sense itself suggests—both sys-
tems are partly correct, partly poppy-
cock. Even the partisans of each system
who now voice their disgust at the signs
of a possible ideological truce must have
been aware of the busy eclecticism that
has been in progress for many years.
Their doctrinaire obliviousness does not
now diminish the clarity of Rostow’s
theory of growth — a theory that
is drawing the close attention of
underdeveloped nations in search of the
quickest way up. For what Rostow has
developed is an explanation of growth
that transcends the flukes of national
_ character or geography that have until
now been considered the ain,
EDWARD W. ZIEGLER, on
newspaper man, is now an ed
McGraw-Hill
mer
aT at
bee!
of the pace of economic growth and the
type of growth (free, forced, or some-
thing in between).
Rostow has made impressive enemies
since he stated his theory of the stages
of economic growth before Cambridge
undergraduates last year. Both Russians
and Americans have had at him.
Pravda has invoked its animal vocab-
ulary to describe his work, and that is
a sure sign that he is getting warm. In
Pravda’s view he is a “snipe” cheeping
in fright on the capitalist dung heap.
Fortune, meanwhile, has found itself
a man to hurl more polite anathemas at
Rostow. Professor David McCord
Wright, a McGill University political
scientist-economist, charges that Ros-
tow’s work is mechanistic and “centralist-
despotic” in outlook, and that it is ut-
terly devoid of predictive value.
On the one hand Rostow takes away
the supposed uniqueness of the revolu-
tionary radical, and on the other he re-
moves the heroic mantle from the pri-
vate tycoon. Neither Pravda nor Fortune
is happy to have its respective heroes
cut down to size. Yet the two types are
similar—and this is where the heat be-
gins—because they hold a common be-
lief that economic growth is a positive
good and an attainable end. Therefore
Rostow’s main rascality seems to be that
he has removed some of the rhetorical
illusions in which both public and pri-
vate entrepreneurs have reposed.
Rostow goes on to say that nations,
like their entrepreneurs, follow no single
In the Harbor
Far
in haze on Jumpish water
ships (fat bushes) stand. Some
arriving. Some going away.
Get short,
rounder going farther.
taller
when closer. Slow steamers, tankers
cross on dazzled
loam Jumps. Bulging shovels (near
waves) shine. Far sharp
pebbles strung out spin between flat
narrows.
Blue-
gray (smooth or silly) bushes
grow, arriving. Fade
slow, going 2/2)
away. eae
Come square,
pattern of evolution to reach the ulti-
mate stage of development. And, he
says, the underlying theme of all eco-
nomic development in the world today
is a diffusion of power among many na-
tions. This leveling out will progress
inexorably, he says, unless those of us
who have already reached the highest
stages of development allow a spasm of
nuclear destruction to tear down every-
thing that has been built up.
Economic growth, in Rostow’s view,
falls into five major stages: (1) “The
Traditional Society,” predominantly agri-
cultural and inert; (2) “The Precon-
ditions for Take-Off,” in which scientific
speculations translate themselves into
improved agricultural productivity and
nascent industrialism; (3) “The Take-
Off” in which a “surge of technological
development” results in growth and the —
accumulation of “social overhead cap- —
ital” such as railroads and highways;
(4) “The Drive to Maturity,” in which
the focus of development turns from the
old industries (textiles, coal, iron) to
new industries (chemicals, electric equip-
ment, machine-tools); and (5) “The
Age of High Mass Consumption,” in
which “resources tend increasingly to be
directed to the production of consumers’
durables and to the diffusion of services
on a mass basis.”
ROSTOW argues that at any given time
growth tends to be “sectorial” in an
economy, which is to say that one or
perhaps two industries lead the way —
with rapid growth, and set the tone for —
the entire economy. While such growth —
in America has been largely inspired: by —
the hope of private profit, “the most_ i
powerful motive for modernization in the if
undefoerores areas is not . » profit
. but the widespread deere: to in-
crease human and national dignity.”
Rostow does not essay past the fifth —
state — because “beyond, it is im-
possible to predict.” Perhaps, he sug- —
gests, the “Buddenbrooks dynamic” will |
set in: The first generation seeks money; J
the second (born to wealth) seeks status; —
the third (born to status) seeks sensory —
pleasure. A very rough translation of this —
phenomenon might be, “Rich thinking |
men like their pleasure big.” )
-
The progress of growth, at any rate, /
begins when the smart young entrepre-
neurs, private or public, throw the olc
rascals out—at least psychological y. T he
first, eisai sible b
as a ae
ht
it
ha
wi
mn
oa
a
Tare Ve hE“ s
~ which “supersedes in social and political
authority the old land-based elite, whose
grasp on income above minimum levels
of consumption must be broken.”. . .”
One cannot avoid the suspicion that
Rostow’s vision points the way to a
| continuous reshuffling of elites. Thus,
| when our new elite of finance and specu-
_ lation led the legions to the pit in 1929,
it was overthrown, and in its place we
have today an elite of marketing and
production. This is the elite that talks
} with such fervor of “selling free enter-
prise to the world.”
ae
>
|| SUMMER KNOWLEDGE: NEW
}) AND SELECTED POEMS 1938-
; 1958. By Delmore Schwartz. Double-
; day & Co. 240 pp. $4.95.
M. L. Rosenthal
IT IS EASY to say what has always
been wrong with Delmore Schwartz’s
| poetry. Briefly, he has rarely been able
_ to sustain a whole poem at the level of
_ its beginning. No one else but Auden in
_ this century has so many wonderful first
lines: “In the naked bed, in Plato’s
cave,’ “The beautiful American word,
Sure,” “A dog named Ego, the snow-
flakes as kisses,” “The horns in the
harbor booming, vaguely” — such begin-
nings, and with them a certain tone, a
__wrily humorous sense of tangled, pain-
_ ful complexities, are most memorable
in Schwartz’s writing. Unfortunately, it
is hard to remember any larger_move-
ment into resolution in his pieces. A truly
_ beautiful lyric poem will seem, in Hart
_ Crane’s phrase, an i
PO es
“inviolate curve,” or
else it will be an unfolding series of
realizations that echo back and forth
until what feels an ultimate resolution is
reached.
And yet Schwartz has many moments
‘of pure music to offer, and some mo-
_ments in which he speaks in the accents
of greatness, and he holds us even in
his failures with the honesty and con-
temporaneity of his voice. The com-
Parison may seem absurd, but I feel
bout many of his poems as I do about
some of Shakespeare’s sonnets that begin
so grandly and then fall away by the
_ roadside somewhere — they ride in
‘triumph over their own incompleteness.
L ook at the first stanza of “Starlight
; ike Intuition Pierced the Twelve”:
| The starlight’s intuitions pierced the
twelve,
he brittle night ip sparkled like
Rostow suggests that we who have ar-
rived at the apex of development will
do well to forget the ideological sales-
manship. Our mission, as he sees it, is
to smooth the way for the emerging
nations to develop with all possible
speed. He suggests that America and
Russia could well team up, once each
has put its salesman into cold storage,
and allow history to take its course. Else,
he argues, the likelihood of mutual
atomic destruction—or destruction at
the hands of a third, fourth, or nth
party—is measurably heightened.
Deep in the Unfriendly City
xylophone.
Empty and vain,
the moon
Arose too big, and, in the mood
which ruled,
Seemed like a useless beauty in a pit;
And then one said, after he carefully
Spat:
“No matter what we do, he looks at
ct
a glittering dune,
This picture of the Apostles’ dismay
at what the life of Jesus has meant is al-
together modern in its expression of what
the poet calls elsewhere “the wound
of consciousness.” It hardly matters that
the rest of the poem is a somewhat
talkative expansion buoyed poetically
only by its echoes of what has already
been established in this stanza, just as
it hardly matters what follows after
Shakespeare’s
Not marble, nor the gilded monu-
ments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful
rhyme. . «
Well, it does matter, but really less in
Schwartz’s case, I think. The rest of
“Starlight Like Intuition Pierced the
Twelve” is interesting talk at least.
Here, too, Schwartz resembles Auden,
who influenced a whole generation of
poets toward an artistically self-defeat-
ing but intellectually stimulating method
of poetic structure. The method is to
start with a single image or description
or insight that is striking in itself and
then to think about it and try to
develop an attitude toward it. In the
ideology-centered milieu of the thirties
and early forties in which Schwartz
grew up, a knowledgeable involvement
with ideas until one felt tugged this way
Freud, and
ncitation of
still filer devils
Augustine to John Cro rc
any five si
Auden’s The Orators or, in this book,
Schwartz’s “Coriolanus and His Moth-
er.’) This was not mere affectation,
but the spiritual life of a generation
drunk with the excitement of worlds of
thought in conflict. And what Schwartz
has to say involves us insinuatingly be-
cause we are still bound to that era.
Greater poetry thrusts its premises on
us without this kind of bond. Shake-
speare’s “They that have power to hurt,
and will do none” makes us see life in
terms of an alien aristocratic ideal.
Schwartz’s appeal is of a different order.
It is something deeply familiar that he
brings to the fore, something that
weeps and snickers unworthily in the
back alleys of modern hyper-conscious-
ness. Thus, the buffoonery of his de-
scription of a newsreel in “Cartoons of
Coming Shows Unseen Before”* —-
Churchill nudged Roosevelt. With
handsome glee
Roosevelt winked! Upon life’s peak
they played
(Power is pleasure, thought anxious.
Power is free!)
Or — a subtler buffoonery — the Chap-
linesque manner in which, in “Proth-
alamion,” the author reinterprets a fa-
mous figure of Dante’s. So translated,
the soul becomes an undignified, col-
loquially blurting ego:
“Tittle soul, little flirting,
little perverse one
where are you off to now?
little wan one, firm one
little exposed one...
and never make fun of me again.”
It is perhaps inevitable that such a
poet, whose very weaknesses betray the
life-awareness of an age, should bring
confession, aimless rhetoric and private
gropings for mistily perceived meanings
directly into his poetry. A poem like
“Prothalamion,” lacking the redeeming
passionate art of a Robert Lowell, de-
generates into’ autobiographical docu-
ment:
I will forget the speech my mother
made
In a restaurant, trapping my father
there >
At dinner with his whore. Her spoken ~
rage
Struck down the child of seven years
_ With shame. cis
fide a, Schwartz constantly exploits his
personal shames and guilts and ©
reader’s natural sympathy with he
broken children —
... I skated, afraid of policemen,
- five years ‘old,
In the winter sunset, sorrowful and
cold, yes:
Still, as I have tried to suggest, there
is much more in his poems than un-
relieved confessional or cosmic blarney-
ing. It comes out best in the simplicity
and conercteness with which he presents
physical and psychological self-delinea-
tion, in a poem like “The Heavy Bear
That Walks with Me” or “In the Naked
Bed, in Plato’s Cave.” But it is present
also in the confessionals and blarneyings,
for if the poet is in love with his in-
volvement in them he is at the same
time forever trying to get at some hid-
den motive toward which they point.
John Berryman has caught this facet of
Schwartz’s poetic personality brilliantly
“At Chinese Checkers”:
Deep in the unfriendly city Delmore
lies. 4
And cannot sleep, and cannot bring
his-mind
And cannot bring those marvellous
faculties
To bear upon the day sunk down
behind,
The unsteady night, or the time
to come. .
Most of what I have had to say about
Summer Knowledge concerns the first
half of the book, taken from the long
out-of-print In Dreams Begin Respon-
sibilities (1938). The second half, con-
taining later work, lacks the general
vibrancy and relevancy of that book,
yet a sufficient. number of the more
recent poems show a suggestive turn
toward a new directness and natural-
ness. The old sophistication is often
sloughed off completely, and the poet
attempts a translucent lyricism that oc-
casionally soars in Shelleyan flight. Some-
times these poems accumulate a mount-
ing charge of joy that erupts in a surg-
ing imagery of sky, sea and light; some-
times their mood is, darker, or has a
desolate “strangeness” — for instance,
1 “All of the Fruits Had Fallen.” I do
not make excuses for this section, but [|
have the impression from it that the
poet has passed through a great spiritual
change and is slowly finding his way in
a new world. He has not yet discovered
the right poetic idiom of that world,
but it seems to have some continuity
with such earlier work as “Far Rock-
away,” in which the vision is for a
moment a similar one:
The radiant soda of the seashore
fashions \
Kun, foam, and freedom. The sea
laves
The shaven sand. And the light eways
forward
On the self-destroying waves... .
stu
ta the Head of One Man
MAX WEBER: AN- INTELLECTUAL
PORTRAIT. By Reinhard Bendix.
Doubleday & Co. 480 pp. $5.75.
Robert Paul Wolff
TAKE a sentence, divide it up into
separate words, teach each word to a
different person, and then line up all the
people in a row. There will then be
awareness of every part of the sentence,
but nowhere an awareness of the sen-
tence as a whole. This simple fact of
logic occurs to me every time I read of
a committee or “study group” which has
been formed to provide an “inter-dis-
ciplinary” look at some problem. A his-
torian, a psychologist, a sociologist, an
economist, a political scientist and a
jurisprude will spend a week around a
circular table, and at the end, we are
told, they will emerge with a historico-
psycho -socio-economico-juridico-political
study of, say, juvenile delinquency or
the rise of Western society. They won’t.
An economist and a historian don’t make
an economic historian or a historial econ-
omist, even if you bunch them together
real close in a seminar room,
What is wanted is to get the history
and sociology and psychology and eco-
nomics into the head of one man. Even
that is not quite enough. A man may do
economics and history the way some
men juggle knives while playing the
harmonica—no connection between them,
just a two-in-one tour de force. The ideal
student of human affairs not only would
be conversant with all the fields men-
tioned above, but would also bring ma-
terial from each to bear on all the others.
Which brings me to the subject of this
review, for if there is any. man who has
approached that impossible ideal, it is
the great German sociologist, historian,
economist, et al., Max Weber. Reinhard
Bendix, Professor of Sociology at Berke-
ley, has written what he calls “An In-
tellectual Portrait” of Weber. In intent
and execution it is a curious book.
Bendix explains that by a_ historical
accident Weber’s writings have been in-
troduced to the American public in a
distorted and misleading manner. The
first work to appear in English was Tal-
cott Parsons’ translation, in 1930, of
The Protestant Ethic and the Spurit of
Capitalism. Despite Parsons’ warning
that the essay was part of a much
larger study in the comparative sociology
of religions, readers insisted on seeing it
ROBERT PAU La WOLFF teaches phil-.
osophy at Harvard. He is at work on a
book dealing ee pinieenration 4 Hy.
pela va) A
a 4
as a Self-contained “answer to Marx” on
the question of the causes of capitalism.
This fact, and the subsequent interest
in Weber’s theoretical essays, led Bendix § y,
to belieye that Weber’s empirical studies §;,
have been ignored. His book, therefore, >, .
is almost entirely a straightforward sum- Pr
mary of large segments of Weber’s § ,,
writings. As he himself says, “Since I § p
believe that Weber’s work has enduring
value, my purpose has been to make it
more accessible than it is, and to do so
without burdening the reader by criti-
cisms and digressions of my own.” Ten
years ago, such an effort might have §,,
filled a need. Today, however, it is hard
to see the point. Why read a rather dull
150 page restatement of Weber’s sociol-
ogy of religion when you can get the orig-
inal three volumes, attractively boxed,
in English? Nevertheless, the reader who
works through Bendix’s laborious sum-
maries will encounter innumerable ex-
amples of Weber’s insights into the work-
ings of society. If an “introduction” is
needed, this one serves very well.
THERE is not room even to list the
many problems with which Weber dealt
in his published works, but perhaps I
can convey a sénse of the suggestiveness
of his insights by citing his brief com-
ments on education in a_ rationalized
bureaucracy. The passage, which is only
five pages long, has been translated by
H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills in
From Max Weber: Essays in Soctology,
pp. 240-244, and should be reprinted at
the beginning of every contemporary
discussion of American education. Weber
contrasts the ideal of the “cultivated
man,” found in Hellenic, Chinese and
earlier Anglo-Saxon society, with the
newer ideal of the “specialist.” Specialist |
education is demanded by the technical
complexity of the developing administra-
tion and economy. Privilege is replaced
by a system of competitive examinations,
which in turn creates a diploma elite. i
Weber writes, “Behind all the present:
discussions of the foundations of the
educational system, the struggle of the
‘specialist type of man’ against the older
type of ‘cultivated man’ is hidden at
some decisive point. The fight is de-
termined by the irresistibly expanding
bureaucratization of all public and pri-|
vate realms of authority and by om
ever-increasing importance of expert and |
specialized knowledge.”
It is this deeper understanding of tl
causes and direction of social chang
that makes Weber so exciting to!
and Lai se ¢
th
ry |
. ; Maurice Grosser has recently return-
‘| 'ed from a trip through the Middle West.
‘| The present article on the museums of
Cleveland and Toledo will be followed
y reports from Detroit, St. Lowis, Kan-
as City and Chicago.
Cleveland
HE CLEVELAND MUSEUM
ack in a splendid park to the east of
own. It has a large and open dignity,
t at all municipal, but rather like
some princely residence temporarily va-
¢ated, and in its sober opulence bears a
family resemblance to the Frick in New
York. The original building, erected in
1916, has just recently been remodeled
—doubled ‘in size by the skillful addi-
tion of a wing in the shape of a hollow
Square—and provided with all the latest
im museum equipment from overhead
‘} daylight lighting and exhibition halls
with movable partitions, to batteries of
television cameras which act as elec-
ronic museum guards. The building is
luxurious but in no way forbidding or
oppressive, and the collection it houses
s§ rich in masterpieces.
E The institution had its origins in the
} eighties when three donors, each inde-
pendent of the others, left funds to found
a museum. Nothing was done until 1913
when the three funds were combined and
the museum was incorporated with a
rincely endowment. Cleveland, like Chi-
igo, has a long history of picture col-
cting. Such collections have a way of
nding in the local museum, and as soon
a Cleveland museum was established,
lections began to pour in. The first of
se was donated by Mrs. Liberty
Iden in 1914, two years before there
fas a building to house it. It consisted
fa group of Italian primitives assembled
}in the seventies and eighties, long in ad-
} vance of contemporary taste, by James
kson Jarves, who also formed the
brated Jaryes collection now at Yale.
his bequest was quickly followed by
ers, both collections and funds. Since
ve directors knew in adyance what the
vate collections contained and what
res they would eventually inherit, —
were able to use the funds to buy
would not be given. As a result,
land’s coverage is astonishingly
gh, yin good examples of almost
sits
begin daemictating: The
ee
wa .
n i p pino Lippiie Probably. .
- tae
Shot a al
“an :
ART
¢ Maurice Grosser
the finest Lippi in the country, and
Tintoretto’s Baptism of Christ is one of
the most lyrical of the painter’s mature
works outside of Venice. There is a glow-
ing Adoration of the Magi by Titian,
complex in composition, unusual in scale,
and apparently unfinished; one of the
best Bassanos of Lazarus, dog and rich
man’s supper table; two celebrated
Grecos; fine Tiepolos, Rubens and Van
Dycks; good English portraits; one of
the most dramatic Turners—The Burn-
ing of the Houses of Parliament—with
flames reflected in the Thames and dark
foreground boats crowded with specta-
tors; and a living, speaking portrait by
Goya of an architect friend, done on a
black priming instead of Goya’s more
usual brick red.
FRENCH painting is particularly well
presented. Along with top examples. of
all the predictable eighteenth- and nine-
teenth-century names there are also sur-
prisingly good pictures by nineteenth-
century painters now rarely exhibited;
such as a sea fight between a Greek and
Turkish vessel by Eugéne Isabey, as
beautiful in the Romantic style as a
Delacroix; or the recently cleaned Coast
near Villerville by Daubigny which now
appears with almost Monet bright color;
or the Reclining Nude by Couture, with
such a temptingly painted bottom as
to require here the protection of a pane
of glass. As for the more modern mas-
ters, there are charming Renoirs and
Van Goghs; the Frieze of Dancers by
Degas, one of his very best; the most
beautiful Berthe Morisot—of a young
lady in white seated on the grass of a
spring pasture; a celebrated Cézanne, a
celebrated Lautrec and Gauguins, Ma-
tisses and Douanier Rousseaus, along
with some well-known early Bigassos.
American painting goes from colonial
work down to the present. There is one
of the best Eakins—a portrait-landscape
of two oarsmen in a racing shell; good
Innesses and Chases and exceptional
examples of painting of this century
from. Sloan and Kroll to Grayes and
Marin. In comparison, the more ab-
stract of the American. contemporaries
seem relatively. neglected, although the
museum is beginning to acquire some
representative examples. When I was
there, a monster retrospective of Feinin-
ger was being held, anc ‘the museum’s
well-known May shows
tirely to contemporary C
rok, Giycbhds.
‘ ce
34 +
al \
“i
a | ve
s devoted en-—
x
is its collection of medieval bronzes,
carvings, textiles and jewelry, whose
most costly and barbaric items ‘are the
portable gold altar and jeweled crosses
acquired at a fantastic price from the
Guelph Treasure of the Royal House
of Brunswick. The museum is particu-
larly rich in such bibelots and smaller
sculptures—pre-Columbian, East . Indi-
an and Chinese—and. ‘Roman portrait
heads; the period rooms contain some
of the best and rarest of eighteenth-
century furniture. In one of these hangs,
as a luxurious joke, two eighteenth-
century tapestries. One is a French
Chinoiserie depicting, in the Boucher
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style, a Chinese fair. The other is au-
thentic Chinese, showing a_ children’s
party in honor of the birthday of a
small prince—so urbane, civilized and
well behaved that the French tapestry
by comparison seems nouveau riche.
What most distinguishes the Cleve-
land Museum is the absence of the sec-
ond rate from its collections. This gen-
eral high level of quality is partially due
to the fortunate circumstance of its
founding and growth. But there is also
the equally fortunate circumstance
that Cleveland has never been forced,
as have so many museums, to exhibit
inherited collections as unit memorials
to the donors. This freedom was estab-
lished by its second president, Mr. J. H.
Wade, who with modesty and foresight
refused to allow his own -donations of
works of art to appear on permanent
exhibit in galleries labeled with his name.
Since then the directors have consis-
tently reserved the right to edit the col-
lections the museum accepts and di-
vide them as they see fit. This, added
to Cleveland’s extraordinary endow-
ment—second in funds only to the Met-
ropolitan—makes it today, despite its
relative youth, one of the great mu-
seums of America.
Toledo
THE TOLEDO MUSEUM OF ART
is built in the Greek Classical style
much employed for public buildings of
the first quarter of our century. Opened
in 1912 and enlarged in 1926, it was
further extended in 1933 by the addi-
tion of two lateral wings. One of these
houses the Peristyle, Toledo’s municipal
concert hall—a semi-circular Greco-
Roman theatre.
Handsome as the building is, it en-
joys little of its neighbor Cleveland’s
palatial grandeur. It has rather the
solid but slightly shopworn air of a
university building. And that, in a way,
is what it is—a municipal institution
engaged in art education for all ages,
with courses ranging from drawing and
painting, ceramics and art teaching
(with college credit), to classes in home
decoration and in appreciation of mod-
ern art and music. When I was there,
a special educational exhibit of excel-
lent modern pictures, taken from the
museum’s own collection and borrowed
from elsewhere, was being hung to il-
Justrate the theme, What is Modern
Art? More than Cleveland, Toledo is
actively interested in contemporary ab-
stract art, and the American non-ob-
jectives receive more emphasis here
than elsewhere in the Middle West.
Unlike Cleveland, Toledo is primarily
a single donor’s museum, with one prin-
s
cipal benefactor and three or four in-
herited collections—a monument to the
taste and generosity of very few per-
sons. Founded in 1901 and principally
endowed by Edward Drummond Lib-
bey, a manufacturer of glass, its nu-
cleus was Mr. Libbey’s own collection
of old masters, and of ancient and mod-
ern glass. The other principal inheri-
tance was the collection of paintings
donated by the museum’s second presi-
dent, Mr. Arthur J. Secor.
MR. LIBBEY’S personal acquisitions,
as inherited by the museum, included
some fine pictures, such as—to men-
tion only a few—a head of an old man
by Tiepolo; a Velasquez masterful in
color of a smiling cavalier with gloved
hand and wine glass; an unexpected
Cranach of Martin Luther and hs
Friends; a self-portrait by Rembrandt
as a young man in a plumed hat; an
Pere Holbein of Catherine Howard;
Turner of a Venice lagoon in clean,
ae blues; and a convincing and un-
flattering self-portrait by Reynolds.
Along with the better paintings there
were formerly also a number of French
and Dutch nineteenth-century land-
scapes, today out of fashion, only the
best of which are kept on view. Since
Mr. Libbey’s death in 1925, this orig-
inal collection has been extensively in-
creased with purchases made with funds
he left for that purpose.
The Secor collection, shown together
in a memorial gallery, is much less good.
It consists chiefly of English eighteenth-
century portraits and salon landscapes
in fashion in the eighties by painters
like Diaz, Daubigny, Israels, Mauve,
Millet and the later Corot—a plethora
of peasants, oak trees, cows and sheep.
It nevertheless contains the one first-
class Theodore Rousseau I have seen,
of a line of birches in an evening light.
The American. collection of eight-
eenth- and nineteenth-century painting
is incomparably more varied and impor-
tant. It is based on a few pictures do-
nated by Mrs. Florence Scott Libbey,
but consists in the main of works bought
with money she bequeathed. One re-
members particularly a masterpiece by
Thomas Cole—The Architect's Dream
—in which a miniature figure of the
architect reposes on a divan made up
of huge folios atop an enormous archi-
tectural capital of a pseudo-classical
order, while the landscape behind him
displays a river, with a fleet of galleys, —
with gardens and fountains, and mon=—
strous buildings in all the styles from
Egyptian to American Protestant Goth«_| :
. Mrs. Libbey’s bequest, pe with
a + sialler collection of twentieth-cen
* -
> a] i a
bs
eee
‘tury pictures (including a fine Wyeth)
bought with the bequest of Miss Eliza-
beth Mau, a Toledo school teacher,
and the museum’s more recent contempo-
rary acquisitions, provide a display of
American painting from colonial primi-
tives to William Baziotes,
WHAT with the original inheritance
and the pictures subsequently acquired,
the museum is now in possession not
only of some very valuable and beau-
tiful pictures, but some very unusual
ones as well. I think of a wonderful
Courbet of a plump girl in profile be-
fore a trellis of flowers; an imaginary
landscape by Patinir with blue rocky
peaks and towns and castles and in the
foreground, as an afterthought, a tiny
Paris, the shepherd, with his goddesses;
‘a very neo-Classical David—The Oath
of the Horatii—as formalized as a bal-
let and as gaudily theatrical as Ben
Hw; Clouet’s Elizabeth of Valois; a Ter
Borgh Music Lesson; two Grecos, one
‘a fine Annunciation and the other a
‘Gethsemane in the painter’s most flame-
like Baroque manner and exceptionally
acid color. Among the odd and more
unusual, there is a melodramatic De-
struction of Tyre with black tidal
waves of glassy water in a livid light
by the English Romantic John Martin;
and a full-length portrait by William
Rothenstein of the English painter of
fans, Charles Condor, dressed in a tub-
lar overcoat and posed in the act of
losing a door—the height of fin de
siécle languor. |
_ Among the moderns there is a small,
‘pink period Picasso Head of a Woman,
is well as his famous and sentimental
picture from 1904, of a woman caressing
‘a crow. There are good examples of
all the standard Impressionist and Post-
‘Impressionist masters—Degas, Cézanne,
' E auguin, Renoir and Matisse, and a very
beautiful Bonnard landscape called £u-
Va ropa and the Bull. In all, Toledo’s cov-
‘erage of American and European art is
‘fully representative and contains some
r arkable pictures. If the museum
seems on the whole less impressive than
some of the others in the region, it is
‘mot on account of the absence of fine
a examples from its collection, but on ac-
‘count of the presence of some second-
irate ones. Such a situation is generally
remedied in the long run by the direc-
‘|itors, simply by eliminating the duller
ictures and stocking up with interest-
ng ones. That is what is being done
2, and rapidly. But the situation it-
s an all too common one and in-
bly arises when the inheritances a
of
= Ser. +. \
As a pos rte pt, and « as - curious Ae '
bias seri $i
Pear a
of how the eye changes with time, let
me quote from the museum’s out-of-
print catalogue of 1939. Its description
of a Soutine, entitled Color Arrange-
ment—which Toledo no longer owns—
sounds very contemporary:
Dynamic swirls, broad strokes of
closely related colors . . . attain fine
balance in a composition surcharged
with motion. Semblance of form is
subjected to rhythmic pattern of
color and texture.
The identical Soutine—judging from
the dimensions and photograph in the
Toledo catalogue—is now on display in
the Museum of Modern Art, and bears
as title what now it quite unmistakably
represents—Dead Fowl.
FILMS
Robert Hatch
THIS DEPARTMENT gives such dis-
proportionate attention to pictures that
open on the side streets, and as often as
not in a foreign tongue, that I thought
I should prowl Broadway a bit. The pro-
duct is arresting—no one can belt out
a story with the brassy vitality of a ma-
jor studio aiming at the world market.
Everything the pictures have to give is
right on the surface, bright and clear as a
Kodachrome, and the music booms and
wheedles in your stomach to compensate
for any thinness there might possibly be
of content or performance. You come out
of one of these big houses knowing that
you’ve had the full treatment — trim,
shave, mudpack, a little vibrator on the
scalp and a touch of lavender water at
the temples. A guy feels like a million
dollars and a little weak in the knees,
from all the sweet steam.
JOHN FORD’S Sergeant Rutledge com-
bines the field maneuvers of the U.S.
Cavalry with court-room trial drama, In-
dian hunting with justice for the Negro.
I doubt that I have ever seen the race
question discussed in a more exciting,
more consciously virtuous, or in any way
more thoroughly bully, fashion.
At the end of the Civil War, so we
learn, there was a crack cavalry troop on
the Western plains made up entirely of
Negroes (white officers, natch) and as-
signed to keep the Indians on the reser-
vation. The boys are mighty proud of
their unit and prouder still of Sergeant
Rutledge, whom even the white men
generously acknowledge to be pure of
heart, stern of duty and a crack shot at
a running Indian.
Unfortunately, when we first meet him,
Sergeant Rutledge is running himself,
and urgently wanted for raping the
teen-age daughter of his commanding of-
ficer. The structure of the picture is built
on the court-martial of the sergeant and
the action — Indian ambush, group-sing-
ing in the moonlight, a hectic burgeoning
of love between a rancher’s compassionate
daughter and the lieutenant who must
bring Rutledge back to judgment —
takes place in flashbacks as various wit-
nesses tell their tales.
The prosecuting lawyer has a mean
attitude toward Negroes and this pro-
vides opportunity to drive home the les-
son that a man should not be hung be-
cause of the color of his skin. The de-
cent folk get real stubborn on this point
and, by jingo, it turns out in the end
that Rutledge is not a murdering rapist
after all. But it doesn’t turn out that way
until every Negro in the story has been
patronized to the point where he has a
choice of joining the Indians or playing
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NEW CENTURY PUBLISHERS, 832 Broadway,
Mr. Bones for the rest of his life. The
boys vote to stick with the good old U.S.
Cavalry and ride off grinning and sing-
ing the troop song. I hope no one shows
this picture to Martin Luther King.
THEN, there’s The Rat Race, which
Garson Kanin wrote as a play ten years
ago and which O. Henry wrote I don’t
know how many times back around
1900. Debbie Reynolds, playing a girl
who will do anything except you know
what in order to stay the course in New
York, is sharing — in purest chastity —
a room in a run-down boarding house
with Tony Curtis, who plays a young mu-
sician, a recent arrival from Milwaukee
so naive that his handsome collection of
saxophones and related wind instruments
is stolen from him by a gang of thieves
masquerading as members of one of
New York’s most famous bands. To get
him a new set of instruments, the girl
agrees to do that final thing and he trots
off happily to play with Gerry Mulligan
in a cruise ship combo. By devices un-
specified, Miss Reynolds manages to
stave off her obligations until the very
day of Mr. Curtis’ return. And that in-
deed is the nick of time, for she is about
to have her face altered by a man who
combines running a taxi dance hall with
rough and ready surgery on girls who
borrow his money and then do not show
up for appointments. However, this
wicked chap is mollified on being present-
ed with Mr. Curtis’ second set of instru-
ments, and the picture closes on a clinch
and the unresolved question of where the
third batch of horns is to come from.
AND there’s Wild River, made, not
from one, but from two novels that
20th Century Fox had stored in its
bins. This stratagem has an eerie ap-
peal — I’d go some distance to see
certain combinations, say a_ picture
combining the best features of Sanctu-
ary and Northanger Abbey.
MAINSTREAM June
AFRICA, COME BACK:
Kuth Adler
SOME HERR KEUNER STORIES:
Bertolt Brecht
THE PARTISANSHIP OF
VINCENT VAN GOGH:
Joseph Veishin
GOKTHKE AT THE CROSSKOADS:
Vrederic Ewen
THE COURAGE
OF PHILIP EVERGOOD;:
Alice Dunham
POEMS: Kdith Anderson, Verna Woskoft
BOOK REVIEWS
5O0e a copy e
I haven’t read the novels here adapt-
ed and cannot assign episodes to their
sources. However, the picture has two
distinct themes. One of these is a de-
fense of TVA. Valid drama can be writ-
ten around old crises if the issue is
seized with some resolution, but that
is just what Wild River fails to do. The
problem is that an old woman, bristling
with traditional American self-reliance,
will not surrender her land to the im-
pounded water. The TVA man (Mont-
gomery Clift) is sent from Washington
to reason her into compliance, it being
thought bad policy for an already con-
troversial agency to use force in these
cases. Also, Mr. Clift is himself opposed
to pushing people around. However, the
old lady won’t budge, the lake is creep-
ing up, and finally a U.S. marshal is
brought in to do the necessary puhing.
The conflict between private independ-
ence and government welfare is certainly
vexing, but there seems little point in
raising the issue if all you care to say
is that a stubborn old lady is a splendid
spectacle and so is the TVA, and isn’t
it too bad we can’t have both.
Director Elia Kazan and his associate
apparently felt this, too, for they added
to Mr. Clift’s official duties an im-
petuous and rather odd love affair. When
he shows up on the disputed farm he
finds at the old lady’s elbow a niece
of twenty-one who is a widow with
two children. The girl (Lee Remick)
is entranced and disheveled by sorrow,
and in the first days of their acquaint-
ance, the hero is admirably masterful.
He encourages the widow to return to
her own house, deserted since the hour
of her husband’s death; endears him-
self to her children; bustles in with
groceries, and administers caresses that
soon have the blood coursing sweetly
through her veins.
But then suddenly he runs out of
gas, assumes the mien of a man suffer-
ing a generalized toothache and squats
soddenly on a_ sofa while the lady
courts him with passion and desperation,
He doesn’t advance, he doesn’t retreat,
he suggests no reason for his collapsed
ardor and altogether it is a_ baffling
passage. Shortly thereafter Mr. Clift is
stomped upon, partly for paying Negro
hands more than the going rate and
partly because Miss Remick is promised
to one of the local worthies. She also
gets knocked about in the fracas and on
the basis of that shared experience he
agrees to undertake the laa mar-
riage. It occurs to me that if Mr, Kazan
had added a Rex Stout novel to the |
other two we could have had Nero
Wolle to liven the brew,. y
Next week, Bergman's Dreams.
‘wate
boa TIC
\
|
hh.
-
Crossword Puzzle No. 871
By FRANK W. LEWIS
«
ACROSS:
1 The caddie might be so innocently
implicated. (7, 3; 3)
\10 The opening in which a smart aleck
fits. (5)
\11 Could-one be so worn in a dew, if
foggy, around there? (9)
12
13
14
answer to this. (5)
6 People’s character might be de-
veloped from those unstable quali-
ties! (5)
7 Give some publicity to the authority
of de Seversky’s subject. (3,5)
The mange that is missing with
sore results. (5)
But Anthony wasn’t responsible for
the commercial jingles! (7)
Cavil? True, but rewarding. (9)
Does one look at or through it? (9)
Siege time in the field? (7)
One might lead you to rack and
ruin. (8)
Common subject of Wagner
Bulwer-Lytton. (6)
Port improvement might be noted
with it. (5)
23 One might associate him with a red
front. (5)
24 A bean might be beat! (5)
One tongue is insufficient,
want to be. (9)
Made a dissertation in connection
with a turning point. (5)
Perhaps true, referring to the liquid
type, though they go to extremes
to be helpful. (4, 8)
What people like Mrs. Wiggs might
have to do to get home? Hardly
pleasant! (12)
Fat, perhaps, suggesting the wife
of a Persian king. (5)
Plutarch said an elephant also is
become man’s. (9)
Like Yul Brynner, I find myself
on either side, with a fish head
and a patriot. (9)
Sound artillery within the law. (5)
Does this surrey in Oklahoma, with
extra insurance, for example? (6, 7)
DOWN:
A circle meeting without written
notice? (6)
Some territories get along with will-
ing followers, it seems. (9)
4 Recently minted coin in West Af-
rica? (3, 6)
"9 Grofe movement was on the
if you 9
15
16
17
18
19 20
and
22 at
124
25
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 870
ACROSS: 1 Andes; 4 Musicians; 9
Italics; 10 Oration; 11, 12, 18, 14 and
24 across Many hands make light work;
16 Netting; 17 Egoists; 19 Reaches;
25 Gnome; 29 Episode; 30 and 27 A
pig in a poke; 31 Tenseness; 32 Fiery.
DOWN: 1 Asia Minor; 2 Dragnet; 3
and 26 Skipjack; 4 Mustang; 5 Spon-
dee; 6 and 22 across Clandestine; 7
Animals; 8 Since; 15 Bossy; 18 Speak-
easy; 20 Arraign; 21 Sincere; 22 De-
means; 23 Imagine; 24 Wrest; 28 Riff.
al
26
127
RESORTS
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amous for Social,
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& Fishing.
= Tel.: N.Y.C. DE 2-4578 — Ellenville 502
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All Land & Water Activities. Square & Folk
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Tel. Marlow-Hilltop 6-3349
a
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A pleasantly informal vacation in friendly at-
mosphere. Swimming, Boating, Fishing on Nat-
ural Lake. Badminton, Volley Ball, Ping-pong,
other sports. Records, books. Summer Theatre,
Golf nearby. Food of excellent quality in gen-
erous quantity. $55.00 Weekly; $8.00 Daily;
Weekend: Fri. Supper thru Sun. Dinner $16.
Tel. Newburgh: JO 2-1232
Jane C. Arenz, R.D. Box 160, Walden, N.Y.
—
Pl N ECRESTiw THE BERKSHIRES
W. Cornwall, Conn. : On Housatonic River
A delightful vacation resort near Music Mt.,
Summer Theatres. Sandy beach, swimming, fish-
ing, boating; tennis, badminton, ping-pong.
Lovely lawns for relaxing. Delicious food. Cab-
ins with private showers and fireplaces.
Diana & Abe Berman Phone: MO 2-3003
UNTIL YOU CAN ROCKET TO THE
MOON, NOTHING IS SO OUT-OF-THIS
WORLD AS CRYSTAL LAKE LODGE
IN JUNE te LOW JUNE RATES
1500 romantic woodland acres, 60-acre pri-
vate lake, all water sports, water skiing,
9 pro clay tennis courts, chef cuisine,,
orchestra, exciting evenings under spark-
ling stars.
Crystal Lake Lodge, Chestertown 9, N.Y.
Chestertown 3830 N.Y.C. LU 5-1678
Attention Please!
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and fun.
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have at your place?
Tell them about it through the resort
advertising pages.
$7.42 per inch, per insertion
Generous discounts for multiple insertions.
Write or phone today for further information
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but now they seem very happy to come back to The Nation.
' (Signed) Sumre Misuima, Foreign Rights Dept.
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ATION
June 18, 1960 .. 25¢
THE BALANCE Do
OF BLAME
Further Notes on the Strategic
Causes of World War IL
C. Wright Mills
HOW ‘MODERN’
IS REPUBLICANISM?
i Robert G. Spivack
‘
¥
~ t . ‘
b : *
as > ; : a tas
fu , ,
ie . 4 ‘Seta 2a im 2 on ik i
: “ r bh «a “~~? *
en rs eee. ¢ Mal oy 2 a “a nec zt > e
— = — .< ee de | ~
LETTERS
New York’s Primary
Dear Sirs: I think it only fair to tell
you that many of us in the reform move-
ment in New York Democratic politics
feel strongly that “The Shame of New
York,” which you published on October
31, 1959, must get some of the credit
for the important victories we scored
in last week’s primaries. Your admirable
exposé of corruption in Tammany-ruled
New York City shocked voters into
realization of the need for reform.
I hope that more voters will read “The
Shame of New York.” The primary
victories were gratifying — but there’s
an election still to come.
Irvinc WoLrFson
Democratic District Leader
5th A.D. North
New York City
[Copies of the 64-page special issue are
still available at bulk rates: 10 for $4,
50 for $17.50, 100 for $30. Single copies,
50c. Order from The Nation, 333 Sixth
Ave., N.Y. 14, enclosing payment.]
Encounter With Castro
Dear Sirs: I was, of course, quite in-
terested in Barbara Deming’s article on
Cuba in The Nation of May 28.
Mrs. Matthews and I wondered
whether the author realized that her ac-
cidental encounter with Fidel Castro
was indirectly due to us. Fidel had come
to our hotel, the Sevilla-Biltmore, to
take us to lunch and then had driven us
around, showing us some public works,
and had just deposited us back at the
hotel when Miss Deming and some
equally lucky N.B.C. correspondents
came up. We are happy that in the
case of Miss Deming the results were
so fruitful.
Hersert L. Matruews
Editorial Board, The New York Times
Contributions to Law
Dear Sirs: It has not, I think, been suf-
ficiently noted that the Administration,
and particularly Mr. Eisenhower, has
made a number of signal contributions
to jurisprudence. Three of the most im-
portant are: the theory of preswmptive
immumty, the doctrine of projective
gratuities and the principle of offensive
Secrecy.
J. The theory of presumptive im-
munity was stated with brilliant suc-
cinctness by President Eisenhower.
When confronted by charges that Sher-
man Adams had not lived up to the
- {
highest standards of his office, the Pres-
ident answered in just three words: “I
need him.” The relation of master and
servant, employer and employee, offers
knotty points of law. One of the most
crucial is now clarified. A man is pre-
sumptively immune to dismissal and
perhaps indictment if a superior claims
that he is indispensable. This defense, it
is to be noted, has a limited time span.
With the discovery that a man is no
longer indispensable, the immunity
lapses and the original charges become
relevant again.
2. The Administration has made it
absolutely clear that it does not intend
to tolerate the acceptance of gratuities
by public servants, particularly from
those who might expect favors in return.
It was not explicitly stated whether or
not the gratuities received are for pres-
ent or later use. But Mr. Eisenhower
has made the point clear by his practices.
The ruling evidently applies only to gifts
received for exclusive use in the present.
Mr. Eisenhower’s farm in Gettysburg,
to which he is expected to retire, is
stocked with gifts which will be used
later. It is unfortunate that the doctrine
of projective gratuities was not explicitly
formulated. It would have helped those
accused of payola and royola to have
been able to plead that some of their
gifts were intended to be used when
they retired. .. . Still, if the reports are
to be believed, they could retire now.
3. The principle of offensive secrecy
has been invoked as a defense of Francis
Powers’ flight over Russia. Under this
principle, the government is free to de-
termine at what point secrecy becomes
an offense against the public weal, and
may then take steps to overcome it.
Wire tapping, the reading of another’s
mail, forced entry into homes and busi-
ness establishments (particularly if
clearly locked) are now seen to be justi-
fied. This, the latest of Mr. Eisenhower’s
creations, is also the most revolutionary,
overthrowing a purely traditional con-
cept going back to the Magna Charta.
Pau WEIss
Dept. of Philosophy, Yale University
New Haven, Conn.
Bill of Rights Fund
Dear Sirs: The Bill of Rights Fund is
making its annual appeal for contribu-
tions to render financial aid to many
brave Americans defending themselves
in the courts today because they have
stood up uncompromisingly for the Virst
Amendment or for some other important
aspect of civil liberties.
A number of different organizations
in this country are doing splendid work
‘
for civil liberties. But the Bill of Rights
Fund is the only one*whose sole function
is to raise money and make financial
grants to individuals and organizations
fighting for the basic freedoms guaran-
teed under our Constitution. That fight
goes on unceasingly, as is shown by the
continuing assaults of the House Un-
American Activities Committee on the
liberties of the American people.
The Bill of Rights Fund assists at the
vital point of financial need those whom
the government prosecutes in violation
of fundamental Constitutional guaran-
tees. We appeal to all civil libertarians
to give generously at this critical junc-
ture in the struggle for freedom. Contri-
butions can be sent to me at 450 River- §
side Drive, New York 27, N.Y. All con-
tributors will receive a Five-Year Sum-
mary of Grants which the Fund has
made through 1959.
Cor.iss LAMONT
Chairman, Bill of Rights Fund
In This Issue
EDITORIALS
521 @
ARTICLES
523 @ The Balance of Blame
by C. WRIGH'T MILLS
531 @ How “Modern” Is Republican-
ism?
by ROBERT G. SPIVACK
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
5384 @ The Noble Panorama of Ideas
by
NEWTON P, STALLKNECHT
De Gaulle in His Own Image
by WILLIAM G. ANDREWS
Why Do We Work?
by RONALD GROSS
Germany and the West i
by GEORGH L. MOSSE
Polyglot Reader
by RAMON GUTHRIB
Art
by FAIREFINLD PORTHR
Films
by ROBERT HATCH
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 540)
by FRANK W. LEWIS |
INNATE
George G. Kirstein, Publisher ;
Carey McWilliams, BWditor ,
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Bditor 1
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre :
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Music
535
536
537
or
wo
oo
eeeeee
ULNA AULLALUUUT
Alexander Werth, European
Correspondent 1
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager \
The Nation, June 18, 1960, Vol, 190, No, 28
The Nation published weekly (except for omis=
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_| NEW YORK, SATURDAY,
1) VOLUME 190, No. 25
ii
JUNE 18, 1960
THE
NATION
| EDITORIALS
The Rockefeller Emblem
In the last month, Governor Nelson Rockefeller has
*} emerged as the country’s ablest political pinch hitter;
“| twice now he has come to bat in the ninth inning, score
‘tied, two out, none on — and has belted the first pitch
tight out of the park. He has great power, he keeps
{| his eye on the ball, his timing is perfect. In his force-
=| ful, well-timed statement of May 24, in which he called
for “an open and honest exercise of reason” — that is,
for full-scale debate on the key issues — he effectively
Biscouraged the Republican hatchetmen in Washington
who were dusting off McCarthy’s old weapons. Now,
ina skillfully prepared and artfully executed maneuver,
he has again demanded an open, honest, no-holds-
barred debate; but this time, his challenge is pointedly
addressed to Vice President Nixon. The best Democratic
‘sloganeers could not improve on the Governor’s tren-
’ shan statements, which will echo from now until
| November: “We cannot... march to meet the future
with a banner aloft whose only emblem is a question
mark”; “The path of great leadership does not lie along
A he top of a fence.” The words may well be those of
‘the Governor’s talented “ghost” — J. Emmett Hughes
but the directness behind them is the Governor’s
‘special quality, a quality that is a prime ingredient of
his charm as a politician. Not only has he succeeded in
focusing public attention on the weakness of the Re-
} publican Party and its current leadership (see Robert
M) Spivack’s article, p. 531), but he has revealed, in utter
starkness, his own position.
If this late in the political season Vice President
Nixon’s banner still carries the emblem of the question
“mark, the banner which the Governor has now un-
| furled is emblazoned with crossed missiles, oil derricks
in the middle distance, and grim underground shelters
‘in the background. Paiiee 1, 2 and 3 of his ten-point
program are strong bie eaaas planks calculated to de-
light missile-makers, cool warriors and the top brass.
that this would represent only a small beginning
What he has in mind. To be sure, he has wrapped
is grisly program in some attractive domestic issues
{ he had his way, the Governor would up defense
To Nation Readers
After July 9, and through August, The
Nation will appear on alternate weeks
only, i.e., on July 23, August 6 and Au-
gust 20. The weekly schedule will be re-
sumed with the issue of September 3.
— civil rights, federal aid to education, medical care
for the aged, etc., — but big arms spending is the
conspicuous core of this “modern” Republican’s polit-
ical thinking.
We have reason to be grateful to the Governor for his
insistence — which he himself honors — that politicians
must exhibit candor and courage in these times which,
as he correctly states, are not “conventional.” Not only
has he exposed the bankruptcy of the Republican
Administration, of which the Vice President is the
sole residual legatee, but he has made his own basic
attitudes and positions crystal clear. Governor Rock-
efeller has placed himself both now and for 1964 (if
need be) at the head of the pack of big-arms spenders
and cold-war “muscle” men.
It's Much Later Than You Think
With the Democratic convention only a matter of
days ahead, a large and influential section of the “egg-
head” community is still bemused by the pernicious
dogma that a large built-in “against Nixon” vote ex-
ists throughout the fifty states of a magnitude which
automatically insures his defeat by any nominee the
Democrats name. We have read the surveys and reports
— the doorstep interviews with housewives in Detroit,
over-the-fence chats with farmers in Iowa, and man-_
in-the-street parleys in the big cities — which are
tiresomely cited in support of the dogma. We, too, know
any number of voters who say “there is something about
that man I don’t like”; we don’t like him, either. But
solid evidence has convinced us that Richard M. Nixon
is a strong Republican nominee; witness his showing in |
the states of New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Indiana and
California, in none of which did he ersbnli® conduct
an active campaign. In the wake of the Summit debacle,
Sy
sm carr.) %
i
$
Ey
we suspect that he is the strongest nominee the Re-
publicans could name.
But we are impressed by the fact that each of the
leading Democratic contenders is subject to a large,
built-in “veto” vote. A decisive “against Johnson” vote
can be found in the states north of the Mason-Dixon
line, including, we suspect, the border states. A large,
if not equally decisive, “against Symington” vote has
been noted by many commentators. That there is a
large “against Kennedy” vote was clearly demonstrated
in Indiana, where two preposterous rivals, both un-
known, polled nearly a third of the Democratic bal-
lots. Our liking ‘and admiration for Senator Kennedy
does not blind us to the fact that he is Vice President
Nixon’s favorite for the Democratic nomination. Let
the Democrats be forewarned: only their strongest
possible ticket is likely to defeat Nixon. That, as we
have said before, is a Stevenson-Kennedy ticket.
Coming Apart at the Seams
What is happening in Turkey, Korea, Japan and
all around the fringes? Why are regimes friendly to
the United States overthrown or threatened with in-
surrection? Why do the mobs never bring down a neu-
tralist regime and supplant it with a pro-U.S. one?
The easy answer — that it is all due to the machina-
tions of the Russians — is also the most ineffectual
and dangerous. C. Wright Mills (see page 523) is much
nearer the truth when he makes the point that we
base political policy on the dictates of military strategy,
while the Russians base military strategy on political
policy. The containment policy of John Foster Dulles
and Dean Acheson was to build “situations of
strength” in the peripheral areas where the Soviet
spearheads encountered ours. This meant military and
sometimes other kinds of aid — but military aid and
collaboration came first. Its magnitude varied, but in
places like Korea and Formosa it was enormous; these
small countries became, in effect, military outposts of
the United States. Then we had to safeguard our in-
vestment: although our intentions were not imperialist,
the technique was the classical one of maintaining
“reliable” regimes in power. But since we were fighting
communism, the reliable elements were right wing by
definition. We not only had to prevent the Soviets from
marching in if they had that intention, but we (or
rather our policy-makers) had to acquire allies who
would be actively hostile to communism. In fact, in
many cases there was not the least danger of military
assault and what we, and the~elements we hooked up
with, really feared was “infiltration,” “subversion”
and — although this last was never admitted — radical
social change of any kind, even when proposed by non-
Communists. All this took place in an era and atmos-
phere which even our most conservative publicists call
a
‘came allies against the rightist rulers. Finally enough
soil, we cannot say that providence gave us no W ar |
ing. But that will bee
at : ans i
gc Hs (though without drawing het “neces
sary inferences). ;
But, as might have been expected, the reliable ele-
ments had objectives of their own. With the exception
of Chiang Kai-shek, who really would like to return
to the mainland but can’t, most of our allies never.
had the slightest intention of fighting Communists.
They used our arms to clobber the domestic opposi-
tion, whose grievances increased as the regimes became
increasingly corrupt, dictatorial and reckless. Our policy- |
makers, in accordance with Santayana’s definition of
fanaticism, then redoubled their efforts, having forgot-
ten their aims. Gradually all the forces of nationalism
were mobilized against us.
In the meantime, the local Reds were not asleep.
The situation was made to order for them: newspapers
were being suppressed, elections rigged, dissenters
tortured and murdered. Tear gas and guns were the
regimes’ only remedies for popular discontent. Thus, no
matter how much the local democratic opposition and
the local Reds detested each other, they perforce be-
me)
resolute souls, i.e, men (and boys) willing to die for
a cause, were mobilized to knock over one regime after }.
another — and the end is not yet. What the outcome
will be no one knows, but the policy of military con-
tainment, using such containers as Rhee, Menderes,
Batista, Nuri, Franco, Chamoun, Chiang and other
strong-arm operators — that policy has failed. What
remains of American prestige and reputation can be
‘saved only if the failure is recognized and the policy
is changed, and soon.
The Last P. R. Problem
The public relations men of the Air Force, who-
fight with their typewriters as the French are said in
a well-known ditty to fight with their feet, cope with f !
problems as terrible as any encountered by pilots or |
bombardiers. When a fire destroyed a nuclear-tipped i
Bomare missile at McGuire Air Force Base in New.
Jersey, they hastened to assure the public that there!
was no radiation danger. We have now had at
least nine accidents involving nuclear bombs or war- §
heads, not counting accidents in laboratories which,
whenever possible, are not publicized. In each case the
P. R. boys repeated the same assurances — the bombs |
are not armed until they are to be fired in anger, the |
safeguards are foolproof, a complex of electrical switch-
es and mechanical interlocks must be activated, and |
so on. Nobody really believes them, for everyone knov |
that no system is infallible against human error or i n-
sanity. If an American uranium bomb, or worse, ar
American hydrogen bomb, should explode on American “i
24
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infinitely resourceful publicists of the Air Force. They
have been through so many dry runs, we may be sure
they will acquit themselves creditably.
First, they will deny there was an explosion. Then
they will say there was an explosion, but there is ab-
solutely no radiation danger. The next bulletin will
admit a few hundred thousand casualties, but assure
the public that the danger is past and point out that,
alter all, the survival of the nation requires some
they may reluctantly confess that
while New Jersey (or Nebraska or California) still
exists as a spot on the map, there are no longer any
people there — those that were left after the blast were
evacuated by the Air Force, Civil Defense having been
wiped out by the explosion.
In this sequence of messages the Air Force will be
able to follow a distinguished model, established early
in May, 1960, by NASA, the State Department, the
White House, CIA and other federal experts in the
art of sowing confusion.
sacrifices. Finally,
Sex and Cereals
A year and a half ago an important television per-
sonage told us that Westerns were proving a great
disappointment to their sponsors. The audience was
the largest in human history, but the goods did not
“seem to be moving off the shelves. It appeared, our in-
‘formant said, that the viewers were so stultified by all
‘that blood and sentimentality that they were unable
‘to grasp the commercial message.
_ This sounded great, but the fellow was producer of
} a high-brow show that had just lost its network spot,
and it occurred to us that his views might be tainted.
, But now comes a man from the very heart of the busi-
“ness, an executive of a large advertising firm, with the
ame story to tell.
Ernest J. Hodges, Vice President of Guild, Bascom
and Bonfigli in San Francisco, put the case as follows
to a gathering of the Hollywood Advertising Club:
The bulk of prime time network TV programing is like
Oscar Wilde’s dead mackerel in the moonlight—it glitters,
but it stinks. It stinks two ways—on the upwind of quality
and public service and on the downwind as a vehicle for
commercials that can persuade people to buy our client’s
product.
It is hard, said Mr. Hodges, to convince people that
the program delivering the largest audience is not neces-
sarily doing the best sales job, hard to prove that “
audience viewing a violent, bloody, or sexy suspense
show is simply not attuned to listening carefully and
happily to a commercial intrusion.”
But given a client willing to experiment, the proof
can be forthcoming. Mr. Hodges’ firm handles the ad-
vertising for a line of dry cereals manufactured by the
Ralston company. Almost the entire advertising budget
for these products has been spent in recent years on
television travel shows, first Bold Journey, then John
Gunther’s High Road. The programs are not sensational
and have never had sensational ratings; in fact, the
agency has fought a running battle with the network
to get even half-way decent time for the shows. In the
first year of this advertising, the Ralston foods regis-
tered a 34 per cent increase in sales against an industry
gain of 5 per cent. In five years the Ralston cereals
have tripled their share of the market.
At present, 150,000 classroom teachers are calling
High Road to the notice of 7 million students. Ralston
operates on the premise that it cannot terrify, dis-
gust or erotically stimulate an audience into buying a
particular dry cereal, but that it may be able to engage
that audience’s confidence by offering a pleasantly in-
structive show. The only thing startling about that
reasoning is that it proves to be right.
Of course, as Mr. Hodges said in closing, “It’s nice to
know that you are a citizen as well as a businessman.”
ie BALANCE OF BLAME... ty c. wright mius
THE DEBACLE at the Summit
ast month once again illustrates the
“immediate causes of World War III.
These lie in the fearful symmetry of
the cold warriors on either side: An
:
act of one aggravates the other, the
other reacts, and this in turn aggra-
vates the one. Behind this sym-
1 etry, there are intermediate causes:
the frigid context and the lethal
est ablishments formed by previous
ies and lack of policies of either
The ultimate causes, of course,
seem part of the very shaping of
world history in the twentieth cen-
tury.
Each of the embattled camps con-
tains men and forces that are work-
ing for peace and also men and forces
that mean war. But in the inter-
action of the two camps there is one
terrible difference between the poli-
tics of warmakers and the politics
of peacemakers: while the gains
made by the warmakers within each
bloc tend to accumulate, this is not
so much the case with the peace-
makers in each bloc. The scheduling
of material measures of defense and
attack—the immediate source of the
peril — is speeded up and increased
in volume by the successes of the
war parties and by their interplay;
and these measures are often diffi-
cult to cancel. The wreckers on
either side readily strengthen the
wreckers on the other — and the
fearful dialectic between the two is
heightened. The mutual fright on
523
which this dialectic feeds and which
it increases, accumulates more rapid-
ly and with deeper results than does
any mutual trust slowly, tortuously,
built by the peacemakers.
This symmetry in elite action, and
the advantages of the warmakers on
either side, are readily illustrated by
the blowup of the Summit.
I
WHEN THE statesmen came to
Paris for their meeting, they did not
come alone and they did not enter
a vacuum; each brought with him a
legacy of policies and each was a
focal point of pressure from within
his own nation and his own bloc of
states.
In the United States camp the
war forces, I think, were generally
ascendant during the two-year pe-
riod preceding the scheduled meet-
ing. The most immediate and ob-
vious token of this fact was the
flight of the U-2, which occurred,
we must remember, on the eve of
the scheduled Paris meeting while
negotiations to stop atomic testing
were under way, and at a stage in
military technology when it is ob-
vious that a mistaken interpretation
of any such flight as an attack could
cause a genuine counterattack and
thus precipitate World War III.
On the basis of any reasonable
meaning of the words, the U-2 flights
were provocative; they were a clear
violation of international law; more
than that, they were acts of agegres-
sion. We know of course that “sov-
ereignty” and “aggression” are words
subject to endless legalistic defini-
tion, and that each side is often, if
not continually, “committing acts
of aggression” against the other. But
we have merely to ask ourselves
what:the Americans would do were
a Soviet jet shot down 1,200 miles
inside “the sovereign territory of the
United States.” True, satellites
launched by Russians and Americans
are flying around the globe over all
nations, but so far we have not been
informed that these are capable of
delivering an atomic attack: jet
planes are capable of doing just that.
The possibility of “accidental” mis-
interpretation of their intent, if
nothing else, places planes and satel-
lites in different categories, at least
524
About the Author
C. Wright Mills, Professor of So-
ciology at Columbia University, is
the author of many books which
have been widely translated in both
Eastern and Western Europe, as well
as in Latin America. His latest book
is Images of Man (George Braziller,
1960).
This essay is composed of ma-
terials used in a 1960 revision of The
Causes of World War III, which
Ballantine Books is bringing out
shortly as a paperback. Many re-
viewers considered The Causes of
World War III, originally published
in 1958, to be one of the outstanding
American contributions to current
thought on international issues.
for the time being. It is also true
that all states of world significance
employ espionage, but a jet espion-
age plane, flying over another coun-
try’s territory, is surely a different
matter than a man in a cloak or at-
tached to an embassy with a box
full of microphones.
But still, a way out was left open
by the Russians, for the President
at least. He did not take it; he did
not disclaim knowledge of the ad-
venture in the normal diplomatic
manner expected. For the first time
in modern history, the head of a
state declared his personal respon-
sibility for an act of espionage.
Moreover, high officials of the
United States lied—and were caught
flatfooted in their lies. First it was
said that the plane was on a weather
mission and had accidentally lost its
way along the border — and that
the United States has never deliber-
ately violated Soviet air space; then
it was said that United States planes
had flown over Russia, but that this
U-2 flight was’ not authorized by
Washington; then it was announced
that such flights were authorized,
that the President was quite aware
of them, and that if judged neces-
sary for defense, they would go on.
It was also admitted that such
flights had been going on for several
years, To invade the air space of
other sovereign states at jet-flight
levels — that represents a long-range
States, — ;
A short while before the Summit,
| po a
io
and now avowed policy of the United.
‘
oh LA ee
the President asserted that he might
leave the meetings early, delegating
his part in the negotiations to a
subordinate. Later, during the inter-
change of invective, this subordinate,
who has a good chance of being
the next President of the United
States, defended the U-2 flights “un-
der present conditions.” While nego-.
tiations at Geneva on atomic tests
were going on, the United States
announced the resumption of nu-
clear underground test explosions,
thus unilaterally breaking the un-
easy moratorium on such tests in ef~
fect since 1958. A few days later, the
announcement was modified; now
the news was that nuclear explosions
were not to be included in the
series. During the attempted Summit,
the United States defense chief
ordered a world-wide military alert,
a “pre-combat readiness test.”
These later developments — fol-—
lowing the shooting down of the U-2
— were, of course, responses to So-
viet behavior, part of the interaction —
between the two. What were the
actions of the other side, of the So-
viet Union?
THE SOVIET UNION, and cer-
tainly the Soviet bloc, is not alto-
gether monolithic. It, too, contains
peace forces and forces that mean
war. Mr. Khrushchey, it seems clear, >
is not a dictator in the manner of —
Stalin; he is the lead man of a small
collegial body that is at the center |
of the Soviet power elite. Within —
this elite, different lines of policy
are argued, and these arguments are —
responsive to alternative policies —
advanced by outsiders—the Chinese —
elite, for example, or the demands —
of the Russian people for higher —
material standards of life. In the
period before the Summit meeting, ©
Mr. Khrushchev had managed to |
hold back the cold-war forces in his
camp. In fact, inside this camp his J
own career, so far as it involves de- |
cisions about foreign affairs, rests |
upon the policy of coexistence and |
negotiation, In his attempts to put —
through such a set of policies, he has-
accumulated opponents in his own |
higher circles and in_ those of hb hie
most important ally, For these op-
ponents of his policies, the U-2 flight
and the way its discovery wa bat
ioe ae
i
;
es
sf
by United States ofits were
the last straw, providing the excuse
needed. Here indeed, as Governor
Stevenson said of the flight itself,
was the “crowbar and the sledge
hammer” for the cold warriors of
the Soviet bloc.
4 Whether or not Mr. Khrushchev
.| changed his own mind is less im-
»] portant than the fact that as lead
»} man of his own elite, he behaved in
Paris with ferocious rudeness: he as-
serted that Mr. Eisenhower—sched-
uled to visit the Soviet Union—
|’ would not now be welcome there;
.} and he demanded that the President
| condemn such flights, that those
“directly guilty” for them be punish-
} ed, and that promises be made that
such flights be discontinued. Only
} then did Mr. Eisenhower state that
Ethe U-2 flights had been “suspended”
since the incident of May 1, and
{ mre not to be resumed.” This, it was
reported, “surprises Washington.”
He refused to meet the other two
} demands in part or in whole. He did
pot seek out Mr. Khrushchev and
apologize for the flight; he did not
publicly recognize that such flights
were a violation of international
law. He insisted that the United
States had done no wrong.
| Soviet spokesmen blamed the United
} States invasion of their sovereignty
} and Washington’s handling of the
} incident for the blowup of the Sum-
on it. Then in Berlin, Mr. Khrushchev
Be iimexpectedly—-took a conciliatory
_line on the German question. United
States and NATO spokesmen gen-
erally blamed Mr. Khrushchev’s be-
havior in Paris for the failure of the
Summit to get under way; they
accused him of attempting to destroy
‘the President’s reputation as a world
leader. Never for a moment did they
acknowledge that the United States’
handling of the U-2 incident might
have been the major reason for Mr.
Khrushchev’s behavior in Paris.
©
;
,
I ET US for a moment back away
from this particular series of events.
nt fernational affairs lead us to the
that the Soviet Union is con-
ally and unilaterally responsible
the peril of war? Is it not clear
there 1s, a balance of blame ie
Can any objective analysis of recent —
standing (even of |
4
eee Ma ee
+
SAKE mankind towel World War
III? In the event of war, I know
the following question might become
irrelevant, but it is not yet so. Sup-
pose that war did occur, for example
by accidental misinterpretation of
espionage planes as atomic attack-
ers: who, then, would be more re-
sponsible—the United States or the
Soviet Union?
The answer to any: such question,
I think, varies with different periods
of the postwar era. As of this writ-
ing, I think the answer is that the
balance of blame would lie more with
the United States. But such balances,
on the one side or on the other, are
of little comfort to sane men on
either side. The vital fact is that
there is a balance of blame, not where
the blame lies at any given moment.
This lethal symmetry of action is
what is vital, for in it lies the stategic
causes of World War III.
II
WHEN THE news of the U-2 flight
was announced, I was in Moscow
completing a series of interviews
with Soviet intellectuals. I had gone
there to gather material needed for
several research projects. One aspect
of my experience impressed me so
forcibly that I feel the need to ex-
press it here.
The intellectual and moral differ-
ences between the Soviet and the .
NATO peoples are much deeper than
differences of opinion, of political
rhetoric, of ideals, of sincerity of
conviction, of levels of reasonable-
ness. So far as their discourse and
beliefs are concerned, what separates
the two worlds is nothing less than
the very definitions of reality in
terms of which each observes, thinks,
feels and judges. Behind this differ-
ence, of course, there are enormous
differences of experience, in fact dif-
ferences of history itself. When one
is there, one is constantly aware of
the fact that opinion and informa-
tion, even of the simplest sort, is
distorted (on both sides) by the
screen of wholesale condemnation.
I am quite certain that for differing
reasons this censorship of under-
derstand what the ot her i is all about)
is as great on the \ Western side as
is a curtain —
aes, i
on the Eastern. Ther
b ‘ ee Ay
> pi Son en
|
of iron; there is also on this side of
it a curtain of stainless steel. And
both are in the mind as well as on
the frontiers.
Any understanding is made im-
possible if one’s mind is always
tightened up by one’s own nationalist
definitions of reality, or by the terms
derived from one’s experience of, or
with, Stalinism. One cannot merely
react to a word, a slogan, a proposi-
tion which Soviet intellectuals or
decision-makers use, thus assuming
that one has understood the intend-
ed meaning. One must patiently seek
out the meaning; one must slowly
build a vocabulary adequate to the
meanings intended by the other.
Only a few people on either side
are engaged in this sort of work.*
And, of course, Westerners who try
are liable to be taken to task for
“not really understanding the Com-
munist menace,” of “being soft on
communism.” ‘Translated, I think
this charge usually means:
1. That one is not satisfied to ac- —
cept the official and quast-official
definitions of world reality, and in
particular of Soviet reality, that now
form a common denominator of be-
lief in the NATO countries. On many
specific points about the Soviet
Union’s domestic affairs and inter-
national relations—points merely as-
sumed in my own country—I am in
no position to make judgments.
Either I am ambivalent or I admit
to plain ignorance. Moreover, I do
not think anyone else really knows
the facts on which to make judg-
ments; the kind of work required
has not been done by very many,
and often political conditions are
such that even the effort cannot be
made. As for the higher circles of
decision-makers ‘and semi-official
spokesmen in either country, I can-
not persuade myself that a fruitful —
number of them are up to the effort.
required to understand the other’s i
views.
2. The easy charge of being “naive |
about the Russians” means, I believe, —
that many of those who do assume ~
that they “kriow all about this evil” _
shave made up their minds about the
if
_.* The works of two men writing
English, E. H. Carr and Isaac Deut-
-scher, are indispensable to an unde ca
standing of the history and the prese
policies of the Soviet Union.
Soviet Union from a great distance
and some time ago. Many Western
intellectuals have been hurt deeply
by their own participation in Com-
munist and other radical movements.
They think about the Soviet Union
in terms that are heavily freighted
with their own experience with West-
ern Communist parties, most usual-
ly during the Stalinist era. Many
such people are now members of the
old futilitarians of the dead Left. In
this respect, I suppose I have been
fortunate: Due largely to accidents
of my biography, I have never be-
longed and—as the phrase goes—do
not now belong to any political or-
ganization, Communist or otherwise.
Nor, so far as I am aware, have I
been a “fellow traveler” of any such
organization.
3. Perhaps that is why, in dis-
cussing war and peace, I have not
felt it necessary or very useful end-
lessly to repeat what every American
newspaper is full of: the unchanging
evils of the Soviet rulers. The enor-
mous mass of this sort of writing
(which assumes the unilateral guilt
of the Soviets for the menace of war)
serves to freeze the deadlock at
which we find ourselves. It is that
deadlock which must be broken, and
the only possible way to try to break
it is to begin at home. To do that
one must, as an American writer,
try to bring into severe question the
monolithic cold-war posture of his
own countrymen and intellectual col-
leagues. Perhaps were I writing, for
example, as a Britisher and mainly
526
(London)
Peace News
“Tired of people? We could start a world war... .”
for Britain, I would not need to
place such stress on this. In that
country there has been going on a
wide-ranging and quite real debate.
In the United States, there has been
less a public debate than the noisy
interchange of bipartisan banalities
and the weary complaining of the
old futilitarians.
DURING the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, we ought to re-
member, many generations of social
scientists focused their work upon
the origins and development of lib-
eral capitalism as a world historical
phenomenon. Surely Hans Gerth is
correct when he remarks that, in a
similar way, we must now turn our
attention to the rise and develop-
ment of communism in its several
varieties. Confronted with such a
task, anyone who does not experi-
ence a great intellectual humility is
surely a fool. This is not, of course,
a “know-nothing” attitude—although
I am aware that dogmatists on either
side of the world encounter will un-
doubtedly assert that it is. But no
matter. Such exploratory essays as
this one cannot be for them. They
will not give up their own images, if
only because they are so clear and
simple.
If we would have half a chance
to think clearly, to understand some-
thing so many-sided as the cold war,
we must bear in mind what is re-
quired of us before we can know. It
involves no less than the attempts to
understand the whole world scene.
dbs
I think it is time, just now, for a
full-scale reappraisal of “the Soviet
phenomena” by the Western intel-
lectual community—not from the
standpoints of Western Communist
parties, of the cold war, of the So-
viet’s own ideology, of the collapse
of various Marxian, non-Communist
interpretations about its realities.
What is needed is a reappraisal from
the standpoint of the Soviet Union’s
place today in world history and of
its meanings for the whole idea of a
new Left, in the Western countries
and in the underdeveloped regions.
In the end, it is the image of the
Soviet bloc and the quality of the
disillusionment with communism that
is the point of origin for the weary
sophistication about political new
beginnings in the United States, all
the withdrawal from political con-
cerns, all the fashionable quietism,
all the denial of hope itself—in brief,
for the wholesale cultural and politi-
cal default of NATO intellectuals
during the past decade and a half.
If we reject this posture, then we
must carry on from there by making
clear our answer to the question:
just what do we think of the Soviet
bloc and of its prospects?
IT IS NOT possible to give here my
own full answer to that question;
nor is it necessary, So far as Russia
is concerned, what is relevant to the
issue of war and to the politics of
peace is our view of her foreign
policy, and of her domestic and bloc
affairs insofar as they are likely to
affect that policy.
To do even this much requires
that we make a serious attempt to
draw back from the immediate scene
and consider the world encounter in
something of a_ historical context.
It requires also that we continually
keep in mind certain comparisons of
the Soviet Union and the United
States. For example, it is clear that
different images of the Soviet Union
turn not only on how seriously we
take the new beginnings there since
the death of Stalin, but also how seri-
ously we take the lack of new be-
ginnings and the disuse of formal
freedom in the United States since
World War II, Weary old stereo- |
i
types and fanatical abstractions ob-_
struct our judgment of both,
ry se
Ei, : ;
The black-and-white view is not
dequate. It is not true that the one
ide is dogmatic, the other side open-
minded. Whether one agrees with
‘them or not, the views of many So-
Viet spokesmen and intellectuals are
every bit as “reasonable” as those
f many Americans. Soviet men and
omen, moreover, are every bit as
“sincere” as are Americans—and
often, I think, more so, if only be-
cause they have experienced war in
manner quite beyond the actual
experience of Americans.
I do not believe the Soviet bloc
is a total lie, and the American al-
fiance a half-truth. Both are full of
es; both are full of truths; the ide-
ological war that they wage is, more
often than not, a conflict of hypoc-
Tisies. And in both of these systems,
the one big lie that ought to concern
us most is the military: the lie that
'} War is still a basis for any conceiv-
'}ably human policy. On this point,
‘| the balance of blame is very diffi-
cult indeed to draw up, but of course
behind this common military meta-
hysic there are two quite different
*| systems of life, at different stages
‘of historical development, and also
different kinds of development and
aims.
it
|) 7. FIRST OF ALL, we must con-
Hinually recognize the | enormity of
the Soviet’s experience in World
Var II. No one can talk with any-
ne in the Soviet Union without re-
alizing what twenty million dead
has meant to them: it is beyond the
maginative power of most Ameri-
s, for whom the war meant a very
small proportion of dead, and no
Jevastation at all. On the contrary,
the war meant a great boom.
2. For the Soviets, “the West” in-
des West Germany, which yester-
“was Nazi Germany and which
ay, rebuilt by United States aid,
-NATO’s spearhead, and tomorrow
| be fully nuclear. They remem-
the long wait for a Second Front;
‘sudden ending of lend-lease aid
en the shooting stopped; the
t “to roll back” what they see
Soviet buffer power, when the
ed States felt it had a monopoly
romic weaponry. And they see
a. S:
ena}
ave
bases for missilry and for
recent lectures in Ca
AC—both armed with H-bombs— ¢ atest (Ne
4
encircling them, and used as the
take-off points for invasions by jet
planes of their air space.
3. In view of all this, and much
more—some true, some imaginary—
they see Soviet diplomacy, and espe-
cially Mr. Khrushchev’s efforts, as
most conciliatory: they reduced their
armed forces twice, which even if
militarily unimportant, is important
to them; they stopped nuclear test-
ing unilaterally; they terminated
some bases abroad; they took the
initiative in the evacuation and
neutralizing of Austria; they exerted
themselves in trying to stop the civil
war in Indochina; they have tried
continually to talk with Western
leaders in an effort to reduce ten-
sions; and they have proposed what
they think of as the major plan for
total disarmament; and—after the
Summit debacle—they have refrain-
ed from the expected action on Ber-
lin, and reformulated their disarma-
ment proposals in an effort to meet
various Western objections.* Forget,
for the moment, their motives, cyn-
ical or not; the point is, they have
constantly taken the initiative.
4. The Soviet people also remem-
ber well—although ambivalently as
yet—what Stalinism meant. They re-
member the forced labor, the terror,
the spying, the inhuman acts. And
they feel now, since his death, that
they’ve begun to get a new deal. At
the top of this feeling there: is the
desire and the expectation that they
are going to have more and better
consumers’ goods and a relief from
harsh labor; they hope that labor
itself is going to be made, by auto-
mation and by organization, more
pleasant.
AGAIN, it does not matter so much
whether we believe this; the point
is that many of them believe it. And
it is upon the basis of such beliefs
that Soviet foreign policy is built.
That policy now rests upon their
general world outlook, the course of
the cold war and of Soviet diplo-
macy during it, and the feeling of
getting a new break. ‘
Let us now reconsider a few points
* Some of these poin st have taken
from Adlai Stevenson’s speech of June
1, 1960; others from . \ ‘
coos! aN ew York,
Me é
3 a: oh
1 , a
a ab 3 ‘
eee Orr os oy ON PR IR aS Sait oe ar SRI
Se tn Snes, phe ties ns
about which many of us have aL A a)
at - During
ready had our minds made up for us. vs ine
III
“CAN WE trust the Russians?” The
answer is No. As a simple matter of Tae
faith, we cannot trust the elite of el)
any great power state. We cannot— Ea
we, meaning ordinary men and
women—cannot trust our own lead-
ers, either; nor the CIA, the top we
echelons of the Pentagon, nor the
men of SAC. We cannot trust de
Gaulle or “the French.” All of which
is merely to say: It’s dangerous all
over.
Any state, any power, can be
trusted only insofar as what is at
issue appears to it to be in its own
interest. The useful question, accord-
ingly, is not, can this or that nation
or elite be trusted? but, first, what
do they believe is to their interest?
and second, are they sane or insane
about the use of nuclear weaponry?
The answer to the second question,
I believe, for both the American and
the Soviet elite is: They would seem :
to be more insane than sane. But
consider the first question.
Aggression is not some eternal
characteristic of any state; it is a
feature at one time or another dur-
ing the rise of all great power states.
It is the weak nation that tends to
be “the troublemaker,” the strong
nation that calls for “peace and
order”; for the strong feel—with
justification—that they can continue ——
their economic and political ascend- :
ancy without “making trouble,”
without resorting to open violence.
Policies for peace are all the easier
to pursue when you are already on
top of world affairs, especially eco-
nomic affairs. Moreover, you are in
a position then to make treaties and
other agreements that are to your
interest, and such treaties are more
likely to be honored than are those
which in various degrees have been —
forced upon you by your oe
It is, as E. Hy Carr has indicated,
something like business-labor squa
bles: the stronger is “all for peace
the weaker is the “troublemaker?
- the cards being stacked against the
that is the only way the weaker can
“see to gain whatever they want.
most of its brief hittin
he piped Union | pas been y
7 Sabely trane’ yt
oe ;
Simca | 7 i
weak among the states of the world
—militarily, and also economically,
politically and culturally; it has not
had the industrial grid, its popula-
tion has been uneducated, and it has
suffered the moral onus of political
and cultural tyranny.
But now, in 1960, various features
of the general weakness of the Soviets
have been eliminated; others are in
process of elimination. In fact, the
world equilibrium of weakness and
strength is shifting and probably will
continue to shift; in the next two or
three decades, perhaps in less time,
it will be “the West” that is becom-
ing the weaker, the Sino-Soviet bloc,
the stronger. It is happening first in
military matters; but soon it will
become apparent in general economic
levels, and in the cultural power to
attract the underdeveloped and the
uncommitted world.
It is during this world historical
shift—as it becomes more generally
obvious—that, out of its weakness,
the West may be tempted to become
the “troublemaker.” On the basis of
this great shift, “the balance of
blame” for war may well also shift;
the blame may move more towards
the West, in particular the United
States.
BACK OF THIS whole shift there is
indeed a competition of economic
and political systems: the one pub-
licly owned and centrally planned,
the other capitalist in economy—
with mixed elements and with some
welfare subsidies—and_ formally
democratic in its political organiza-
tion.
So far as the science machines of
each system is concerned, the So-
4 viets already reveal their advantages.
I believe, if there is no war, they will
also reveal the advantages of their
economy, including, above all, higher
and more equalitarian standards of
living. It is not at all unreasonable
a to believe, as Isaac Deutscher has
suggested, that this will lead to
greater political and cultural free-
dom—first because of the greater so-
cial efficiencies which such freedom
provides, and second because of the
political pressures of the highly edu-
cated population that the Soviet
Union is going to have.
Whether we believe all this or not
528
matters less than that the Soviets do
believe it. In view of this, what is
Soviet foreign policy today?
The master aims of the Soviets’
policy are (1) to maintain the exist-
ing boundaries of the Sino-Soviet
bloc; (2) to censolidate the material
and other gains that have been made
at such terrible cost; and (3) to in-
crease these gains within their con-
solidated boundaries. Moreover, the
Russians are a people aware of a
plan: they want and they expect,
if there is no war, to transform what
is rightly called “Stalin’s empire”
into an international economic and
political unit which will flourish eco-
nomically as a whole, and each mem-
ber of which will be politically
stable.*
For them peaceful coexistence is
not merely a slogan or a deception.
It is a yearning and it is a guide line.
Their aim abroad is—above all—to
gain time in which “to make a dem-
onstration” of the economic and po-
litical results of their system at
home. As far as “the rest of the
world” is concerned, they believe
that such a demonstration of the
superiority of their system will be
sufficient “to bring them over.”
These feelings and these aims, I
believe, pervade Soviet society to-
day, from its still half-Stalinist elite
to its most primitive collective
farm. For some Soviet citizens, it is
“only a hope”; for others, it is a
probability. But it is in view of such
feelings and in terms of such aims
that the foreign, policy of the Soviet
Union must be understood.
That the Russians want to do all
this, there can be little doubt; that
they can do all this, if there is no
war, they have little doubt. We must
always remember that they believe
time is on their side—and on the
side of peaceful change in the world.
They think their system can defeat
capitalism on every front by peace-
ful competition, which means with-
out resort to force or violence.
IV
NO PEOPLE want war; that goes
without saying. The questions are:
what about the deciders, and what
about their ideas of the means and
policies that are now “needed”?
*ef, Deutscher, op. cit,
oi
or between these preparations and
’ ¢
The Soviet elite as a whole do
not want war; they are very busy
with many other things, and they
see clearly what is a fact about their
own economy—that war preparation Jit:
is sheer waste. nde
The United States elite as a whole §
do not want war, either. But the Jj»
historical position they occupy with-
in U.S. society and in the world di-
vides them deeply; their dogmatic
pursuit of certain interests they hold
dear makes it likely, on balance, that
they will adopt policies that further
the chances of war:
I. The frequent Soviet charge
that “U.S. munitions makers” are
causing the cold war I do not think
an adequate statement of the eco-
nomics of the situation. Some cor-
porations do indeed urge the con-
tinual preparation for war, and the
relation in many minds between
such preparation and possible slump,
continuing prosperity, cannot be de-
nied. Capitalist profits of quite huge
amounts are made out of war prepa-
rations in the United States; to an
unknown but probably considerable
extent, the prosperity of capitalism
probably is based on war prepara-
tions. These facts cannot be consid-
ered as making for peace in the
world. Certainly that is a minimum
statement of the case.
2. We should remember that there
is no market other than the military
for the products made under many
quite enormous contracts with air-
craft, missile, electronic and space-
craft corporations. Moreover, the
research, development and manufac-
ture of such weaponry are very much
in line with the crackpot waste built
into U.S. capitalism; in a truly beau-
tiful way, they combine inflation
with quick obsolescence. If there
ever was a capitalist boondoggle, this
is it. Defense spending does not com-
pete with private enterprise; it does
not conflict with the short-run in-
terests of any major pressure group;
it does not lead to any serious do-
mestic political issues. True, it makes |
for higher taxes, but corporations
are now able to treat much of their |
tax load as part of their “costs of |
production,” to be passed on to con=
sumers. Moreover, the sort of ay
ernment programs hes Shkce
;
Mecessary, in the opinion of many
economists, to replace the defense
economy—to maintain prosperity
without arms—are exactly the sort
that are most distasteful, politically
and economically, to those who, in the
name of free enterprise, now bene-
fit politically and economically from
the arms race. Imagine the uproar
were it proposed to launch a $60
billion “socialistic” program of urban
renewal, valley development, school
construction? Welfare spending does
compete with private enterprise; it
does conflict with the short-run in-
terests of major pressure groups; it
does lead to domestic political is-
sues; it does increase taxation, etc.*
Certainly a major political ef-
fort would be required to do away
with the permanent war economy of
the United States. It has been, and
it is, a major basis of this nation’s
prosperity—and a built-in part of the
U.S. drift and thrust toward World
War ITI.
3. None of this sort of economics
“is true of the Soviet Union. Whatever
the case in the United States, in the
Soviet Union there are no internal
economic reasons for war prepara-
tion, nor for imperialism in any
form. The situation was different im-
‘mediately following World War II,
when the economic motive was con-
quest for booty: the attempt to fur-
ther “original accumulation” and to
“make good the devastation of World
War II. But this is no longer the
“case; their industrial momentum al-
lows the Soviets easier ways to con-
tinue their industrialization.
e 4. The power of the U.S. elite as
it is now politically constituted rests
_very largely upon the permanent war
‘economy and the military ascend-
_ ancy. These in turn rest publicly
‘upon the maintenance of a paranoiac
iew of the Soviet Union, as well as
upon the military Teese That
me formal mechanisms of more dem-
erotic methods of decision exist
here makes all the more urgent the
pr aintenance of such conditions. In
the Soviet Union, it has been true
that internal political command has
rested to some extent upon the fear
of attack from outside, but as the
al ‘
ee Paul Sweezy’s essay — the hest
# Aecount I have seen of these mat-
-in The Nation, March 28, 1959.
8, 1960
15, 1
standard of living rises and other
successes of the economy become evi-
dent, and as the regime becomes
more firmly legitimatized—and it is
so becoming—this basis for political
stability declines in importance. In-
creasingly, the rule of the Soviet
elite rests less upon fear of war than
upon the realization of plans for
domestic development.
5. Just now the United States is,
or feels itself to be, behind the So-
viet Union in the arms race, especial-
ly in missiles. Given their military
metaphysic, this must be an ex-
perience of desperation for the pow-
er elite. Accordingly, they are likely
to continue with their utmost energy
the attempt to gain “a position of
strength,” i.e., to continue their pur-
suit of the endless spiral. There are
good reasons to believe, moreover,
that Soviet technology will continue
to lead, less perhaps because of the
excellence of their science machine
than because of the capitalist stu-
pidity of the United States.
6. Many U.S. decision-makers and
spokesmen are coming to believe
that time is on the side of the So-
viet system; indeed, that “history”
itself is going against our system.
The truth, I believe, is that among
some sections of the U.S. power elite
and some circles of NATO intellec-
tuals, there is a growing sense of the
whole Soviet prospect as I have out-
lined it above. Many key members
Someday, somebody may press -
the panic button.
of the power elite are coming to be-
lieve that the Soviet Union has a
momentum and a sense of direction
far greater, far more vital, than the
United States and other Western
capitalist powers. They are very
much afraid of the outcome of a
peaceful competition between the
two systems. Only by an act of mili-
tary will, some of them believe, can
the United States win out in the
competition between the two sys-
tem: gh what such a “vic-
tory” might mean, they do not really
know, or at least never say. The
Soviets believe that they can win
without war.
I think that is the degree of truth
contained in the idea that Soviet
military strategy is an adjunct of
political policy, whereas the United
States has made its political policy
an adjunct of its military strategy.
What is the world folitical policy
of the United States of America?
THE PROSPECT I have outlined
is only one basis of Soviet policy.
The Soviet elite still do cling to the
military metaphysic; they still have
in their camp an up-coming nation,
China, which is still adventurously
weak in international affairs. Like
the American, the Soviets’ elite per-
sist in the delusion that nuclear
war is still a means to ends other
than the suicide of mankind. Is there
any doubt that they will resort to
nuclear violence if they feel they
need to in order to “defend” their
system and make possible the ful-
fillment of their many domestic plans
and aims?
If the fateful interaction of the
“war parties” on either side con-
tinues, and their ascendancy within
each bloc goes on, then it will not
matter much where the over-all, his-
toric balance of blame lies at any
given phase of the interplay towards
mutual annihilation. To break the
déadlock, to break out of the spiral
of causes, unilateral action is now
necessary.
At this juncture, the point about
the balance of blame that I want
most to make is that if the United
States will now take the initiative,
in a manner I shall presently de-
scribe, there are good reasons to be-
lieve that the Soviet Union will
529
quickly follow suit. For the forces
within Soviet society that would
press the country’s elite in this
direction are very strong. Why, then,
does not the United States try to
shift the balance of blame? Why does
it not make clear that it is not afraid °
to meet, in political, cultural and
economic terms, the fact of the So-
viet Union and its bloc?
That the United States ought now
to take the initiative is easy to say.
And it is easy to do. Moreover, it is
easy to state how it might be done
with the fullest measure of “military
safety.”
V
WHAT THE United States ought
to do is to announce to the world
an over-all program in which we
specify the approximate dates on
which each of the plan’s provisions
is going to be put into effect. The
initial actions should be unilateral.
We should say: The United States is
going to do this and this and this,
regardless of what other states—
allies or enemies—do or fail to do.
Later provisions of the plan, our an-
nouncement should make clear, will
be put into effect if other states
respond in stated ways to our initial
actions and to the plan as a whole.
These later steps are subject to later
negotiations to be held after the
United States has begun to act out
the plan.
By taking the initiative, then, I
do not mean merely to talk; I mean
to talk and to begin to act. It is not,
of course, necessary to carry the prin-
ciple of unilateral action “to an ex-
treme.” No government, for example,
is going at once to destroy all of its
weaponry. But that is not necessary.
When one proposes—as I do—uni-
Jateral nuclear disarmament by the
United States, one need not propose
that we destroy all such devices at
one blow. What is necessary is that
we begin to destroy them, publicly,
in full view of invited observers from
the Soviet Union and other nations;
and that we announce the conditions
under which we are going to con-
tinue, on a stated schedule, to de-
stroy the rest.
Is it not time for U.S. spokesmen
to stop repeating ad naweam that
every action of the USSR is “Merely
530
> i>. ht By ia,
reasonable person who
Propaganda”? Is such propaganda.”
of-the-deed as the Soviets have put
out “merely propaganda”? If it is
that, it is also a quite possible new
point of departure in the interplay of
the superstates. The United States
itself ought now to make such propa-
ganda. For example:
If the plan for “general and com-
plete disarmament,” twice now pro-
posed by the USSR, is “merely a
bluff,” it is not difficult to show up
that fact. Begin to meet the initial
provisions of their proposal by word
and by deed. Begin to cut back the
nuclear stockpile. Begin to abandon
the overseas bases. Announce the
schedule of this cut-back and this
abandonment. State the conditions
under which it will continue. This
need not in any military way be
dangerous. Begin to exercise the con-
trols and the inspections the Rus-
sians have proposed. Then, after
the program is under way, raise ques-
tions of better inspection and firmer
controls by each side of the other.
What is there to lose by such ac-
tion? The U.S. stockpile, we are
told, is now huge enough to slaught-
er all the people of the world and
to devastate all major means of
their livelihood. Even in the insane
terms of the military metaphysic,
there is nothing to be lost by, such
a line of action. Destroy half the
stockpiles, abandon half the bases,
and still there would be ample am-
munition and ample means of de-
livery to insure “military safety” in
accordance with the weird
ghoulish ideas of safety now pre-
vailing in the higher circles.
How many Americans have ac-
tually read the full texts of the
Soviet disarmament proposals to the
U. N.—for example, the second draft
of June 2, 1960? I think I am as
aware as anyone can be of the perils
and difficulties of any such proposal.
But I do not understand how any
really is
against war, who really is against
the waste and the peril of the arms
race, who really does not fear a
genuine peace, can fail to respond
to these concrete proposals in some
such manner as I have just outlined.
If these and other such proposals
are not met by the U.S. elite, by
the American people, or at least by
and |
one of the two atta saitee will
that not correctly be judged as. one i
more weighty item shifting the bal- fa
ance of blame onto the United
States of America? Will not that
be one more item for “the Chinese
view” within the bloc?
TO PUT the point in this way, to
urge that a Soviet proposal be taken
seriously and acted upon, even in a
tentative way, is to run the risk of
being labeled “soft on communism”
and all the rest of it. I have reason
personally to know that. But must
we not ask: If we take such charges
seriously, allowing them to inhibit
our attempt to think clearly—as
they are intended to do—will it be
possible to propose anything that
might break us out of the military
metaphysic and the paranoid trap,
that might enable men to get off
the road that is leading to World
War III?
For Americans today, I think the
answer is No, it would not be. For
that charge is itself part of the stale-
mate, part of the inhibition main-
tained by cold warriors among the
U.S. elite and various circles of the
NATO intellectuals. From the other
side, too, the reverse charge of “be- —
ing soft on America,” is part of the
stalemate maintained by Stalinist
die-hards and other cold warriors of
the Soviet bloc.
That is why we should not hesi-
tate to consider why so many Amer-
icans have lost even the vision of
peace, why there is such an absence
of realistic American programs for —
peace, why U.S. decision-makers |
are so inert when confronted with |
proposals by others. And that is |
why we should, each of us, begin to |
set forth and to debate, in the most
partisan manner open to us, guide
lines to peace.
In doing this, should we not re- —
member that the only realistic mili- —
tary view is the view that war, and |
not Russia, is now the enemy?
Should we not keep in mind that
the only realistic political view is
the view that the cold warrior on—
either side, not just the Russian, is
the enemy? a
But don’t all such proposals, you i
say, amount to“appeasement”? Don't
they add uP to “another Munich me
d A
: , . a Me Nis D>
ata tn bral tf Ss ied Se
‘ er ¥
aes Be Ve
or ae re
s. . ae
wer, I bares is a flat No.
“his Milacious historical analogy
ails to allow for the differences be-
ween Nazi Germany and Soviet
Russia; it leaves out of account
much that is new in the world to-
Hay. For example: Khrushchev is
ul
Washington, D.C.
SEVERAL months before the 1956
lection, a group of newsmen were
permitted into the President’s office
to watch some picture-taking of Mr.
Eisenhower with a visitor from Aus-
‘tralia. This. was not the usual prac-
tice and why we were allowed to pile
into the Executive office has to me
ilways remained a minor mystery.
But where one White House reporter
goes, all go, and there were about
thirty or forty people in the room.
At the rear, almost unnoticed,
stood Sherman Adams, the slight,
izened, unsmiling Assistant to the
President. Adams was supposed to
ye such a fierce fellow that most of
my colleagues generally kept their
distance from him. But I must con-
ess that while I had always found
im unresponsive to questions, I had
oe found him unfriendly. So I
ced over and stood with him and
ced that he wore in his lapel a
Id pin on which were engraved the
etters “CASE.” I asked what it
} meant and he confided that within
fey days there ON be a formal
“announcement of | pre-election
} “Committee of Biase and Scientists
} for Eisenhower.”
‘This is to be our egghead group,”
3e said laughing. “I’m still trying to
vin acceptance by the intellectuals.”
Unfortunately for him, he never
id 1. And, I might add parenthetical-
7, it was one of the sad accidents of
2rican politics that Adams who,
y the usual political standards was
superior and self-effacing man,
=>i
Ame
ERT G. SPIVACK is the
ungton, D.C., correspondent of
2 New York Post and author of
yndi ated newspaper column,
ch on a Potomac.” «
a ( :
roe
not Hitler, he is nut even Stalin;
the Soviet elite are more interested
in developing their existing society
than in expanding its borders by
force; nuclear weaponry—the So-
viets know well—presents a quali-
tatively new peril; above all, they
|How ‘Modern’ Is Republicanism?
should have ended up as he did. He
was not a venal politician; maybe
he just wanted someone, anyone,
even Bernard Goldfine, to like him.
In any event, because of Adams the
vicuna coat and the oriental rug be-
came symbols of the Republican
Party and “CASE” disappeared.
Some day it may be resurrected,
if any sizable group of intellectuals
decides once again to team up with
the Republicans. But this is not like-
ly to happen in 1960 because a trans-
formation of considerable magnitude
is taking place within the party. (In
some people’s judgment, “reversion
to type” rather than transformation
might seem a more accurate descrip-
tion; but that, I think, would be an
oversimplification. )
As recently as the mid-50s, the
GOP began to turn, however cau-
tiously, in a new direction. The year
1956 became known as the age of
Arthur Larson, who wrote A Re-
publican Looks at His Party: such
phrases as “modern Republicanism”
and “progressive Republicans” came
into fashion. Larson’s attempts to
provide a new philosophical base for
the party were acclaimed by the col-
umnists. Even some died-in-the-wool
Democratic literati went along with
the admen who said that the book
“reveals the long-term vitality of
that [Eisenhower] program .. . and
how it has come to represent the
best consensus of American opinion
and goals.”
But that was four years ago. Now
Barry Goldwater is the chief literary
spokesman of the Republican Party.
A feeble attempt was made by the
Republican Committee e-on Program
and Progress, headed by Charles H.
Perey, to win acceptance for its
paperback, Decisions for
hen
as
4
as
a eis on wa ogee pag oare. vee 7 hid fan ye tne
petition between the two systems
Wi
eae Fe ie ri, of
yobs, Mm ae iy
et
en rf
* eo
believe they can “win” in the com-
without resort to arms. If we do ha
not want war, that is the com- aa
petition we must face up to—in ete |,
economic, cultural and _ political ‘ee
terms. : Re"
4
yt
eh
e x
ee by Robert G. Spivack i
America. But the book attracted
nowhere near the attention of Gold-
water's The Conscience of a Con-
servative, of which 50,000 copies are
now in print. A committee has even
been formed to make sure that the
Goldwater opus is not ignored by
the book reviewers, with whom the
rightists are in a continuing state
of hostilities. The blurbs tell us that
this is a “supremely sensible and
eminently courageous book” that will
shock orthodox politicians but “grat-
ify millions of Americans who are
sick and tired of political contests
between meaningless equivocations
and undifferentiated distinctions.”
The shift from Larson to Gold-
water gives some idea of what has
happened to the Republican Party.
But why did it happen? How deep
is Goldwaterism? And what does it
portend. for the future of the GOP?
BY EVERY axiom of political be-
havior, the nation should be clamor-
ing for a continuation in power of
the Republican Party, the Summit
debacle notwithstanding. Granted
that we are near the end of the “cult
of personality” centered in Eisen-
hower, the party still would seem to
have almost everything working for —
it. As an entity, it is more homogen- —
eous than the Democratic Patty.)
The “organization man” in San Fran- J
cisco is not terribly different from —
the Junior Executive of Englewood,
N.J. An Arthur Langlie from the —
State of Washington (the man who
now heads McCalls) is not unlike
a Henry Cabot Lodge from News
England. Those who describe th
selves as Republican are largely om
Native stock, white and Protease ,
There is nether’ a North-South nor —
an isolationist-internationalist aed
anes
arr.
h
}
I
|
Se
sion. The FEisenhower-Taft wounds
have just about healed.
Despite the changing temperatures
of the cold war, the steel strike and
even the scattered pockets of local
depression, the country still enjoys
an impressive degree of prosperity.
Unless the Soviet Union starts a
shooting war, we are likely to remain
at peace until after the election.
So two-thirds of the ingredients in
that 1956 GOP slogan remain: there
is still “peace and prosperity,” but
there is no “progress.”
It will be the job of the hucksters
to dispose of this problem in the
1960 campaign. The “image” of Re-
publicanism that they will try to
project to the voters is one of a
“new, self-made Nixon,” of a hand-
some Bill Rogers protecting civil
rights, of a stately gentleman from
Kentucky in the person of Thruston
Morton shaping the National Com-
mittee and of a scholarly Arthur
Flemming trying to do something
constructive in the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare. Ex-
cept for dark-faced Dick Nixon, these
are handsome, all-American types,
and a photo of them with Eisenhow-
er, captioned “my boys,” would make
attractive campaign literature and
maintain the illusion of forward-
togetherness.
But that’s all it would be, an il-
lusion. The simple fact is that in
these closing days of the Eisenhower
Administration this group of “young”
middle-aged men have been able to
accomplish almost nothing, even of
the narrow objectives they have set
for themselves. Neither in civil rights,
medical assistance for the aged, help
for the depressed areas, nor in al-
most any other area of social con-
flict, have these more-or-less “mod-
ern” Republicans been able to make
any headway. They have done no
more than talk a good fight.
And if they have not been able
to accomplish even their limited
goals, what chance is there within
the Republican ranks for Nelson A.
Rockefeller or Jacob K. Javits or
Clifford Case, even though they may
prove powerful vote-getters in New
York or New Jersey? For a liberal,
the Republican road is a lonely one.
Why is it that Nixon, supposedly
the best-informed, _ best-prepared
532
Oil of Indiana,
MAcicbus
ows pa
ri ;
Dickie’s Dilemma
Vice President in history, has been
able to deliver so little? His apolo-
gists claim that all Republicans are
thwarted by a Democratic-controlled
Congress. The argument does not
stand up under examination. The
Lyndon Johnson Democrats have
given the Administration almost
everything for which it really put up
a fight. On those few occasions when
Democratic liberals forced out more
than the Republicans asked, the
President used his veto,
The explanation, I believe, for the
lack of progress on the home front
is that the center of Republican pow-
er is not at the White House, as it
might have been had there been a
determined President, but in Con-
gress. What this means in present-
day terms is that Charles Halleck is
calling the shots. And that is just
another way of saying that the for-
mer Secretary of the Treasury,
George M. Humphrey, and Standard
and others of the
Taft school of domestic economics,
still exercise the real influence.
Some current historians, notably
Jack Bell in his book The Splendid
Misery, have attempted to pinpoint
the moment when Congressional Re-
publicans took control of domestic
policy away from the President. Bell.
goes back to that day in 1952, after
the Republican convention, when
Robert A. Taft and Eisenhower met
at Columbia University to close
ranks following the bitter Battle of
a
‘
Chicago. He tells of their “unspoken
pact,” which was that “Eisenhower
could have the White House, Con-
gress would belong to Taft and his
assigns.” Bell calls it “The Great
Surrender.” He goes on to say:
To those who watched the little
tableau on that September day, it
was apparent that even before his
election Eisenhower was mortgaging
to the man he had defeated at Chi-
cago an authority that would cramp
the full sweep of power any modern
President must maintain undimin-
ished if he is to surmount the chal-
lenges of a space-age world.
Of course, it was not a space-age
world then, and Eisenhower never
cared much for the detailed business
of politics or government. Further-
more, he believed that if we returned
to the simple virtues all problems
could be solved. He sensed popular
weariness with crises and war and
moral laxity in Washington. Every-
one simply wanted to have some
fun, or to be let alone, and to hell
with all things serious. This national
mood also was a factor in Eisenhow-
er’s behavior. So while the Columbia
University meeting does dramatize
the opening of the era of the weak
Executive, it tells only the beginning
of the story of how the Taft-Halleck-
Goldwater wing of the party gradual-
ly came to dominate party attitudes,
or, at least, to paralyze the Nixon-
Rogers-Flemming wing. (I delib-
erately exclude the Hon. Everett
McKinley Dirksen, the Senate Re-
publican leader, from philosophical
association with either group. He is
a man of such flexible convictions
that he can be found in almost any
camp at any time.)
After Taft’s death there was, for
a while, a reversal of the conserva-
tive trend and there were moments
when the President almost seemed
to be running things (or was it Jim
Hagerty? ). Eisenhower simply could
not tolerate William F. Knowland,
Taft’s successor as Republican Sen-
ate leader. Also, he was not overly
impressed with former Speaker Joe
Martin as House leader. The reasons
for his reactions were entirely dif-
ferent. Knowland was a blunt-speak-
ing man who held firmly to his cong
victions, especially when i ae
else disagreed wih th them. His ba
“ /* he , NA ATIC
vate
rnness caused great dismay at the
hite House; and when the Senator
made his great miscalculation—de-
siding to run for Governor of Cali-
fornia—there were few in the Ad-
‘ministration who tried to dissuade
him. As for Martin, he simply tired of
“Boing through all the political rituals
‘of name-calling and backroom-deals
_|) called for by the Administration.
“Martin and Speaker Sam Rayburn
| were close friends, and old Joe was
'| mot going to impair that friendship
|} in the interest of the boys “down-
“town” at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
So while Knowland and Martin
: “were around, there was some sem-
| blance of backbone at the White
.| House. But mostly it was because
‘the two men irritated the President.
:
THE man who really tried to make
“something of the Republican Ad-
“Ministration was Herbert Brownell,
_Jr. Unfortunately, he had soiled his
:| Own reputation by his activities in
|} the Harry Dexter White case. What
| looked like smart politics at the
time turned out to be quite the op-
posite, and Brownell’s many real
talents were never thereafter shown
to full advantage. But he kept try-
i
E. until a combination of Southern-
Se ES ee EE.) 6S
rs and Midwest Republicans ganged
“up on him. The Southerners never
forgave him for his part in dispatch-
.| ing troops to Little Rock; the con-
.| servative Midwest elements, the
t| hard-core Taftites, never forgave
.| him for the part he had played in
| | winning the Republican nominations
;| for Dewey and Eisenhower.
;| But other factors also helped drive
y} Brownell into exile. He was, to use
>. Wright Mills’s phrase, a represent-
| ative of the “power elite.” Those
.| knowledgeable in the ways of politics
;| and high finance knew that Brownell
1} was Wall Street’s Ambassador to
1 V Vashington. His record in protect-
| Dn, A.T.&T., and his handling of
| anti-trust pees were adequate
:
proof that he did his job well for
y| those special interests. But where
‘ e sections of the GOP considered
: ese services as invaluable, else-
. | Where there lingered the old resent-
.|) ments. The Midwest Republicans
railed against domination by
arty’s Rabicits wing and at
pportunity they hacked away
at Brownell until his usefulness was
impaired. When he finally returned
to his New York law practice, the
triumph of the Taftites was virtual-
ly complete. There was no one left
in the Administration with the de-
termination or the skill to prevent
the right wing from setting the
pace and the course the party was
to take. And, basically, the old right
wingers still believe what they have
always believed: the New Deal
must go.
In his final months as Chief Ex-
ecutive, it also should be recorded
that Eisenhower has grown fonder of
the company of Halleck and Dirksen
than he ever was of Knowland
and Martin—or, for that matter,
Brownell. All Halleck and Dirksen
really ever say is “go slow,” an ad-
monition that coincides with the
President’s instincts. The result has
been a veto-happy era in which, as
of this writing, the President has
turned thumbs down 161 times on
even the mild legislation laid before
him by a right-of-center Congress.
THUS THE Republicans have come
the full cycle, and Nixon presides
over a shell of a party which all sur-
veys agree commands the loyalty of
scarcely 30 per cent of the electorate.
Under the circumstances, does it
seem reasonable to believe that, short
of an Act of God, Nixon has a chance
of becoming President?
The answer is that Nixon and his
managers are counting on John F.
Kennedy’s becoming the Democratic
candidate. They are persuaded that
Kennedy is an even more divisive
public figure than Nixon himself
and they are prepared to play up
what they consider to be Kennedy’s
many liabilities: youth, inexperience,
Catholicism, spotty voting record,
his call for expression of “regrets” to
Khrushchev, his alleged domination
by certain labor leaders, and the hos-
tility of the nation’s Negro spokes-
men toward him.
In short, this could still be the
kind of campaign on which Nixon
thrives—one in which he finds it un-
necessary to sell himself because he
thinks the public image of his op-
ponent will do the job for him.
This, of course, could be a mis-
ph a and a are Nixon
Republicans who are realistic enough
to know it. Conceding that Kennedy
may have many strikes against him,
he also has working in his favor the
fact that it will be Nixon against
the Democratic Party, not just Ken-
nedy. Perhaps the Republicans are
whistling in the dark, but Kennedy
does not seem to scare them nearly
as much as Stevenson. Nothing Ken-
nedy has said, mor for that matter
any of the other Democrats, has
produced anything approaching the
savage reaction to Stevenson’s
“sledge hammer and crowbar” speech.
In politics, “uncontrolled” rage is
usually an indication of fear.
THE PROBLEMS posed by Rocke-
feller’s attack on Nixon and the
‘Administration are something else
again. In his relatively brief analysis
of what is wrong with his party, the
New York Governor demolished the
house that Dick has so carefully
built, indirectly pointing up the
fact that Nixon is the prisoner (per-
haps a happy captive) of the party’s
right wing.
Right now to the GOP machine
Rockeffeler is a traitor, not one whit
better than Harold Stassen. It has
reacted in the fashion of monolithic
parties the world over. Rockefeller
must have anticipated this. He un-
derstood that he was representing
a minority in a closed corporation.
So he took his case to the people.
But if Nixon is the nominee and
then loses the election, Rockefeller
may emerge in a different light. To
be able to say “I told you so” will
hardly be satisfying to him and
completely unsatisfactory to in-
dependent liberal voters.
There remains the possibility that
the Democrats, too, will put up one
of their lesser men. Then the exile
of the liberals from both parties
will be complete. In that case the
Stevenson Democrats and the Rock-
efeller Republicans may come to-
gether. Building a new liberal, pro-
gressive party from the ground up
could hardly be any more frustrat- —
ing than trying to save either major
party from self-destruction. After
all, the Republican Party itself be-
gan as a third party, and a century |
ago they also said it couldn’t be
md
Revolution. The practice of earlier works
BOOKS and
The Noble Panorama of Ideas
THE WESTERN INTELLECTUAL
TRADITION: From Leonardo to
Hegel. By J. Bronowski and Bruce
Mazlish. Harper & Bros. 522 pp. $7.50.
Newton P. Stallknecht
THE PHILOSOPHER A. N. Whitehead,
writing of modern education, once de-
plored the “fatal disconnection of sub-
jects which kills the vitality of our mod-
ern curriculum. There is only one sub-
ject-matter for education, and that is
Life in all of its manifestations.” In re-
cent years, a new discipline has emerged
whose objective is to temper the rigid
-departmentalism that Whitehead cen-
sured. This, the history of ideas, ex-
amines the modes of thought at work in
such diverse fields as religion, the sci-
ences, the arts, technology and the law.
It is important if it does no more than
persuade specialists to treat one another
with respect and toleration. It can, if
really successful, initiate an “intellectual
fusion between the sciences and the hu-
manities.” So oriented, we may hope
that modern education will increasingly
further Whitehead’s ideal—the propaga-
tion of “that ultimate good sense that
we term civilization.”
In their new work, Messrs. Bronowski
and Mazlish have made a genuine con-
tribution in this direction. They have
undertaken to summarize a few impor-
tant chapters in the history of Western
thought. In doing so, they do not let us
forget that ideas are human products
and owe their existence to the efforts of
human individuals. To ignore this is to
sacrifice all sense of the concrete. “To
read the history of ideas out of its con-
text of men and events is to violate it.”
The authors sketch the context of men
to the reaction that followed the French
is corrected and due attention is paid to
ie gadistry and technology. Thus Josiah
ae ereed is recognized as noteworthy
along with Machiavelli and Pascal. No
4 field i is slighted, although the i importance
by of f the natural sciences is heavily em-
his
Bits.
m 's phil-
EWTON P. STALLKN. re
nuphor of Strange Seas of The
Shane a study of Wordswo
_ osophy. ‘Me is. professor of
ce Indiana Univ ersity. ‘nly
/
i ' » oh \
“4 » é » 4 : ; ?
534 ¥ “ig oul A “~ i, i} j
‘
rj d nas q
=
and events that extends from Leonardo |
to Hegel—from the discovery of America
osophy fin ae
Ow Pe: | ve
phasized. Herbert Butterfield is quoted
with approval when he says of the scien-
tific revolution that it “outshines every-
thing since the rise of Christianity and
reduces the Renaissance and Reformation
to the rank of mere episodes.” The au-
thors recognize that this revolution im-
plies a basic change in the way that peo-
ple picture the world—‘from a world of
things ordered according to their ideal
nature, to a world of events running in
a steady mechanism of before and after.”
Unfortunately, the philosophical limi-
tations of this point of view are nowhere
in the volume thoroughly examined. For
instance, the treatment of Kant’s critical
philosophy is sketchy and there is no
reference to his later thought as devel-
oped in the Critique of Judgment, where
the presiding ideas of modern idealistic
philosophy are formulated. This work
deserves at least as much attention as
that bestowed upon Hegel, whose abso-
Jutism is a far less healthy and a no
more typical or inevitable outgrowth
of German philosophy. In other words,
philosophical idealism is not allowed to
put its best foot forward. In this single
respect, the work of Bronowski and
Mazlish is narrowly conceived and the
reader would do well to supplement
their argument by turning to other au-
thors.
NONE the less, the panorama of men
and ideas which this volume opens to
the reader is a noble one and the in-
terpretation of the modern period of
Western thought is important. The
most interesting and perhaps the most
characteristic contribution is the “de-
tailed treatment of the industrial revo-
lition, including incidentally its brilliant
offspring, the “Lunar Society” of Bir-
mingham, whose widespread influence
extended across the Atlantic via Frank-
lin, Jefferson and Tom Paine. That bril-
liant group of manufacturers and scien-
tists—among them Wedgwood, Ark-
wright, James Watt, Priestley, Erasmus
- Darwin and the Galtons—left its mark
-on every phase of British culture: in-
dustrial, scientific, literary and religious.
Not the least of their manifold achieve-
ce
ments was a oingise )
prose, “inspired mar
olicy of the
Royal, ae eRe
the
ly, a tradition of dissent, always ready |
to challenge and to re-evaluate trad
of English”
dom,
| AR j
a
to the later Edmund Burke, whose
reactionary and increasingly extravagant
rhetoric, as he denounced the philosophy
of the French Revolution, summarized
the growing opposition to the enlight-
enment for which the Lunar Society
had stood.
The book then moves into a remark-
able and fascinating account of reaction-
ary philosophy. We are shown in some
detail how Burke and Hegel repudiated
the generous ideas that had character-
ized the enlightenment, how the eight-
eenth-century virtues of common sense,
enlightened self-interest and cosmopol-
itanism yield to an almost mystical
sense of national destiny as it is said
to be manifest in history. According to
Hegel:
History is always of great impor-
tance for a people; since by means of
that it becomes conscious of the path
of development taken by its own.
spirit, which expresses itself in laws,
manners, customs, and deeds. History
presents a people with their own im-
age in a condition which thereby be-
comes objective to them (p. 486).
Sen es —s, SS
a Gea Gon
Our own century is only too well
acquainted with the outcome of this way
of thought. The manifest-destiny in-
terpretation of history has marred the
reasonableness of modern life and in-
troduced a serious confusion between
fact and value. Like the Deus vult! of
the Crusaders, it undermines delibera-
tion; and when it takes the form Die
Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht it’
sinks almost to the level | of David
Harum’s “Him who has gits,’ ’ or “Noth=_
ing succeeds like success.” Such inverted
historicism is a distortion of true moder: -
ism which is essentially, if paradoxical- -
tional authority. This rational anti-|
traditionalism is supported by assu |
tions characteristic of the modern age:
In the 500 years since Leonardo,
two ideas about man have been]
especially important. The first is the |
emphasis on the full development of |
the human personality. The individu il
is prized for himself. His creative
powers are seen as the core of |
being. . . . The second of oe
grand formative ideas ahi th
history displays is the iis. of fi
We see in fact |
te is v un trainable
dom, > th these t
fulfil
Sh re
ideas are linked together. There
could be no development of the per-
sonality of individuals, no fulfillment
of those gifts in which one man dif-
fers from another, without the free-
dom for each man to grow in his own
direction (p. 500).
Bronowski and Mazlish are right to
point out that these “grand formative
ideas” are at the base of our civilization.
One might comment, however, that, al-
though essentially modern, these ideas
Were not created ex nihilo at the begin-
ning of our era. Their roots lie deep in
earlier thought, for example in the New
‘Testament, in Aristotle’s ethics and in
Greek tragedy. After all, the Western
intellectual tradition extends not merely
from Leonardo to Hegel but, let us say,
from Homer to Heidegger. As Wallace
Stevens has put it:
Adam
In Eden was the father of Descartes.
Bronowski and Mazlish know this well
enough, but they do not always take
due care to emphasize it. They have
made clear to the general reader that
study of the Western intellectual tra-
dition is a fascinating and important
undertaking. We need add only that the
tradition should be considered as a
whole.
De Gaulle in His Own Image
THE EDGE OF THE SWORD. By
Charles de Gaulle. (Translated by
Gerard Hopkins). Criterion Books.
128 pp. $3.50.
THE WAR MEMOIRS OF CHARLES
DE GAULLE: Vol. III: Salvation,
1944-1946. (Translated by Richard
Howard). Simon & Schuster. 346 pp.
$6.
William G. Andrews
DURING President de Gaulle’s recent
‘visit to New Orleans, Louisiana’s shat-
‘terpated Governor grabbed the haughty
statesman by the lapels before a large
“audience and recited Grantland Rice’s
lines:
‘ When the Great Scorer comes to
hy write the score against his name,
He won’t write how he won or lost
on but how he played the game.
Long articulated the underlying theme
id : In this madcap scene, pea-pickin’ Earl
f de Gaulle’s two books, whose publica-
tion coincided with his visit. Both con-
cern how de Gaulle played in the two
great games he has lost.
| _ The Edge of the Sword, written in
932, presents the views he held on mili-
tary philosophy, psychology and doc-
rine at the time when he was campaign-
g unsuccessfully to persuade his su-
Deriors to modernize the French army.
But, it is of much wider interest today,
for in many respects it provides clearer
“insight into de Gaulle’s personality and
better elucidates the underlying rea-
‘Sons for his comportment than any of
: i is other writings. The code of behavior
for the man of action it sets forth is the
E
/
r
WILLIAM G. ANDREWS, author of
erre Mendés-France: A Study of Po-
al Ideas in Action, teaches Govern-
mold into which he has poured his own
public personality. If the measure of a
man is the extent to which he masters
himself, de Gaulle must be ranked
among the great. One may question
some of his ideals, but cannot deny that
he is their incarnation. What writer on
French politics has better explained de
Gaulle’s return to power in 1958 than
this twenty-eight-year-old passage?
By satisfying the secret desires of
men’s hearts, by providing compensa-
tion for the cramped conditions of
their lives, he will capture their
imagination, and, even should he fall
by the way, will retain, in their eyes,
the prestige of those heights to which
he did his best to lead them.
Who better fits this model of a great
leader than its author?
Aloofness, character, and the per-
sonification of greatness, these quali-
ties it is that surround with prestige
those who are prepared to carry a
burden which is too heavy for lesser
mortals. . The degree of suffer-
ing... is... no less tormenting
than the hair shirt of the penitent.
This helps to explain those cases of
withdrawal which, otherwise, are so
hard to understand.
He commended then and exemplified
later “calmness and_ alertness,” prag-
matism, opportunism, resourcefulness
and audacity. His “great leader” was to
have lofty aims and ideals, an air of
mystery, vision, a sense of grandeur, a
contempt for detail and “egotism, pride,
hardness, and cunning.” The reader is
startled again and again to see de Gaulle
describing his future self and explain-
ing why the ideal leader must be what
de Gaulle later was. “‘Arrogant and
undisciplined’ is what the mediocrities
say of him, treating the thoroughbred
with a tender mouth as they would a
donkey which refuses to move.”
De Gaulle’s prophetic introspection
in The Edge of the Sword is superbly
complemented in Salvation by reflective
contemplation on his other lost battle,
to remold France in 1944-45. In the first
is his vision of the great leader; in the
elegant prose of the second we see the
“absurd anomaly” of such a leader fail-
ing to guide “the Madonna in the fres-
coes” to her “exalted and exceptional
destiny” because of “the faults of
Frenchmen.”
Salvation opens with the triumph of
the Liberation and with “de Gaulle [the
author refers to himself in the third
person], that almost legendary char-
acter who incarnated this prodigious lib-
eration in all eyes,’ “establishing the
government” and “enabling the country
to resume its life and its labor.” It ends
with de Gaulle’s 1946 resignation caus-
ing “the mass of the French people”
sink “back into distress.” In between
are de Gaulle’s éfforts to introduce cer-
tain social and economic reforms, re-
store France to her rightful place among
the Great Powers, hang on to Syria,
Lebanon, Indochina and North Africa
in the face of the evil intentions of both
“A forward-reaching and thought-
inducing book. Whatever contro-
versy it incites will be construc-
tive.”’ C. B. Ayres.
Evolution
and Culture
(Lihteat eds
EE ee eS eee TD
foreword by
Leslie A. White
at all bookstores $3:75
aa] UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS
Allies and natives, and contribute to
winning the war insofar as this would
conduce to the French national interest.
He also. matches intransigence with
Stalin to the latter’s alleged disadvan-
tage and with the parties and the poli-
ticlans, the dissemblers and factions, to
his own disadvantage. He struggles with
the Consultative and Constituent as-
semblies, purges occupation collabora-
tors, bickers with General Eisenhower
and with France’s Allies in the confer-
ences to which they were gracious
enough to invite him.
It is difficult to sympathize with his
firm belief that the needs of the joint
Allied war effort at a crucial juncture
in the Battle of the Bulge should have
been sacrificed to French prestige. Nor
is one convinced that all French politi-
cal leaders who disagreed with de Gaulle
were driven by evil and selfish motives.
Salvation is most interesting and valu-
able where its author discusses the
evolving political situation, presenting
his views on politicians, parties, govern-
ment, leadership and the state candidly,
cogently and fully.
AT the moment of his greatest tri-
umph—the liberation of France—the
tragic defect in his ideal begins to ap-
pear. When he wrote in 1932 that the
great leader “must personify contempt
for contingencies, and leave it to his
subordinates to be bogged down in de-
tail,” he was underlining his own in-
ability to comprehend the problems
posed by clashes that are not “on the
grand scale” but are nevertheless of tre-
mendous importance in the life of the
modern state. Thirteen years later, when
he closed a crucial discussion with René
Pleven and Pierre Mendés-France by
commenting, “You won’t get me dis-
cussing economics and finances for a
whole afternoon again,” he showed the
grave implications of that attitude.
Through his disdain for such “details,”
he was led to favor a policy of weak-
ness and folly that laid the base for
much of France’s subsequent economic
difficulties. His defense in Salvation of
that decision is unconvincing but. re-
vealing. ,
When de Gaulle speaks in general
terms he sees his function as the su-
preme arbitrator, reconciling antagon-
istic factions to the national interest.
__ As one examines specific incidents a dif-
ferent picture emerges. His political in-
fluence, as he describes, it, is less ar-
bitral than catalytic. Fach time he
addressed the Consultative Assembly
“there occurred among the members a
fusing of minds... the human contact
with de Gaulle himself reminded the
M ny
536 et | ay
Le hana
delegates of the solidarity which linked
us all together.” On his entry into Paris
in 1944 the crowds were “exalted by
this presence.” He was disappointed
when his proposal for European unity
did not at once crystallize opinion and
surge forward without further effort on
his part. He foresaw his task in the
French recovery effort as being “to
galvanize” the “enormous enterprises
. vigorous action” and “strong insti-
tutions.” And when he resigned, “that
atmosphere of exaltation, that hope of
success, that ambition for France, which
supported the national soul” was there-
by dissipated.
Why Do We Work?
WORK AND EDUCATION: The Role
of Technical Culture in Some Dis-
tinctive Theories of Humanism. By
John W. Donohue, S. J. Loyola Uni-
versity Press. 238 pp. $4.
Ronald Gross
IN OUR currently fashionable concern
over the “problem” of leisure, we fre-
quently forget the enormous ,unresolved
contradictions and confusions which re-
main in our ideas about the work that
makes leisure possible. C. Wright Mills
has pointed out that we still lack a
widely accepted ideology of work, and
we are just beginning to fumble toward
some coherent notion of leisure. Con-
sequently we set aside parcels of time
labeled “work” and “leisure” in such a
mechanical and conventional way that
we lose the capacity to enjoy either
one in full measure.
In Work and Education, Father Don-
ohue performs an invaluable service by
inspecting the half-forgotten philosophi-
cal sources of our unexamined assump-
tions about the place of work in in-
dividual and social life. Three major
positions emerge; Marx’s apotheosis of
work as the primal and ultimate human
activity; Dewey’s belief in the unique
efficacy of work for developing the only
sound method of thinking and acting
cooperatively; and Babbitt’s allegiance
to the Aristotlean principle, central to
Western humanism, which sees work as
simply the necessary cost of contem-
plative leisure.
For Marx, labor is the unique activity
by which men first distinguished them-
selves from the animals by producing
their own means of subsistence. The
ee
RONALD GROSS is Assistant to the
Executive Director of the Education
Division of the Ford Fo lution, ‘
4 al ct aie
Afia.
el 8
When de Gaulle returned to power
in 1958 his presence again had a galvanic
effect but his reluctance to engage in ~
the hurly-burly of political in-fighting
except where the problem is clearly and
heroically posed, as in Algiers last Jan-
uary, has caused French domestic poli-
tics to slide a long way back toward the
grimy morass of immobilisme that so
typified the Fourth Republic. Grantland
Rice, Earl Long and Major de Gaulle
to the contrary notwithstanding, it is
not true that “all leaders of men .. .
are . . . remembered less for the use-
fulness of what they achieved than for
the sweep of their endeavors.”
ultimately decisive element throughout
history has always been man’s particular
mode of productive activity in each era.
And Marx has an unequivocal answer
to the query about what we will do in
that utopia which will end history: we
will work. But the abolition of class
exploitation will make work so intrinsi-
cally enjoyable that we'll forego our de-
mands for equal rewards for equal work,
and remuneration can be on the basis of
need alone. In this image of the human
drama, work is the index of distinctly
human life, its ubiquitous determinant
and its utopian finale.
Opposite Marx, Father Donohue
places the upholders of the Hellenic
tradition of work as the servant of leisure.
He selects Irving Babbitt, Robert
Hutchins and Mortimer Adler to rep-
resent this position, which has dominated
humanistic speculation about work, and
which locates man’s unique and noblest
fulfillment in contemplation independent
of the material or social world. a
Dewey, falling between these two ex-
tremes, believed that “there is no such
thing as genuine knowledge and fruit-
ful understanding except as the off
spring of doing.” In their work, Dewey
maintained, men first discovered ang
continually relearn the only method o
sound thinking and living — scienti “|
instrumental, — problem-solving prag-
matism.
FATHER DONOHUE’S artfully cone]
structed analysis can be viewed
sentially a series of variations on t
underlying themes. On the one hand
work can be considered an instrument
to something beyond itself, and valuec
by society for the goods it produces,
by the individual for what its wag
will buy, On the other, work can be
alte for its own sake, ¢ ither beewu
‘ a
presses a fundamentally demiurgic
man nature, or because it is the prim-
ry arena for developing men’s facul-
Hes and social communion. These two
themes reveal some surprising parallels
«| between the classic formulations pre-
mted by Father Donohue, and con-
*| temporary viewpoints.
0 Sharing the instrumental view of
4) work, David Riesman, for example, re-
jects as impractical the attempts to in-
troduce “joy and meaning” into modern
actory and office work, and argues that
We must push for further mechaniza-
tion in order to gain time for the fullest
pleasures of consumption. The intrinsic
wWalue of work is also minimized by
hose economists concerned with prob-
lems of “manpower”: Eli Ginzberg, Di-
rector of Columbia University’s Con-
rvation of Human Resources Project,
debunks the whole theory of alienation
from work elaborated by Marx, Ruskin
nd Durkheim. He insists that the
modern factory worker is as aware as
was the eighteenth-century craftsman
that he is being paid for doing some-
thing useful, and he points to the satis-
factions the worker gets from being able
to maintain his family at a high level
of consumption without having to work
as hard as his father did.
Contemporary commentators also
echo the classical themes on the other
ide, i in exhortations to make work hu-
anly satisfying in itself. Riesman
ain, characteristically playing both
sides of the sociological street, bemoans
e silent revolt against work on all
levels of our social life. Less equivocally,
uch diverse spokesmen as Harvey
r- F<
THE MIND OF GERMANY. By Hans
K ohn. Charles Scribner’s Sons. 370 pp.
4 George L. Mosse
&®
IS THERE a German mind? Professor
certainly thinks so and he states
thesis succinctly and with learning.
German mind was formed by the
against the West,” a war waged
German ieeliectials and supported
Prussia’s ideal of power and her mili-
ism. The war began with the Na-
onic occupation and the turn which
y at the University of Wisconsin, is
thor of The Struggle for Sov-
y in England and The Holy Pre-
Study i in Ci, and Rea-
960 —
Swados, Daniel Bell and Paul Goodman
attribute our distinctive social malaise
to the vacuity and corruption of work
1 a profit-driven economy.
Work and Education \ucidly presents
the background of conflicting ideals
against which any re-examination of
work must take place. Can we look for
a possible resolution to this conflict,
independent of the theological frame-
work which inspires Father Donohue’s
Christian synthesis? The proper use of
this kind of speculative dialogue is not
to formulate a perfect verbal definition
of work. Rather, it is to give us co+
herent images of possible ways to im-
prove our actual working conditions.
The philosopher who discusses work as
if it were a monolithic social entity
tends to conceal rather than illuminate
the facts. We must look toward a resolu-
tion, not in terms of Man the Worker,
but in terms of particular men doing
particular jobs that are clean or dirty,
gratifying or frustrating. The real
policy question is not work as means or
end, but what kinds of means and ends
our work shall embody. We will better
justify work as a means, to the extent
that we create jobs with clear and social-
ly useful purposes. Work will become
a reasonable end in itself to the degree
that we provide more jobs evoking in-
tensive commitment by whole human
beings, and stop wasting our ingenuity
devising ways to adjust the worker to
his intrinsically meaningless task by
bathing him in mechanized music and
providing group therapy to improve his
motivation. “Great is work,” says the
Talmud, “for it honors the workman.”
Germany and the West
romanticism took in Germany. The
scene is set for a Germany imbued with
its own special mission, with a belief in
national unity centered in the Volk, and
given direction by a hatred of France.
To be sure, there were liberals in Ger-
many, but their liberalism withered when
Prussia crushed the revolutions of 1848
in south Germany. Finally, when Bis-
marck triumphed over Austria, liberals
rushed into the waiting arms of the Iron
Chancellor. All of this formed the Ger-
man mind until, in the 1920s, some Ger-
man nihilists like Ernst Juenger se-
ceded not only from the West but from yy
| you will be charged the regular
civilization itself.
However, there is a happy ending.
The Federal Republic seems to him to
have broken with this German mind.
Its orientation comes from ‘the Rhine-
land and south Germany vhich all along
“le
ieeat
c * 10
~ ve
The story of the colossal Ger-
man blunder that made Russia
eo formidable world power
THE HOUSE
BUILT
ON SAND
The Conflicts of German Policy
in Russia 1939-1945
by GERALD REITLINGER
author of ‘The S.S.: Alibi of a Nation’
From many unused sources, including
the mass of documents produced at
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of Hitler’s disastrous Russian
venture. From the Friendship Paet ne-
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quarrels with his high command, and
his assumption of the personal direc-
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this authoritative and dramatic book
tells the tragic and wildly crazy story
account
of the Russian Liberation Movement
and its army. With index, notes, bib-
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maps. $6.95
THE VIKING PRESS, N.Y. 22
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2 i
might have given rise to better things
if Prussia had not triumphed. Now
Prussia is no more—or rather is in the
Communist East. It is necessary to state
Professor Kohn’s thesis in this sum-
mary fashion in order to realize the
problems which it raises. What is this
West from which the German mind se-
ceded? Professor Kohn takes a definite
stand in his first chapter, on Goethe. The
sage of Weimar is the very opposite of
the developing German mind, and a true
representative of the West. Goethe typi-
fies the rationalism, cosmopolitanism and
tolerant moderation which sharply con-
trasted with German romanticism,
“myth making” and worship of power
for its own sake. But is the West really
like that—an elongated shadow of
Goethe? Professor Kohn points to the
absence of aggressiveness in the West
in contrast to German expansionism.
Yet the West was aggressive; not in
Europe, perhaps, but in the colonial
world. Romanticism and racism did not
obtain the same hold within the West-
ern nations that they did in Germany,
yet these ideas were applied by im-
perialistic nations to their empires. It
is true that neo-romanticism in the in-
tensity of its emotional appeal divided
Germany from the West, largely because
it became a “race mysticism.” It is as-
tonishing that there is so little about
race in this book and so much about
the Prussian idea of power.
THAT IDEA of power is defined as a
complete assimilation of Machiavellian-
ism. While it is refreshing to see Bis-
marck treated for once not as a hero
but as a villain, the concept of power
which dominated his actions was by no
means uniquely German. As far back
as the seventeenth century Machiavel-
lianism had been assimilated as a con-
cept of power not only in central Eu-
rope, but especially in England and
France.
The greatest difficulty with Professor
Kohn’s definition of the German mind
is that a most important part of it is
omitted. For, was Karl Marx not an
expression of the German mind? Marx-
ism does not, of course, fit in with the
thesis of a war against the West, for the
West itself provided a congenial home
for these ideas. Nor does Marxism pro-
vide proof that the forces of southern
Germany and the Rhineland might, if
given a chance, have linked Germany
with the West, as Kohn believes they
are now doing through the Rhinelander
Konrad Adenauer. Marx was a Rhine-
lander too, and the Social Democrats
who evolved and developed his ideas
were more consistently Western accord-
538
ing to Kohn’s definition than any other
segment of German thought. They were
the true opposition to what he calls the
“German mind” and it seems odd to omit
them from it; though their inclusion
would have made men like Adenauer less
than unique in their Western orienta-
tion. The Social Democrats failed in
1933 precisely because of their liberal-
ism and moderation, their devotion to
representative government at all costs.
Is there no relationship between an
ideal and its historical milieu? Professor
Kohn never asks whether the ethos of
Goethe would have worked in the con-
crete historical and economic situation
of Germany. He points to the success
of the Third Republic in France and to
the failure of the German Republic as
something intrinsic to the development
of German nationalism. But this is sure-
ly only one of many factors. There was
no great depression in 1870, and six mil-
lion unemployed might have put a great
strain on French rationalism, as a much
less serious social dislocation did in the
Dreyfus affair.
While the book is concerned with the
education of the nation by intellectuals,
such factors as the slow industrialization
of Germany are still important. What is
called German “pessimism” can also be
seen as a nostalgia for the old days by
classes, like the artisans, which were
being squeezed out by industrial prog-
ress. To say that “German intellectuals
succeeded in leading the German peo-
ple into the abyss” is to put a great
premium on the process of myth-making
at the expense of the reality of history.
This is not to absolve the intellectuals
from guilt—but would they have been
effective if they had proclaimed a re-
ligion of humanity? Like Benedetto
Croce in Fascist Italy, they would have
been noble but isolated. As it was, they
did propagate a neo-romanticism and
a racism which led to catastrophe,
though in this book nothing is said about
National Socialism itself. In order to
make this movement understandable,
more would have to be said about race
and less about Prussian power. National
Socialism was, after all, an Austrian and
south German movement.
THESE are some of the problems raised
by Professor Kohn’s thesis. They make
it not a less but a more important book
than if it had no strongly expressed
opinions. If he had written a history of
German nationalism and not an inquiry
into the German mind as a whole, there
would have been less dissent. Similarly,
if the West had not been idealized in
the name of Liberalism and the En-
lightenment, Germany’s separation from
Western thought would have been more
convincing. The conclusions about West
German democracy spring out of this
characterization of the West. It is based
on the hypothesis that Germany’s al-
liance with the West is the decisive
factor in the final demise of the German
mind. Liberalism, moderation and con-
cern for humanity will in this way tri-
umph in Germany. Regardless of whether
or not the West stands for these ideolo-
gies, it is doubtful that a political and
military alliance must needs have such
consequences. Enough has been written
of late about problems of neo-Nazism
and nationalism in the Federal Repub-
lic to render any optimism about its
future development questionable. More-
over, Professor Kohn has to ignore East
Germany, which if united with the
Western section, would certainly undo
the alliance with the Western nations.
The definition of the West as an
ideological unity can have serious con-
sequences in reviving the holy war
against the East. Germany’s Foreign
Minister has already taken advantage of
this as he celebrated in 1955 the thou-
sand-year anniversary of the victory of
the Emperor over the East at the battle
of Lechfeld. Has the German war
against the West ended only to enlist
the West in a new and greater struggle?
Professor Kohn would reject this in-
terpretation of recent German develop-
ments, and he may well be right. But his
analysis does lead to such speculations.
Polyglot Reader
THE POEM ITSELF. Edited by Stanley
Burnshaw. Holt, Rinehart and Win-
ston. 338 pp. $6.50.
Ramon Guthrie
THE PREMISE on which The Poem
Itself is based is that poetry cannot be
translated or even that, as Valéry says,
“Any writing that has an aim that can
~wrRracc ,¢ ney . » ql
be expressed by another writing is prose.” |
Under the editorship of Stanley Burn-
shaw, twenty-three scholars, with a good
smattering of poets among them, have
produced a polyglot anthology of selec-
tions from the works of forty-five poets
writing in six languages, and endeavored |
to make them accessible, as poetry, to the
English-speaking reader who may have
no knowledge of the original tongues.
Their purpose is to conyey the feeling |
RAMON GUTHRIE, poet and critic,
teaches comparative literature at Darte
mouth, His latest collection of
Graffiti, was published by Maemi
iveness of the poem, as well as
ts meaning, by comment, interpretation
ind paraphrase, rather than by trans-
tion.
Among the poets included in the an-
thology are Baudelaire, Mallarmé, Rilke,
Brecht, Leopardi, Lorca, Quasimodo and
Jngaretti.
Since sound is an important element
poetry, The Poem Itself contains
notes on the prosody and pronunciation
each of the languages represented, and
the reader is warned that the profit he
may get from the work will be propor-
m | tionate to the “effort he is willing to in-
> | vest in learning to hear.”
s 1) In addition to being a book that every-
| one concerned with poetry should own,
tt} )The Poem Itself is an interesting experi-
“| Sment that may well become a pioneer of
| Nits kind. The chief flaw in its method is
. | that the reader is asked to read the or-
i} Miginal poem “along with” the English
« | paraphrase — which would require more
a} eyes and minds than most of us are
n | Sequipped with. As Mr. Burnshaw admits,
dj) “Ideally each poem should be available
«| im a recording.”
2
1 off, .
See SU ec
The success of the method depends
much on the kind of poems selected and
the skill and perception of the explicator.
Thanks to clear comment by John F.
Nims, who has a happy knack of explor-
ing poetry without dispelling its essential
mystery, the reader with no knowledge
of Gallego (the dialect of Galicia) can
experience the poems of Rosalia Castro
without too much difficulty. And one
need not know the popular vernacular of
Rome to enjoy the rollicking cynicism of
a Belli sonnet as Professor Bergin pre-
sents it. Similarly, the shorter poems of
Rilke and Brecht come through as
aesthetic experience to the reader who
has only sketchy German, but this
reader at least could achieve no more
than an intellectual comprehension of
the long excerpt from Rilke’s “Die Erste
Elegie.”
Occasionally the commentaries obscure
more than they elucidate. The transla-
tion of Valéry’s beautiful evocation of
the sound of the cicada in summer air:
“L’insecte ne gratte la sécheresse,” as
“The sharp insect scrapes at the dryness
of the earth,” is a case in point.
et ART
PH OTOGRAPHY in the Fine Arts, the
econd i in a continuing series of exhibi-
tions at the Metropolitan Museum of
irt, New York, is based on a fallacy. It
s fallacious to think that the question,
is photography an art?, can be decided
Xy much the same process that elects
Representatives-at-Large to Congress. A
umber of photographic organizations,
professional and amateur, and or-
ganizations of publishers and advertisers,
hominated 800 photographs by nearly as
photographers, and from these a
‘selection was made by a jury of
lve: curators, museum directors, art
ritics and photographers, who voted
secretly and without regard to any
eration but their own preferences.
Jury elected 127 black-and-white
y
h can be seen at the museum until
mber 4th. One objection to this
edure is that the works were first
‘screened by organizations—an or-
ion has no taste—and another ob-
on is that democratic choice is ir-
Vi yant to ae standards.
5 wes it enough, and if the juror
s the show responds. James
lirector eh the museum, or
i: . Fairfield Porter
welcoming paintings of white on black
and black on white, even white on white,
the photographer should have his day
in court.” But photographers are not
suing anyone, and they need no defense.
When was black-and-whiteness the es-
sential nature only of the photographic
medium? And where does color fit in?
Photography is a medium—you can
recognize a photograph—but attempts
to define it, to limit what it is, will al-
ways come up against important excep-
tions. Is photography a kind of ultimate
realism, as is implied by the pejorative
adjective “photographic”? What then
about abstract photographs? Very often
a diagram, or diagrammatic drawing, can
be more informative than a photograph,
as in an atlas of anatomy. One wonders
whether a photograph is art, not so much
because of anything inherent in the me-
dium, as because the difference between
art and craft, and art or craft and mech-
anism, is very subtle in photography.
This subtlety has mostly eluded the
screening organizations and the jurors;
so if this rather disappointing exhibition
proves anything about the artistic nature
of photography, it is that among the
thousands of photographs taken every
year, very few are art. Which is not to
be wondered at, for it is also true of
painting, sculpture, literature, music and
all the arts. The exhibition proves that
art is not what people look for first of
all in photography, which has so many
uses, like recording and advertising. And
it is hard to tell immediately when a
photograph stands out as art.
THE color photograph that stood out
for me was Horst’s Two Moslem Women.
Nothing escapes from the picture, every
cool color is where it should be (as
good color also should be in painting).
Photography enjoys the advantage of
having hardly any problem about mud-
diness, since its color is an aspect of
light. Pleasing color photographs are
Kauffman’s Punting on the Cherwell
and Haas’s Norwegian Fjord, which de-
pends perhaps too much on being a
record of a landscape extraordinarily
beautiful in nature.
In black and white a standard for me
is whether the photographer, either in
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the dark room, or at the shutter (like
Cartier-Bresson, who leaves developing
and printing to anyone else), can main-
tain a life for values and textures all
over the picture. Matisse told the pupils
in his painting class to make every cor-
ner alive; and this seems to have been
supremely the practice of the photog-
rapher Atget. Among the _ black and
whites that I liked are Cornell Capa’s
photograph of Pasternak sitting on a
park bench among a litter of leaves
against a background of young birches,
which has that multiplicity of nature
found in Pasternak’s verbal descriptions;
Breitenbach’s War Orphan, Korea, with
all its grays alive; Carolyn Mason Jones’s
Bridge through the Window, with the
sun shining through raindrops on the
glass; the dispersed and ragged abstract
pattern of Lessing’s Hungarian Revolu-
tion; Cartier-Bresson’s Matisse and
Doves — he is a photographer who is
able to suggest in any subject, a politi-
eal, editorial point of view; and Porter’s
Sick Herring Gull, whose intensely ac-
curate textures to:the very edge of the
picture, make other photographs look
journalistic.
The exhibition does not convince me
that the organizations which submitted
photographs to the jury are primarily
interested in the art of photography. I
would like to see work by Ellen Auer-
bach, Rudolph Burckhardt, Robert
Frank, George Montgomery and Walter
Silver.
FILMS
Robert Hatch
INGMAR BERGMAN’s Dreams be-
longs to his pre-Seventh Seal period, be-
fore allegory and legend had assumed a
large place in his narrative imagination.
It is, for him, a quiet and uncomplicated
work with the ingratiating quality of
seeming to be improvised from a sketchy
outline.
The story impulse of Dreams is not
very strong; it is more a film about a
subject. In general, I suspect extrapola-
tion from one art form to another, but I
kept seeing this picture as a theme. with
variations. The theme is love and the
variations involve one combination of
two women and a man and another of
two men and a woman. Six people are
involved, of which two find happiness
and four retreat with their hearts cut
and their claws bloody, The young taste
joy, the old — or older — give and take
AS
4 : A
wounds which, less:.than mortal, are
still incurable. But I do not think that
Bergman is saying anything so melan-
choly, or so untrue, as that only the
young are capable of love. What he does
say is that only the young can afford to
treat love as a game. Later, we hazard
too much when we play at it.
The cast of Dreams includes several
players now recognized as members of
Bergman’s “company” — Harriet An-
dersson, Eva Dahlbeck, Gunnar Bjérn-
strand and others. They perform with
the lovely emotional immediacy that he
elicits from his actors. I felt at times
that they were turning themselves on
and off with disconcerting abruptness,
but I will not make too much of that
for it is no doubt a consequence of the
improvisation I like. It is also probable
that Bergman keyed his performers to
the clipped, pose and break, profession-
alism of fashion photography, which is
the principal milieu of this film. That
sort of wit appeals to his honed mind.
I HAVE finally caught up with Pull
My Daisy, which turns out to be a beat
“Our Gang” comedy. Larry Rivers, un- |
accountably playing a railroad brakeman,
invites Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso
and a couple of like-minded friends over
to the pad to help entertain a square
Zen bishop, his mother and sister, new
and valued acquaintances of the brake-
man’s wife.
The poets, being good kids, try to
make the evening go by being real polite
and interested, but they don’t under-
stand bishop talk and the beer and wine |
sort of scramble things up. So the Zenster
and his ladies leave pretty early, which
upsets the wife, and the boys all pour
down the stairs for more fun somewhere
up the block.
It lasts only twenty-five minutes and —
for that length of time it is dandy. Partly
that is because Jack Kerouac, who put
the things together and who narrates it,
kids his own crowd as happily as he does
the outside squares; partly it is because
Ginsberg and Corso are fine clowns —_
their air of absurdity trying to be con-—
vineing is one of the roots of good slap-—
stick. From time to time, Kerouac’s text
(interpolations by Ginsberg) “takes off,”
and then it sounds like an attempt to
set poetry to film. But when he talks
the beat mumble he is funny, and he
has a gift for voice impersonation that |
keeps the pseudo-dialogue bright and
lively.
] have a feeling that the boys may |
really make it in the movies (not that
they have done badly in the paperback |
and lecture business); they are what we
have been needing since Hal Roach lef
us, |
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Crossword Puzzle No. 872
By FRANK W. LEWIS
ACROSS:
1 Bracelets might be, as they used to
be to meet one. (7)
5 More like the way Father William’s
bones were. (7)
Y Declared the mean time gone Com-
munist. (7)
10 Fancy bun. (7)
11 Not necessarily from the Black
Forest. (5)
12 and 17 down Despicable fellow, not
od being associated with the ring.
6
'13 Token connection between the cart
and the horse? (5)
(14 Tea might be moved fast around
where the ball is held. (7)
16 Doesn’t make an agreeable com-
ment. (7)
18 Can be made, as it can turn bad.
121 and 27 across The structure of many
— languages. (5, 2, 5)
»28 The sort of vigil Pope’s pensive
poets keep. (7)
29 ine (the hard way, for some).
31 Portraying the spirits of Reformed
~ Churchmen? (7)
; DOWN:
How to give the wrong name to a
single flower? (7)
38 and 30 Robin time, according to
legend. (5, 7)
e to a conclusion. (7)
e 18, 1960
* cee ahs Poe et bec
"
nO
5 Made certain of what might sprout
around 12. (7)
Row a long time in the race. (7)
8 Twelve and 17 might be one of
these, sometimes made with cast
iron. (7)
15 and 26 The province of humor with
a smart thrust. (6)
18 and 1 down On the track of those
who engrave the holder of 8? (14)
19 and 6 Would it make a wild pinto
pivot? (7, 5)
20 Got round (but flatter in the past).
21 The small flap permits surfaces to
be written on. (7)
22 Completed in the reconstruction
period by I. Butler. (7)
23 and 24 Ruth’s all free of the grease
remover you upset! (7, 5)
25 Does this official merely get off
with an incredulous expression about
it? (5)
27 More discouraged, or rather more
like a jazz tune? (5)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 871
ACROSS: 1 Holding the bag; 10
Chasm; 11 Weathered; 13 Spoke; 14
Corn plasters; 19 Crosspatches; 22
Ester; 24 Plaything; 25 Garibaldi; 26
Canon; 27 Fringe benefit. DOWN: 2
Orally; 3 Dominions; 4 New Guinea;
5 Trail; 6 Ethos; 7 Air power; 8 Scabs;
9 Adverse; 15 Lucrative; 16 Spectacle;
ie Acreage; 18 Torturer; 20 Rienzi;
21 Aging; 28 Robin; 24 Pulse.
hed
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Crystal Lake Lodge, Chestertown 9, N.Y.
Chestertown 3830 — N.Y.C. LU 5-1678
| N EC RESTin THE BERKSHIRES
W. Cornwall, Conn. : On Housatonic River
A delightful vacation resort near Music Mt.,
Summer Theatres. Sandy beach, swimming, fish-
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Lovely lawns for relaxing. Delicious food. Cab-
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Diana & Abe Berman Phone: MO 2-3003
rrowhead
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Kamous for Social, Folk & Square Danc
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Tel.: N.Y.C. DE 2-4578 — Ellenville 502
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Where Interesting People Meet for the Perfect
Vacation. Heavenly Environment on 10-mile Lake.
All Land & Water Activities. Square & Folk
Dancing. Delicious Food. Non-Sectarian,
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Tel. Marlow-Hilltop 6-3349
I WINDY HILL © onance taxe |
A pleasantly informal vacation in friendly at-
mosphere. Swimming, Boating, Fishing on Nat-
ural Lake. Badminton, Volley Ball, Ping-pong,
other sports. Records, books. Summer Theatre,
Golf nearby. Food of excellent quality in gen-
erous quantity. $55.00 Weekly; $8.00 Daily;
Weekend: Fri. Supper thru Sun. Dinner $16.
Tel. Newburgh: JO 2-1232
Jane C. Arenz, R.D. Box 166, Walden, N.Y.
TRAPP FAMILY LODGE, Stowe, Vermont.
Home of Trapp family on whose life the
current musical, “The Sound of Music,” is
based. Restful, atmospheric chalet. Pano-
ramic scenery. Hearty Austrian-American
meals. $9.00 American. Folder. Telephone:
Stowe, ALpine 3-7545.
RELAX in a friendly atmos-
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Fireproof Bldg. Elevator serv-
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Forest howe’
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Advertise Your Resorts
in The Nation
Printed in the U.S.A. by RCR Publication Printers Corp., N. ¥. Cc.
According to Newsweek of Feb. 29, 1960, Roger Revelle, |
Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanology, of-
fered a UCLA class this solution to the problem of war:]
“If we send a million young Americans to be educated
in Russia and they send a million here, there would be}
no chance of war. They would, in effect, be hostages.”
A novel idea? Two years earlier —in our issue of Feb.
8, 1958, to be precise — we printed an editorial under
the caption, “The Exchange of Hostages,’ in which we
said: “Let’s offer to admit Russian students at once, the
more the better. Exchange programs ... can be made
to serve much the same purpose as agreements for the
exchange of voluntary hostages. . . . The practice of ex-
changing voluntary hostages to guarantee fulfillment of }
treaty obligations was common in the Middle Ages, and
proved quite successful.” |
Had Mr. Revelle read our editorial? Naturally, we like
to think so. Nation editorials are full of ideas that are
impudent enough, at first reading, to elicit a chuckle —
and prove sound enough, at second reading, to make
them worth repeating. 7
Do you subscribe to The Nation? See coupon below.
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THE NATION, 333 Sixth Avenue, New York 14
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~
‘
=
Name Soaivseecececencccnecsrceseveueeersenvsnveedeedeuses sein
Address chess svveesevereesresscveceesaurenereecencassentna
City isles reee eS ks Zones ..0s State....... hae
b ~~," 2 ie 518-0
AN \ 7 1 4 4A BM ee
ait
THE AEC TAKES A BEATING
CAPE COD’S ATOMIC PARK
e
Grace DesChamps
aa
Se ereX Of Ge
WHY AIR LINES ‘OVERSELL’
BUMPING THE PASSENGER
Karl M. Ruppenthal
5
f
$
:
,
?
THE VIEWS OF C. P. SNOW
Earl Miner
THE CASE OF KOREA
OUR FALLING RAMPARTS
“Aa t?, 4 _' Sa ee.
wo ’ ® ete tT tre
‘ +
3. I cannot speak for the Air Force
Reserve Bases or the Air National Guard
Bases; however, the Navy has closed
several Naval Air Stations in the past
few years for economy purposes. Many
remaining stations provide classroom
(in shifts), in protest against prepara
tions for germ warfare and the arma
ments race. That this remarkable ex-}
periment in persuasion should have con-
tinued so long is a testimony to the rel-|
evance of the issue and the apie of}
LETTERS
a
Socialist Platform
Dear Sirs: Milton Viorst, in his article
|
3
(June 11) “Not Running,” asserts that
the 1960 Socialist platform would “cer-
tainly gain the assent of Senators Hum-
phrey and Morse, and perhaps even of
Senator Kennedy.” If true, we’d be the
last to object. But writer Viorst might
find that they would balk at a few
facilities for Navy Technical training
courses, and provide much needed fuel
and service stops for cross-country
flights.
4. As to your complaint about flight
pay for aviators, I must also emphatical-
ly disagree. True, it is just as honorable
the method.
Plans call for the vigil to end on Mon
day, July 4, marking a full year. More
(Continued on page 553)
In This Issue
planks, as for example: to die on the ground as in the air during EDITORIALS |
{Social ownership and democratic oe military conflict; but in peace- 541 '@
Pate Dae : time, aviation training is a great deal q
control of the commanding heights of more hazardous than other military ARTICLES
industry, not as an end in itself, but
as a step in the creation of a truly
human society... .
{If no agreements should be reached
at Geneva, the Socialist Party will
call for the immediate unilateral ces-
sation of nuclear weapons production
and testing by this government... .
{Beginning at once negotiation
looking to recognition of the effec-
tive government of China. .
{(Immediate) socialization of the
oil industry . . . and the basic means
of transportation. .. .
Nation readers may obtain a complete
copy of the platform free by writing to
Socialist Party — Social Democratic Fed-
eration, 303 Fourth Avenue, New York
10; SLY:
Irwin Suatt, National Secretary
Socialist Party — Social Democratic
Federation
Military Waste?
Dear Sirs: I would like to comment on
the “quagmires of military waste” dis-
cussed in your editorial of May 14, en-
titled “Week-End Warriors.”
1. I assume that the piece of Waikiki
Beach referred to is Fort Derussy which
does, in fact, front on Waikiki Beach,
along with the Moana Hotel, the Royal
Hawaiian Hotel, Henry Kaiser’s Hawaii-
an Village and others. ... Am I to as-
sume that U.S. servicemen can compete
with tourists for accommodations at these
plush hotels? Our servicemen are as
much entitled to recreation and relaxa-
tion as any civilian tourist, and Fort
Derussy goes a long way toward meet-
ing these needs at prices our servicemen
can afford to pay....
2. I wonder if you are under the im-
pression that military hospitals exist for
the sole purpose of providing for peace-
time military needs. Have you ever heard
of war casualties? It is simply a matter
of forehandedness that prompts the
maintenance of “excess” hospital space.
training with the exception of the Army
paratroops. I have been a Naval aviator
for four years, and at least five personal
acquaintancés have been killed in the
line of duty during that period. I doubt
whether any soldier or blackshoe Navy
man can make a similar statement. This,
I feel, is the raison d'etre of incentive
pay.
Rospert H. Kosier
Lt., United States Navy
Pensacola, Fla.
Workable Answers
Dear Sirs: The “liberal” press has ex-
hibited a great tendency to attack the
South as a region and, instead of
searching for the serious answers to
the crucial questions of the day, to make
the racial problem appear to be one of
clear-cut rights and wrongs.
There are those in the South who
are searching for answers which will
work, for answers which are related to
the actual problems of the South, not
for answers that are political or expedi-
ent.
What the NAACP and related organ-
izations have done is to make great
legal strides in the advancement of
Negro equality, but not to accompany
these legal strides with a policy of pub-
lic education or political accommodation.
Not only the laws of states, but the
minds and hearts of people must be
changed... .
ALLAN CHARLES BrowNFELD
College Secretary
Young Republican Federation
of Virginia
Williamsburg, Va.
A Year of Protest
Dear Sirs: Every day since July 1, 1959,
a vigil has been maintained at the gates
of Fort Detrick, germ warfare research
center at Frederick, Md. Participants
stand in silence, from 7 A.M. to 5 P.M.
544 @ Our Falling Ramparts:
the Case of Korea
by ALFRED CROFTS j
548 @ Cape Cod’s Atomic Park:
550 @ Wasting $1,250 a Second
551 '@ Bumping the Passenger
BOOKS AND THE ARTS
AEC Takes a Beating
by GRACE DesCHAMPS
by E. U. CONDON
by KARL M. RUPPENTHAL
554 @ C. P. Snow and the Realistic pu
Novel
by BARL MINER
wil
555 '@ The Paradoxes of Nehru
555 @ The Event Itself (poem)
556 @ What Alice Knew 2
558 @ Television
559 '@ Art
UNM
IM
in Readers Guide to Periodical L
by THEODORE M. GREENE
by HAYDEN CARRUTH
“ 7
by JOSPPH CARROLL
by NORMAN 'THOMAS
di GIOVANNI
by MAURICH GROSSHER
Crossword Puzzle (opp. 560)
by FRANK W. LEWIS
George G. Kirstein, Publisher . |
Carey MeWilliams, Editor
Victor H. Bernstein, Managing Editor |
Robert Hatch, Books and the Arts
Harold Clurman, Theatre
Maurice Grosser, Art
M. L. Rosenthal, Poetry
Lester Trimble, Music
Alexander Werth, Huropean
Correspondent
Mary Simon, Advertising Manager
The Nation, June 25, 1960. Vol. 190, No. 26 |
The Nation published weekly (except for omis-
sion of four summer issues) by The Nation
Company and copyright 1960, in the U.S.A. by
the Nation Associates, Inc,, 333 Sixth Avenue,
New York 14, N. Y. Second class postage paid
at New York, N. Y. |
Subscription Price Domestlc—One year $8, Two |
years $14, Three Years $20, Additional postage |
per year, Foreign $1. 7
Change of Address; Three weeks’ notice ts re
quired for change of address, which cannot be |
made without the old address as well as ey }
Information to Libraries; The N:
Review Digest, Index to Labor
artery Information Service, Di
ca\
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 1960
VOLUME 190, No. 26 "
NATION
EDITORIALS
What's the Rush?
After every level-headed political adviser had urged
the President not to go to Japan under present condi-
tions, and after Jim Hagerty had reiterated that, as a
soldier, the President would go despite hell and high
water, and after Premier Kishi had vowed that he never,
never would withdraw the invitation, the invitation was
withdrawn. Amid the general relief, let it not be forgot-
ten that the students and trade unionists were not riot-
ing for fun, nor against General Eisenhower, nor even,
except incidentally, against Kishi; they were rioting
against the U.S.-Japan “security” treaty. The cancella-
tion of the President’s visit does not dispose of the root
‘of the trouble, which is that a formidable section of the
Japanese people — perhaps a majority — and millions
of other Asians as well prefer neutralism, and the
if reaty now up for ratification keeps Japan chained to
he American military machine for another eleven
years. cae *
This would be so even without the memories of Hiro-
Bina and Nagasaki, without the U-2s based on Japan,
and without the remonstrances and threats of the So-
viet Union. If a nation has a choice, why, in the name
“of sanity, should it not choose to be neutral? The Jap-
anese mobs are asking for a choice and it would be well
to o consider their viewpoint instead of denouncing them,
A da Hagerty, as Communists,
} “This viewpoint has been succinctly expressed by Nar-
uhi o Nishi, Japanese diplomat, who told the Wail
Strect Journal (June 15) that the security treaty opens
ie ae) a a retaliatory war. The treaty’s “prior consul-
tation” provision means that Japan may have to acqui-
e sy the deployment of American troops and equip-
from Japan to trouble spots elsewhere in Asia, in-
of remaining neutral. That the opposition to the
pines from such considerations is attested in_
feller ie who has
|
spent the past three years in Japan learning the life and
language of the country. “The Japanese do not fear
writes Mr. Rockefeller.
“They have never seen its workings; they have never
felt threatened by it. . . . The students are convinced
that Kishi is trying to remilitarize Japan. ... They be-
lieve that he wants President Eisenhower to visit Japan
simply to give Kishi support in his attempt to pass the
mutual security pact.”
communism the way we do,”
Under these circumstances, with the opposition grow-
ing by leaps and bounds and Kishi probably on his way
out, it is the height of imprudence for the Senate to rush
a moribund treaty to ratification. When the Foreign
Relations Committee says it is not the treaty, “but
Japan’s free institutions that the Communist allies are
trying to stifle,’ it seems to be trying to out-Hagerty
Hagerty. They would be better advised to listen to Mr.
Rockefeller. If ever there was a time for delay and
deliberation and second thoughts, this is it.
The Bipartisan Chorus
The season of political styling is far advanced; each
day, now, the candidates parade, as manikins parade,
exhibiting the 1960 styles in rhetoric, oratory and, above
all, “line.” Technique and personality are important,
but “line” (read: “stance,” “position”) is the major
point in this year’s fashions. Given the Summit debacle
and the riots in Turkey, South Korea and Japan, all
To Nation Readers
- After July 9, and through August, The _
_ Nation will appear on alternate weeks
_ only, i.e., on July 23, August 6 and Au-
et 20. The weekly schodvile will be re-
ed with the issue of September 3.
+h
Viny he py "hy tant te
the candidates, without distinction of party, have
stressed the Strong America “line.” This would be
sound political merchandizing in any election: voters
always favor a Strong America — there are no Quislings
in our midst. But since mid-May, the line has been
emphasized with a compulsiveness that is a tribute to
Khrushchev’s power to intervene in our domestic pol-
itics. Each candidate feels that, if only as a matter of
tactics, of political insurance, he must be just as em-
phatic about a Strong America as every other candidate.
At the moment, the four avowed aspirants, Messrs.
Johnson, Symington, Kennedy and Nixon, are harmon-
izing on this theme in barber-shop quartet style. Un-
fortunately, the effect is to obscure whatever differen-
ces they may have about issues basic to any considera-
tion of what it is that constitutes “strength” in the rev-
olutionary world of the 1960s.
Illustrations abound. Recently, for example, Senator
Kennedy devoted the first three of a twelve-point for-
eign-policy program to stressing the need for increased
arms expenditures. In the course of what was in many
respects an admirable speech, the Senator indicated that
successful negotiations on disarmament, or on any po-
litical issue of the cold war, can be based only on a “posi-
tion of strength.” The other candidates would agree.
Yet it is precisely this assumption that should be ex-
amined. The experience of the cold-war years points to
the conclusion that the “position of strength” doctrine,
first formulated by Dean Acheson, is essentially self-
defeating. As a matter of tough cold-war politics, “posi-
tion of strength” means “position of greater strength”
— relative, that is, to the Soviets. Once achieved, this
position may make the “enemy” more cautious; in prac-
tice it has not made him more conciliatory. On the
contrary, he has stalled on negotiations while redoubling
his efforts to gain a position of greater strength relative
to us. Nor have we taken advantage of those periods
in the cold war in which we enjoyed a clear military
superiority to negotiate settlements. Rather the argu-
ment has prevailed that by holding out a little longer,
by increasing our military superiority by a wider mar-
gin, we could strike a harder bargain. If past experience
is a guide, we will not negotiate successfully with the
Russians about any issue of substance as long as we in-
sist on negotiating from a position of clear, measurable,
sustained military superiority.
‘Cold Peace’
In the weeks since the Summit debacle, the talk has
been not so much of a resumption of the cold war as of
an extended period — West German Defense Minister
Strauss suggests it might be for fifty years — of “cold
peace.” In other words, the dominant feeling is not that
there will be war, or even a resumption of cold war in
ae
J
the pre-1953 pattern; but ater ae ine any set tle= fio!
ments, the arms race will continue. But “cold peace” a Pub
five years or fifty is incompatible with an accelerated J der
arms race. As Philip Noel-Baker told an audience in f sto
Toronto last week, “We must achieve disarmament or }oli
perish. If we don’t, civilization will not survive the yt
twentieth century.” And public pronouncements to the § sp
i
contrary, there is much evidence to sustain the belief fap
that the Administration has been deliberately dragging [we
its feet on disarmament since 1955. (See, for example, } {ur
Barbara Castle’s article, “The Truth About Disarma- pi!
ment,” New Statesman, June 11.) The charge may or } {i
may not be true, but the point is that, in any case, we J ox
have placed ourselves in the public position of appear- } {\
ing to be most unenthusiastic about disarmament. Re-> } {yi
cently Godfrey Sperling, Jr., reported in the Christian |
Science Monitor (June 10): “What greatly alarms Mr.
Stevenson today is uncertainty whether the United J,
States Government is really ready to accept missile and |
nuclear disarmament, even with a workable inspection |
system — words to the contrary. From his extensive | pil
travels, he has observed that there is a wide area of J
doubt among peoples as to the depth of America’s sin- } 1
cerity in seeking disarmament at this time.” And this } th
area of doubt will widen and deepen just so long as the J i
rest of the world continues to hear an incessant, u- | |
nanimous political clamor in this country for bigger, J} j
costlier, more lethal arms programs to assure our “posi- } Wi
tion of strength.” Ba
Hee
ay
_
When we hear the term, we usually think of spies. J)
But there is another possible application. Representa~ } 9)
tive Martha W. Griffiths (D., Mich.) brought up the | Pai
possibility in the House on June 9 when she started a ff
Double Agents in Procurement
discussion on the use of consultants in procurement. f \y
The Nation editorialized about consultants (June 4, |
p. 483), but the situation seems to be worse than we | %
envisioned. Mrs. Griffiths, having been a contract nego- Ti
tiator for Ordnance during World War II, has specia OB,
competence in these matters. What attracted her atten-
tion was that consultants might consult for the gov-
ernment one month and for private industry the next.
This becomes doubly significant because (1) the supply
of scientists and engineers with special knowledge in
certain fields is limited; (2) the bulk of procurement
money is spent through negotiated contracts; (3) the | k
specifications written into these contracts determine «
what the government will get; (4) when the govern-
ment invites bids, the specifications often determine
which firm will be awarded the contract. As Mrs. if
fiths put it, “We are turning over the spending of | ‘$a
billion to a very small and select group of people Aho]
while they may be excellent in science ,. « |
| ay
_——.7-
yy
-
to the same type of prejudices that other people are
subject to.” The prejudices may include those engen-
dered by “astronomical fees” from corporations, or by
stock ownership and the like. Mrs. Griffiths asked an
official of the Department of Defense whether it would
not help if the department required every bidder to
supply the names and salaries paid to consultants over
a period of a year or two preceding the bid, and required
every one of its own consultants to list his employers
for a like period. She also quoted from Science, the
publication of the Association for the Advancement of
Science: “There is a considerable and growing concern
over the position of scientists with regard to the con-
flict-of-interest laws.” Mrs. Griffiths seems to have got
hold of something which the Congress should not allow
to sink into oblivion.
Truth or Consequences
Alarmed by a growing tendency in the American
public to asstime that advertising copy is written by
graduates of the quiz programs — and by a growing
restiveness in the Washington regulatory agencies —
the Advertising Federation of America has completed
and will soon publish The Advertising Truth Book.
The magazine Advertising Age has had an advance
peek at the material and reports that it is “packed
with definitions, precedents, criteria, guideposts, rules,
standards, test questions, taboos, explications,” all
designed to assist the bewildered agency people in
spotting a lie.
It is desperately difficult work. The handbook offers
a ‘seven-point preliminary test (rather like an annual
physical examination), designed to uncover the pos-
_ sible lurking place of a prevarication. Once such a locus
of infection is suspected, more intensive techniques can
be brought to bear to isolate and diagnose it.
_ Eyes fixed on heaven, the general counsel of the As-
sociation of National Advertisers has attempted a
definition of honesty, and it is quoted in the Truth
Book:
An advertisement is honest when objective facts which
bear upon the product or service advertised fulfill in all
material respects the understanding regarding them that
is generated in people by the advertisement when observed
in the way or ways that they normally perceive it.
Biciind, however, that mortal man is unlikely to
.
- Truthful advertising . . .
achieve a perfect definition of anything so ethereal as
truth, the handbook continues:
is a matter of philosophy and
intent. .. . The horiest seafarer needs no chart. He need
only keep his eye on the star of truth.
lich is as pretty a sentiment as ever came out of
desperandum.”
Coast and Geodetic Survey for not having phrased it
first. 4 |
It is right that we sympathize with the advertisers
in their manful struggle, for in a peculiar sense truth
and falsehood are the tools of their trade. As the Truth
Book states in its preamble:
By its very nature, [false and deceptive advertising]
is a loose concept, expanding and contracting according
to the current philosophy of control and the nature of
the advertising in question,
Or, to put it more directly, truth is what you can get
away with, and a lie is like when someone cries “cop-
per.” Not truth, in short, but truth or consequences,
is what this little book is all about.
Boy Bites American Legion
The uncertainties of life and the perils of prediction
have never been better illustrated than in the behavior
of a section of the younger generation which, after being
chided for aspiring only to be hirelings of the great cor-
porations and raising their own families in peace, dem-
onstrated at lunch counters, in the City Hall at San
Francisco, and in various other rebellions, how much
they have been maligned. What is worse, this sort of
thing spreads, and just as twelve-year-old females are
now using eyeshade and wearing brassieres on their
bony little chests, it spreads downwards in the age scale.
At Westbury, Long Island, Rocco Pasquarelli, the
Americanism chairman of the local American Legion
post, stood up before more than 1,000 students, parents,
and school officials at the Westbury High School Senior
Awards assembly and prepared to present a shiny gold
Citizenship Award pin to seventeen-year-old Stephen
Bayne, who had already received a collection of other
honors, including a scholarship to Harvard and numer-
ous awards for highest scholastic achievement. Instead
of showing a becoming gratitude, Stephen interrupted:
“Wait ...I refuse to accept any award from an organi-
zation whose policies I am unable to respect!” As the
Russians would say, consternation, prevailed in the hall.
A man in the audience jumped to his feet and shouted,
“T demand that that boy be expelled from school ims
immediately!” The principal apologized for Stephen’s
reprehensible behavior. Two of the young malefactor’s
other awards were withdrawn by the faculty and given
to presumably more docile candidates, but the latter
also turned out to be recalcitrant; while not agreeing
with Stephen, they refused the prizes as rightfully be-
longing to him. Thus the contagion spreads among the —
youth, and the compulsion to make asses of themselves
spreads among faculties and school administrators. As
for libertarians, the moral of it all is an old one: “Nil
THE CASE OF KOREA
OUR FALLING RAMPARTS. . . by Alfred Crofts
In last week’s issue (June 18), we noted editorially:
“The policy of military containment, using such con-
tainers as Rhee, Menderes, Batista, Nuri, Franco, Cha-
moun, Chiang [and, we might have added, Kish}, has
failed. What remains of American prestige and reputa- -
tion can be saved only if the failure is recognized and
In many ways, Korea
was characteristic of all our failures; and until we un-
derstand why we failed there, no new policies we may
formulate will likely be any better than the old. That
1s why, ten years after the outbreak of the Korean War,
we present the following account of certain develop-
ments which led up to it, and certain consequences
which followed.
the policy is changed, and soon.”
of the events he describes, the author 1s particularly
qualified to write this ten-year retrospect. There is al )
a special drama attached to the writing. A Naval Int
ligence officer in World War II, Mr. Crofts went to
Korea in 1945 as part of the U.S. Military Government.
In 1950, when the war started, he was back in the United
States, teaching at the University of Denver (he still %
teaches there). A few days after the war’s outbreak, he (Yes
was scheduled to discuss the subject on a local radio
program sponsored by the university’s Social Science
Foundation. But when the foundation's director read
the script, he canceled the broadcast.
With the additional material—and perspectives—that ©
ten years have given him, Mr. Crofts here says what he
As a professional historian and an eyewitness of many
I WAS ONE of fifty American offi-
cers assembled on a muddy field
near Tenth Army H.Q. in Okinawa
on the evening of September 1, 1945.
We had volunteered to set up
USAMGIK — United States Mil-
itary Government in Korea — with
authority over 17 million people
south of the Thirty-eighth Parallel.
Two of us had seen the land we were
to govern (as one of the two, I had
passed through the area, then the
Japanese colony of Chosen, some
years before on the South Manchuria
_ Railway). Most of us had received
civil-affairs training, though none
spoke a sentence of Korean.
Escorted by USAFIK (VU. S.
Armed Forces in Korea) — the
Army’s XXIV Corps, under com-
mand of Lieut-Gen. John R. Hodge
— our first echelon disembarked at
Inchon a week later. We were bound-
lessly acclaimed as liberators on the
way to Seoul, and our convoys
_ passed under triumphal arches and
welcoming banners. In the capital,
_ -we were greeted with copies of an
a English-language paper, The Korea
_ Times, clandestinely published by a
_ staff of American university gradu-
ates.
The division of Korea into Russian
and American sectors had been de-
cided as a means of supervising the
Japanese surrender. To many Amer-
icans, USAMGIK seemed a quick
way home, probably by Christmas;
and its duties were lightly under-
taken. There was much fraterniza-
tion with the Japanese, who depend-
ed critically upon American friend-
ship and did not lack means of
entertaining us. So convivial was one
of our provincial Military Governors
that his immediate transfer became
necessary. General Hodge himself
thoughtlessly offended national opin-
ion by remarking that “Koreans and
Japanese are the same breed of cats.”
Disarmament of the Japanese, the
primary objective of the occupation,
was taken to mean disarming Kore-
ans also. (“Let’s see that the Gooks
don’t start another war. either!”)
Not only did we destroy planes and
ordnance that might have armed a
new Korean militia; we smashed
wireless and optical equipment which
had been transferred to college sci-
ence laboratories.
USAFIK completely dominated
Military Government; hence author-
ity rested with tactical officers from
the U.S. infantry, artillery and air
force, competent in their profes-
sion, but indifferent to civilian prob-
lems. All wished to keep their men
comfortable; a number regarded this
Korean assignment merely as the
best way to hold their wartime tem-
porary ae q
wanted to say in 1950, and could not. — Eb.
it pla card ed oe Wid
I myself, a Navy lieutenant, was
given supervision of university af-
fairs, an office rated by the Japanese
as the highest in the Chosen bureau-—
cracy. My principal effort was to
rehabilitate colleges which had been
converted into G.I. billets ( a prac-
tice forbidden in Japan by Mac-
Arthur). I found it impossible to
secure adequate fuel or rice rations —
for the academic classes. Institutions —
sponsored by American’ mission
boards were, it is true, treated with
respect; official favor was thus lav-
ished on women’s Bible schools,
while the Imperial University’s tech-
nical colleges were stripped to make
a hospital barracks and its readin
rooms filled with army cots. I pro-
tested that to humiliate scholars is
a diplomatic blunder in Confucian
society. “These Gooks,” retorted a
Colonel Blimp, “don’t need colle;
Let’s close the places up and train
them to be coolies.”
OUR Education Bureau did, early
in October, order the recruitment of
a university staff, selecting Paik
Lak Geon as dean. Paik was an able
and experienced educator, holdii ing §
doctoral degree from Yale. | a h
appointment touched off | .
took to the streets oul walls
demonstrations; student:
prot CS
o%
I found copies of his anti- Retires
diatribes on file with Intelligence.
At a public hearing, Dr. Paik ad-
mitted the charges against him; I
urged that they be forgiven, point-
ing out that American-educated lead-
‘ers were placed under intolerable
‘pressure to collaborate with the Jap-
‘anese. But students and _ professors
-yoted unanimously to demand his
resignation. Some of them had been
sent to the mines for joining the
Resistance; their classmates had been
executed or their sisters seized as
“comfort girls” for the Japanese
Army. They could not respect any-
‘one who had purchased security by
ollaboration.
Dr. Paik’s removal had been agreed
‘upon when, upon astute advice, he
declared his accusers to be “Commu-
nists.” Three weeks of investigation
had revealed no sign of Communist
activity; indeed, students assured
e that because of censorship they
had never learned to know commu-
nism. But the tactic succeeded. Pro-
ceedings were thrown into reverse:
USAFIK confirmed the dean in ue
office (which he soon resigned,
Teappear later as Syngman Rhee’,
inister of Education); and stu-
dents were warned to obey him —
a their university would be “wiped
it.
— “Collaboration” dominated all
‘other i issues during the early months
} of Military Government. The of-
fense could not be clearly defined:
ing thirty-five years of colonial
, the opportunity to study in
erica, the holding of public office
the acquisition of wealth had been
ma-facie evidence of good stand-
ing with the Japanese Government-
General of Chosen. Now all inter-
Pp eters for USAMGIK, as well as its
me ost trusted advisers, were being
(o ‘osung College Bhd owner of Dong
A Bo (East Asia Daily News),
Pitatiaixtion” The Korean peo-
patriotic search for scapegoats
bled that in our own subse-
t Mc ae Car a
us
During the first week of Military
Government, two separate welcom-
ing parades were held in Seoul. “We
could not join the first one,” a col-
lege student explained to me, “and
march with the friends of the Japa-
nese. That is why we organized a
Loyal Koreans’ parade afterwards.”
Interpreters and bureaucrats defend-
ed each other against the charges
filed daily with USAMGIK; by De-
cember, left-wing posters described
the Government House as “that nest
of traitors.” The board set up by
Military Government to try collab-
orationists did not secure a single
conviction. But it became apparent
that within the American Zone there
were two Koreas separated by an
ideological gulf quite as wide as the
Thirty-eighth Parallel.
WE MISSED, within the first month
of the occupation, our best chance
of peacefully unifying Korea. On V-J
Day, August 15, prominent Koreans
began to set up governing commit-
tees throughout the peninsula. Jap-
anese authorities cooperated, and
the Russians, moving immediately
across the northern frontier, ap-
proved. On September 6, two days
before the American landings, a na-
tion-wide convention established a
People’s Republic, electing as Pres-
ident the Resistance leader Lyuh
Woon Hyeung. The Republic was
moderately left-wing — though no
more so than the post-colonial re-
gimes in Africa today. Lyuh had the
confidence even of the conservative
editors of The Korea Times. But,
because of its close relations with
1 - the Russians 1 in the North, and be--
.4t Be rf
yaa a il
cause Lyuh attempted to deal with |
General Hodge upon equal terms,
USAMGIK denied Lyuh’s regime
any “authority, status, or form” and
forbade it to use the title of Republic.
A potential unifying agency be-
came thus one of the fifty-four
splinter groups in South Korean poi- —
itical life.
Before the American landings, a
political Right, associated in popular
thought with colonial rule, could not
exist; but shortly afterward we were
to foster at least three conservative
factions. During the earliest days of
Military Government, numbers of
American-educated Koreans and
other anti-Republic elements formed
a New People’s Party directed by
Kimm Kiu Sic, a graduate of the
University of Washington.
In mid-October, USAMGIK wel-
comed Syngman Rhee, director of
the wartime Korean Commission in
Washington. Rhee, a hero of the
1919 Mansei Independence Revolt
in Korea, had during thirty-seven
years of exile acquired a doctorate
in Political Science under Woodrow
Wilson at Princeton. His return at-
tracted little general attention,
though from the first he seems to
have won the favor of the collabora-
tionist groups.
THE most distinguished of the re-
turning émigrés was, without doubt,
Kim Koo, who arrived in November
with the thirteen-member Cabinet
of the Provisional Government of
Korea. Kim, a man of action, had
four decades before personally
avenged the death of Queen Min,
martyr of the struggle against an-
nexation. His government-in-exile,
based in Chungking, had kept 35,000
troops in the field with the Chinese
Nationalist Army: since it had a
footing in both the Northern and
Southern zones of Korea, it might —
have offered a basis for national
union. Its failure followed a dead-
lock in American-Soviet negotiations ;
and the arrival, during January 9
Kim Il Sung, a dedicated interna-
tional Communist, to dese the
North Korean administration. f
Kimm, Rhee and Kim Koo had
led widely estranged careers, but fe or
a
a time they cooperated. All were
ie
sas
ere
Spe?
os
»
conciliatory toward the Left: Rhee,
in fact, endorsed certain “good”
Marxist ideas. They joined in de-
manding the prompt unification of
Korea and led the protest demonstra-
tions when, on December 29, the
Moscow Conference announced an
indefinite continuation of the Russo-
American “trusteeship” over the
country.
An underground Communist Party
had existed in Korea since 1925, win-
ning popular favor by its unrelent-
ing opposition to the Chosen Gov-
ernment-General. It catered to
USAMGIK by approving trustee-
ship, and American representatives
attended its twenty-first anniversary
celebration. During the spring of
1946, it joined Lyuh Woon Hyeung’s
newly formed People’s Party in a
Democratic People’s Front. Oppos-
ing the Front was a fusion of right-
ists calling itself The National So-
ciety for the Rapid Realization of
Independence. Politics in South
Korea had become polarized.
THE HEAVIEST shock to unity
was administered by U.S. Military
Government Ordinance 33 of Decem-
ber 12, 1945, confiscating all prop-
erty held by the former Government-
General or any Japanese national.
Military Government thus took title
to the best urban residences, nearly
all business structures and industrial
plants, four-fifths of the rice lands,
prodigious quantities of merchandise,
seventeen tons of silver and ware-
houses filled with industrial metals
or rubber. In the North, confiscated
Japanese properties remained with
the government, but American policy
called for the establishment of pri-
vate enterprise. Under USAMGIK
direction, chattels and securities were
to be sold, city real estate rented
until ready for auction, and agri-
cultural lands entrusted to a New
Korea Company for sale on the most
attractive terms possible to operat-
ing farmers.
With half the wealth of the nation
“up for grabs,” demoralization was
rapid. The People’s Front charged
that three classes owned nearly all
available capital and could thus di-
vide the bonanza among them: col-
laborationists who had grown rich
under the Japanese; “Liberation up-
starts” who were profiteering by the
sale of scarce consumer goods, and
returning carpetbagger émigrés (I
knew well a member of the latter
class — a Seoul millionaire who had
made his fortune as a gangster in
wartime Shanghai). Syngman Rhee
became increasingly identified with
these opportunists, and was con-
sidered their mouthpiece.
Rhee made an even more fruitful
alliance with the National Police —
a Military Government reorganiza-
tion of the Japanese kempeitai, or
gendarmerie, the most hated part of
the colonial apparatus. It retained
many of its former Korean personnel
on the theory expressed by one
American: “They did a good job for
the Japanese. Why not for us?” The
police corps soon reverted to its func-
tion of political and “thought” con
trol; in alliance with the reactionary
Taehan Youth Group, it smashed
“radical” newspaper plants, raided
labor-union offices and even, on one
occasion, the Seoul YMCA. It be-
came so unpopular that on occasion
soldiers joined with civilians to com-
bat it on the streets. In time, the
police became Rhee’s private Black-
and-Tans.
Yet Rhee stood closest to Amer-
ican Military Government: while
M.G. radio allowed each party only
fifteen minutes on the air per fort-
night, Rhee, rated as a non-political
leader, received for himself a weekly
half-hour “spot.”
FIFTEEN months of bi-zonal ad-
minstration left Korea farther than
ever from unification. The blame
rested chiefly with Soviet stubborn-
ness through two lengthy and abor-
tive conferences. USAMGIK accord-
ingly prepared to set up an autono-
mous Southern government. Elec-
tions were called for a South Korean
Interim Legislative Assembly
(SKILA). Rhee’s smoothly function-
ing and well-financed Rapid Realiza-
tion faction seized all but one of the
forty-five Assembly seats, Admitting
the unfairness of the election, Gen-
eral Hodge thereupon appointed
forty-five more members from a list
of moderates recommended by Kim
Koo; Rhee carried his personal pro-
test as far as Washinipron? but. was a “it
overruled.
When SKILA convened in Decem- © i
ber, 1946, Kimm Sic was chosen
chairman. It sat for a year and a
half, torn by serious dissensions that
led to the withdrawal of Kimm and
twenty-nine followers; Rhee took
charge of the rump legislature,
adopting the novel procedure of’ an-
nouncing its decisions himself with-
out the “trifling” formality of count-
ing ayes and nays.
BY THE end of 1947 Korean affairs —
were under intense study by the |
United Nations. There, a Russian
resolution in January called for joint
immediate withdrawal of the occupy-
ing armies; it was defeated, though
favored by two to one in a Seoul
public-opinion poll. The UN, instead
of ordering a military withdrawal,
created a temporary Commission on
Korea (UNTCOK), whose eight
members were welcomed in the South
but denied admittance North of the
Thirty-eighth Parallel. It supervised
a zonal election on May 11, 1948,
which returned 54 Rhee candidates q
and 88 Independents in an Assembly
of 200. The defeated Democratic
Party charged wholesale coercion of
electors by Police and Youth Corps
— causing 300 violent deaths. But
UNTCOK voted, 5-3, to accept
“the free will of the electorate.”
American forces withdrew in June,
1948. They passed under no trium-
phal arches, but respect and grati-
tude accompanied them. The United
States had spent a billion dollars in
the peninsula, bringing food, re-
building industry, and
manifold the cost of early blunders.
Cultural leadership could be entrust-
ed to a higher educational system
enrolling nearly twenty
students.
The Constitution of the new Re-
public of Korea (Han Min Kook) q
replaced USAMGIK, pro--
which
vided for a strong President chosen
by the Assembly but empowered to
make war, appoint all national offi- |
cials, and rule by decree in times a
crisis. Syngman Rhee, now ag
seventy-four, was the President ll
choice. He was inaugurated on Au-
gust 15, the third ana era of
repaying
thousand —
tions and most Western nations
recognized the Republic by the
spring of 1949. ’
Simultaneously, the Communist
bloc erected a People’s Democratic
Republic in North Korea. Two sov-
ereign, armed and hostile states con-
fronted each other along the Thirty-
eighth Parallel.
RHEE no longer spoke of voluntary
unification; as the declared opponent
of the North, he could not have
maintained power in a united Korea,
and therefore had a vested interest
in partition. He had drawn away
from the majority of his country-
“men, and even more from his earlier
associates. Kim Koo and Kimm Kiu
Sic had quite early favored com-
_ promise with the North. Later, they
pressed the Russian plan for simul-
taneous troop withdrawal and con-
erred with Kim II Sung and North-
ern agents of the United Independ-
ence Movement to launch a nation-
wide “underground” plebiscite in
- place of the U.N. election.
General MacArthur had warned
at Rhee’s inauguration that “the
RThirty-cighth Parallel must and will
_ be torn down.” ROK military lead-
ers were more specific: as soon as
Bicaible they would subjugate the
North. Manifestoes from Pyong-
yang, capital of North Korea, were
even more belligerent. Yalu Valley
hydroelectric power was shut off
from Seoul, and informal war crack-
led along the border throughout the
summer and autumn of 1947.
_ Rhee took over the state broad-
casting system, harassed opposition
journalists, imprisoned eleven As-
semblymen and over 30,000 citizens
suspected of i ee with the
y} a Assassination also had _ its
Events of 1950 hastened the im-
inence of war. On January 12, Sec-
of State Acheson danitted
was sagging dangerously; average
income was estimated at one-tenth
of living costs. The legislative elec-
tion of May 30 deprived Rhee of
nearly half his Assembly following.
Police tyranny sharpened public re-
sentment; some candidates con-
ducted winning campaigns from pris-
on. There was a strong ground-
swell of sympathy for the North-
ern plebiscite proposal. Delegates
from Pyong-yang openly entered
Seoul, to be at once arrested.
IN MID-JUNE, John Foster Dulles
visited President Rhee — probably
to strengthen ROK morale. He found
a government that was in fact a
police state, repudiated by the elec-
torate and by many of its founders,
ignored by the United States, im-
poverished and _ militarily weak.
Pyong-yang saw that the time was
ripe for a quick, “preventive” war.
During ten years, no evidence has
been found that either the USSR or
China ordered the North Korean as-
sault of June 25 — or had prior
knowledge of it.
Within weeks, three-fourths of
South Korea was overrun. The in-
vaders’ Russian tanks could easily
have been stopped in the hills by a
resolute defense; their Yak planes
were few and obsolete; Communist
doctrine had little appeal to a popu-
lation familiar with the grim reports
of Northern refugees. But millions
of South Koreans welcomed the
prospect of unification, even on Com-
munist terms. They had_ suffered
police brutality, intellectual repres-
sion and political purge. Few felt
much incentive to fight for profiteers
or to die for Syngman Rhee. Only
10 per cent of the Seoul population
abandoned the city; many troops de-
serted, and a number of public fig-
_ ures, including Kimm Kiu Sic, joined
the North.
Rhee, in turn, persuaded a re-
luctant U.N. in October to authorize
the counter-invasion by MacArthur’s
forces — a decision which led not to
unification, but only to Chinese in-
tervention. The President’s courage
-won universal respect, and war gave
him a pretext for seizing full emer-
gency powers. In December, 1951,
he ueesved his’ ‘personal Liberal
country parish: here police suppres-—
Party. When the Assembly declined
next spring to re-elect him, pro-
Rhee mobs forced it to amend the
Constitution, opening the Presi-
dency to popular vote. The Liberal
machine then secured his second
term — though Kim Sung Soo, now
his Vice President, resigned in protest
and went into hiding.
It is unfortunate that the intran-
sigents, Syngman Rhee and Kim
Il Sung, both survived the war,
guaranteeing the division of their
country until the present day and
creating at the Truce Line the most
impassable barrier in the modern
world.
IN 1956, the Liberals held a clear
majority of Assembly seats; Rhee
felt strong enough to demand re-
peal of the Constitutional two-term
limitation on the Presidency. Though
his motion was defeated, Rhee
ordered the minutes changed and
declared the amendment passed. He
was thus enabled to “accept a draft”
for a third term.
The Democratic candidate was
Shin Ik Ki, who died fortuitously
ten days before the election. His
running mate, Chang Myun, actual-
ly won the Vice Presidency. A third
party, the Progressives, nominated
Cho Bong Am, a long-time political
rival of Rhee. A year after his de-
feat, the Progressives were outlawed;
Cho was arrested, tried for “espio-
nage” and finally Heated
Rhee’s party could no longer car- —
ry Seoul, Pusan or any center un-
der Shilenyation by foreign corres
pondents or UN. Commissioners;
but its power in the rural areas 7
absolute. Missionary friends repor
the 1956 campaign to me from thei
2.2"%-
sed all anti-Rhee activity, demanded
that Liberal partisans be allowed to
address’ religious or educational
gatherings, levied a one-tenth rice
tax for party support, and supervised
the balloting.
Full totalitarian controls were
written into a 1958 National Secur-
ity Law — one of whose thirty ar-
ticles provided ten years’ imprison-
ment for all who “slander govern-
ment agencies ...or members...
by holding meetings or disseminating
documents.” Protest was so vigorous
in the Assembly that police invaded
the hall and ejected seventy Demo-
crats before the law could be passed.
Though the press of South Korea
had been declared captive and drop-
ped from membership in the Inter-
national Press Institute, a study of
five years’ issues of Rhee’s American
propaganda organ, The Korean Sur-
vey, reveals no admission of in-
justice and little hint of disorder in
the Republic.
NO DIFFICULTY was anticipated
in capturing a fourth term for Syng-
man Rhee in 1960. The Democratic
nominee died—fortunately, in Wash-
ington — during February, and the
election set forward to March, be-
fore a successor could be chosen.
Chang Myun ran again for the Vice
Presidency, losing to Lee Ki Poong,
Rhee’s pliable tool, after a contest
dominated (according to Chang)
‘an
; a
by “illegality, terrorism and murder.”
The post-election demonstrations
carried my own thoughts back, full-
cycle, to 1945. Students were march-
ing, with professors joining the col-
umn. Now there was no USAMGIK
to protect them or to interfere —
only the National Police and the
Taehan hoodlums, pouring in from
side alleys with clubs and knives.
Leadership of the intelligentsia
proved decisive; the Army showed
itself friendly, a riot became a revo-
lution, bringing twelve years of tyr-
anny to an end.
Had the protests of 1945 been
heeded, would there, I wonder, have
been a Syngman Rhee dictatorship
— or a Korean War?
AEC TAKES A BEATING
CAPE COD’S ATOMIC PARK e « by Grace DesChamps
Cape Cod, Mass.
THE EXTRAORDINARY and
persistent efforts of the expanding
atomic energy industry to by-pass
public opinion and public safety
have received a setback here under
circumstances. which invite close
scrutiny by communities throughout
the country.
This is the significance of the re-
cent victory scored by the people of
Cape Cod over the Massachusetts
Atomic Energy Commission which,
with the support of a segment of the
atomic industry in the state, sought
to establish here a critical nuclear
facility under the guise of an “Atom-
ge) Park.”
The “park,” it turned out, was to
be a 20,483-acre site which could
become a receiving dump for high-
level atomic wastes, a reactor-test-
ing station and an atomic-fuels_ re-
processing plant. The U.S. Atomic
Energy Commission, when in search
of a site for a comparable establish-
ment elsewhere, picked “894 square
miles of desert waste land” in Arco,
Idaho.
But Cape Cod is not Arco. It is a
GRACE DesCHAMPS is a Cape
Cod reporter for the Boston Globe.
548
Court Rejects AEC License
The United States Court of Ap-
peals has ruled that the Atomic
Energy Commission was unjustified,
from the standpoint of public health
and safety, in issuing a “provisional”
construction permit for a_nuclear-
power station at Laguna, Michigan.
The court majority sharply criticized
the AEC for permitting construction
of the station in an area where some
2,000,000 people live within a thirty-
mile radius.
The license had been challenged by
a group of labor unions on the ground
that the proposed plant would create
a public hazard.
peninsula with a permanent popula-
tion of 69,000, an average daily
summer vacation population of
300,000 and a $100 million vacation
industry which is its principal source
of income. The Cape, moreover, is
only sixty-five miles long — no more
than a mile in width at one point
— and only fifty miles from metro-
politan Boston’s population of more
than a million. A half-hour’s drive
from the proposed “park” is the
beginning of the projected Cape Cod
National Seashore, to “preserve a
magnificent ocean shoreline and rec-
reational area for future genera-
tions.’
The history of the rapidly-grow-
ing atomic industry is studded with
official attempts to shroud atomic
hazards from the public, and to pur-
sue atomic industrial activities with
a tranquilizing absence of public in- —
formation. [See “Test Case on
Atomic Waste,” The Nation, Aug.
1, 1959, and “‘Hot’ Dumping off
Boston,’ The Nation, Sept. 19,
1959, — Ed.] What has happened
on Cape Cod reveals what an alerted
public, willing to fight for its rights, —
can do to safeguard itself from the
machinations of those in the atomic
industry to whom public safety is
not the primary consideration.
THE CAPE COD story begins in
November, 1957, when Massachusetts _
Governor Foster Furcolo called for |
a combined effort by the six New >
England states to establish an atom- |
ic industrial-research center which | |
would enable the New England area
to compete successfully with region-
|
al economic blocs in the South and ‘4
West. A special commission appoint
ed by the Governor to study the
problem issued its report in De-
cember, 1958.
y
|| Foreseen in the report was the
eed of an atomic center to include
a station for testing reactors and
pom fuels; a plant to reprocess
atomic fuels from reactors in the
eastern United States and U.S.-
ased reactors in Europe, and from
nuclear-powered ships; and under-
ground storage tanks for both “low-
level” and “intensely radioactive”
wastes,
_ A suitable site for these facilities,
said the report, would be one “pref-
erably surrounded by an isolation
area of unpopulated land.” It point-
ed out that “a large part of the
cost” of a fuels-reprocessing plant
“the need for heavy shielding and
emote control of operations because
‘of the highly radioactiwe condition
‘of the used fuel when removed from
‘the reactor’ (italics added). Also
indicated was proximity to deep-
ater wharfage “so that the used-
uel containers, which are very
heavy in order to shield the intense
radioactivity, can be unloaded from
‘ships near the plant.”
ed
| FOR reasons still unclear on Cape
od, contents of the report received
little, if any, publicity — none, cer-
Baily, on the Cape.
_ Serving on the commission which
prepared the report was an eleven-
-man team, eight of them legislators
-— scarcely knowledgeable, as it
“was later pointed out, in the field of
} atomic science. The three other
members were Massachusetts Atomic
‘Energy Coordinator Raymond _ I.
Rigney of Boston, also a layman in
‘atomic science; Dr. Theos J. Thomp-
‘son of Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, formerly on the staff
| of the federal Atomic Energy Com-
} mission; and Carroll L. Wilson, then
chairman of the executive committee
of Metals and Controls Corporation,
} Nuclear, of Attleboro, Mass. (The
Boston Herald of May 8, 1958, de-
scribed Metals and Controls as the
largest single AEC contractor, with
contracts amounting to $14,236,-
392.)
_ Early this year, the state Atomic
Energy Commission (of which Mr.
Wilson was a member) presented
blish an “Atomic Park” on Cape
on Camp Edwards military res-
ervation in the towns of Bourne,
Falmouth, Sandwich and Mashpee,
northeast of Falmouth.
While the bill refrained — under-
standably — from specific mention
of the facilities discussed in the spe-
cial commission report on the pro-
posal, it nevertheless provided the
legal machinery for establishing all
of them. A number of outstanding
representatives of the atomic in-
dustry appeared at the Boston State
House in support of the bill, among
them Samuel Auchincloss of Tracer-
BOSTON + 25mi
Proposed “Atomic Park”
lab, Inc., a firm which has pioneered
not only in the atomic industry, but
also in its public relations problems.
(Walter Stenzel, the firm’s public
relations director, contributed a
chapter called “Developing Con-
sumer Acceptance in Radioactivity”
to Public Relations in the Atomic
Industry, published in 1956 by the
Atomic Industrial Forum, Inc.)
BUT CAPE COD, in the spring of
1960, knew little of the atomic in-
dustry — and even less about the
“Atomic Park” planned for it. What
blew the lid off was a letter from an
innocent reader of the Falmouth
Enterprise, requesting information
about the “park.” “We Are Ignorant
But We’d Like To Know,” was the
Enterprise’s editorial answer. Other
newspapers took up the plea. With
the third and final legislative hear-
ing at the State House on the bill
just ahead, the demand for public
information grew louder. At this
juncture, a group of scientists at
Woods Hole dropped their researches
long enough to read not only the
bill, but the Special Commission
Report of 1958.
The bombshell dropped within a
week. Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi,
Nobel Prize-winner in medicine and
Director of the Institute for Muscle
Research at the Woods Hole Marine
Biological Laboratory, sharply at-
tacked the proposed “Atomic Park.”
He was joined by Senior Electronics
Engineer John P. Hervey of the
Rockefeller Institute, also engaged
in research at Woods .Hole, who
called the Special Commission Re-
port “a curious document, by .turns
secretive and revealing.” He ex-
pressed his belief that “a good deal
of relevant information is being con-
cealed from the public and probably
from the General Court [the state
legislature] as well.” Hervey noted
that of the three non-legislators ap-
pointed to draft House Bill 2904,
one was “a former general manager
of the AEC... an organization, not
known for its candor and forthright-
ness.”
OTHER scientists joined the two
men. Cape Codders began to read
the bill and to scramble for copies
of the report, now out of print.
Therein they came upon pertinent
revelations: that “cranberry bogs
and summer residential property
values may be adversely affected”
by the “park,” and that “the public
may object to the Atomic Park”
and “may refuse to use the recrea-
tional facilities.” Jf there was any-
thing further Cape Codders needed
to know, it was that a “park” site
north of Boston had not been rec-
ommended because “prevailing winds
blow toward Boston.”
In response to public request, the
Woods Hole scientists held a public
information meeting at Falmouth,
which was jammed with delegations
from the fifteen towns of Barnstable
County. At this meeting, the sci-
entists “leaned over backwards”
avoid causing alarm. So, later, testi-
fied Major General Robert J. But~
ler, U.S.A., Ret., former Deputy Di-
rector of Military Applications of
Atomic Science. “The situation is
much worse than they say it ts,” he
testified... . “I could give some ex-
amples of things that can happen
549
that would really create some panic
in this audience... .”
But the cat was already out of
the bag — and not all the public
relations experts in the atomic in-
dustry knew how to get it back in
again. (To give them credit, they
tried!) The indignation which swept
Cape Cod was relieved by a kind of
wild humor. The Cape Codder
printed a cartoon of an apparel shop
specializing in protective equipment
against radiation and offering a
“Geiger Counter Free With $10 Pur-
chase.” A Cape minister observed
dryly that if the “park” succeeded,
“Cape Cod might have the dubious
distinction of becoming the first
radioactive resort.”
Meanwhile, at the peak of discus-
sion, the Yankee Atomic Electric
Company, comprising a group of
New England utility companies, was
suddenly taking newsmen and
“park” supporters — now confined
largely to the town of Bourne — on
a conducted tour of their new power
reactor on the Deerfield River, in
Rowe, Mass., pointing out the plant’s
safety and _ attractiveness. . (The
Yankee reactor is not yet in opera-
tion and the population of Rowe, in
the western part of the state, is
200. )
THE conducted tour interested the
editor of the Cape Codder. In an
editorial entitled, “A People Under
Nuclear Pressure,” he inquired:
“Why are the operators of the Rowe
plant so interested in seeing a chemi-
cal reprocessing plant set up at
Camp Edwards or some other East
Coast site?” A legislative witness,
the editor observed, had already
made an “informed guess”: “The
Rowe plant, at this stage, is an ex-
pensive way to produce electricity.
. Naturally, the people at Rowe
are interested in cutting costs.” To
have Yankee’s fuels reprocessed on
Cape Cod, the witness had pointed
out, would save the company trans-
portation costs to Hanford, Wash.,
where the federal AEC had an-
nounced they would be reprocessed.
The Cape Codder pointed out:
It is becoming increasingly clear
that Cape Cod is facing some power-
ful forces in its fight to escape ruin-
ation in the wake of a Nuclear Park.
Wasting $1,250 a Second ..
FEW PEOPLE have a clear picture
of the vast resources that disarma-
ment would release for the develop-
ment of a world at peace. America
alone is wasting resources on arma-
ments at the rate of more than $40
billion a year — an investment in
fear and anxiety which is costing us
$110 million a day, $4.5 million an
hour, $76,000 a minute, $1,250 a
second. And that’s America alone.
Altogether, the nations of the world
are wasting 2.5 times this much. And
each nation says it must do this be-
cause the others are doing it.
This is real wealth that we are
wasting. It represents productive ef-
fort that we have been expending
each year for more than a decade. It
is wealth that is ready for construc-
tive use whenever the world decides
to get together in peace instead of
preparing to commit suicide.
Perhaps the best way to visualize
this wasted wealth is to compare it
with the comparatively low costs of
peacetime capital improvements that
permanently improve the human con-
dition. The great irrigation and power
projects built around Boulder Dam
cost originally about $200 million.
That’s about what we are spending
on defense every two days! Last year,
E. U. CONDON, noted American
scientist, is Wayman Crow Professor
of Physics at Washington University.
The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission
and the budding nuclear industry
have a bear by the tail: They have
solved the problem of nuclear ap-
plication without solving the prob-
lem of what to do with the wastes.
They are under terrific pressure to
go ahead before a satisfactory waste
problem solution is reached. The in-
terests of Cape Cod do not look very
large to these people... .
NOW State Senator Edward Stone
(of Cape Cod) requested a spe-
cial legislative hearing to be held on
the Cape itself. (It became neces-
sary to hold two, because at the
first one not a single “park” sup-
porter elected to show up.)
At these hearings, nuclear sci-
entists riddled the absence of sci-
entific judgment in the “Atomic
the great St.. Lawrence Semester was
opened; it brings ocean-borne ship-
ping to the Great Lakes. It cost $500
million to build. Less than one week’s
expenditures on armaments would
have covered the cost of both Boulder
Dam and the St. Lawrence Seaway!
We could erect a new $1 million
hospital in every county in the United
States for less than the cost of one’
defense-month. We could have a $10
billion highway construction — all
bought and paid for with what we
spend on defense in three months.
SUPPOSE THAT we were to work ~
out a plan with the Russians for the
exchange of a million college students
(The Nation suggested something
along this line editorially on Feb. 8,
1958). A million Americans would be
studying in the Soviet Union while a
million Soviet students would be
studying here. This would cost about
$3 billion annually over and above
what it costs to have these two mil-
lion students go to college in their
own countries. Even if the Russians
contributed not a cent, we could pay
for the program by spending $37 bil-
lion instead of $40 billion a year on
armaments. And, so long as there
were a million Russian students on
our soil, and a million Americans on
Russian. soil, one could be absolutely
certain that neither country would
make a surprise attack on the other.
ete ee
Park” plan, which could have jeop- |
ardized “lives and property” and,
in event of a nuclear accident, “im-
mobilized” the country’s largest Ai
Force defense base, Camp Otis, ad-
jacent to the proposed site. Hydrol- —
ogists, meteorologists and marine —
biologists testified to the threat of
radioactive contamination of Cape
Cod’s shallow ground-water table,
to conditions of wind and weather
which heightened hazards from rea
tor fallout, and to the menace to
the Cape’s shellfish industry. 1
Dr. Charles D. Coryell of M.LT.,
formerly associated with the Man
hattan Project and Oak Ridge Na-
tional Laboratory, testified that th he
risks involved were ones no pop
lated area could afford to take.
am for atomic energy — it is
*
Y
i
at: ee:
C2 Sasi: > Pee Coryell ceilaneed be-
ifore the Legislative Committee on
Power and Light, which conducted
the hearings. “J am also for the hu-
man race — and for the people of
© Massachusetts and Cape Cod.”
When slight, elderly Senator Stone,
revered here, entered the Bourne
Armory to lead the opposition at
the final Cape hearing, a burst of
applause swept the packed auditori-
um. Supporting the Senator were the
Barnstable County Medical Society,
more than a dozen top-level sci-
entists, boards of selectmen, garden
clubs, realtors, bank presidents,
Major General Butler — and every
conceivable kind of Cape civic group,
from the Portuguese-American Civic
League to the local D.A.R.
_ Officers of the Cape Cod Chamber
of Commerce who had originally
supported the bill — and off-Cape
_AEC contractors who had urged
its passage — ‘were nowhere in
sight. Local support was left to a
handful of Bourne interests: the
Chamber of Commerce of Buzzards
Bay, which is a part of Bourne; the
heads of the Bourne Rotary and
_ Kiwanis Clubs, representatives of
the local V.F.W. and American
Legion, several Bourne area busi-
_-nessmen, and the business agent
of the Carpenters Union. Of the
- members of the special commission
.
}
BUMPING THE
q “SORRY, plane’s full,”
said a har-
ried air-line agent to a waiting group
of passengers, meanwhile trying to
_ close a gate. “They’re about to pull
f ety now.”
“But you've got to let us on,” ex-
: claimed a perspiring, exasperated
man. “We've had reservations for
: ‘weeks. We've simply got to get on
KARL M. RUPPENTHAL, an air-
line pilot since 1942, is editor of the
_ just-published Revolution in Trans-
portation, put out by the Graduate
| chool of Business at Stanford Uni-
sity, where Mr. Ruppenthal lec-
s on Transportation and Man-
ai hg a pace It make some arrangements, mae
> My a 4
2, 1960. iy A hay
ea ees
who had started the whole business,
only Mr. Rigney showed up.
At the close of the second legisla-
tive hearing, Cape Codders rejected
commitment of their future into the
hands of the state Atomic Energy
Commission by a standing vote esti-
mated at 1,000 to 50.
THE LOCAL implications of the
“park” fight will be felt for a long
time, especially by leaders of the
Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce
who had endorsed the project (the
Chamber’s president had declared
that opponents of the “park” were
playing “the old Communist game”
— a jibe which sturdy Republican
Cape Codders won’t forget in a
hurry). Statewide, the supporters of
House Bill 2904, which inter alia
would have empowered a. state
Atomic Authority to parcel out more
than 20,000 acres of public lands to
the AEC and private operators, find
themselves in opposition to the of-
ficial atomic energy policy of the
Democratic Party and its currently
leading Presidential aspirant, Sen-
ator John Kennedy.
But over and beyond the political
implications, local and national, is
the problem faced by the atomic in-
dustry, and in particular govern-
ment agencies dealing with it, in re-
establishing public confidence. Time
PASSENGER ..
this flight.” Said the agent: “There
are no more empty seats. In fact, if
Ive counted: correctly, there’s one
too many on board already, and
someone will have to get off.”
“Well,” shouted a woman, “this is
the last time we'll fly on your air
line. Now I know why everyone
said we should avoid i it if we possibly
could.”
‘wid the
glancing furtively at his
“T’m_ sorry, Madam,”
agent,
watch.
mistake. We'll do our best to get you
“space—maybe on another air line or
on a later flight. Now if you'll just
go to our ticket counter, I’m sure
=
“Evidently there’s been a
and “again the federal AEC Tiss
violated this confidence on such
matters as fallout dangers and the
disposal of atomic wastes. Now it
would appear that the federal agency
is seeking to escape public censure
by permitting state agencies to car-
ry the responsibility for perpetuat-
ing the mistakes. But Cape Cod has
shown that the plan won’t work.
Clearly, what is needed is clarifica-
tion of public policy at the very
highest levels — particularly pub-
lic policy as it relates to the infor-
mation and education functions of
federal and state atomic agencies.
Meanwhile, a recast “park” bill,
it is generally believed, will be. re-
introduced to the Massachusetts
Legislature. But also general is the
feeling that its sponsors will think
twice before attempting to bring it
back to Cape Cod.
“The Cape Cod decision is his-
toric,’ declared James B. Muldoon,
associate editor of the Massachu-
setts Law Quarterly, official organ ~
of the state Bar Association, and
one of the country’s foremost legal
experts in the field of radiation
hazards. “Public opinion, for the
first time competently informed, for
the first time has had a chance to
make a moral decision. What hap-
pened on Cape Cod is of country-
wide importance.”
by Karl M. Ruppenthal
And this is the drama that will be
enacted many times this summer at —
most of the major airports in the
land: more passengers confirmed
than there are seats on the flight,
and someone will be left behind.
Disappointment, inconvenience and —
anger result. Businessmen miss im-
portant engagements. Servicemen
return late from their leaves. Vaca
tioners spend hours in places not —
contemplated in their plans. 2
It happens most frequently, o
course, during the summer noted
_ On a recent day in New York, 150
confirmed passengers lined up to’ get
on a jet that could accommodate but
120. Since the competing lines were
By
ai
i i a
:
also sold out on that day, thirty
people arrived in Paris a full day
later than they had planned.
How can such things happen?
Oversale i
for too many confirmed passengers
for the capacity of the plane—come
about in a variety of ways: ineffi-
ciency, inconsideration and just plain
honest mistakes.
Keeping records on the availability
of seats is no small chore for the
air lines. A record must be kept for
every seat on every segment of every
flight for a month in advance. This
means that the larger air lines must
keep inventory on something like a
million available seats. Usually rec-
ords are maintained for a month in
advance; during peak travel periods,
even longer.
All of this data is normally kept
in a Reservations Center, where
clerks maintain a master record and
notify the outlying stations by tele-
type when a flight is available and
when it is sold out. When a reserva-
tion is made, the air line records not
only the name of the passenger, his
flight, origin and destination, but
also his telephone number and
whether or not he has picked up his
ticket. There are additional duties
which the reservations clerk must
perform. One line estimates that it
receives six telephone calls for each
ticket actually sold.
SOME LINES handle this mass of
records by hand, laboriously record-
ing passenger names, available
flights and dozens of other bits of
data. In all this complicated busi-
ness, it is not surprising that there
are some mistakes. A customer may
request flight 702 for the 8th, but
an inattentive (or tired) reservations
clerk may inadvertently book space
on flight 702 on the 9th, or she may
transpose the numbers and reserve
space on flight 207 on the 8th,
though on the passenger’s ticket the
date and flight number may appear
correctly.
But it is much more likely that
the reservations clerk will do her
work well, and that something else
will fail in the system. The teletype
operator in the local reservations of-
fice will send a “res-message” to Cen-
tral Reservations.
552
Sometimes the ©
gremlins interfere, and a message in-
tended to say “Book 1 seat FI-702-
8th” comes out reading “Book 1 seat
Flubb-2nd.” No wonder the recipient
is somewhat puzzled at the other
end!
Heavy summer business makes
everything a little worse. A system
which normally handles ten thou-
sand reservation requests may sud-
denly be called upon to handle twice
as many. Furthermore, requests are
not spaced neatly throughout the
day, but come in droves during cer-
tain popular telephone hours. When
the normal complement of reserva-
tions personnel cannot physically
handle the load, pinch hitters are
brought in to help—men drafted
from the sales force and from other
offices. When these labor pools run
dry, inexperienced employees are
sometimes brought in from the street.
Since they start in the midst of a
peak work load, it is not surprising
that some human errors creep in.
Last year one line’s system verged
on total collapse when its peak sum-
mer traffic exceeded even the most
rosy predictions. The line inaugu-
rated jet flights, which were an
instantaneous success. Hundreds of
thousands who had never flown be-
fore decided that June was the time
to try it. And to make matters worse,
the company had half completed the
installation of a new electronic-reser-
vations system which would (even-
tually) eliminate many tedious hand
entries. But the system was not com-
plete. The chaos was reminiscent of
none
ypact 0m
att Pr
j lk
a twenty-story building that had
mantled half of its elevators so that
high speed, automatic ones can be f
installed: until the job. is finished fans,
some people must take the stairs) (""
Fortunately for the travelers (and
the air lines), most of the electronic
systems are now in full operation.
ct
wversal
beadact
qiousan
BUT AN electronic system will not
eliminate all oversales. Some of them}
the air
are caused by travel agents. These}
hard-working people make their},
commissions on air-line tickets and}.
other services that they actually sell. } *
Mechanically, they operate much as ae
does an air line’s own sales offices. blk
They can inquire about the status |)! *
of any flight, then book space ac-} “
cordingly. But here again the human
element enters. Occasionally an |
agent will “confirm” a seat on a i
flight known to be full. But more |)"
likely the oversale results from other |“
conditions. An
The records may indicate that })*'
there are seats remaining on a popu- |
lar flight, and thus “available for }"
sale.” Six travel agencies may sell |):
tickets and confirm space at about } Wi
the same time. Thus an immediate }
oversale of three seats is created. The } |
problem may be compounded if the }™:
agents are busy—as they are likely
to be in the summer—and delay a
little in notifying the air line about
their sales.
Still another factor must now be
considered. In today’s keen compe-
tition for the air traveler’s dollar,
some lines supply big customers with [
a blank supply of tickets. With a ff)
minimum of bother, the customers
can make out their own, filling in
origin, destination and flight. After
calling the air line, they can indi-—
cate on the ticket that the space is
confirmed. Is it any surprise that [i
some obliging secretaries have been })
My
The no
ad 10
pt x
n to confirm for their boss
ce on a flight that is already sold
t? Probably the surprising thing
not that there are such occur-
ences, but that they are relatively
nfrequent.
Of course, the other half of the
versale problem is that perennial
eadache—the “no-show.” Each year
housands of people make reserva-
ions which they do not use, and for
arlous reasons they do not inform
he air lines of their change in plans.
"he no-show problem is particularly
ad in Los Angeles, Miami and Las
Vegas, where as many as 50 per cent
f-the confirmed passengers have
ailed to arrive for some flights. The
ay after a convention (when the
air lines could fill twice the avail-
| able seats) is particularly bad. No-
| show customers not only rob the
lines of important revenue, but they
} prevent other passengers from using
} their seats.
| Another vicious practice is the de-
yice of multiple booking. Some in-
considerate people reserve space on
| several air lines, deciding only at
. the last minute which line they will
Hactually take. Spot checks last
} Christmas revealed some people who
| had reserved space on as many as
}four air lines. One family returning
| yome in the high season reserved
} ive seats from Paris on six consecu-
} ive days!
SINCE no-show seat represent seri-
fous financial loss, air lines have
} esorted to many compensating de-
ices. One line calculates statistical-
how many people will probably
o-show on every given flight on
ch segment of its routes. Its offices
authorized to accept over-reser-
tions for a similar number of peo-
e. But this practice can be trouble-
e, since people sometimes refuse
behave like statistics. On some
hts, all six people who are sup-
osed to no-show, will somehow ar-
ye at the airport. At one time, the
show problem from Miami to
‘ew York was so bad that one line
er booked its flights 100 per cent.
‘his caused much confusion when
‘| the no-shows showed up.
hile the reasons for the oversales
' access to the air lines, to the
gers competing for seats the
p25, 1960
i *
i
‘at the
important question is likely to be:
Who gets left out in this game of
musical chairs? Who gets to go, and
who stays behind? Who makes the
decision, and how is it made?
On this point, most air-line man
uals are devilishly vague. Some
agents are left with little more than
the admonition to work out such
situations on their own. Some have
authority to book oversold coach
passengers on the next available
first-class flight. Others can give free
passage under certain circumstances.
One serviceman in an oversold sit-
uation boasted that not only did the
air line give him free passage from
New York to Los Angeles, but that
it also gave him $20 and all the
booze he could drink. Such devices,
and others too, have been used to
persuade a passenger voluntarily to
relinquish his seat.
THE REAL problem arises when all
those confirmed insist on making the
flight for which they have reserva-
tions. In such situations, late comers
may find that the plane is already
full, and they will have difficulty as-
serting their claim, even though they
made reservations weeks in advance.
At a disadvantage, too, may be the
passenger arriving on a connecting
flight of a different line. He may be
told that the incoming flight was
late (as well it may have been), and
this is the reason for his having no
seat.
Of course, in the frantie turmoil
at a congested airport, it is highly
unlikely that the president of a big
corporation, an ambassador, or a
regular traveler will be left waiting
gate. Passenger manifests
usually note the presence of such
VIPs. Seats are almost invariably
found for members of the air line’s
own special “club”—be they ad-
mirals, ambassadors or “million
milers.” Holders of air-travel cards
and customers of the large travel
agencies will seldom find that they
are the oversales.
Excess capacity this summer will
reduce thé incidence of oversales on
most of the world’s air routes, But
none the less the drama will be play-
ed. Just travel enough on the air lines
this year, and you, too, may be
offered a tole.
LETTERS
(Continued from inside front. cover)
information can be secured from the —
Vigil at Fort Detrick, 324 W. Patrick St.,
Frederick, Md.
Cuaries C. WALKER
Co-Chairman)
Needed: Togetherness
Dear Sirs: Robert Paul Wolff begins his '
review (issue of June 11) of Max Weber:
an Intellectual Portrait with a graceful ~
compliment to Weber. He wrote that. —
Weber possessed a wide variety of the
disciplines of the social sciences. Bat ae:
Mr. Wolff denied that the various spes ©
cialists in these sciences can combine
their special insights to propose useful —
findings on assigned social problerns. >
Does Mr. Wolff believe that these edu-
cated men cannot listen receptively and
responsively to the convictions and pro-
posals of others. . . ?
Mr. Wolff has written with much ine |
sight and can no doubt support his
stand. (Hasn’t nearly everybody Tel § aes
conferences in a blazing fury?) But he —
has touched here on a far larger proh-
lem: the responsibility for leadership of
thought in times of crisis... .. Hoover’s
Committee on Recent Economic Trends:
made a chief finding that we were “un-
prepared to undertake important inte-
gral changes in the reorganization of
social life.” And its major recommenda
tion looked to the social scientists to
comé up with solutions! It went further
when it added:
The Social Science Research Coun-
cil, representative of seven scientific
societies, and devoted to the con-
siderations of research in the social
field, may prove an instrumentality
of great value in the broader view
of the complex social problems, in
the integration of social knowledge,
in the initiative toward social plan-
ning on a high level... . It is within
the bounds of possibility that this
Council might care to take the initia-
tive in setting up other machinery
for the consideration of ad hoc prob-
lems, and for more and generalized
consideration of broader aspects of ©
social integration and planning. ;
Mr. Wolff understandably did not ee i
sue this subject... . I am writing
suggest that Mr. Wolff’s review will |
have greatly added value if i F rks
discussion of this terrifying p mand —
if we can hear again from “hin ind
be
perhaps from the Social Science Re- —
search Council. fc 3 F
Francis Y. Goo _ :
Yarmouth Port, Mast.
nC. P. Snow and the Realistic Novel
Earl Miner
EALISM I mean “deeds and lan-
such as men do use” without such
Dosliarn. In this sense, realism is par-
ilarly the province of the novel—in
; Ma it usually becomes comedy (as
Dh she implied) and in poetry,
: if we can imagine our-
ibe “using “deeds and language” like
those in a-novel, it is realistic in ways
that such splendid writers as Faulkner
or Iris Murdoch are not.
a ‘Charles Percy Snow has shown our
“generation that the bones of realism may
“yet live. He first cut his cloth in a
ustble detective novel; and in his
first “literary” venture, The Search
(1934), he produced what I. I. Rabi
“fecommended “as the one novel .. .
which was really about scientists living
scientists.” Since then, apart from a
play I have not seen, and some essays,
he. has been engaged upon a projected
eries of cleven novels which presents
[ . interior and social education or life
a Bildungsroman hero, Lewis Eliot.
: series, “Strangers and Brothers”
Iso the title of one of the ae) has
ee or iv “pvt in its
ae it can be explained only by
the. Satine ‘iia of pres that
brought knighthood, and the many other
cs public enterprises comprising a career
t varied, distinguished and un-
al, Cooper further relates the plots
the novels, analyzes their design and
asses their themes—usefully but
Bmeciecally. To me, the important
at the unusual, and thereby
its normal, experience of the
* William Cooper, C. P. Snow. Long-
® Green and Co. for the British
cil. 40 pp. 2/6.
| lL, MINER teaches English at the
ersitty of California, Los Angeles,
he is an editor of the California
piel Dryden,
novelist has led him to present men and
women doing and saying what we know
they do and say and with an unusual
“honesty”—unblinking discernment well
expressed. The trick is not easily turned,
especially in a long series of separate yet
integrated novels whose Lewis Eliot is
so like the author. The result is a valu-
able illumination of our lives.
The real pattern of our lives is no
easy thing to see whole, and Sir Charles’s
convincing presentation of it is the
measure of his importance. To say this
is not to deny limitations. In
fact, nothing tempers my enthusiasm
more than the novels’ limited stock of
old-fashioned techniques. The usual pat-
tern for a chapter is description of the
natural scene, dialogue, concluding com-
ment. Not frequently, but too often,
the description or comment seems mere-
ly appended to the dialogue. Clearly
more variety is in order.
The design of the series possesses a
similar importance and a similar flaw.
In the author’s terms (well explained
by Cooper), six of the eight novels deal
with Eliot’s “observed experience,” two
with “direct experience” — correspond-
ing roughly to his distinction made
elsewhere’ between the hopeful “social
condition” and the tragic “personal con-
dition” of man in a scientific, post-
Christian, neo-humanist world. Curious-
ly enough in this post-Romantic day,
the observed, social novels have turned
out to be very interesting, while the
direct, individual novels make heavy
weather. More paradoxical still, the
flawed personal novels tell most about
the themes of the whole series.
One theme they propound is skillfully
supported by the separated yet inte-
grated nature of the series: that Tbsen-
ian “ghosts” of one’s past haunt the
present until strengthened will and
matured acceptance of one’s self and
one’s fellows exorcises them. A closely
related theme holds that one earns love
and averts personal tragedy only by
yielding, one’s inmost nature to an-
other person, This second theme is
brilliantly adjusted in the social novels,
since social worth and dignity involve a
artistic
°C. P. Snow, The Two Cultures and
the Scientific Revolution. Cambridge
University Press, 1959. 52 pp. $1.75.
tween yielding the reserves of one’s being
and maintaining the social forms that:
guard the personalities of others. Somé
characters err with too much self-ex
posure and end in tragedy; others ert
with too little and become sterile. The ®
sane balance is difficult to achieve, and
no small part of the interest of the novels
lies in Eliot’s increasing ability to dis:
cern in himself and in others the pre >
carious tipping of the scales, and yet |
to accept while evaluating unblinkingly.
The best novels vary considerably in
emphasis. Strangers and Brothers (4940) ©
possesses an evenness of provincial at+
mosphere reminiscent of Bennett but
over-self-exposed provincial
sage, George Passant — with a vitality
like that of D. H. Lawrence. The
Masters (1951, now available in an Ane
chor Book) shows Eliot learning what
adult social responsibility and behavior
are like; in spite of the inchoate per
sonality of the leading candidate for the
master’s it gives one of the
best pictures I know of academic so
ciety. The Conscience of the Rich®
(1958), which I regard as the finest ;
— in the
position,
of the series, has at times a Dickensian
vitality in a Jamesian social world,
The latest novel, The Affair, is, 4
think, the second best.? In it Sir Charles 4
re-treats the legal and academic eruces %
of several novels. I doubt that:
the motif can now be improved upon. Uf I r
turns upon efforts to reinstate a most 7
unpleasant Cambridge Fellow charged
with scientific fraud. The Affair excels
The a
ter defined and because it endeavors, | i,
like The Conscience of the Rich though i
to integrate the pef- >
sonal and social lives of its characters. | he
earlier
less successfully,
WITH a social conscience so strongly
developed and with a personal backs
ground science, Sir Charles has note:
been content to rest upon his literary NM
achievement. Last year he caused fv ft
great stir in England with his Rede 4
Lecture at Cambridge — The Two)
Ciltures and the Sctentific Revolution.
The two cultures are those familiarly a
out of touch: the scientific and human: i
istic. They must be united if our civile 7
ization is to survive. The issues are ies
portant and well handled; yet ] share
the feelings of a large minority in fi
ing the result somewhat dep
Snow’s distinctions between the
Masters because its issues are bete @
ures seem too pat and basically un-
riptive of America and my own ex-
jence. What annoys me most is the
ture’s fundamental
in either the literary or scientilic
sé. There is a disturbing Wellsian
ship of technology which diminishes
case and the issucs involved: the
thy dividing the two cultures comes,
from defect of intellect, but
weakness of a pampered, affluent
jety; and if Sir Charles thinks tech-
gists the salt of the earth, he finds
them a savor no one else
© the less, we must take the charge
action seriously, not shirking home
hs simply because they are obvious.
tis a tribute to C. P.
er that one of his novels, and that
his best — The New Men (1954)
bives 2 more convincing and satisfy-
treatment of the problems of inte-
ing our civilization. The novel an-
anti-intellectual-
from
discerns.
Snow the
i;
HRU: A POLITICAL BIOGRA-
HY. By Michael Brecher. Oxford
Iniversity Press. 682 pp. $8.50.
Theodore M. Greene
DIA has always been a land of con-
§—sensuous and spiritual, filthy and
sed with cleanliness,
re, tolerant and cruel, weak and
ig, ignorant and wise. And Nehru
icrocosmic symbol of this paradox,
§ sensitive and impatient, yet capa-
of dispassionate objectivity; warm
alfectionate, yet aloef; arrogant, yet
inely humble; nvelancholy,
fay; at times irresolute but more
inflexible; an iconoclast, yet in his
Way devout; a sincere liberal who
ten autocratic. These contrasts are
give Nehru his stature as a hu-
being, with the mind of a practical
ist, the temperament of an artist,
the heart and will of an impassioned
teformer. He is today—now in his
jes, but still at his prime—the
complex and, it may well be, the
est of living statesmen.
Brecher portrays the complexities
ru fairly and with abundant sup-
lavish and
witty
ODORE M. GREENE taught at
an Christian College, Lahore, from
to 1921. For the next thirty years
ught Philosophy at Princeton and
t in 1958-1959 he was again in
on a Ford Foundation grant to
oral and spiritual values.”
1960
i:
Indians in various walks of
their conception of what Nehru
ticipates the lecture down to details and
phrasing, even while creating characters
s
Caromic scientists ) who live as individ-
nal with social lives very much mn the
shadow of the nuclear holocaust. It is
individuals with social
ust fie —
= ; real !
lives, people fac ing important, real proo-
makes his novels so im-
about his
lems that
portant. Questions “place”
een? at
in the fiction of our time can wart. It is
enough to say that he has harmonized
sometimes imperfectly, sometimes
brilliantly, always interestingly — an
almost forgotten Augustan concern with
the social life of man and the familiar
realizing
individuality, The future will decide how
to weigh the rather old-fashioned tech-
post-Romantic concern with
nique in balance with the new and con-
vincing realism. But we must read him
now, if only to learn about the “deeds
and language” which we had not known
lo be the real substance of our lives
The Paradoxes of Nehru
porting evidence. His high regard for his
subject does not blind*him to Nehru’s
limitations and mistakes. He
his Hamlet-like irresolution and his
tendency to compromise on more than
describes
one oceasion during India’s struggle for
freedom, as well as his unswerving loyal-
ty to Gandhi and to his own ideal of a
welfare state conceived along Socialist
lines. He
of Nehru’s policy with respect to Kash-
a forthright account
fives us
mir—a policy sharply at variance with
the policy, which he endorsed, toward
Hyderabad and the other princely states.
He notes Nehru’s failure, despite his
authentic liberalism, to encourage open
criticism in the Congress Party and,
despite his own patent incorrupfibility
and idealism, to curb the growing cor-
ruption and cynicism in the party. These
ineptitudes and failures set in sharp re-
lief, by Nehru’s _ brilliant
achievements, his loyalties and his. vi-
sion. Dr. Brecher’s monumental effort
contrast,
THE book opens with a brief but ade-
quate report on Nehru’s youth as the
son of a wealthy Kashmiri Brahmin, his
education in India and at Harrow and
Cambridge, and his marriage, which was
to bring him both joy and heartache, at
the age of twenty-six. Then, in more
leisurely fashion, we are told about his
first encounter with Gandhi, his quick
conversion to the objectives of his saint-
ly master, and his unswerving loyalty to
him despite profound disagreement on
many vital issues. The long friendship
between Nehru and Gandhi was cer-
tainly a major human achievement, for
Gandhi was in his way quite as much
a paradox as Nehru is in his. Gandhi
was a dedicated man of God and also
a shrewd politician; a devout Hindu
alienated Hindu orthodoxy and
ended his life as a martyr for the cause
of religious tolerance; a reactionary in
his simple-minded faith in village au-
tonomy, yet the chief architect of India’s
new social freedoms.
Gandhi early detected Nehru’s capacity
who
political and
The Event Itself
A peculiar reticence afflicts my generation, faced with the holocaust;
We speak seldom of the event itself, only of what shall be lost;
We, betrayers of the fathers and all the still grandfathers, may not
cry out for ourselves, the present and tempest-tossed.
But many things and all manner of things will be hurled
In a force like dawnlights breaking, and the billion bagpipes of our
screams will be skirled
Stupendously, month after month, the greatest pain ever known in the
world.
And there will be some instantly indistinguishable from the molten stone;
But most will have bleeding, burning, gangrene, the sticking-out bone;
Men, women, and little children will be pregnant of the nipping crab
whose seed everywhere will be sown.
And in the screaming and wallowing one thought will make each eye stare,
A thought of the silence pressing down at the edge of the air,
Soon to smother the last scream forever and everywhere.
And the last man in the world, dying, will not know that he is the last, .
But many will think it, dying; will think that in all the vast
And vacant universe they are the final consciousness, going out, going out,
going out, with nothing to know it has passed.
Haypen CarRUTH
fia encouraged him, comfort-
‘rebuked him and trusted him,
i Fisponded with the dedication of
vert, turning to Gandhi again and
iM fer counsel and support; strug-
soften unsuccessfully, to understand
ny of Gandhi's strange decisions;
igt Ans stubbornly, and in open oppo-
StiOn) te his master, for his own eco-
sail } and political convictions—that is,
arge-sciile industry and extensive
$t mMitiatives and controls. Seldom
friendship been put to such severe
pores emerged so triumphantly.
& body of the book is devoted to
tl account of India’s long struggle
freedom and Neory's increasingly
dhs uneven growth and the many
situdes of the Congress Party and
greements and disagreements of its
leaders—of men as different in
amnent and outlook as C. Rajago-
charia, the first (and last) Gover-
ra bie Swatantra Party; Rajandra
Prasad, the first and present President
of the Union of India; Maulana Azad,
greatly respected dean of the Con-
gr ess Muslims and one of Nehru’s closest
idvisers; Vallabhbhai Patel, one of the
1er0es of the Indian revolution and the
n chiefly responsible for the peaceful
egration of the princely states; Subhas
“the proud, ambitious, fiery hero
Bengal,’ ” who for a while was Nehru’s
t serious rival for Indian political
ership”; and Jinnah, the head of the
m Bis suse who, more than any
ingle individual, was responsible
s tragedy of partition. It was these
and many others of comparable and
* Stature who, with Gandhi and
; with increasing clarity, struggled
to cooperate with, and then, in des-
in, to resist a largely uncooperative
Pepstive British government, and
pughout this period is emin-
¢ does not hesitate to record
ed blunders and their occa-
eruelties—notably the massacre
tsar in 1919 and the govern-
able defense of General |
ither does he fail to pay
the imaginative statesmanship
n as Lord Irwin, the Viceroy
61 931, Sir Stafford Cripps, and
atten, India’s last Viceroy.
Bis Faore to the credit of the
i Tndia than the manner in
a
which they finally abdicated their politi-
cal control.
No one, save possibly Gandhi himself,
anticipated the dreadful price that India
and Pakistan were destined to pay. for
partition, The period immediately fol-
lowing Independence was one of anguish
and triumph. Dr. Brecher reports that
more than half a milhon people were
slaughtered in the bloody Hindu-Muslim
some six million Hindu and Sikh
refugees fled from Pakistan and sought
asylum in India, while a comparable
number of Muslims migrated to Pakis-
tan. The new Indian government, led
by men who had never held posts of
top governmental responsibility, had to
deal with this major crisis and simul-
taneously provide for the drafting and
the acceptance of a democratic consti-
tution and, within four years, a general
election in a land where 85 per cent of
the people were illiterate—an election
in which 60 per cent of the potential
voters cast their ballots. These impres-
sive achievements would have been im-
possible without the brilliant leadership
of the “duumvirate,” that is Nehru and
Patel who, after Gandhi’s assassination
in 1947, ruled India during the critical
transition period. These two men dif-
fered as sharply in temperament and
outlook as had Nehru and Gandhi, but
they somehow managed to work to-
gether until Patel’s death in 1950.
The concluding chapters describe In-
dian democracy at work during the last
decade under Nehru’s solitary control—
her rapid if uneven progress toward
Nehru’s ideal of a welfare state, her
largely successful efforts to strengthen
riots;
. 15)
her agriculture during the First Five
Year Plan and her heavy industry dur.
ing the current Second Five Year Pian |
(the Third is right now at the blueprint
stage),
eracy, the progressive encroachments on
5
Ai
%
i
the “private sector” by government con-—
trols and the alarming spread of bureauc-
racy, the continued absence of a strong *
and loyal opposition party and, not least ”
important, India’s foreign policy of non- —
alignment. The book ends with an ex-
cellent analysis of India’s place in the
world today and a memorable recapitu-
latory portrait of Nehru.
I know of no book on India as illu-
minating or authoritative for the West-
ern reader. It is excellently written, fully
her resolute fight against illit-
documented and well indexed and illus “|
trated. Americans who are inclined to
be . critical of Nehru’s foreign policy
should read Dr. Brecher’s persuasive ex-
planation of the underlying rationale of
this policy and his own incisjye criticism,
with which I sympathize, a
toward India
judicious interpretation of Nehru’s “‘eft-
ism”-—a stance compounded of an early
attraction to Communist idealism, 4
mounting hatred of actual Communist
brutalities, and a dominant concern to
keep India autonomous and at peace >
with her difficult neighbors to the north. |
What we are left with is the image of
a nation still in travail and transition,
of a people facing tremendous problems
and obstacles with great energy and
courage, and of a leader who may well
be judged by the future to have been
one of the world’s truly great statesmen,
What Alice Knew
THE ANNOTATED ALICE (WLewis
Carroll). Martin Gardner, editor.
Clarkson N, Potter. 351 pp, $10,
Joseph Carroll
THE CHARM of the Alice stories sur-
vives because, apart from the fact that
they are beautifully told, they say some-
thing important about the human condi-
tion; something funny and sad, alarming
and reassuring, and as true for wise old
men as for naive young children. It is,
roughly, that not all the answers are to
be found in the back of the book and
that even the ones that are there have
nothing like che finality we incline to
give them, The absolutes of religion and
JOSEPH CARROLL, editor and eritic,
contributes short stories regularly to a
wide variety of magarines,
our policy J
and Pakistan in recent’ —
years. Equally revealing is the author’s —
politics, even of science (which in Lewis
‘ . . . v
Carroll’s century was claiming, in some |
quarters, a larger absolute than all the >
others, the annihilation of all uncef-
tainty) dissolve,
again, like the Cheshire Cat fading to
grin, smug in the knowledge that its
teeth and claws will come back along
with its whiskers and its fur.
These are solemn abstractions, of
y
-
“
ay
course, but, language aside, they are mt f
the spirit of the Alice stories, which make
at the holiest symbols accepted as
reform and dissolve |
|
the ridiculous so plausible by lughing 4
when mankind uses that sweeping wort
“institutions.” For Lewis Carroll unde
stood what very few do understand,
cept for great poets like Blake and gg nr
philosophers like Whitehead, who
to the understanding by different |
that what is one called er
ve
he ae
mind is really the helpl captive of
sy tibel We think we
figeut
know what we
mean by a of speech, bur we are
not always aware that all speech 1s figure
We cannot speak at all except in a man-
ner ot spe iking. Emerson said language
"s fossilized poetry that the most com-
monplace word was once a tremendous
act of creation. The sour truth ts that
we cherish the fossil and dislike it when
the poetry leaps into I|ile In a
starker than the scriptural one, and that
is stark enough, the letter killeth bur the
But it 3
poets who, having pushed language to
that it Aas
ense
spirit, giveth lit never the
its limits, know limits it
they
though
influence so
like to
think so; it is always the little-minded
but
about words because they recognize no
limits, least of all their own
“When
Dumpty said, in rather a
is neve! who most
cieties, sentimentalists
energetic, who are superstitious
| use a word,” Humpty
scornful
“it means just what | choose it
less,”
Vice
make words mean
tone,
ty mean neither
The
“whether
more nor
que stion ! ” said
you in
so many different things.”
The
Dumpty, “which is to be master
that’s all e
And that’s alarming
when we consider how often something
of the sort has been said, not in a chil-
dren’s fantasy, but by the heads of gov
ernments or of businesses or
question 1s,” ud Humpty
enough to be
newspaper
chains; how often they are implied by
those who control advertising and politi-
cal propaganda and employ expensive
copywriters and ghosts: ‘**When [ make
a word do a lon of work like that,’ said
Humpty Dumpty, ‘]
extra.
alw Vs pay it
IT IS to Mr. Gardner's credit that some
of his notes suggest digressions hke this
one: what else should notes to
do, being themselves digressions from a
text? Here and there in The Anmotated
Alice the excitement that
can go with bits of history on a writer
und his work
a classi
one catches
what of his personal lite
shows through his fiction, what side he
Wis on in political controversies, what
grudges he worked off in satire, what
secret tribute he paid to friends
But trivial information is scrambled
With important as though it does not
matter which is which; the notes are as
disheveled as the White Queen, without
her charm and pathos. Ihe stunt here is
unnotation, and notes we have whéther
they are needed or not, some of them
about as stimulating as column filler in
vountry newspapers. For instance: “The
fole of the White Knight was taken by
June 25, 1900
Gary Cooper in Paramount's} film,
{lice in Wonderlund.” No point ts made
of it and one ts left that Mi
Gardner has been brooding over the in
to SuUppPoOse
dignity for years, as well he might, since
it was an execrable film.
One note reads: “Frumenty is a wheat
pudding a Well, now: people who can
afford ten-dollar books must have dic-
tronaries ones, moreover, with al bet-
ter sense of the definition
than this
proprieties ot
\ deal box Is
deal (fir or pine wood).”
like that,
for no good reason, though they
I box mad ot
lhere are a lor thrown an
might
been use
have id as departure pots tor
imaginative comment. [he most reward-
ing annotation ever made, prob ibly, was
by Walter de la Mare in his delightful
poetry Hither! He
recipes for
anthology, C
Riven
lrumenty, some jingles about it or odd-
De la Mare’s notes
the
ome
would have several
ments of kitchen lore
usually enlarge or intensify experi
ence of whatever text they accompany,
they never presume to explain espectal-
ly whet the explanation I> i| you He
as rd foo courteous in edit | tr writs
not like this one of Mr. Gardner's \
cat may look at a king’ is a familia
hoghsh proverb meaning that there are
things momlerior may doin thi pPrescenet
of a superior,” I] bet you never knew
that
Some of the notes intended to inter-
pret are about as banal. In the Tweedk
dum and Tweedledee passage of Through
the Look ne Glas i Vice Is
find some the rauscality of the
trying to
excuse fot
Walrus and the Carpenter in luring the
oysters tu then death as a hore dinner
The text is pellucid
“TL like the Carpenter best it he
didn’t eat so many as the Walrus.”
“But he ate as many as he could
get,” said Tweedledum
This, was a puzzler
Not to Mr. Gardner, though: “Alice
is puzzled because she faces here the
traditional ethical dilemma ot having
to choose between judging a person an
terms of his acts or in terms of his an
That 1s
for term-paper thought
tentions.’ term-paper English
He might have
had some fua with it as, im all
justice,
he has fun elsewhere, when genuine
enthusiasms of his own are involved
[he notes on the chess moves carieatured
in Through the Looking Glass
entertaining because Mr
are often
Gardner quite
chess and he communicates his
own enjoyment. If he had done all ‘}
notes that way, the annotated editi FI
would have been splendidly justitied. He
is, as Lewis Carroll was, fond of math-
ematical games and purzles, and the
enjoys
in the \lice forse [ uw people yithy tl
linn oot mn ole etiapin birch
up with quotation from such distinguis!
ed Alice ilots is Berti ind R wssell a
Arthur Stanley Eddington
But the ethical-dilemma stutf is pure
literary wank, thie bogus that ret
by as scholarship with people who think
scholarship ought to be
dull and who
are impressed by the ver liptrap
\lice stories make fun of
1 CAN remember that, as a child, |
loved \lice bec use she Was if hy dl
ispect that muithority of any kurd
rather foolish tid i i cf tat
like the Queen ol Hearts, and t
manners, like the Red Queen, but th
one put up with imhority, te prari
because one had to tor the sake
and because lite was interesting, |
evel puszling I lowe her still, tos
what the same reason, [t cant
cated by calling it oa phila ipl toh
absued, as Vibert Camus did, |
man who enjoyed tis adventurous |
though b vy 4 ( i h
Vis tre | ickedi 1 Ir 4
he bork i ion
> ! Puast rryth thet mM)
1 ri 1 co beh that | iit
adel by trat-racketed int tem
“A forward-reaching and thought
inducing book, Whatever contro-
versy it incites will be construc-
tive.” OC BA
Evolution
ATU OTT LATT
Marshall D0. Sahlins & Elman R®. Service
vr Th
$3.75
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS
whatever claims to imtallibrhey the Vo
tom might mike
We live with
ileasure we find in them, as
the puzzles for the
| \lice did.
Lhe trouble comes mostly from those
who hate puzzles and want to impose
impossible answers. Like the Queen ol
Hearts, they yell “Off with their heads!”
at anyone who suggests that the answers
are not all found in a nation or a creed
or a political economy. Like that testy
dogmatist, the Red Queen, they hold
that “when you've once said a_ thing,
that fixes it.” It’s some comfort to
know, as Alice knew, that the Queen
of Hearts is mere cardboard and. that,
if she’s shaken hard enough, the Red
Queen turnssnto a kitten.
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558
TELEVISION
Norman Thomas di Giovanni
LIKE. blackboard | Liane, hie ind b ild
and for the instruetion of millions of
viewers across the nation, came NBC's
recent two-part television production,
The Sacco-Vanzetti Story. It was a
wh. Reginald Rose's
fashion of
ca | yor
strong teaching
script made its points in th
any good TX xtbook by emph 1s, hs
exaggeration and b\ deliberate | In
every corner of \imerica, conveniently
acted out for them, people saw exactly
how two anarchists were executed for
the crimes of beme Italian and radical
By now it is no deubt common knowl
edge that Sacco and Vanzetti were the
victims mainly of a stupid, unqualified
judge (se called by Pennsylvania Su
preme Court Justice Masmanno in a
hearing last year) and a erude, pur
proud governor (a referred to |
Unired States Supreme Court Juste
Frankfurter in lis new hook)
But in Boston, where after a third of
1 century the case of Sacco and Vanzettr
still receives tront pap coverage erties
of the TV drama behaved valrernatels
like shocked innocents and trightened
patriots. They erred out that Bay States
(meaning Ma iChiisetts olhicraldom )
had been i\ ipely Att cked wid that
both the administration of Massachusetts
justice and the American jpudieial system
had been held ip to ridioule Phe even
Supe gre sted that with sin ity Am M1-
cau rot round th vorld the NI
program played into the hands of the
Communists. They wer Most upset,
however, hy Reginald Ie ’ prune if
view: mdeed, by the (act thar he liad a
pont of view. Trying to offset that
legitumate bia which rested on solid
rescareh wind authority the Boston
pre poured out another kid of bia
bused on hh) TCTLa. PpLbO ae viva oti
ishing iliteras
L1IkI | ANION Lh helave the pr hit
tio Was VI cd and several wee in
lore the senipt was in its tinal form, the
LV columnist of the Boston Alerald b :
gan denguoeme the drama as distorted
“Le will be based on the SaecoeVanzetn
cause, he wrote, “but in name only. Pacts
will be thrown to the winds iW early ts
bu ly
“rake a peek at the
files of the Boston Herald, which pave
ports are true Lhe columnist
supgested that Rus
VORMAN THOMAS DI CHOVANNG
has contributed several artules, as ll
as translations of [talian and Spanuh
poetry, to The Nation,
1 factual report right down the line
But it ts the olumnist who needs the
peck There in his own paper, ino an
editorial of October 2h, | 126 Are in-
swered at least half the charges he made
agamst rhe NRC program That
|, which won the Herald a 1927
Prize tuted ino part that “as months
edit a
Pulitzer
have m reed mto year and the great
del ite ovel this CAS has continued, our
doubts have solidified into Ggirvictions,
'
and reluetanth: we have found ourselves
compelled to reverse our original judg-
ment. We hope rhe judicial
court wall rant a new thal on the basis
supreme
of the new evidence not yet examined in
open ceurt.”
In 1960 no such courage prevails
bearme whar he mught see, the Chai-
man of el Bramtree Board ot Ns leetmen
refused to tune his set to the
what he had
{hardy
program, and, tearmeg
en, a state representative filed resolu
tions in the Massachusetts House crite
cizing the play.
And ver the Boston critics withheld
no pranse of the magnificence ot per
formance and power ol what they su
Struggling with thew prejudiee ;, the
reviewers kept switching sentiment in
| middle of them articles, and one
Stispec§es that, along with ordinary View
ers, they were left moved, even tearful
It is unfortunate that techmeal puustice
moves so slowly and that Sacea and
Vanvetth have not yet been officially
ox erated: we maghe this be spared
more of the legal-yudicial treadmill and
harang
bs
the wealth of material written on the
11 cndles ung, By now, with
case, only fools and those who won't
beheve that
acco and Vangzetty recenved a fair tral
ov cunt read can. still
and were gunlty of robbery and murder,
But it only we could be finished forever
with wiring all these proofs of guilt or
winocence, with displaying our native
\inerican ouvete about corrupt offi-
vials, and get down toa Saeco and Vane
ctte themselves! Lh only the mad gap
did not exist berween the juste al
ready prante do them by scholars and the
not yet granted them by pol
Reginald Rose's drama could
jlistiag
tichah
really have thrown facts to the winds
ind we would have been treated instead
to the better substance of Saceo's and
Vanveto's true characters
Character! Why else, having invented
ne automobile, having Howe ne warplane,
with Hoa home cuns to ther credit, with
only unpopular ideas and an adherence
dhe Navion
—
= ORR a we ,
anar hism, do the two
all “hive? Because they died
re. what they believed. Today,
apying is condoned as national
ey and the sellout is built into the
bee education, Vanzetti’s words “Now
lare not a failure” seem more striking
h than when he spoke them. Sacco
Vanzetti are two of the few really
sessful men of the century. It’s a
(ess new generations would do well
ontemplate.
lore, much more, is coming. Rose’s
ma is appearing on two LP records;
n Italy a film is announced; from off-
adway a musical drama; and two
three more books are in the works.
t of all should be Ben Shahn’s
mty-five pictures, known as_ the
assion of Sacco and Vanzetti,” which
be ng collected into a volume for the
‘first time, and the opera by Marc Blitz-
ein on which the Metropolitan Opera
ds an option. Even apprehensive Bos-
fon is calling it a Sacco-Vanzetti revival.
ART
Maurice Grosser
PAR RIS in the late spring is flowering
(With its seasonal exhibitions. The Salon
Mai—stylistically the most advanced
the large group shows—is now closed,
e the Salon des Artistes Frangais—
istically the most retrograde—has
v opened to display at the Grand
its miles of unexciting canvases.
the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, on
rue de Rivoli side of the Louvre,
| can see an impressive array of
uis XIV furniture for five New Francs
ance prices this year are high).
or another five NF the Louvre
offers the first comprehensive ex-
ition of Nicholas Poussin ever to be
wn—120 of his some 180 known
tings, and 120 drawings. At the
t Palais is a monster exhibit of art
ndia—more than a thousand pieces
pture and painting ranging over
centuries — which the French
find laudable but a bit dull.
officialdom has staged a show of
ved work at the Musée de Il’ Arte
erne. At the Galerie Charpentier,
yer de Segonzac, French painter
e prewar School of Paris, is being
‘with a too complete retrospec-
of his fifty years of work, an honor-
nterment. All this, along with less
enpws in private galleries, pro-
rt enough for the most voracious
ound the Poussins and t the
‘
'
4
The Poussin show is enormous—three
huge galleries hung with pictures from
everywhere—Russia, Spain, even from
Australia. The effect is sumptuous.
The pictures are rich and somber, as
ornate as the Louis XIV style itself of
which, in fact, they form a part. One
is nevertheless struck by the variations
in quality the work displays. On one
hand is the wonderful Inspiration du
Poéte belonging to the Louvre, which
is as fine as Titian or Veronese, and all
the other numerous magnificent exam-
ples such as those from the Prado and
the Hermitage. On the other hand, there
are pictures such as the Apollon Amou-
reux de Daphné, also the Louvre’s,
which seem quite badly painted. The
Apollo, Poussin’s last work, has most
probably been helped to completion by
other hands, but the large oval from
Copenhagen of Moses and the Burning
Bush is hard to connect in any way
with Poussin. In this anemic work, the
flames resemble a modish arrangement
of pale blond hair, while one of the two
angels supporting the Lord exhibits,
somewhat uncanonically, two left feet.
But even the undoubtedly authentic
works have surprising ups and downs.
THIS IS so in part, I imagine, because
in the seventeenth century, French
painting scarcely yet existed as a school.
Poussin was busy inventing it—remodel-
ing the Italian style for home consump-
tion—and was never as much at ease
in it as were the Italians themselves.
Probably, also, his somewhat provincial
public forced him to be more scrupulous
and explicit than he would have been
for more experienced clients. Hence the
painfully exact delineation of features
some of these pictures display. Witness
for example the Aenée chez Didon from
the museum at Toledo, Ohio, where all
seven faces, including Dido’s own re-
flection in a mirror, are painstakingly
and unnecessarily outlined, as if to sat-
isfy the exigence of some _ provincial
buyer. On the other hand, in other
works like the Louvre’s touching pic-
ture of young Adonis dead, the unim-
portant details of the background fig-
ures could not be more skillfully thrown
away.
Poussin’s way of painting was a some-
what more rigid form of the seventeenth-
century Italian technique. As all his
drawings prove, he first envisioned his
elaborate compositions, with their gar-
lands of figures, as sculpture groups.
The pictures were probably first paint-
ed, complete in all detail, but only in
tones_ of gray. When this was dry, the
carnation of the flesh was put on, and
_ the cold shadows were enlivened pach
tones of orange and brown. The local
colors of the sky, leaves and costumes
were painted in on top of the gray
foundation. And the whole was then
brushed over with what was termed a
“soup’—a transparent glaze of amber
pigment thinned in varnish. This am-
ber glaze warmed the cold flesh tones
and gave unity to the picture by pulling
all the local colors into a single key.
One notices how harmoniously cool and
dark are the flesh tones in those pictures
which—like those of the Louvre or
Prado—have not suffered undue restora-
tion. In certain of the others, however,
‘BEST PLAY-1960
RAMA CRITICS CIRCLE’ AWARD
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559
VACATIONS
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A delightful vacation resort near Music Mt.,
Summer Theatres. Sandy beach, swimming, fish-
ing, boating; tennis, badminton, ping-pong.
Lovely lawns for relaxing. Delicious food. Cab-
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Diana & Abe Berman
Phone: MO 2-3003
'N THE ADIRONDACKS
PLAY IT COOL
Play at cool, cool Crystal Lake Lodge.
1500 breezy woodland acres. 60 acre pri-
vate lake, water skiing, canoeing, boating,
all sports, 9 pro elay tennis courts. New
Bar in Lakehouse 'Payillion. Theatre, re-
vues. Dancing under the stars to dreamy
cool orchestra. Chef cuisine. Owned and
operated by the Slutsky family.
A modern resort for young adults
high in the cool Adirondacks
CHESTERTOWN 9, N.Y.
Phones: 3830 N.Y.C, LU 65-1678
cAMP MERRIEWOODE
HIGHLAND LAKE, STODDARD, N. H
Where Interesting People Meet for the Perfect
Vacation. Heavenly Environment on 10-mile Lake.
All Land & Water Activities. Square & Folk
Dancing. Delicious Food. Non-Sectarian.
CALL OR WRITE
OLIVE “HATTIE” BARON
Tel. Marlow-Hilltop 6-3349
A rrowhead
LODGE weeny site
Famous for Social, Folk & Square Danc-
ing, and Fun. Entertainment, Painting,
Arts & Crafts, Tennis. All Sports, Golf
& Fishing.
= Tel.: N.Y.C. DE 2-4578 — Ellenville 6025
RELAX in a friendly atmos-
phere. Golf at a magnificent
Country Club. Dancing. En-
tertainment. Superb cuisine
Fireproof Bldg. Elevator serv-
ice. Group facilities. In New
York City call at local rate.
FAirbanks 5-7227
MAhopac 8-3449
Forest
Gumus LAKE MAHOPAC, WY, a
the final glazes have apparently been
lost in excessive cleaning, for the bodies
have a glassy emphasis, and the blue of
the sky and draperies a vitreous bril-
liance, which were certainly not in the
original intention.
I find it easier to esteem than love
these complex arabesques of figures in
pagan and Biblical settings. Admirable
as they are in skill of hand and compo-
sition, their somewhat official coldness
seems to announce the even more frigid
historical set-pieces of David and Ingres.
On the other hand, those paintings
which are really landscapes, but drawn
into the noble style by the arbitrary
imposition of some small classical refer-
ence, excite all my admiration. There
is one from Dulwich College: I have
forgotten the classical subject and re-
member only a tranquil, shaded road
near Rome. In such as these Poussin
invented the very type itself of serene
landscape which all subsequent French
painting has so beautifully exploited.
THE Russian and Soviet painting show
is of quite another order. Let me begin
by saying that among the 164 works
exhibited, there are two quite good
pictures. One is a small nineteenth-
century oil by © Alexis -Venetsianov,
charming in drawing and color—a pleas-
antly realistic representation of a peas-
ant asleep on the ground in a flat farm
country. The other is a pale and deli-
cate landscape of birches and thawing
river in early spring, done in 1945 by
Serge Guerassimoy. Along with these
there are some undistinguished eight-
TRAPP FAMILY LODGE, Stowe, Vermont.
Home of Trapp family on whose life the
current musical, “The Sound of Music,” is
based. Restful, atmospheric chalet. Pano-
ramie scenery. Hearty Austrian-American
meals, $9.00 American. Folder. Telephone:
Stowe, ALpine 38-7545,
| WINDY HILL 0 omxce vane |
A pleasantly informal vacation in friendly at-
mosphere. Swimming, Boating, Fishing on Nat-
ural Lake. Badminton, Volley Ball, Ping-pong,
other sports. Records, books. Summer Theatre,
Golf nearby. Food of excellent quality in gen-
erous quantity. $55.00 Weekly; $8.00 Daily;
Weekend: Fri, Supper thru Sun, Dinner $16,
Tel. Newburgh: JO 2-1232
Jane C. Arenz, R.D. Box 160, Walden, N.¥.
YES, WORLD FELLOWSHIP CARRIES ON!
Conway, New Hampshire - - - -
June 20-Sept. 5
SUMMER TOPIC: “WHAT ABOUT OUR WORLD?”
ENJOY OUR VACATION PLUS.
Discussion at our Vorest-Lake-Mountain Mstate.
Swim, Fish, Hike, take 'Pienic Trips, Folk-
lakes, forest and mountains,
Combine Recreation, Fellowship and
Enjoy the grandeur of
Dance, attend Summer Theatre, Meet people from other lands and talk
about subjects close to your heart,
A work camp designed mainly for young people,
World Fellowship and Willard Uphaus, JULY 4-8, Religious
Liberty, Civil Rights and the Rights of Conseienee.
3 GENEROUS
LODGING, PROGRAM, $5.50 to $8.00 daily.
JUNE 20-27,
27-JULY 1.
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VAMILY-STYLE MBALS, BOARD,
SPECIAL TAMILY RATES, .
Conway, New Hampshire
_up of all the most showy and shoddy
\ f ; |
on | ti
A
eenth- and nineteenth-century pictures.
The rest of the show seems to be made
work that could be found in a French 4
salon of the epoch of 1909,
Here indeed is painting addressed to
a provincial public. Each picture tells’
a story. Most are garish in color; all
are insistently labored and detailed.
The more advanced of the painters ad-—
vertise their modernism by some flashy —
mannerism of brushwork or drawing. —
The more imposing depict in brutal —
chiaroscuro. some touching domestic 4
scene or lurid anecdote. There is, for
example, Yablonskaia’s Le Matin, a
large brash picture of a young girl just —
out of bed and beginning her ballet
exercises; and Joganson’s huge picture —
of a former rich mine-owner and _ his
former poor employees glaring at one }
another with contempt and hatred; and
The Koukryniksy’s larger and even
more theatrical “Kaput,’ showing the
end of Hitler and his staff in the cellars
of the Reich. (The Koukryniksy is the —
trade name for three different painters
who work and sign together as a firm, —
doubtless to demonstrate that painting ©
need not be an_ individualistic art.)
Tasteless, vulgar and commercial, these
works have little in common with any —
serious tradition of painting. In kind
and quality they resemble rather the
illustrations to popular novels of before —
the First World War. But even in —
technical dexterity and the skill of story
telling, none of them is nearly as good —
as Norman Rockwell.
LET us hope that the selections were | 5
badly made. Certainly, the pre-Soviet
pictures seem to have been chosen with
little acumen. Somewhere in Russia —
there must be better painting. One
must remember that this is an official —
selection, made on doctrinal and extra-
professional principles, of the same order —
as that which last year moved us to —
send an exbibit of Abstract Expression-—
ists to represent all of our own coun-
try’s painting at the Brussels Fair.
I am nevertheless extremely glad I
went. The Musée de l’Art Moderne
contains in permanent display the finest
and most complete array of School of
Paris pictures it is possible to see— ”
Bonnard, Vuillard, Marquet, Picas +
and all the rest, along with Thea pe ; 3
fine paintings by less-known names, as
well as a delightful room of the con-
temporary primitives; all this without
any of that educational insistence and
Germanizing tendeney, which give o
own New York Museum of Modern Art
its somewhat oppressive tone,
is in Paris, it should not be mi
Crossword Puzzle No. 873 —
By FRANK W. LEWIS
ACROSS:
1 What the pig did implies non-pay-
ment. for support. (8)
5 and 4 Formed by 28 and 26, 21
across and 9. (6,7)
10 The way to proverbially treat a bit
of a title-holder. (5)
11 What could make one safe at home,
if a foggy mist is about? (What
an awful act!) (9)
12 Directional attribute is more than
i:
backward in the main. (7)
13 A little mouse which 19? (7).
14 It’s established value to look for a
Zoroastrian! (6)
15 The unstable valence might be sur-
rounded by something foreign. (7)
18 How the mistrusting look. (7)
21 Politically ursine, but upright? (6)
24 The way equestriennes might ap-
_ pear to live in the equivalent. (7)
26 See 28.
27 Call one way or another quite a dis-
tance, with the shaky end referring
to the sermon. (9)
28 and 26 A bitter grain from the
islands. (5,7)
29 Miller’s stream is about free of
scorn. (6)
30 Installs hard tops? (8)
DOWN:
1 Bad lamps imight be. (6)
2 Look to a brief answer and listen
for one who takes a good deal of
interest i work. (4,5)
eh tl tL
eet
fe
L
4 See 5
6 However, the twinkling little star
is not in this shape! (7)
7 Small vessel of the ‘Philadelphia’
light cruiser class.
8 Desire to be inferior to them, ac-
cording to O’Neill. (3,5)
9 Nation writer? (6)
16 They gave us Mickey! (You may
prefer another spell!) (9)
17 His mixup gets celebrated around
those strictly from Hunger! (8)
19 What some sucker did makes it look
7 ad the pen leaked red ink!
20 This has real existence. (6)
21 What some do with alcohol to the
figure implies no turning back. (7)
22 Might be a shocking end for the
buzzer. (7)
23 Makes a 20 out of more than one!
25 He wrote a little longer than a 5. (5)
SOLUTION TO PUZZLE NO. 872
ACROSS: 1 Charmed; 5 Suppler; 9
Averred; 10 Chignon; 11 Ebony; 12
and 17 Curfew; 13 Trace; 14 Steeped;
16 Differs; 18 Satanic; 21 and 27 across
Tower of Babel; 28 Painful; 29 Erudite;
31 Sprites. DOWN: 2 Anemone; 3 and
30 Merry England; 4 Deduced; 5 Se-
cured; 7 Lineage; 8 Ringers; 15 and 26
Punjab; 18 and 1 down Steeplechasers;
19 and 6 Turning point; 20 Cajoled; 21
Tablets; 22 Rebuilt; 23 and 24 Fuller’s
earth; 25 Hoffa; 27 Bluer.
Printed in the U.S.A. by RCR Publication Printers Corp,, N. ¥. 0, |
PUBLICATIONS
A KEY TO THE
RIDDLE OF FRENCH CANADA
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Published by Harvest House LEtd., Box 340,
Postal Station Westmount, Montreal 6, P.@.
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ONO
a
~ An Announcement Of Much ce aa
In April, 1954, Beacon Press published a book by Emmett McLoughlin, a formar Wa
Franciscan priest who left the Catholic Church “to serve God in the slums.”
The book, PEOPLE’S PADRE, was given the silent treatment.
Two years later, a tally was made of reviews of the book. A few southern papers
had given a total of ‘twelve inches of space to PEOPLE’S PADRE reviews. Outside of
the religious field, only two national magazines had reviewed PEOPLE’S PADRE .
the Psychiatric Quarterly Supplement and The Nation.
A distinguished newspaper asked Reinhold Niebuhr to review the book—and then refused to pub-
lish his favorable review. (He described Emmett McLoughlin as “...a very impressive person, gifted
beyond the ordinary mortal with the graces of courage and charity. »)
Despite this blackout, the book is in its eighteenth printing—and has sold ALMOST
A QUARTER OF A MILLION COPIES!
* * *
Now, six years later, we are proud to announce the publication of Emmett Mc-
Loughlin’s second book.
Its title: AMERICAN CULTURE AND CATHOLIC SCHOOLS.
Publication date: July 11. Price $4.95
@ ALREADY. .we have had to increase our first printing from 5,000 to
15.000 copies!
@ ALREADY. .we have ordered a carload of paper for a second printing
| of 25,000 copies!
@ ALREADY. .we have the largest pre-publication sale in our publishing
history!
* a we
AMERICAN CULTURE AND CATHOLIC SCHOOLS is controversial. It is an
informative, provocative—and a thoughtful book that no man or woman interested in
our youth and America’s future can safely ignore.
With the same forceful honesty and passionate conviction that distinguished PEO-
PLE’S PADRE, Emmett McLoughlin examines the Catholic parochial school system.
He describes his twenty-one years of Catholic schooling. He tells how he was indoctrin-
ated in loyalty, then obedience, and finally blind obedience to the Catholic Church;
how the Index of Forbidden Books barred him from the thoughts of the world’s great
rele thinkers; how he was taught to accept but not to think.
AMERICAN CULTURE AND CATHOLIC SCHOOLS is a subject of vital in-
terest to all Americans, Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Here is a richly documented
study that directly relates to the vital areas of education, cultural growth and polit- —
ical decision.
Pre-publication copies are now available to readers of The Nation.
To secure your copy, use the handy coupon below. If the first readers are any gauge, you will tt
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ar, ‘sd
LYLE STUART, publisher, 225 Lafayette Street, New York 12, N.Y. is
Foe send me. pre-publication copies of AMERICAN
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